Step-by-step launch planning for your next course or program

Building and selling courses as a content creator isn't what it used to be. The pre-COVID strategies that worked in 2019 are flopping in 2025. 

The platforms have evolved. The economics have shifted. And most creators are trapped in feast-or-famine launch cycles, watching their Google traffic disappear overnight while competing with AI.

Here’s the problem:

• Customer acquisition costs have tripled in some niches
• Many creators are seeing organic growth stagnate or slump
• AI is flooding the market with low-quality content, making it harder to stand out
• Course completion rates are at an all-time low and expectations are higher than ever

Even six-figure creators are hitting revenue ceilings, while rocky reach across platforms is creating income roller coasters that burn out entrepreneurs.

But a select group of creators are quietly conquering this chaos.

They aren’t stopping at building a single flagship course, they’re building product ecosystems.

They've moved past the "set it and forget it" passive income pipe dream to create sustainable businesses that bridge the creator economy with mainstream business principles.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:

• What's changed for content creators selling online courses
• How to choose a creator business model that matches your personality  
• How to build a course business that scales in 2025
• Why the right platform and tools are crucial to your success

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What's changed for content creators selling digital courses

The Wild West era has ended for online education.

What replaced it? A mature market where only the most strategic creators survive. 

According to Goldman Sachs, the creator economy is expected to roughly double to $480 billion by 2027, up from about $250 billion in 2023, but only 9% of independent creators earn more than $100k annually, with 71% earning less than $30,000 per year.

Put simply: Most creators are overworked and underpaid.

The reality of making money as a creator in 2025

You can double your subscribers, followers, or views and still see your income stay flat.

You can also have a small, highly engaged audience of 1,000 people and hit six figures (or more).

Over the past several years, savvy creators have shifted from making most of their money from brand deals, sponsorships, and ad revenue to diversifying to digital products; which, for what it’s worth, is great.

The problem is that having a large audience and providing a valuable digital product, doesn’t equal sales. Unless you have a pinpoint process for aligning product market fit.

Why the economics of running a course business have shifted irreversibly

The math that made course creation profitable during the pandemic no longer works. 

Rising ad costs, declining organic reach, and plummeting trust have created a perfect storm that's destroyed the traditional "build it and they will come" model. 

What we're witnessing now is a fundamental restructuring of how content creators need to run their online businesses. Here are four of the most pressing problems:

Problem 1: Customer acquisition costs have exploded beyond recognition

According to a Focus Digital 2024 analysis, uncertainty in the US economy has spared no industry from rising customer acquisition costs. 

What used to cost $20-50 per lead now costs $200-300 in many niches (a 400-600% increase) that has made traditional volume-based models financially impossible.

Problem 2: Low-priced courses now require an unsustainable amount of traffic

Average online product conversion rates typically hover around 1.5-2%, meaning to earn just $5,000/month with a $99 course, you need 4,200 unique visitors monthly to a conversion-optimized sales page.

Most creators simply don't have that level of consistent traffic.

Problem 3: The dependability of the social and search traffic has collapsed completely

Instagram organic reach has plummeted to just 7.6% per post, while Facebook’s sits at an abysmal 1.2%.

Even worse, some creators dependent on SEO and Google search traffic have lost over half of their traffic from AI disruptions and algorithm changes.

Problem 4: Trust is at an all-time low

Social media is flooded with complaints about "courses that don't work" and "another guru trying to get rich quick." 

The promise of passive income through course sales has been so oversold to the point that many potential customers are now skeptical of almost any educational offer.

AI has accentuated this trend, with people no longer willing to pay premium prices for information they could find for free on YouTube or ChatGPT.

So should you give up? Not at all. But you do need to pivot.

What's actually working for creators in 2025

Creators that are living their best lives right now aren’t tweaking a broken model. They've abandoned it entirely. 

Instead of chasing passive income through high-volume, low-priced course sales, successful creators have shifted to portfolio-based business models that prioritize depth over breadth.

Pivot 1: They've embraced premium pricing, personalization and B2B opportunities

Instead of selling $27 courses to thousands of people, some top creators now offer $1,997-$4,997 coaching programs to smaller cohorts. 

Others use the power of their audience to land B2B deals where they can sell dozens, or even hundreds, of their courses to a single customer.

More creators combine self-study content with live calls, community access, and direct mentorship, creating an experience that justifies premium pricing for better profit margins.

Pivot 2: They've built product ecosystems, not single courses

Smart creators now offer multiple touchpoints: Free lead magnets, low-ticket introductory courses ($47-$197), mid-tier comprehensive programs ($497-$997), and high-ticket coaching or done-for-you services ($2,000+). 

This portfolio allows them to serve customers at different commitment levels while maximizing lifetime value (LTV) per customer.

Pivot 3: They've stopped selling information and become transformation catalysts

The most successful creators have shifted from "here's what I know" to "here's what to do next, and I'll help you do it." They sell outcomes and accountability, not access to content.

Pivot 4: They've made AI their secret weapon for deeper relationships

While AI threatens information-based courses packed with dense content, forward-thinking creators use it to scale their personal touch. 

They use AI to handle routine questions, create personalized learning paths, and generate supplementary content, freeing them to focus on high-value coaching and community building.

How to choose a creator business model that matches your personality

Not every business model works for every creator. 

Your expertise, experiences, and more importantly, personality actually determines which monetization strategies will feel natural and sustainable for you (and which ones will lead to burnout, frustration, and ultimately failure).

After analyzing successful creators across different niches and revenue levels, we've identified four distinct creator archetypes, each excelling with completely different approaches to building and scaling their businesses.

The most successful creators build business models that lean into their natural tendencies while addressing their inherent weaknesses.

Which type of creator are you?

Each of the four archetypes below comes with a complete business blueprint, specific product ecosystems, pricing strategies, revenue expectations, and step-by-step implementation plans.

More importantly, each taps into different natural tendencies, so you can stop forcing square pegs into round holes and start building around your authentic self.

As you read each archetype, take note of which one makes you stop and think “This is me.” The goal isn't to force yourself into a box, but to select the business model that will feel like the most natural extension of who you already are.

A quick note before you dive in: You might see yourself in multiple archetypes; that's completely normal! Most creators have elements of two or three types.

Ready to find your match? Let's break down the four creator archetypes that work in 2025.

Archetype #1: The Trendsetter

If people constantly ask you for your 'day in the life' videos get flooded with questions about your favorite products, you might be a natural-born trendsetter.

Trendsetters win by authentically inspiring others first, then backing up their lifestyle with systems and products that help others create their own version of success.

How to know if you’re a Trendsetter

You've built a personal brand around your lifestyle and lived experience. Your content feels like insider access to your best friend's perfectly curated life (the friend everyone secretly wants to be).

Your superpower is relatability at scale. You're comfortable being vulnerable about struggles while showcasing wins, sharing both Instagram-worthy moments and 3 a.m. anxiety spirals.

You're ready to monetize when:

• You have 10,000+ engaged followers on your primary platform
• People regularly ask about your routines, products, or lifestyle choices
• Your comment sections are packed with "me too" moments and personal stories
• Brands are reaching out for sponsorship opportunities

What products should you make?

Affiliate marketing and brand partnerships ($500-$2,000+ per post) from authentic product recommendations that align with your values.

Entry-level digital products ($7-$297) like life frameworks, habit trackers, travel templates, and productivity guides based on systems you actually use.

Transformational programs ($497-$4,997+) such as "Design Your Dream Life" or "The Intentional Living Blueprint"—positioning these as transformation partnerships with live calls, community access, and accountability.

Physical products ($5-$500+) like custom planners, wellness products, or curated subscription boxes that let your audience bring your lifestyle into their daily lives.

