How to increase course sales without a relaunch

A launch only catches people who are ready that week. Everyone else on your list joined for a reason too. Their week just hadn't come yet.

"If someone didn't buy the first time, that doesn't mean they never will. It just means they weren't ready yet." Caitlin Bacher, CEO of Scale With Success, on her podcast

One warning before you start. This works on a course that strangers have already paid for. If only friends have bought so far, run one small live launch first. Learning how to sell online courses to a group will show you what strangers respond to.

Your sales report and your page visits will tell you where to begin:

Whichever row is yours, do the next section first. It takes ten minutes.

Check that your doors are really open

This sounds silly. Do it anyway. After a launch, it's easy to leave your course looking closed.

Pick up your phone. Tap the link in your bio, the link in your newsletter and the link under your most-watched video. Then look for these:

• A leftover waitlist. The link still says "join the waitlist" from last time.
• Old launch words. "Doors close Friday," last year's dates, a bonus you no longer give or an old price.
• A closed sign. On Teachable, a sales page with no pricing plan selected shows "This course is closed for enrollment." To fix it, open the Pages tab of your product, edit the sales page and pick a plan in the Pricing block.
• A course nobody can find. Your own website should have a plain link to it.

Now buy your own course with a real card, still on your phone. Refund yourself afterward. You may lose a small fee, and you'll learn more than the fee cost you.

Turn on checkout reminders

Someone who typed their email at your checkout wanted your course a few minutes ago. A short reminder is the cheapest sale you'll ever make.

• Teachable: On paid plans, these emails go out by default. Check under Emails, then the Abandoned Cart tab. That tab also shows how much money they've brought back.
• Kajabi: Go to Sales, then Offers, and pick your offer. Open the Settings tab and scroll to the Notifications card. Turn on "Send checkout abandonment emails" and choose All Visitors, so new people get it too.
• Another platform: Search its help pages for "abandoned cart" or "abandoned checkout."

Then rewrite the default email. A line like "You left something behind" sounds like a shoe shop. Try this instead:

Subject: Did something get in the way?

Hi, you got as far as checkout for [course name] and then stopped. That's fine. It's usually the price, the timing or not being sure it fits you. Just reply and tell me which one, and I'll answer. If it was only the doorbell, your link is here: [link].

Every reply tells you something about your sales page. Keep them all.

Write to the people who said "not yet"

Your list holds people who saw your last launch and didn't buy. Many of them may have heard nothing about the course since. They're your best chance of a sale this month.

First, find the ones closest to buying: the people who clicked through to your sales page. In Kit, go to Broadcasts and open your launch email. Open the Clicks report and click the sales page link. You'll see everyone who clicked it, and a Bulk Action will give them all a tag (a label) like "clicked, didn't buy." Other email tools have a similar report. Take your buyers out of that group.

Then send three emails over a week, each with your link:

1. One doubt, answered. Pick the question you hear most, such as "Will this work with only 20 minutes a day?" Answer it fully.
2. One student's story. Give their name, where they started, what changed and how long it took. Get their permission first.
3. One useful tip. Teach something that works on its own. Then say the rest is in the course, and the course is open now.

Bacher makes a point here that stings a little: some of your subscribers don't know they can buy right now. It feels like you talk about the course all the time. They last noticed it in March. So add one line to the bottom of every newsletter: "My course on [topic] is open. Here's the link."

She also suggests listing five reasons this month is a good time to join. A discount doesn't count as a reason. A bookkeeping course has one reason in January, when the tax pile is on the kitchen table. It has another in June, when you're halfway through the year and still can't say if you're making money. Use a different reason each month.

Once those three emails work, keep them running. Build an automatic run of emails that mixes helpful ones with plain offers to buy, so nobody drops off the end after one try. Look at which emails get clicks and replies. Keep those and replace the rest.

Give people an honest reason to decide

An always-open course has one weakness. Nobody has to decide today, so plenty of people don't. Derek Halpern of Social Triggers says about three out of four of his course sales often came in the last 24 hours before he closed the doors. People put things off.

You can get the same push without closing anything. Give each person a real reason and a real date:

Three to seven days after someone's last email is plenty of time. On a small list, you can keep track of the dates in a spreadsheet. A tool like Deadline Funnel gives each person their own date and shows it in your emails and on your pages. It can also block the page once that date has passed.

Then keep your word. A countdown timer that resets when the page reloads is the only thing in your business that has ever given anyone more time. Buyers spot it, and then they stop believing your real deadlines. If your course teaches people to make money, the risk is bigger. The FTC, the US consumer watchdog, lists falsely telling people they must act immediately as unfair or deceptive.

