6 tips for a final push to hit end of year sales goals
For course creators, marketing throughout the year is important, especially since people want to learn all the time. Whether your primary customers are college students, adults looking to switch careers, or working professionals, your marketing game needs to be on point 24/7 to engage your users and keep the sales rolling in. But it can be tough to hit your sales goals each year. And the budgetary belt might feel a little tight if you haven’t made as much of a profit as you projected. Let’s break down six end-of-year marketing ideas to make that final push and hit your annual goals.
Sequence your goals
Firstly, write down all of your budgetary goals and benchmarks. Outline them according to most important to least important. This goal sequencing will help you prioritize your marketing and other efforts accordingly.
For example, say that you need to make a certain amount of money on a special series of courses to meet your financial benchmarks. That goal will obviously be much more important than more frivolous expenses that can wait until next year. Sequencing your goals allows you to cut the ones you know you won’t be able to hit this year. It could be heartbreaking, but it’ll help you make the most of the limited time you have available and focus on the end of year marketing goals you can achieve.
Set stretch goals
At the same time, try to set a so-called stretch goal for selling your courses or making profits from your teaching opportunities. The stretch goal should be a challenge benchmark you hope to reach if everything goes your way, but it’s not something you are fully confident you will hit.
The point of this goal isn’t to demoralize you but rather to inspire you to try your best and tackle each new day and challenge with vigor. By setting a stretch goal, you can aim for the stars. If you reach your stretch goal, congratulate yourself and give yourself a little break. If not, keep working to more minor, accessible goals.
Use the upcoming year in titles
You can also hijack human psychology and our tendency to always look ahead. Specifically, you might be able to boost the sales of your courses by placing the next year in the titles of your courses or bundles. For example, say that you have a course called “How to Save for a House: 2021 Guide” or something similar. All you have to do is update the title to say 2022 instead of 2021.
Why is this effective? Course shoppers have a tendency to view any course labeled with last year in the title as out of date or act as though it contains incomplete or ineffective information. This could be completely untrue, of course, but it’s simply a facet of human psychology we have to accept.
You can use this information to bolster your course sales, however. By getting ahead of the game and marking your courses as updated for 2022, your content will appear more relevant and useful than those of your competitors. Visitors to your website might be willing to make a purchase they would not make otherwise if they feel like they’ll jump on a fresh opportunity. By getting information “ahead of time,” your courses could seem more valuable or more accurate than others on the market.
Note that you can use this trick for other aspects of your marketing as well. If you have a sales bundle for several of your courses together, put “2022” in the bundle title to make it more attractive and seem like a great choice to purchase ahead of the new year.
Double down on big sellers
One of the best end of year marketing ideas is to double down on any big sellers or main products you offer. For example, say that you offer a financial literacy course that teaches students how to secure a personal loan without credit. This topic is very valuable, but it’s quite specific and might be best paired with related topics in a bundle.
Instead, maybe your best-selling course is about learning how to finance a small business, and this course sells out every time. In this hypothetical scenario, you should focus your marketing on the best-selling course to reach your financial goals for the year. You can always double down on other courses or try to expand your course catalog next year. Around the holidays, though, you might even want to offer the two together.
With a few weeks left in the year, relying on your community is just the thing you need to help you reach your goals. Our free “online communities guide” will help you determine what type of community is best for you business.
Sell courses in bundles
People love discounts, especially as the year closes and they start to look for fantastic deals. Even after holidays like Christmas pass, people might still be in the mood to shop around, especially if they received checks or gift cards for the holidays.
End of year marketing ideas can include selling your best courses in bundles. Bundled courses can still turn a significant profit, especially if you package your courses together based on theme or subject material.
For example, you can package a bunch of automotive courses together, a bunch of teaching courses together, or financial tips like the example above. Even though bundled offerings might be more expensive than any single course on your online learning website, visitors might still be inspired to make those purchases since they feel like they are getting a deal.
Add special sales on sales pages
Lastly, you can put the special course bundles on your site’s sales page to make them immediately attractive and noticeable for all your visitors. No matter how many marketing channels you use, from email marketing campaigns to Google PPC ads, nothing beats the immediate surprise and satisfaction a visitor will experience if they land on your course and find a bunch of special sales waiting for them.
If a visitor has already made it to your school, they’re already part way down the selling funnel. All you have to do is convince them to make a purchase. That’s a lot easier if your most popular course specials are upfront and visible.
To do this, you may need to tinker with your page design or layout. This doesn’t have to cost you a lot of time and money, though, if you use a web-building tool for your website or Teachable’s internal page editor for your sales page.
Revamping your website to show off your deals for the final push of 2021 will help you to maximize holiday sales and coast into the next year with a current, user-friendly site.
Your turn
It’s still more than possible to hit your financial benchmarks or profit goals for the year. You just have to focus your marketing efforts for the holidays and the new year. By following the end of year marketing ideas above, you’ll be able to maximize the profits you get from your best-selling courses, and you might just reach the stretch goal you set too.