Real Trendsetters success stories

Whitney Freya transformed her personal creative journey into a "life as art" philosophy, she hosts multiple programs on Teachable from art instruction to Creative Frequency Coach certification, building passionate communities around living creatively.

Michael from Inspire Your Success built his business around his morning routine transformation. His "Win the Morning" course helps others take control of their days through the authentic story of his shift from chaotic mornings to structured success, supported by his podcast and community testimonials.

The trendsetter model works because people crave authentic human connection in an AI-saturated world. Your lifestyle becomes the bridge between where your audience is now and where they want to be.

Archetype #2: The Maestro

When colleagues consistently turn to you for training and expertise, you've found your calling as a Maestro.

Unlike creators who inspire through lifestyle or personality, Maestros build businesses around systematic knowledge transfer. You succeed by creating rigorous educational programs that develop actual competency in your students.

How to know if you're a Maestro

Your authority comes from years of hands-on experience in a specialized field. You've mastered complex subject matter that others struggle with, and you have a natural ability to break it down into www.teachable.components.

Teaching gets you excited. You get satisfaction from watching students progress from confusion to mastery, and you naturally think in curriculum terms: Prerequisites, learning objectives, skill progression.

You're ready to monetize when:

• You have established expertise with 10+ years in your specialized field
• You have a history of mentoring, training, or educating others professionally
• You possess recognized credentials, certifications, or industry standing
• You have a natural instinct to create structure and learning sequences

What products should you make?

Comprehensive foundational courses ($197-$797) covering essential knowledge with structured modules, assessments, and progressive skill building.

Professional certification programs ($997-$2,997) that establish credentialed expertise and meet industry standards for advancement.

Intensive cohort programs ($1,497-$4,997) featuring live instruction, peer interaction, and direct mentorship throughout the learning process.

Custom corporate education ($5,000-$25,000+) developing specialized training curricula for organizations and professional development teams.

Real Maestro success stories

Speak Norsk built their Norwegian language school using systematic curriculum design and structured learning paths. With over 14,000 students on Teachable, they've created comprehensive programs from beginner to business-level Norwegian, helping students achieve measurable outcomes like language certification and successful relocation to Norway.

Dan George from FlightInsight draws on extensive aviation experience to educate flight professionals. His detailed courses cover complex operational procedures, regulatory compliance, and advanced flight systems that pilots need for career advancement.

Brian Kouhi from TOAnimate Academy leverages his professional animation experience from Netflix productions to create powerful education programs. After working with over 400 artists and identifying gaps in quality animation education, he built a structured curriculum that has generated nearly $300,000 in sales while helping aspiring animators develop industry-ready skills.

Maestros thrive because accessible quality education remains scarce. Organizations and individuals will pay premium prices for structured learning that builds genuine expertise rather than surface-level familiarity.

Archetype #3: The Trailblazer

Got a business that's crushing it right now? People begging for your exact playbook? You're probably a Trailblazer.

Trailblazers monetize by teaching the systems they're actively using to generate results today. No theoretical frameworks or outdated strategies. Rather, they provide battle-tested processes from someone still in the trenches.

How to know if you're a Trailblazer

Here's the thing about Trailblazers: You're not teaching outdated strategies that worked five years ago. You're sharing what's working this quarter, this month, maybe even this week. You run an active business or hold a current role where you're implementing the exact strategies you teach.

People want your current playbook because they can see your recent results. You're documenting the journey while you're on it, not looking back from the finish line.

You're ready to monetize when:

• You're actively running the business model you want to teach
• You have fresh wins and current data to share (within the last 6-12 months)
• People specifically ask for your "exact process" or "step-by-step system"
• You naturally think in frameworks and love systematizing what works

What products should you make?

System blueprints and templates ($197-$497) featuring the exact tools, spreadsheets, and processes you're currently using to get results.

Current method courses ($997-$2,997) walking people through your active systems with real-time case studies and behind-the-scenes documentation.

Done-with-you implementation ($2,997-$4,997) where you help others apply your current systems to their specific business while you're still refining them.

Live corporate workshops ($10,000-$50,000+) teaching companies your proven methodologies that are generating results in today's market.

Real Trailblazer success stories

Jack Appleby built his social media strategy business while actively growing his own accounts. He pre-sold his first course for $45,000 in 30 days by teaching the exact systems he was using to grow Future Social to 250,000+ followers. Instead of outdated tactics, Jack shares current content strategies as he implements them across LinkedIn and Twitter.

Abagail Pumphrey from Boss Project teaches business systems while running her own multi-seven-figure education company. With over 30,600 students and millions in revenue generated through Teachable, she shares the exact frameworks she's currently using to scale Boss Project, including her 388 digital products and systematic approach to sustainable business growth.

Dara Denney launched Performance Creative Accelerator after identifying gaps in Facebook and TikTok advertising while working as a performance creative consultant. She built and launched her course in just 60 days, growing to over 325 students by teaching the current ad creative strategies she actively uses with major brands.

The Trailblazer model works because entrepreneurs want proven systems from someone who's using them now, not yesterday. Your active implementation becomes proof that your methods work in today's market conditions.

Archetype #4: The Lighthouse

When you naturally bring people together around a shared mission and they keep coming back for the community you've built, you're operating as a Lighthouse.

Lighthouses succeed by creating spaces where people with common goals, challenges, or interests can connect, learn from each other, and grow together. Your courses become the catalyst for community, but the real value lies in the relationships and transformations that happen within your ecosystem.

How to know if you're a Lighthouse

Community happens organically around you. People don't consume your content and leave; they stick around, engage with each other, and form lasting connections. You're naturally good at facilitating environments where others feel safe to share and grow.

Your mission extends beyond individual success to collective transformation. You're driven by the impact you can create when people support each other.

You're ready to monetize when:

• You consistently create spaces where people connect with each other
• Your audience actively engages in discussions and helps answer each other's questions
• People tell you they've formed friendships or partnerships through your community
• You feel energized by facilitating group conversations and collaborative learning

What products should you make?

Community-centered courses ($297-$997) that include group components, peer feedback, and collaborative projects where learning happens through interaction.

Membership communities ($47-$197/month) offering ongoing access to a supportive network, regular events, and exclusive content designed to foster connections.

Cohort-based programs ($997-$2,997) with live sessions, group coaching, and structured peer interactions that build lasting relationships among participants.

Live events and workshops ($197-$797) that bring your community together in person or virtually for deeper connection and collaborative learning experiences.

Real Lighthouse success stories

Jenny Rushmore built Sloper School into a transformative community of nearly 3,000 women learning to sew clothes that fit their bodies perfectly. Beyond teaching technical skills, she's created a body-positive space where students support each other through fitting challenges, celebrate successes together, and find belonging in a community that understands their struggles.

Brett Dashevsky founded Creator Economy NYC, connecting thousands of content creators through consistent in-person events and collaborative opportunities. Rather than merely teaching about the creator economy, he's built a thriving network where creators find collaborators, mentors, and friends while growing their businesses together.

The Lighthouse model thrives because people crave authentic connection and shared growth. Your community becomes the destination, with your expertise serving as the foundation for meaningful relationships that transform lives.

How to build a course business that scales in 2025

Now that you know which creator archetype fits your natural strengths, it's time to transform that knowledge into a thriving course business. 

The difference between creators who succeed and those who struggle isn't just about having great content; it's about building systematically from a foundation that aligns with how you naturally work.

Here's your step-by-step roadmap to turn your archetype into sustainable income.

Step 1: Validate demand before you build anything

Before you build anything, confirm there's demand for what you want to teach. You don’t need the perfect idea, you just need to prove people will pay for your product.

