In this post, we’ll help you crack the code so you can effectively sell online courses using social media in 2024. Let’s make 2024 the year you turn your social media hustle into a thriving business where you can impact millions of lives and build your very own FREEDOM EMPIRE!

If you’ve been working hard on your social media hustle for a while and feel frustrated that your time and energy aren’t turning into sales for your online courses, you’re not alone. Turning all that time and energy (and TikTok dance moves 😉) into a profitable online courses business can be tricky unless you’re here reading this post today – lucky you!

From Icky Selling To Warm-and-Fuzzy Engaging: The Social Media Shift You Need for Online Course Success in 2024

Confession time! I’ve done it and it landed me in hot water. 

What is ‘IT’ I am talking about?

Being icky and showing promotional posts only to your social media following. Don’t do it! It’s not worth burning all the work you did to create that following to the ground by losing people’s engagement because you’re…well…not really engaging!

Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer for a moment.

It’s 8 pm and she just got the baby to bed and now she wants to relax and scroll on Insta for a while. 

You pop up! With your amazing niche that she loves because she has a problem in her life/business that only you can solve for her. 

Scenario no 1: You make a relatable joke about one specific way her problem manifests in her life and how you’ve been there too. She feels entertained, and validated and she feels connected to you. She tags her friend, whom she spoke to earlier in the day about this exact thing, in your post. You left her feeling good, you built trust with her, her friend is your new follower and the algorithm rewards you by putting your post into the newsfeeds of thousands of other women just like her. You have a viral post! Go you. 

Scenario no 2:  You promote the course that you’ve spent months working on by announcing that the cart is open and she can buy your course by clicking the link in your bio. She feels tired so she doesn’t instantly connect with your post and since there was no mention of either her problem or of how she wants it to be instead, she quickly flicks to the next video which is a funny video about cats slapping dogs in the face. She laughs at the video and the algorithm notices that she swiped away from your content pretty quickly so it hides your post from all of your other followers too. 

Scenario 2 sucks! And if you’ve done that, don’t worry, so have I and there is still hope. 

In 2024 engagement is EVERYTHING!

Content does not need to be polished, it needs to connect. Particularly if you use Instagram as your main social platform like most of our students in The Launch Lounge™. Your short, relatable Reels videos should be designed so strangers on the internet will want to watch and instantly connect with you. 

Let’s explore the right way to promote your content and sell your courses on social media in 2024 a bit more.

Guide Your Followers to Value: Directing Social Media Traffic to Your Website's Free Course Content

If selling online courses on social media is your goal, creating connections and then deepening those connections are key. To deepen the connections we’ll need to create some weekly content that we can share with them to help them solve real problems they have.

You’ll want to start creating good free content for your audience every week.  This valuable content should go a bit beyond a simple connection and educate them on a specific topic as it relates to your niche. 

This blog post you’re reading right now is a good example of free content that solves a specific problem and deepens the connection I have with my audience (I see you nodding and agreeing 😉 ). There are other benefits to regularly creating educational content that goes beyond just deepening the relationship with your customer. 

Hosting your content on a website like this one allows you to build up your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on your website which tells Google to send more people to your site. Optimizing this way means your site continues to get traffic on autopilot, it teaches your audience something valuable and your posts can be sent to your email list or promoted on your social media channels to deepen the relationship your followers have with you. 

Your free weekly content doesn’t have to be a blog like this one. It can be a weekly podcast episode, a YouTube video or if you’re really time-poor you can go live on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram weekly and turn that into content you use to add consistent value to your audience every week. 

On social media, when you sprinkle some educational posts about your free content between your epic engaging posts you’ll start to see your audience follow you from social media to your website. 

This, my friend, is what internet marketing geeks call Traffic! And traffic to your website is a bit like people walking into your store to browse the goods! 

But just like no one likes a creepy store salesperson who keeps asking if they can help you find anything, no one likes a pushy website. 

When we understand that website visitors are “just browsing” we use the internet version of free samples they can to offer them something of value without the lifetime commitment. 

These ‘free samples’ are free training that solves a very specific problem for them and they get it by sharing their name and email address with us. 

Next, we’re going to explore these “free samples”.

Grow Where You Know The Money Is: Build Your Email List And Solve Real Problems

Let’s check off some things we’ve accomplished so far to sell online courses using social media in 2024!

