HOW TO START AN ONLINE SCHOOL

Step 1: Your School’s Branding and Website

First off, start building a website that will host your online school. A landing page is the first
page your website visitors will ‘land on’, so it makes sense to begin from there.

While working on it, make sure to invest in your brand identity.

Choosing the right templates, especially for the header image, is crucial because it is a
make-it-or-break-it move. If your landing page can’t entice your site visitors to read your
content within a matter of seconds, then they will reach immediately for the X button and
the opportunity is lost. Create a page that either has to offer more to your current students,
helps to get new ones on-board or serves a specific goal you want to achieve.

For example:

 Subscription Pages: To showcase online courses or school subscriptions; choose a

template that you like and focus on presenting the information you need.
 Unique Promotions: Promote special offers or coupons.
 Blog: Share useful information and create a ‘buzz’. Build a blog or create an e-book
to educate your audience and promote your online courses.
 Testimonial Page: Tell others what your students are saying about your courses.

Step 2: Develop Your Online Course

Once you have your website up and running, it’s time to get some learning content on
there. Find a profitable idea for a course and then working on that idea to create e-learning
content. Prefer to choose a subject that you are passionate and knowledgeable about or is
relevant/marketable to the respective industry

Creating the content on the subject of your course requires setting your learning objectives
and then build a course outline that helps to guide the learning process.
Decide on a learning method or a blended approach you want to follow and stick with it.
This will define the type of content and activities to undertake. Remember that learning
does not happen in a social vacuum, but rather in a social environment with multiple
variables.

Step 3: The Tools and Integrations You Need

Every business has an essential tool-set to help them manage different aspects of it,
automate repetitive tasks or improve their productivity.

Some of those come as direct integrations like Zoom (Zoom is a web-based video
conferencing tool that allows users to meet online, with or without video), webinar
(presentation that takes place on the internet) among others.

Step 4: Sales & Marketing Tools

Just like with any type of business, an online school needs to follow a marketing plan. Adopt
a marketing strategy can help to sell your online courses and gradually grow the number of
students.

These are the tools that help you sell courses, create offers, manage promotions and upsell
to your customers. Come up with built-in marketing tools such as:

Bundles
Create a bundle of courses, to upsell to your customers. Sell more courses in one quick
swoop and offer a great offer to your customers by grouping similar courses together into
one big bundle at discounted rate.

Promotions / Coupons (Discount/offer voucher)

Another way to increase interest in your courses is by offering promotional coupons with or
without an expiry date. Coupons can be used for special offerings, sharing with partners or
loyal customers as a gift.

They are also great for discount periods, sharing them by email or in coupon sites to attract
first-time customers.