Start by surveying your current audience with specific questions about their biggest challenges in your area of expertise. Don't ask "Would you buy a course about X?" Instead, dig deeper:

• For Trendsetters: "What's the biggest lifestyle challenge you're facing right now?"
• For Maestros: "What skills do you need to advance in your career but can't find quality training for?"
• For Trailblazers: "What business system are you struggling to implement effectively?"
• For Lighthouses: "Where do you feel most isolated or unsupported in your journey?"

The responses will reveal exactly what your archetype should focus on. Run a simple pre-sale or waitlist to gauge real interest. If you can get at least 25 people to commit financially or join a waitlist, you've validated demand.

Ready to turn your idea into income with an audience validation template?

Get instant access to the free 10-day Teachable co:pilot course.

Step 2: Choose your foundation and create your minimum viable course

Your technical foundation should match how your archetype naturally operates, and your first course should deliver one specific transformation aligned with your strengths.

Different archetypes need different platform features and course structures:

• Trendsetters: Visual appeal, lifestyle integration, community features, and personal transformation courses
• Maestros: Robust educational tools, assessments, structured learning paths, and foundational skills courses
• Trailblazers: Flexibility for quick updates, real-time analytics, business tool integration, and current systems courses
• Lighthouses: Community-building features, discussion forums, collaborative tools, and group-centered learning experiences

Teachable's complete getting started guide walks you through the technical setup process, while Teachable's AI course creation tools can help you structure your curriculum quickly.

Your archetype determines which features to prioritize and how to configure your school for maximum impact.

Step 3: Price your course based on your archetype's value proposition

Your pricing strategy should reflect how your archetype creates value, not market averages. Each archetype can command different price points because they deliver different types of transformation.

Here's how to price according to your archetype's strengths:

• Trendsetters: Mid-tier pricing ($297-$497) for transformation experiences with multiple entry points
• Maestros: Professional education rates based on career advancement value ($997-$2,997)
• Trailblazers: ROI-based pricing for current systems that save or make money ($997-$4,997)
• Lighthouses: Recurring revenue through memberships ($47-$197/month)

Our pricing guide covers the fundamentals, but remember that your archetype's unique value lets you price above market rates when you deliver aligned experiences.

Step 4: Establish a tech stack that works for you, not against you

Your business model determines your tool requirements. The right tech stack amplifies your strengths while automating tasks that drain your energy.

Different archetypes need different technical approaches, and Teachable's flexibility lets each archetype build exactly what they need:

• Trendsetters: Use Teachable's AI sales page generator to create visually stunning course pages that match your aesthetic, while the mobile app lets your community learn your lifestyle frameworks on-the-go. Integrate with tools like Canva for visual content and Buffer for social scheduling to maintain your authentic presence across platforms.

• Maestros: Teachable's AI quiz generator automatically creates assessments from your lessons, while student progress reports give you detailed analytics on learning outcomes. Connect with Zoom for live sessions and Google Analytics for advanced tracking, building the structured learning environment your students expect.

• Trailblazers: Teachable's course builder lets you update content quickly as your methods evolve, while the API connects with tools like Zapier for automated workflows. Order bumps and upsells help you test new offerings in real-time, perfect for your data-driven approach.
• Lighthouses: Teachable's Student Hub creates a natural community space where your students connect with each other, while the comment system under lessons facilitates peer support. Integration with email tools like Mailchimp lets you nurture your community at scale.

The best course platforms adapt to your existing workflow rather than forcing you to learn entirely new systems. 

Teachable connects with tools through Zapier, offers a public API for custom integrations, and includes a WordPress plugin and product embeds, letting you build a unique tech ecosystem around your teaching style.

Your tech stack should feel like an extension of your expertise, not a barrier to sharing it. 

When your tools work together, you spend more time creating transformations and less time managing tech.

Step 5: Build a sustainable marketing engine that energizes you

Your marketing should feel natural and sustainable for your archetype. Fighting against your natural tendencies leads to burnout and inconsistent results.

Your marketing approach should feel natural and sustainable for your archetype. 

Fighting against your natural communication style, content creation habits, and audience engagement preferences leads to burnout and inconsistent results.

Think about it this way: If you're someone who loves deep, detailed conversations, you'll struggle trying to create snappy TikTok videos all day. 

If you're energized by real-time sharing and quick updates, you'll feel drained writing long-form thought leadership articles multiple times a week.

The good news? You don't have to figure out all the technical marketing stuff on your own. Teachable automatically generates SEO-friendly sales pages (Product Detail Pages) from your course content, so your courses can actually rank in Google search results without you building custom websites. 

Teachable also automatically creates a professional course storefront (known as the Browse Products Page page) from your existing course content.

The most important thing is that you align your marketing with your personality:

• Trendsetters: Authentic storytelling, behind-the-scenes content, lifestyle documentation, and social proof
• Maestros: Thought leadership, detailed case studies, speaking engagements, and expertise demonstrations
• Trailblazers: Real-time results, current data sharing, active implementation documentation, and progress updates
• Lighthouses: Community building, word-of-mouth growth, peer connections, and member advocacy

Focus on the marketing methods that align with your archetype's natural strengths. Your authentic approach will always outperform forced tactics that don't match your working style.

Step 6: Keep your students coming back for more

Your best customers are your existing customers. Your first sale is just the beginning of a relationship that should grow more valuable over time.

Student success drives your business success. When students complete your courses and see real results, they become your best marketing assets and most reliable revenue source.

The secret is to create an experience that students can't help but love.

Here's how to turn one-time buyers into lifelong customers:

• Make completion irresistible: Use Teachable's completion certificates to give students tangible proof of their achievements they can share on LinkedIn or with employers. Course compliance features ensure students actually consume your content by requiring them to watch 90% of videos and pass quizzes before moving forward.
• Keep learning accessible: With Teachable's mobile app, students can learn during commutes, lunch breaks, or whenever inspiration strikes. Students who access content on mobile are 2x more likely to return and 3x more likely to complete courses than web-only learners.
• Build natural progression: Use drip content to release lessons on a schedule that prevents overwhelm while maintaining momentum. Create logical pathways to your next course offering through strategic content sequencing and email follow-ups.
• Foster genuine engagement: Enable course comments where students can ask questions and connect with peers. This creates the community support system that keeps students engaged long after purchase.

The goal is to produce a student transformation that leads to word-of-mouth referrals, repeat purchases, and the capacity to scale your business by increasing the amount you make per customer compared to the amount it costs you to acquire a customer (LTV:CAC).

Step 7: Scale systematically without losing what makes you unique

As you grow, the temptation is to become everything to everyone. Resist this. Your archetype is your competitive advantage, and scaling means doing more of what works, not diluting your core strengths.

Build an ecosystem that serves your archetype's audience at multiple levels:

• Multiple price points: Develop a variety of offers including entry-level products, core courses, premium programs, and done-for-you services
• Student success focus: Happy students become repeat customers and referral sources
• Strategic automation: Use AI for logistics while preserving the human elements that make your archetype valuable
• Relevant metrics: Track engagement (Trendsetters), completion rates (Maestros), ROI (Trailblazers), or community health (Lighthouses)

Remember that each course in your portfolio becomes a discoverable asset. 

Teachable automatically creates public course pages that rank in search engines, turning your course catalog into an organic marketing engine that works while you sleep.

The creators thriving in 2025 aren't the ones with the biggest audiences or the most courses. 

They're the ones who've aligned their business model with their natural strengths and created genuine value for their specific communities. 

Your archetype gives you the framework to build that solution systematically and sustainably.

Start building a scalable course business today

You don't need to be everything to everyone. You need to be the perfect solution for your specific audience. 

The creators thriving in 2025 are the ones who've aligned their business model with their natural strengths and created genuine value for their specific communities.

Your expertise matters. Your perspective is unique. Your personality gives you the roadmap to turn both into income streams while building something that energizes rather than exhausts you.