Be careful with your old launch webinar too. Bacher tried turning her own live webinar into an automatic one, and she says it failed miserably. Nobody can stop a recording to ask a question, so every point has to be clear the first time. People also arrive on any day of the year, so "tonight only" and "great to see you all here" sound wrong. Record something new for one person watching alone on a Tuesday.

Answer the doubt that stops them

Find out what's really in the way. Email your "clicked, didn't buy" group one question:

What stopped you from joining?

Give them answers they can tap, plus "something else." Then change your page this week:

Use their words on the page, near the top. The sales psychology here is simple: people buy when the worry in their head gets answered before they leave.

On a small list, write to people by hand as well. Anyone who clicks twice is worth a one-line note: "Anything I can answer about the course?" For a pricey course, a 30-second phone video works too.

When they need an answer while they're still reading

Emails reach people after they've gone. Someone unsure at 11pm on your sales page won't wait for your reply. That's the gap we built Possible to fill, so take this with a pinch of salt, since it's our own product. Possible is an AI built on real sales psychology. It asks each visitor the right question at the right moment, remembers what they say and guides them to a sale, sign-up or booking. It's free to start. Here's more on our AI sales assistant for course creators. If you haven't fixed your page and your emails yet, do those first.

Make each sale worth more

The same number of buyers can bring in more money. Start with whichever of these you don't have yet.

A payment plan that really helps. Halpern makes a good point here. Two payments of $1,000 on a $2,000 course don't help much, because someone without $2,000 probably doesn't have $1,000 spare either. Five payments of $400 or ten of $200 can reach new people. On Teachable, go to your product's Pricing tab, click Add Pricing Plan and choose Payment plan.

A higher level of the same course. Add live calls or extra support at a higher price. Here's the sum Halpern uses. Sell 100 copies at $500 and you make $50,000. If 25 of those people choose a $1,000 version instead, you make $62,500. He says you'll often see a split something like that, but it's a rough guide and yours may differ.

A small add-on at checkout. This is an extra offer on the checkout page that people can add with one click. It's often called an order bump. A workbook or a set of templates fits well. On Teachable, open your product's Upsell funnel tab and click Create order bumps. You're allowed three, but one is easier to choose.

A next step after they buy. Right after someone pays is a natural moment for a course upsell, such as a coaching call or the next level up. Offer what solves their next problem.

Hold on to the sales you've made

A refund is a sale going backward. Halpern tells of a friend whose refunds were too high, so the friend asked the people who'd wanted their money back. The top reason was feeling overwhelmed by ten modules arriving at once. He started releasing lessons over time, and refunds dropped.

So look at what a new student sees on day one. Point them at one first lesson. Then send a note two or three weeks in, since people often fall behind after a few weeks:

"If you've fallen behind, that's normal. You still have access, so just pick up at the next lesson."

Only say that if it's true of your course. When a student gets a first win, ask them one question: "What can you do now that you couldn't do before?" With their permission, the answer becomes your next email and your next line of proof.

What to skip for now

• Another launch as your first fix. A launch is fine when you want one. It will still work better on a page and a list you've repaired.
• Ads. Do the sum first. If each new email address costs $5 and 2 in every 100 people buy, each sale costs you $250. On a $97 course, you lose money every time.
• A new course. If this one isn't selling, a second one just gives you two to sell.
• A deep discount. It teaches your list to wait for the next one.
• A new platform. Moving your lessons takes weeks and answers nobody's doubt.

Once your emails and your page are turning readers into buyers, online course marketing can bring in new people, and each one will be worth more to you.

Check four numbers once a week

Launches make you wait months to learn anything. An open course can show you the effect of a change within days, as Bacher points out. Pick one day a week and write these down:

• Visits to your sales page. If this falls, you aren't asking often enough.
• People who click buy, out of those visitors. If this is low, go back to their doubts.
• People who finish paying, out of those who clicked. If this is low, buy your own course again and check your reminders.
• Refunds. If these rise, look at what new students see in their first week.

Change one thing at a time. And don't panic over a bad week with 40 visitors. That's too few people to tell you anything.

Your next two weeks

1. Today: Check your links, then buy your own course on your phone.
2. Tomorrow: Turn on checkout reminders and rewrite the email.
3. Day 3: Tag everyone who clicked but didn't buy, and ask them what stopped them.
4. Days 4 to 6: Change your sales page using their answers.
5. Day 7: Add a payment plan and one small add-on.
6. Days 8 to 12: Send your three emails, with a bonus that really ends.
7. Day 13: Write your note for students who fall behind, and ask three students for their stories.
8. Day 14: Write down your four numbers and choose your next fix.

Questions about increasing course sales

Go deeper on conversion tactics.