Launching a course is the perfect way for social media managers to share their knowledge, help more people and boost their income.

Our own course, The Ads Manager Academy, has helped almost 300 freelancers to increase their knowledge and confidence around Facebook ads. And since launching it in 2019, we’ve learned a lot about selling and hosting courses and today we’re going to share with you some of the reasons that a course might be the best next step for you too.

Why should social media managers launch a course?

Launching an online course can dramatically boost your income.

This is the most obvious reason that digital marketers consider launching a course.

Working with 1:1 clients means there is often a ceiling on your income and without growing a team or scaling to moving to a recurring revenue model like a membership it can be difficult to increase that monthly income.

But not everyone wants a long-term commitment like that and, when done well, a course can provide a much-needed boost at key points in the year.

Selling a digital course provides more variety to your business.

We are freelance social media managers ourselves, so we know firsthand that it can start to become monotonous when you don't have variety in your work.

A digital course will add some variety to your usual routine as you switch to serving your students for a period of time.

Launching a course helps you free up more time

This might seem counterintuitive but if you are struggling with time and can't fit in any more long-term clients, but need to maintain or increase your income then a course is a great solution and can be something that sells in the background after some initial work.

Your audience wants you to launch a course

If people are specifically asking you to teach them more about your area of work, then that's your green light.

But look out for softer cues too – when your audience is not asking you specifically for a course they might be signalling that they need more from you by booking your 1:1 training, or dropping into your DMs to ‘pick your brains'.

You don't need to have a massive list, or a blue tick to successfully launch a course but if you do have an audience, and they're engaged and ready to buy from you then a course could bet the perfect thing to sell to them.

Start out with some audience research to ensure you're selling what they want, rather than what you want to teach.

72% of organizations believe that e-learning helps them increase their competitive edge by giving them the opportunity to keep up with the changes. Source: shiftelearning.com

Online learning is growing, so now is the perfect time to launch an online course.

More and more people are turning to online learning, for both personal and business purposes. In fact, online learning has grown 900% since 2000, and it's not looking set to stop.

Your knowledge is in demand as social media is changing all the time and business owners struggle to know where to start, let alone how to keep on top of it.

And if you have other skills or interests you do not have to limit yourself to launching a course around social media marketing, people are eager to learn so think about what else you could teach.

Five key steps to launching your digital course

Deciding to launch a course is a big decision. We definitely don't recommend jumping in feet first and hoping for the best! There are 6 key steps to get this right:

#1 Get clear on the focus for your program.

This stage will help you craft a compelling course title that will attract the perfect people who can't wait to learn from you.

#2 Validate and pre-sell your course.

Don't spend time building a course that no one wants! This step is crucial to your success so you'll want to ensure your audience is invested in the idea and ready to sign up once you open the doors. The cash injection from your pre-sell will help you to build a learning experience your audience will love.

#3 Develop a high-converting launch process

You want to boost your income right? So you need to launch the right way to bring people into your world and get them to trust you enough to invest in your program.

#4 Map out your course content

What do your students need to know, and when do they need to know it? How will you help them get wins and make progress? And how will you keep them engaged throughout the program?

#5 Record your course content

You don't need an expensive camera or fancy editing skills to record great course content. You can get started with a phone or webcam. Consider how your audience likes to learn and keep your lessons easily digestible.

We use Searchie for all our course content as it automatically creates transcriptions, captions, and audio downloads from your videos.

#6 Don't undervalue your knowledge.

This is where we see so many social media pros go wrong. Under-price your course and people won't see the value in it, and are unlikely to buy or invest their time in learning from you.