The question isn't whether you should create courses. It's whether you're ready to build the business model that lets your natural strengths create maximum impact.

Ready to start building your course business the right way? Get started with Teachable's free 7-day trial and access everything you need to create, market, and sell your first course.

Large email lists are a powerful tool when it comes to growing an online brand and selling products, but they aren’t the only way to have a successful launch. You can use an existing blog or social media audience to sell your online course, even if you haven’t devoted any time to growing your email list yet. Here are the best tips for launching an online course with a blog.

Growing your email list

Your email list should be a priority because, unlike other channels, it’s 100% yours. Unlike social media sites where algorithms change and platforms go out of style, your list is comprised of people who specifically opted in for you and will be more likely to stick around and care about what you have to say.

You have control of your list and you’re in charge of who sees what when. If you are promoting your new course you’ll know that your entire list will have an email from you at the top of their emails every morning. No annoying algorithms bumping you down or hiding your messages.

Plus, when you look at email versus paid marketing, email still comes out on top. Instead of paying heavens knows how much hoping the right person will see your ad and buy, you can send an email to people who have already qualified themselves as the right people and know they will be more likely to buy.

Growing your list isn’t all that hard, either. By implementing a few key strategies you’ll have a massive list in no time.

Give something away for free

Growing your email list is as simple as giving a high-value resource or lead magnet away for free. This resource should be related to what you’re trying to sell and be behind a gate so that people are forced to give you their email in exchange for the high-value resource.

Types of resources:

• Ebooks
• Mini-Courses
• Checklists
• Shopping lists
• A video series
• Exclusive interviews
• Free templates
• Etc.

Now what?

Once you’ve grown your email list you can refer to this post when it comes time to launch your product and take a quick look at the steps I’ve mentioned below.

Your email list = gold for launching your online course.

Launching to your list

We dont’ want to harp too much on launching to your list in this post, but whether you want to or not, make sure you take advantage of the 4 weeks of blog posts to insert content upgrades so you can collect email addresses.

If you do, you’ll probably find yourself with a sizeable list when it comes time to launch, and that’s when you should consider launching using our Crazy 8 Launch Strategy.

It’s likely that a lot of the people who sign up for your upgrade will only ever go to your blog that one time, but you can still get them to buy despite that if you’ve got their email address. To really launch to your full potential, include your email list in the launch strategy.

It’s safe to say that around 2% of your list will convert, so even if you only have 200 people signed up, that’s still 4 more sales than you would have otherwise had, and if your course is $250 that’s another $1000 in your pocket. Not bad, right?

Launching with a blog

Launching na online course with a blog can be a tricky starting place for those who have never done it.

Here is our writer, Morgan Timm’s take,”When I started blogging I didn’t care about email lists. I monetized through collaborations rather than selling my own products and I was waaaay late on the email list game. It’s something I regret, but also something I learned from.”

Though it’s not as ideal as launching an online course to your list (noticing a theme here?) you can have a really successful course launch using your blog as your launching platform. Here’s what you’ll need:

1. An active blog covering a topic related to the product you’re selling
2. An at least somewhat engaged audience (we’ll work on reengaging them!)

Simple enough, right?

The game plan:

Launching an online course with your blog means you’re going to need to have an audience that checks your site regularly and knows what to expect from you.

If you’re the sporadic blogger who publishes whatever is on your mind whenever you feel like it, you’ll need to tighten the reigns a bit so your audience will be “trained” in what to expect from you.

Your goal is to position yourself as an authority on the topic of your course, and make your audience eager to learn more. This means creating a mix of informative and storytelling content that is long form and high value.

Weeks one and two:

These first two weeks we are going to work on educating your audience on the topic you are teaching. Here is where you’re going to put your course topic on their radar and let them know why it’s important.

Let’s say you are teaching an online course on how to transition from the standard western diet to veganism.

Your first week might look like this:

• Tuesday Post: 10 Reasons Why I Went Vegan. Whether you primarily blog about veganism or not, now your audience is going to know you are vegan, that you have reasons for going vegan, and if they are in your target audience they are probably eager to hear more.
• Thursday Post: 5 Easy Vegan Swaps. This post is starting to educate your audience on how they can make easy changes to go vegan, too. So now they know why you’re vegan, and they’re beginning to see you as a resource they can go to if they want to be vegan, too.

Week two:

This is going to be a bit more aggressive, you really want your audience to see you as the vegan authority so you’ll have to up your ante. Before you plan out your blog posts here, decide what key benefits your course is going to offer and make it clear that you’re able to deliver those benefits into your blog posts.

To stick with our going vegan example, we’ll say that our benefits are helping people lose weight and live healthier. With that in mind,

Here are the week two blog posts:

• Tuesday Post: How I Lost 30 Pounds by Going Vegan. If you are aiming to help people lose weight by changing their diet with your online course, give them proof that not only can it be done, but you’ve done it yourself! This post should be general but informative. Let them know your before and your after, but don’t give away all the secrets in the middle. You want them to feel satisfied but still have questions.
• Thursday Post: DIY Vegan Holiday Feast. A lot of people might be wondering how they can possibly stay vegan during the holidays so this post is going to help them by breaking down vegan takes on holiday classics. No matter what your course is on, this post should be in depth and informative, and at least a week or two away from your launch so that it has time to gain momentum on social media.

Weeks three and four:

During weeks three and four you are going to announce that you’re working on a course, start increasing your interaction with your audience and continue positioning yourself as an authority.

Week three is where you’re going to tease your course while still remaining informative. Let your audience know that it’s in the works, and you can even take this time to ask them what they’d like to see.

• Tuesday Post: The Ultimate Guide to Veganism. Let your audience know that you’re embarking on creating the ultimate guide to going vegan and you’d love to know what they’d like to see in the course. Open your post with something along the lines of, “I’ve been keeping a secret from you guys. For the past few weeks I’ve been working on a project every free moment I had and I’m finally ready to let you guys know what it is.” To ensure this post is still valuable, include something like the top ten benefits you’ve seen since going vegan.
• Thursday Post: The Complete Guide to Cooking with Tofu. This post is going to be a teaser for your course. Open it by saying, “I originally created this post as a module for my online course, but I’m so excited about it I wanted to share it with you all now.” This post needs to be killer. I’m talking the best post you’ve ever written killer. Include video elements and maybe a content upgrade like a recipe sheet or something of the sorts.

Week four is launch week

Your main goal is to get people to buy, so you’re going to announce you are launching an online course and start sharing “teasers” like you did in last Thursday’s post.

• Tuesday Post: My Course is Live! Here is where you’re going to open the doors so people can begin to buy. Open with, “As you might already know, I’ve been working my rear off on my Veganism Course for the past few weeks and it’s finally ready.” Use this post to post behind the scenes screenshots of your course content.
• Thursday Post: The Top 5 Resources for New Vegans. This is a post that’s going to be highly shareable on social media and generate a lot of buzz. You’ll want to compile resources that compliment your course rather than compete with it.

Promoting your blog posts

A lot of people have an “if you build it they will come” mindset when it comes to blogging, but the truth is you’ll need to be doing a lot of promoting so you can get your posts, and thus your course, to be seen by a large audience.

There are a few main platforms you should be promoting your posts on,

Here are some of our favorites

• Facebook: Facebook is great because you can have your very own page for your blog or business. There are also a ton of groups you can join for just about every topic under the sun. In addition to promoting on your page when you publish, find relevant groups that allow self-promotion and post your recent blog there, too.
• Twitter: Morgan wrote all about using Twitter to promote your online course in the past, but the gist is be active, be valuable, and don’t go overboard with self-promo.
• Instagram: If you’ve already got a decent following there, it can’t hurt to let your audience know about your new posts and your new online course. Use relevant hashtags and interact with others in your niche.
• Quora: We honestly believe that Quora is the most underrated platform. You can use the platform to harness unbelievable traffic. It’s all about answering questions early. It’s hit or miss when it comes to deciding which questions will be popular and which won’t.
• Pinterest: We love Pinterest so much and Morgan does too. She poured my heart and soul into creating what may just be Morgan’s favorite blog post. It walks you through what works, what doesn’t, and how you can implement Pinterest to grow your online business.

