Do you want to learn how to sell online courses in India? Then you’ve come to the perfect place because this article will specially focus on Indian online coaches, trainers and mentors and talk about the specific challenges they face in selling an online course.

There are a lot of similar guides out there but what you have to realize is that being in India, we face some special challenges especially when it comes to selling an online course (this point will be covered in detail later on in the article).

The first thing you need to realize is that the online education industry (Ed-tech industry) is growing at a massive rate in India. According to this article by The Startup Lab, it is expected to grow and reach to $30 billion size by 2030. Yes you read that correctly! BILLION with a B!! How much is that when you convert it into rupees???? You get the point!

So you are definitely in the correct industry and in the perfect time!

But let’s now jump too ahead. Let’s go slowly by first understanding some basic things about creating and selling online courses.

So let’s start. This guide is divided into the following three sections:

• All the steps needed to create and sell online courses in India
• Skills needed to create and sell online courses in India
• Software and tools needed to run a successful Online Coaching Business

All the steps needed to create and sell online courses

1. Choosing a niche for your online course
2. Choosing the exact online course topic
3. Creating videos for your online course
4. Creating a marketing funnel for your online course
5. Advertising your online course
6. Selling and delivering your online course in India

Choosing a niche for your online course

It all starts by choosing a niche or field for your online course. The following points should be kept in mind:

• Choose something you are passionate about because that will make sure you are always motivated and never run out of steam
  
• Choose only ONE narrow niche. You have to be an expert in one small field. Don’t choose something which is too broad.
  
  For example, don’t choose Digital Marketing Training as your niche. Choose something more focused like SEO training, PPC training, Social Media Marketing Training etc. Basically, choose one small field.
  
• Choose a niche which is profitable, i.e, market demand exists in that niche. You don’t want to be in a niche where people don’t want to buy things.

I have a more detailed article on Niche Discovery where I talk more about how to narrow down your niche and how to select a profitable niche.

Choosing the exact topic for your online course

Now that you have chosen your niche, it’s time to get even more specific.

Your online course topic has to be very very specific.

For example, if your niche is Nutrition, then don’t make a general course on Nutrition. Instead, choose a specific narrow topic like How to Lose 7 Kgs in 21 Days by Following This Magic Keto diet.

You can see how specific this topic sounds. It is only talking about one specific type of diet and also mentioning the results that can be achieved along with the time frame.

This has a huge impact on your sales because people don’t like to buy general courses. They like to buy courses which address a specific pain point and solve it for them.

Creating videos for your online course

The most popular way to create videos for your online course is by using a Screen Recording software like OBS (Free software).

A Screen Recording software will record whatever is happening on your computer and also give you the ability to come in a small window if you are using a webcam like shown in the screenshot below:

For videos where you require a proper camera (mainly outdoors or when you are not near the laptop/computer), you can check out my detailed Videography for Beginners guide which teaches you the entire process of creating videos using a camera.

Creating a Marketing Funnel for Your Online Course

When it comes to marketing your online course, you need a marketing funnel, which is a sequence of steps that your prospects will take before they buy your course.

A lot of people directly start advertising their online course to cold audience and the strategy usually doesn’t work in the long term because cold audience doesn’t convert well.

People will buy from you if they know you and trust you.

For this purpose, you can create something called as a lead magnet course.

A lead magnet course is a short preview to your main course. Following are some popular types of lead magnets:

• Webinars
• Short videos that teach something (related to your main course)
• Mini-courses (related to your main course)

You can advertise these lead magnets and offer them for free in exchange for the prospects email address.

Once people have watched your lead magnet course, you can inform them about your main course.

Since you have given value for free, these people are more likely to convert.

You can even start to run retargeting ads on Facebook for these people. These ads will promote your main course to these people. Since they already know you because of your lead magnet course, these retargeting ads can drive more conversions because now you are advertising to a warm audience.

And since you also have their email address, you can reach out to them any time to remind them of special offers on your main course or provide them value by sending them emails that increase their knowledge regarding your course topic.

In Online Course Launchpad, I show you this exact process in much more detail by actually practically showing you the application of simple and advanced marketing funnels by showing you real life examples.

Also, in my free webinar for trainers, I show you a marketing funnel for online courses and discuss it in detail. Make sure you sign up and watch it after you have read this article.

Advertising your Online Course

The number one way to advertise your Online Course is via Facebook ads.

Facebook ads allow you to quickly reach a lot of people in a short amount of time.

For example, here at Click Trainers, one of my lead magnet courses is the free webinar that I just mentioned above.

I advertise this via Facebook and my Facebook ad looks like this:

Using Facebook ads, I am able to reach around 50,000 people in 3-4 days.

I show you the exact process of creating Facebook ads to sell your online courses in Module 4 of my main course Online Course Launchpad.

You can also check out my free webinar for trainers where I actually show you the maths behind selling online courses using Facebook ads.

Selling and delivering your online course in India

Remember I mentioned at the beginning that things are slightly different for Indian coaches when it comes to selling your online courses?

I will cover that point now.

The first thing you need to understand is that you need a place to host your online course before you can sell it.

In simple words, hosting your course just means finding a place to store the videos of your online course.

You should not simply put the videos on your website since that can make your online course vulnerable to piracy.

So you need to use a Learning Management System (LMS) for this purpose.

A LMS provider will enable you to store your videos securely and once your student purchases your course, they will automatically receive a login ID and password to access the course. It’s just like how Netflix works.

You can read my detailed article on What is a LMS and Why it is needed?

Now the most popular LMS companies which offer this service are Teachable, Thinkific and Kajabi.

But the problem is that these companies are not Indian and that leads to two problems:

• The monthly cost for Indians is high as you pay in dollars
• There is no direct integration with Indian payment portals like Instamojo, which can decrease your sales since not everyone has an international credit card

So if you are looking for an affordable solution, then choosing an Indian LMS provider is a good bet.

The issue is that Indian LMS companies are not that popular and hence it becomes very tough to select the right one.

In June 2020, I took a big risk by opting for an Indian LMS company called Spayee for hosting my course Online Course Launchpad.

I have been very happy with their service till now. As of now they even have a completely free plan up till 200 students so you can definitely give it a shot.

You can also see my detailed Spayee review video on YouTube.

Skills needed to sell online courses in India

To become a successful online coach and create and sell online courses, you need to learn the following skills:

• Conducting Webinars
• Running Facebook Ads
• Email Marketing
• Using a website page building software
• Creating and editing videos
• Using a photo design software like Canva

In my course, Online Course Launchpad, I teach you all these skills in detail.

Software and tools needed to run a successful Online Coaching Business in India

You really don’t need to spend a lot when it comes to starting an online coaching business and creating and selling online courses.

You mainly need the following things:

• Screen Recording Software
• A Microphone
• A Webcam
• Email Marketing software
• Facebook page (to run Facebook ads)
• Learning Management System (to host your online course)

I have created a full list of all the Online Course Creation Software and Tools I use myself to run my own online coaching business. You will find it very helpful.

So that’s it!

That’s what you need to do to sell online courses in India and start a successful online coaching business.

If you have any doubts or queries, do leave them in the comments below and I would be happy to help you.