Starting a new business over 50? Here’s how to get your Teachable course seen
Did you know that more and more people over the age of 50 are starting their own businesses? In fact, The BBC on 29th July 2019 has reported that 2,250,000 million people aged over 50 are now registered as self-employed in the UK — half the self-employed workforce. According to Rest Less, a company dedicated to getting over 50’s back into work, the number of self-employed over 60s increased by 64 per cent — from 579,000 in 2009 to 949,000 in 2019.
The number of self-employed 50+-year-olds has risen for a number of reasons according to Work Place Insight. These include people in this age group feeling ignored at work, the need for flexibility due to caring for elderly relatives and being made redundant to be replaced by a younger colleague.
Does this sound like you but don’t know where to start in setting up your own business? Maybe it’s time for you to start your own Teachable course to share your expertise and life experience, whilst making a comfortable living.
This is part of the new phenomena of online universities where you can upload videos and documents to pass on your years of knowledge and expertise in training courses which you can charge for. The great news is, this is a growing and highly profitable area of business. Forbes has predicted the e-learning world to triple in revenue, meaning the e-learning industry will grow to $325 Billion by 2025 with a yearly growth of 5%.
You are monetizing your own experiences and accumulated experiences, expertise and insights to a global platform. Payback for all those years “on the job”.
But starting a new business is a daunting and challenging task for anyone!
Picture this, you’ve spent months creating your course, building content, creating a pricing plan… and then suddenly you realise, in your 9–5 you didn’t have to market your product… That was someone else's job. And even the most social media savvy 50 year old will struggle with digital marketing if they haven’t had to delve into that world before … anyone would!
So how will anyone ever hear about your course? Is all this effort you spent perfecting your course going to be a waste of time? The good news is, digital marketing for Teachable doesn’t have to be as scary as it sounds. Here at Reachable, we want to make your transition from a 9–5 job to a fully-fledged Teachable course provider as easy as possible. The process should be broken down into three main steps.
Build your profile
So, you’ve got your Teachable course set up. The first thing to do is to build your own social profile. Now, I know what you’re going to say — ‘ why do I need to build my own profile, why can’t my Teachable course talk for itself? I want to concentrate on marketing that, not myself’.
Whilst this is true, it’s not how the modern age of marketing works. Your prospective students want to be able to Google their course instructor and have confidence that you know what you’re talking about before they part with any cash. This doesn’t mean that you have to become the next superstar influencer (though that will help) but being known online will help your credibility and, in turn, sales.
Start with creating social media around your product, ensure they all have the same handle and the same theme. Ensure your website is professional and easy to digest.
One important aspect of your website “social proof” is case studies and testimonials. Now, here's an issue, if your course is brand new, how are you going to get testimonials?
Why not give a select few a free trial of your course, with the agreement being that they will provide you with a testimonial when they complete the course?
Another idea is to ask people who have used your services, pre-Teachable to provide you with a testimonial concerning your knowledge around the subject of your Teachable course. Testimonials don’t have to be just about the course, posting testimonials about yourself is a great way of building yourself as an authority figure for potential students.
Ensure that you do your research. In this day and age, there is a Facebook group related to pretty much everything. Is your online course teaching DIY enthusiasts how to put up shelves? Join a DIY Facebook group, see what questions are being asked and write course content or blog posts based on these questions, make yourself known and useful, so that when the time comes, you’ll have a ready-made audience to market your course to.
Research influencers in your niche and reach out to them to promote you and your course. Ensure that it is a multi-beneficial relationship — meaning that they benefit from the collaboration just as much as you do. Appearing on an influencer’s podcast or blog can open the door to thousands of potential students, all within your target market.
One of the most important aspects of your digital marketing campaign is to ensure that your social media sites are kept up to date with informative and interesting content. Push out content in various forms and see what people respond to. Once you understand what is drawing your audience’s response, you can focus on producing more content in that format.
Build your products
In order to build your authority around a subject, it’s a good idea to create free resources for potential students to download and learn from, separate from your Teachable course content. Free e-books, help guides, educational papers, recipe books and blog posts are all great to produce so that when a potential student Google’s your name, products surrounding your (and their) area of interest will appear. The better the free resource, the more confidence the potential student will have in your ability and expertise. Not to mention, free downloadable resources are great lead magnets, but more on that later.
Build your ecosystem
So, you’ve begun to build your profile, you have your free downloadable resources to hand … What next? How do you lead people to your Teachable site? The answer? Sales funnels!
Remember your free content that can be used as lead magnets we discussed earlier? Now it’s their time to shine! Utilise your lead magnets by creating social media ads (Facebook or LinkedIn, whichever suits your target market the most) for your lead magnet which links to your Teachable site when clicked. Create a form using Active Campaign (blog post on how here) which requires the lead to enter their email address to download the resource, before you know it, you have a ready-made email list who you know are interested in your content!
Create an email sequence detailing your origin story and the benefits of your Teachable course to this email list, you could even include a one-time special offer to create a sense of urgency to purchase your course whilst it’s discounted. Before you know it’s the sales will come flooding through your door. Especially if you create a product launch plan (see related story).
So, there you have it. If you’re over 50 and getting tired of the way your company is treating you, want more flexibility in your life, or just fancy a new venture, online course creation really could be the answer you’re searching for.
For more help utilising email automation, check out our blog posts on Active Campaign and Zapier.
Fancy creating a pre-launch for your course to create more anticipation for your course launch? Learn how here
For more help with your Teachable digital marketing, click here to receive your Reachable Audit today