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Even though the year is wrapping up, buyer intent isn’t slowing down. December remains one of the strongest sales periods for creators: people are using remaining budgets, buying meaningful gifts, finishing what they started, and planning who they want to become in January. This unique mix of urgency and future-focus creates opportunities to drive real revenue now and build momentum for the year ahead.

Throughout December, we’re hosting a series of webinars to help you understand these seasonal behaviors and turn them into practical, low-lift strategies inside Teachable. This blog will be updated after each session with the key insights and actionable ideas—whether you joined live or are catching up here.

Below are the highlights from our first December webinar:

Webinar: How to maximize sales through the end of the year

Most creators assume that the sales spike ends with Black Friday, but that perspective leaves money on the table. In this session, we dug into platform-wide data, narrative angles and structures that can increase conversions at the end of the year.

Why December still converts

December consistently delivers strong results for course creators, often much stronger than expected. Teachable data shows:

• December reached 96% of November’s total sales volume.
• 1 in 7 creators earned more in December than in November.
• More than half of the schools that sold during Black Friday weekend continued generating sales throughout the month.
• Top niches remained highly resilient, with only minor shifts in ranking:
  
  • Finance held the #1 position in both months.
  • Tech Skills and Health & Wellness swapped the #2 and #3 spots.
  • Business & Careers and Spirituality stayed steady at #4 and #5.

These patterns show that demand doesn’t taper off after Black Friday—it changes shape. Buyers remain active, but their motivations shift toward end-of-year budgets, gifting, goal setting, and finishing what they started. When your messaging reflects these priorities, December becomes a high-intent month rather than an afterthought.

December buyers can be motivated by different sets of seasonal priorities. When your offer speaks directly to these motivations, sales become significantly easier, without requiring heavy discounts or new product launches. These five narratives can perform well across niches.

Here are 5 winning strategies top creators are using to make the most of December sales.

1. Education stipdents & year-end budget messaging

Many professionals need to use remaining learning or development funds before they expire on December 31. Reminding them of this deadline creates urgency that feels natural, not manufactured.

How to leverage Teachable:

• Add a dashboard banner prompting learners to apply their stipend before it resets.
• Use a Dec 31–expiring coupon to reinforce the real-world cutoff.

2. Meaningful digital gifting

December shoppers want thoughtful, clutter-free gifts, especially ones that feel personal. Courses fit this mindset perfectly because they support a person’s goals rather than add another physical item to their home.

How to leverage Teachable:

• Enable Send as a gift so buyers can purchase your course for someone else with one click.

3. “Start the New Year already ahead”

Buyers are already thinking about the new year and looking for structures that help them begin January with clarity. They want to secure their spot now, even if they don’t start right away.

How to leverage Teachable:

• Use drip scheduling to set a January start date to let students enroll today and begin later.

4. Year-end completion energy

December naturally pushes people to finish what they started. Many students want to complete partially finished courses to enter the new year with a clean slate.

How to leverage Teachable:

• Add a dashboard reminder encouraging learners to finish pending modules.
• Offer a small completion bonus to motivate them to return.

5. Post–Black Friday momentum

A large portion of buyers regret missing Black Friday or expect a second-chance offer. Meeting that expectation with a short, intentional promotion captures warm leads without rebuilding a full campaign.

How to leverage Teachable:

• Briefly reopen your Black Friday offer with a limited-time coupon.
• Highlight it with a “Last offer of the year” banner.

Read this blog post to learn more about the End of Year narratives.

Low-lift sales strategies you can use right now

These simple sales plays require minimal setup but align perfectly with December buyer behavior. They’re designed to help you act quickly, and see results quickly.

1. Downsell

Turn one module, template, or resource into a standalone lower-ticket product. This gives hesitant buyers an easier entry point without diluting your flagship offer.

2. Re-engage one-time buyers

Buyers who purchased earlier in the year are already familiar with your work. A clear “next step” offer often converts well because it meets them mid-journey.

3. Flash reopen

Reintroduce your Black Friday offer for 24–48 hours with a simple two-email sequence. No need to re-explain the offer—buyers already know it.

4. Sell now, deliver in January

Pre-sell a January workshop or cohort. This captures December motivation while giving learners a clear starting point for the new year.

December demand isn’t fading, it’s shifting. When your messaging aligns with how buyers actually behave this month, even small adjustments can turn the final weeks of the year into a high-intent sales window and a strong foundation for January.

Click here to watch the full webinar recording. 

Webinar: Your 2026 Price Strategy How to Increase Value (and Revenue) Now

Pricing is one of the most powerful levers creators have, not just to increase revenue, but to signal value, improve conversion, and attract the right buyers. In this session, we focused on how to evaluate your current pricing and make strategic updates heading into 2026.

What the data shows about how top creator price their products

Before getting into strategy, we looked at how the Top 50 creators on Teachable actually price their offers. A few patterns stand out:

Top creators price higher across the board

• One-time purchases average $237 for the Top 50 vs. $137 for other creators
• Yearly subscriptions jump to $459 vs. $189
  

Top creators build portfolios, not single offers

• Top creators offer an average of 30 products
• 52% use bundles or memberships to increase average order value
  

Format matters more than niche

• Memberships and bundles consistently command higher tickets than standalone courses
• Higher-touch formats (like coaching and mentorship) can outperform self-paced content on price

The takeaway: higher revenue isn’t driven by volume or heavier discounting, it’s driven by intentional pricing, stronger formats, and smarter packaging.

When pricing is the real bottleneck

Many creators assume they have a demand problem, when the real issue is price positioning. These signals usually indicate pricing needs an update:

• Conversion is stable, but revenue growth is flat
• Repeat buyers make up a growing share of sales
• Engagement is high, but ARPU hasn’t moved
• Prices haven’t changed in 12+ months, despite added value

When traffic and engagement are healthy, pricing- not demand - is often the constraint.

How buyers actually perceive value

Buyers don’t evaluate price based on content volume. They evaluate it based on outcomes and effort saved.

Higher-performing offers tend to emphasize:

• Clear transformation and results
• Faster implementation (not more theory)
• Reduced cognitive load through frameworks or templates
• Access, accountability, or feedback

This is why shorter, more structured programs often outperform longer, cheaper ones.

Smart ways to increase willingness to pay

Rather than simply raising prices, the session highlighted ways to repackage value more effectively:

• Format upgrades
  Same core content, different format → different willingness to pay
  
  • Self-paced = foundational
  • Workshops or intensives = fast execution
  • Mentorship = personalized transformation
• Bundles and packaging
  Combining related products keeps pricing logical while increasing average order value.
• Selling access, not just content
  Live Q&A, office hours, and feedback loops often justify higher prices more than extra lessons.
  

Positioning your pricing for 2026

The strongest pricing strategies going into 2026 won’t compete on being cheaper. They’ll compete on clarity, fit, and outcomes.

Top creators:

• Are explicit about who the offer is (and isn’t) for
• Price based on transformation, not content depth
• Align format, promise, and price into a single, simple story
  

Small pricing adjustments—when paired with the right structure—can unlock meaningful revenue growth without rebuilding your funnel.

‍Click to watch the webinar here.

So you’ve launched your first course. And it’s converted well. Congrats! What now?

