“Your class may teach an invaluable skill,” says event technology platform, Eventbrite, “but does your marketing effectively prove its value? If your attendance is slacking, a lackluster promotional strategy is likely to blame.”
There is tough competition for educational events these days, with endless options for venues where people can take in-person classes, as well as a huge variety of convenient virtual classes available online.
To effectively promote your classes and fill your seats to maximum capacity, it’s important to take advantage of all the modern ways people learn about classes and events in a digital age.
The Secret to Successful Class Promotion
When it comes right down to it, how successful your course will be is depends on how beneficial it is to your audience. No amount of promotion can compensate for a class that is of little or no value. If you’re not confident from the beginning that the class you plan to offer is something people really want, it may be in your best interest to make some revisions to your course material.
Another step you should take before moving forward with any class promotion is to make sure you have a clear set of goals for your course. For example, what action do you want attendees to take at the completion of your class? Is the purpose of your course to introduce your product or service and get people to try them for free or sign up for a subscription of some sort?
A definitive set of class goals can considerably affect your promotion strategy by keeping your efforts targeted on the right audience and helping you reach interested people at the right time and place, and on the right channels.
Here are seven methods you can use to help you reach your class promotion goals:
1. Promote Your Class With an Email Campaign
With 91% of people checking their emails daily and 74% preferring to receive correspondence through email (according to Cognique), this is a channel of communication you should be taking advantage of for class promotion. Use an engaging email to get people excited by sharing some of the benefits of taking your course and highlighting what they will learn. Additionally, you should make it easy for people to register for your class by including a link to your sign up page.
2. Spread The Word on Social Media
Obviously, the more places you can spread the word about your class, the better. Promoting your classes on the social media platforms your followers like to use most helps you reach your target demographic more effectively. For example, if your followers have expressed an interest in professional development classes, you might want to focus on promoting your course on LinkedIn, whereas Instagram would be better suited to promotions on photography workshops.
3. Use Quizzes and Contests to Promote Your Classes
A unique approach to generating interest for your classes is to use quizzes. Interact is an online tool that allows you to create quizzes related to your course, driving people to your class at the time of completion, as well as allowing you to collect email addresses.
Contests are another fun and effective way to promote your classes, especially if your course is paid. For example, you can offer your course free of charge to those who participate in the contest and encourage participants to share it with others for a chance to increase their odds of winning.
4. Add Class Teasers to Your Website or Blog
If you’re like most people, you don’t like to sign up for things blindly.A great way to encourage people to register for your course is to post teaser content on your blog or website that gives them a taste of what they’ll learn if they sign up.
To ensure that your promo teasers don’t scream “irrelevant” or “spam” to your visitors, the channels you use to promote your classes should be related or on-topic with your course advertising.
5. Take Advantage of Networking Opportunities
Plan on attending an event where you’ll have an opportunity to interact face-to-face with members of your target audience? Use it as an opportunity to promote your classes by sharing information with potential attendees. For example, if you’re manning a booth at an event, be sure to have printed marketing materials you can give to people to take home. Your printed promo should have a link to your course sign up so those interested can easily register for it.
6. Consider Partnering With Industry Experts or Organizations
Teaming up with local experts or businesses that share audiences similar to yours helps you generate more interest and expand your reach. The more excitement you can create about your courses, the more likely it is that you’ll hook interested people. No doubt, those who attend your class or course will appreciate your willingness to work with industry leaders who can provide them with an exceptional educational experience.
7. Make Your Class Promo Sharable
The more eyeballs you can get on your class promotion information, the more likely it is that you can reach a wider audience of potential attendeesTo accomplish this, you need to write content that triggers emotions. In other words, your headlines need to evoke curiosity or awe, and the body of your promo needs to create a story that is so memorable and engaging that readers can’t resist sharing it with their friends, family, and other associations.
Make sure to provide plenty of convenient opportunities throughout your course promotion, and afterward, for people to share the class information by providing social sharing buttons, click-to-tweet links, and CTAs that are easily visible on the channels you’re using for advertisements.
Conclusion
Consumers have a wide variety of options when it comes to classes, workshops, and events to attend. As a retailer, you need to make your course or event stand out from the crowd and convince people to sign up for the awesome educational opportunity you’re offering.
Use the 7 tips above to help you successfully market your course, event or workshop and fill your seats to maximum capacity!
Learn how Rain Retail Software can help you promote your classes and grow your business.