✅ Engaged with our followers on social media

✅ Added epic weekly content to our website to build traffic

✅ Created a free resource that solves a specific problem for our ideal customer that we’re going to add to our website 

The next step, if you want to sell online courses with social media in 2024, is to give away a free piece of content that is going to solve just one, bite-sized problem for your ideal customer. 

Let’s go back to the example of the tired mother who just sat down to scroll on Insta…

She laughed at your video which made her feel seen and understood. Then she shared it with her friend by tagging her in your post. Now, she’s feeling a bit curious about what else you know about her problem and how you can help her. She clicks on your profile to see what else you offer.  

What she finds delights her: Your bio tells her how you solve the exact problem she has and the highlights from your stories take her to your website where she scrolls through hundreds of posts or podcasts, way past midnight taking in as much information as she can. 

And then she sees it (cue dramatic music)…your epic lead magnet that promises to solve that specific problem she literally just told her girl friend she is sick of having and wants a solution now. 

She eagerly enters her name and email to get your free solution instantly delivered to her inbox. 

She goes to bed feeling relieved that she’s finally found someone who understands her problem and she cannot wait to consume your freebie in the morning!

Congratulations, my friend you’ve just added our imaginary lady to your email list. I can already hear the money folding not jiggle-jiggling in your pockets!

Finally Make Some Sales: Creating Epic Launch Events to Sell Online Courses on Social Media

Your email list is growing and you’re sending epic emails to your list every week. People love your free lead magnet and they’re excited about the day you finally announce you’re making your course available to them. So excited that they all signed up for the waitlist. 

Now, you’re going to create a launch event for them to sell your course and officially join the ranks of thousands of other course creators just like the ones in The Launch Lounge™ who successfully use social media to sell their courses every day!

Now…. Let’s just address the elephant in the room. 

I know I throw around the word “launch” like 

a) you should know what I mean and 

b) if you do know what I means you’re probably thinking “Isn’t that, like, an epic undertaking that is only meant for people with big teams or with 100,000,000 hours to work on it?”

No.

We’re not talking about the kinda launch you’ve seen big multi-million dollar course creators do. You DO NOT need to launch at that level yet. 

A “launch” by definition is just an event. Think of it as a small party you invite a few people who already like you to. At the party, you’ll tell them about your course and the wonderful results they can get with it. 

Your launch does not have to be a production that's bigger than Ben Hur. 

When you have a warm audience on your socials, and you have an epic lead magnet and you send your email list fabulous content every week, your launch should require the least amount of your energy not the most. Read that again!

“Your launch should require the least amount of your energy not the most.“

-Salome Schillack

Every course launch consists of the same basic steps. Here are the basic steps you need to sell online courses with social media in 2024. 

1. Email your list to invite them to join a live event you’re hosting. Let them know that during this event you’ll tell them about the simple solution you have to their biggest problem as it relates to your niche.
2. Remind them to show up for this event because the more people show up at your ‘party’ the better the energy and engagement and the more likely people are to buy.
3. Host your event and share a few of the biggest struggles they’re facing so that they see you understand them. Then tell them about the unique solution you found when you had the same challenges and announce to them that if they want the results you have, they can now purchase your course. 
4. Give those who buy live at the party a bonus to say thank you for being the first ones to invest. 
5. Send emails to the people who didn’t show up to recap what you shared at the event. 
6. Create a deadline for them to purchase and then close your cart. The deadline will help them actively decide to either buy the course or to not buy the course, which will increase sales by forcing fence-sitters to make a choice. 

You can do a simple live launch using this exact recipe and you get to choose if you call it a workshop, class, webinar, boot camp, challenge, or any other name you want to give it.

Quick Recap Of How To Sell Online Courses With Social Media In 2024

Now you know exactly what the most effective strategies are to sell online courses using social media in 2024. 

Let’s recap:

Social media is for engagement and relatability. Help your audience connect with you and feel seen because you show them you understand their needs. 

Make it easy for social media followers to find your website where you add new valuable and free content every week. 

Create lead magnets or freebie opt-ins on your site that will give your audience one solution to one problem they regularly have. Collect their names and email addresses and send them your weekly free content to add even more value to them. 

Host a live event where you share with them how you found the solution to the same problem they have and tell them how they can buy your course to get the same results you have. 

Is it easy, no. Does it require persistence and hard work? Yes! Is it worth it? Absolutely yes!

If this post has helped you to better understand how you can sell online courses in 2024 with social media then you’re going to love this free training. 

Download the Step-By-Step Guide To Launching Your Online Course Profitably The First Time and learn how to make your first $10K selling online courses with social media.