Wait for a few months, then “launch” again? That’s what everyone from Frank Kern to Ramit Sethi does, right?

But those guys have six-figures lists, four-figure courses, and multiple brands. (Sethi has enough courses that he could open one-a-month and never repeat the same course within a year.)

What if there was a way to earn money from your course every day?

It turns out there is: evergreen launch sequences, which give every new subscriber to your list an opportunity to enroll in your course a fixed amount of time after they subscribe, instead of forcing them to wait until you open enrollment manually.

Even if you’re selling an expensive course to a big list, there are reasons you might want to add an evergreen launch sequence – which admits new students to your course on a rolling basis, under its own power once you set it up – to your arsenal.

First, if your course has an optimal sales cycle—the average amount of time it takes a prospective customer to go from not knowing you to ready to buy – an evergreen sequence can catch everybody when they’re most primed to buy, instead of too early or too late.

If your sales cycle is 3 weeks, you can pitch your course to every new subscriber after 3 weeks, whereas if you only do periodic launches, some people will have waited months, whereas others may be too new to your list.

Second, you should probably be making continuous improvements to your course for at least the first year, especially if you’re selling it for more than $100.

Continuously improving your course gives your students a more valuable experience and allows you to raise the price. And an evergreen launch sequence gives you continuous feedback since people are enrolling in your course every day, allowing you to test improvements right away instead of waiting for the next launch cohort.

Finally, you don’t want to wait months to get paid again. An evergreen sequence gives you continual cash flow, so you’re not stuck waiting for the next launch and hoping you earn as much as you predict.

And an evergreen launch sequence doesn’t preclude the opportunity of doing a few launches every year to your whole list. It’s just extra income.

So just put up a sales page and let every new subscriber know you’ve got a course for sale, right?

Not so simple.

I know a lot of ways to get evergreen launches wrong because I personally messed them up. After I launched a successful course, I spent the next year eliminating the “kinks from the hose”. The result: a 4x increase in monthly earnings directly attributable to improvements in conversion rate.

I’m going to show you how to do an evergreen sequence right, by telling you what I got wrong, and what I did to fix it.

Don’t Make Your Course Permanently Available

When I first launched my course, I didn’t simply put it up for sale and send an announcement email. I spent weeks building expectation, then I opened the doors, but only for five days.

The result was over 50% of my sales on the last day of the launch. So I knew that scarcity, or giving people a limited time or quantity to buy, was a key element in the success of my launch.

But how would I duplicate that experience for new subscribers without doing manual launches?

• I’d used a countdown timer during the manual launch, but how would I ensure it started fresh for each new visitor to the sales page during an evergreen sequence?
• I’d sent multiple reminders to members of the first launch cohort, but how would I automate those emails without getting out-of-sync, so that when a new subscriber received the “last day” email and clicked through to the sales page, the timer actually displayed the correct amount of time left?
• Finally, how would I explain the limited opportunity to buy to my customers without being dishonest, which could both cost me long term brand equity and also keep me up at night?

It turned out the same timer app I was using at the time also allowed evergreen timers, triggered by a potential customer’s first visit to my sales page. That way, everyone would have four days to buy, from the time they first clicked. (Currently, I recommend plugins like Page Expiration Robot, which integrates seamlessly into WordPress, and can also be embedded via HTML on Teachable’s sales pages.)

That left the problem of reminder emails. Recall that more than 50% of my sales came on the last day of my first launch. But you can’t just plug your live launch-week emails into an autoresponder: if a recipient waits until the “last day reminder” to click to the sales page, he’ll still see a timer with four days left, since the first click  starts the timer.

Luckily it turns out your email provider has a smarter way: the same click that starts the timer on the sales page can also start a new automation sequence in most email services.

If you’re using a “high end” program like Infusionsoft, you can get fancy, allowing the first click on any of multiple links in multiple emails to trigger the reminder sequence – but even Mailchimp has basic automation features that will allow you reap most of the benefits of reminder sequences.

Just set up a second automation workflow triggered by the first link click to your sales page, and put your reminders there. Bottom line, your customers will receive an email that says “last day”, and they’ll click to the sales page and see less than a day left. Mission accomplished.

Technology solves the problem of making a limited opportunity to buy evergreen, but how do you convey that urgency to your subscribers?

Some marketers are outright dishonest – “I’m launching the course next week for the second time ever” – but I prefer honesty. I just tell people my course is only open occasionally, and that I’ll tell them when I open it. The exact language I use in the emails is along these lines:

“Next week I’m opening the course, to a very select group.” [This is true: people only receive this email if they’ve taken very specific actions in my funnel, and it’s a small subset of my overall subscribers.]

“I’ll open the course for four days. Once I close it, I can’t guarantee the price will be this low again.” [Also completely true. I’ve been raising the price gradually, so while it’s possible someone might get two opportunities to buy at the same price, it’s far-from-guaranteed.]

I don’t want to underplay the significance of raising your price gradually. There are a few reasons this is a great idea:

1. It allows you to launch earlier, while the course is still in “beta”, but compensate with a low introductory price, relative to the course’s eventual price.
2. As you improve the value of your course, you’ll also get better testimonials and more satisfied customers, and you can raise the price accordingly.
3. It’s an extremely powerful element of scarcity: it’s often not enough to tell potential customers they have a limited time to buy, because some will figure they’ll just catch it the next time around. You need to be able to claim honestly that the price probably won’t be this low ever again.

Oh, and don’t do sales or discounts. They train people to buy only during a “sale”, and erode the perceived value of your course. (If it were really $497, you wouldn’t be charging $27 for it.) Besides, with the scarcity tools I’ve discussed, they’re unnecessary.

Big takeaways from this section:

1. Don’t make your course permanently available to new subscribers. Use automation tools to give each participant a limited time to buy.
2. Don’t lie, but be clear that the price might never be this low again. Then, raise it! At least occasionally.

Boost Student Dopamine Levels

My work with End of Jobs author Taylor Pearson launching his Teachable course drove home a lesson I thought I’d already learned: you can have the best copy and best automation tech on earth, and translate into sales if potential customers haven’t felt your teaching work for them.

Here’s why that might not be obvious if you’re taking a one-off launch and making it evergreen. You’ve just launched to a “warm” list (a group with a lot of positive experience with your teaching). Now you’re turning around and trying to sell the same thing to “cold” traffic (people who are interested in what you teach, but who don’t yet know you from Adam). But “warming up” your new subscribers can be the difference between a course that sells like gangbusters and one that hardly sells at all.

My own course helps mediocre drummers become great by showing them the critical few things to focus on so they stop wasting their energy and focus.  

By the time a subscriber sees my sales page for the first time, he’s already felt my teaching methods work for him; probably more-than-once, since most of my traffic comes from my free drum videos on YouTube.

Not surprisingly, then, when Taylor and I were testing his course, we found it converted great to the people who had already read the essay the course was based on, and downloaded a weekly planning template to improve their productivity, then were surprised when it didn’t do so well when we turned around and launched it to a “colder” cohort of his list.

“Where did we go wrong?” we asked, scratching our proverbial heads…  

• Same sales page copy for both cohorts…
• Same email copy…
• Stronger – if anything – positioning in the second launch than the first…  

OH – that’s right! The first cohort had all downloaded the template. They’d all felt the method work for them: gotten what Taylor called the “dopamine rush”.

This accomplished 3 things:

1. It let people feel his method working: the dopamine.
2. Those who took the action of “opting in” had made what psychologist and author Robert Chialdini calls a micro-commitment: by taking a small action to express interest in the course they were psychologically more likely to take a bigger action than if we’d just hit them cold with a sales pitch.
3. It allowed us to sell enthusiastically to those who had opted in, because “they signed up for it”.

I now use Taylor’s “dopamine bootcamp” for all my clients, whether they’re launching a course for the first time, or making the launch sequence evergreen.

In its evergreen incarnation, the “dopamine bootcamp” can be an autoresponder. It can even be a lead magnet (an “ethical bribe”) to attract new subscribers to your list. (Your opt-in call-to-action could say “sign up for my Free bootcamp to improve your productivity in just a week”, and require an email address in order to register.)

If I were making the “dopamine week” part of an onboarding sequence (a series of emails a new subscriber receives to acquaint her with your teaching before you hit her up with a sales pitch), I’d send an email like this at the end:

“You’ve felt the system work for you. But you know it’s only scratching the surface. If you’re ready to discover what the complete course can do for you, just click here.”

Finally, I’ve found from selling my own course that including extra “value” emails between and among launch-announcements increased my conversions still more. You can/should experiment with the content and timing of these emails, and it doesn’t hurt if the “value” you’re giving is related to the problem your flagship course solves.

Big takeaways from this section:

1. Give new subscribers as much experience with your teaching (of the type you’ll cover in your course) as possible before pitching the course to them.
2. Consider asking subscribers to make a micro-commitment just to get access to your course pitch email sequence.

Ask

I struggled over which tip to include as my third in this essay. I thought it important to mention that automating more than one launch to new subscribers nearly doubled my earnings.

So do that: for everyone who doesn’t buy at his/her first opportunity, give 3-4 weeks of valuable content, then launch again. After two opportunities, subscribers can be tagged as “seasonal launch”, and you can live-launch to them a few times per year. (You’ll need a second sales page since the timer on the first will have expired.)

But more important is the process I used to arrive at revelations like the above. And Taylor’s launch drove it home: when you’re taking a course and making it evergreen, certain things that worked in the live launch are not going to work anymore.

After Taylor and I converted launched successfully to his “warm” cohorts, we suffered a disappointing result when we tried to roll the course out to a wider audience. Eventually, we identified two primary culprits: the “dopamine” issue I discussed above, and a premature price-rise.

But whatever their cause, you need a quick-and-dirty way to identify the culprits of a low-converting course, and split testing takes time and huge data sets. A reliable-but-underutilized way to discover why people aren’t buying is to ask them.

Taylor and I used three staples that worked wonders for me in selling my own course, and which I now use with all my clients: the “why didn’t you buy” email, the “why did you buy” email, and the “why haven’t you bought yet” email.

In an evergreen sequence, you can automate the former to send a day-or-two after the cart close, to people who haven’t bought. I like to use simple, personal language:

Subject: “Can I ask you something?”

Body: “Hey Nate I noticed you checked out my course but decided not to pull the trigger. Just have to ask, was it me? 😉 In all seriousness, I don’t want anybody to join if it’s not a good fit, but I’m curious – why did you decide not to join this time around?”

Here are the responses you’re looking for:

• I couldn’t understand exactly what was involved/I had unanswered questions. [This hints that your copy and positioning aren’t clear.]
• I wasn’t sure it was a fit for my particular problem.
• I never got xyz email, I couldn’t find the link to the sales page or the “buy now” button. [There will be some basic “is it plugged in” logistic issues when you’re first making a launch sequence evergreen.]

Here’s the type of response you should dig deeper on:

• You were too “salesy”, you did something wrong from a marketing standpoint. [Dig deeper by asking if you improve the messaging if the person plans to enroll in the future – otherwise it’s likely he/she was never going to buy under any circumstances.]

And here’s the one I always regard with skepticism:

• It was too expensive. [It’s far better to determine pricing with split tests – or just by asking for a certain price and seeing if people will pay – than with surveys. People with zero intention of buying will often cite price as an excuse.]

Noticing a theme? It’s easy to get pulled off course by responses from people who would never buy. You’re looking for responses from potential customers whom you didn’t convince, not non-customers.

No less valuable is the “why did you buy” survey. I like to ask variations of the following questions:

• If you were on the fence, what finally convinced you it was a good fit? [Do more of this.]
• Was there anything in the messaging that dissuaded you from buying, or made it a harder decision? [Do less of this.]

I also ask questions related to improving the product, like “If I had to remove 80% of this course and still charge the same amount, what should I take away”, and “if I had to double the price by adding just one more feature, what would it be?” Responses to these questions will help you increase the value you’re delivering, so you can raise your prices.

Finally, a wasted opportunity in an evergreen launch is a “why haven’t you bought yet” email, especially during the first few months. This accomplishes the same thing as the above emails – revealing problems with positioning/copy/proof/logistics/unanswered objections – but allows you to address them in real time, potentially salvaging a sale before it’s too late.

If you’re willing, offer to get on the phone with people, a move that both earns trust and gives you invaluable insight into how your pitch is going over.

Big takeaways from this section:

1. Instead of guessing which elements of an evergreen funnel aren’t working, ask your subscribers, in 3 emails: “why didn’t you buy”, “why did you buy”, and “why haven’t you bought yet”.
2. Beware of following the advice of people who were never going to buy. Instead, look for problems with positioning, proof your solution works, logistic snafus, and unanswered questions or objections.
3. Be willing to get on the phone with your potential customers, especially early in the process.

You can make your course sales evergreen, but the tech is the easy part. The key going in is to understand that it’s going to be an inherently sloppy process of trial-and-error. You’ll have some weeks or months when you’re not sure it’s working. But keep executing on the strategies:

• Give people time to warm up to you, and hits of “dopamine” – so they can feel your teaching working – before hitting them with a sales pitch.
• Ask people why they bought, and why they didn’t buy, and incorporate the results into your pitch and product.
• As your course improves, raise your prices gradually, and be honest with your subscribers that you’re raising it, to make scarcity work for you fully.

The payoff will be huge. My current course is silently earning-in-the-background, paying my bills and giving me a chance to focus on deploying what I’ve learned to help other entrepreneurs.

‍

With Black Friday right around the corner, now is the time to determine what discounts to offer to both first-time and repeat students. But if you’re new to your online school or the products you’re offering, you might not know what Black Friday pricing you should offer for the biggest shopping season of the year. Sometimes there’s a fine line between offering excellent deals to your customers and selling products at a loss. Keep in mind, some of the discount strategies below will fit your online business, while others might not. Some discounts work well for coaching or courses. In contrast, others might be better if you’ve got physical products you sell, like merch.

Let’s discuss how you can determine what discounts you should offer for Black Friday to maximize profitability and customer satisfaction.

7 ways to adjust your Black Friday pricing

1. Percent-based discounts

Percent-based discounts are exactly what they sound like: handy, helpful, and popular discounts that are easy to understand and great for Black Friday sales.

They’re super simple to set up, too; just advertise some of your most profitable products or services at a lower price (by a certain percentage) than they normally are. For example, say that you sell a flagship product for $49.99. With a 20% discount, customers can buy the same product for $39.99.

Percent-based discounts are popular around Black Friday. That’s because customers can immediately see how much they’ll save. You can also make these more noticeable with strikethrough price tags.

However, you need to take a hard look at your numbers and ensure you can withstand the dip in profits. You can analyze the sales vs. profit ratio from previous years using your accounting software and bank account. Most business bank accounts can be integrated with accounting tools, allowing you to identify your income sources easily.

You may find that percent-based discounts are only wise if you can sell a significantly higher volume of products. You would do that by listing them at a higher discount than you would normally.

Here’s an example:

• Say that you sell a product for $50.
• If you list that product on your online store for $30 instead, you’ll need to sell two of those products to make roughly the same amount of profit.
• If you don’t expect that kind of discount to result in double the normal sales for the product, it’s not a good idea. You could recalculate your discount with a lower percentage to see if it’s more profitable.

2. Bundle deals

Bundle deals are also popular during holiday sales as they offer more value for money to your customers. They are special Black Friday pricing discounts where you bundle different yet similar or related items together in a single purchase. For instance, maybe you sell coaching and courses. You can bundle these two products by offering a mini course with each coaching purchase made during Black Friday week.

You don’t just have to offer free bundles, either. For example, you might offer two similar products, both at a slight discount, if a customer purchases them both in the same transaction.

Before deciding whether this discount option makes sense for your business, you need to look at your numbers and expected sales. If used unwisely, you could end up giving away a lot of items for free and experiencing a Black Friday shopping season “in the red” instead of “in the black.”

3. Referral sales or discounts

There’s no better time to get people referring their friends and family to your store than around the Black Friday shopping season. You can advertise special sales or discounts for those who refer new customers to your brand to encourage more purchases.

Say that, for example, you run a subscription-based business. You can give everyone who successfully refers a new paying customer to your product one free month of subscription. This is a great way to broaden your customer base. And a way to do it without losing money. After all, each free month of subscription you hand out is paid for by new months of subscriptions from fresh customers.

Before advertising the deal, determine whether your customers will take full advantage of it. You should also be careful with the terms and conditions of the sale. Make sure that new customers stick around for at least one subscription cycle before giving the free deal or discount to the referring customer to keep your finances stable.

4. Shipping discounts

Shipping discounts are extremely popular around Black Friday, and for a good reason. If you have a physical product you sell online, you could take advantage of this offer. Many people use Black Friday to shop online, and shipping discounts (or offers for free shipping) are good ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

However, offering free or discounted shipping means you have to foot the bill for all those transportation costs. Make sure that the expected profits from selling more units or subscriptions will compensate for those extra operating expenses. Otherwise, you’ll run your business at a loss during this critical time.

One great way to ensure this discount works for your brand is to only offer shipping discounts or free shipping for customers who spend a certain amount of money.

5. Free trial or demo offers

Is your business model based on a subscription or software service? Then free trials and demos are perfect for your holiday offers. Free trials and demos are more likely to be checked out during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as people are looking for Christmas gifts.

Just make sure the free trials and demo offers aren’t too generous. For example, a free trial for one month could result in people perpetually making new accounts to use your software platform without ever paying you a cent.

6. VIP discounts

Have a VIP or loyalty program? Consider offering special discounts or sales to those loyalty program members. These can be fairly generous and incentivizing. You want to keep these core consumers happy and satisfied during this important shopping season.

VIP discounts can include free shipping (exclusively for loyalty members, of course), major percentage-based discounts, or special bundles. Be smart about what your loyalty program members want when crafting these accounts or sales.

7. Personalized offers

Lastly, take advantage of digital marketing to send personalized Black Friday discounts and offers to previous customers via email. Personalized offers, such as product recommendations or discounts on favorite, repeat purchases, can do a lot for building relationships with customers. Of course, make sure these personalized offers aren’t too generous and that they incentivize further shopping.

A perfect example of a personalized offer is free shipping if the recurring customer spends at least $30 on their favorite items. In many cases, your regular customers will tell themselves that they were already planning to shop at your store. So they might as well do it now when they can take advantage of the special offer!

Wrapping up Black Friday discounts

As you can see, there are lots of different discounts and special deals you can offer your customers or students to make you Black Friday pricing appealing. Some of the discounts above might be more applicable to your coaching and courses. While others might work better if you have physical products you sell too. But consider each of the above discounts and deal examples carefully alongside your bottom line, operating expenses, and other factors. To maximize success, analyze your finances carefully so you can offer stellar deals that don’t break the bank.

Black Friday pushes a lot of creators into panic mode. You feel the clock ticking. You want your course ready. You want everything polished. You want the launch to land. That pressure builds until the work feels heavier than the opportunity.

You deserve a plan that protects your energy and your earnings. You also deserve a plan that helps you grow your audience, build trust, and bring in revenue before the busiest sales week of the year hits.

Monique Lu, Creator Programs Specialist at Teachable and Jordan Hoopingarner, Customer Success Manager at Teachable hosted a Black Friday webinar mapping out precisely how you can sell more this Black Friday, even if you haven’t built your product yet.

The creator problem: building in silence slows your results

You already carry enough responsibility as a creator. Recording lessons alone in your office for weeks on end drains your spark. You publish nothing while perfection eats your time. You quietly keep building and hope the finished product lands with a splash.

You end up tired. You end up unsure. You end up launching without any signal that your audience wants what you spent all that time making.

You deserve a calmer, cleaner way forward.

The pre-sell shift: Three moves that help you sell more

Pre-selling removes the pressure that comes from creating in isolation. You stop guessing. You stop grinding alone. You create with your audience instead of creating for them. That shift reshapes the entire process.

Validate first

You get answers faster when you ask your audience directly. Validation comes from polls, comments, tiny tests, or short conversations. Your audience tells you exactly where the demand sits. You can shape your direction based on real responses instead of internal assumptions.

Earn early

You get clarity the moment the first payment hits. Revenue carries more weight than engagement. Early income proves your idea resonates. That confirmation sets your pace and keeps your energy steady.

Build with your students

You get stronger material when your earliest buyers help shape the details. Students surface real questions. Students share the specific obstacles they face. Students guide you toward examples and explanations that hit the mark.

This three-part shift gives you momentum while removing the heavy load that usually sits on your shoulders.

What pre-selling actually means

You give your audience early access at a fair price. You outline the course, set a delivery window, and share exactly what they can expect. You build the course after confirming the demand. You never pretend something exists when it doesn’t. You simply lead with clarity and confidence.

This approach gives you revenue, validation, collaboration, and excitement before creation begins.

Creator success stories: Proof for your own plan

Jen from Build Your Healthy Home

You can follow the same path Jen took when she built her first course. She launched with a simple sales page, clear messaging, and no recorded lessons. Her audience understood the promise and trusted the delivery. Jen earned more than $25,000 in two weeks using nothing more than clarity, timing, and transparency.

Jack Appleby

You can use Jack’s strategy when you want quick momentum without heavy production. Jack offered bonuses that already existed and layered them onto an early-access promotion. His audience saw immediate value and moved quickly. His results showed how much lift comes from urgency and relevance.

These creators moved fast because they trusted their audience enough to launch early.

Your 3-step pre-sell action plan

You can start earning long before Black Friday by following the same three steps Monique and Jordan walked through during the session.

Step 1: Choose your pre-sell offer

You already carry enough knowledge to pre-sell something meaningful. You can package a workshop, mini course, curriculum draft, coaching hybrid, or membership starter. The key sits in defining the outcome. A clear promise carries the offer.

Step 2: Set up your pre-sell page on Teachable

You can launch a polished page without complex design work. You add your core details, list your draft outline, choose a price, and publish. Teachable handles the layout so you can focus on the message.

Step 3: Share the offer and start earning

You can talk openly about what you’re building. Email your list. Post on your socials. Invite your warmest followers. Share behind-the-scenes snapshots of your process. Your audience loves being included. Your pre-sell grows stronger each time you show up.

The Black Friday offer system: give people a reason to buy now

Black Friday buyers move quickly. You give yourself an advantage when your offer speaks clearly and delivers value they can feel immediately.

What shapes an irresistible offer?

You present a simple, strong value exchange that helps buyers feel certain about their decision. A direct promise, a clear outcome, and a meaningful reason to purchase create momentum. Your buyer moves with conviction because the value feels obvious.

Elements that strengthen your Black Friday offer:

• A seasonal bundle
• A digital download bonus
• A meaningful discount or upgrade
• A relevant extra session or resource
• A well-placed upsell that lifts AOV
  
  

These pieces appeared throughout the webinar because they consistently drive action.

Creating messaging that moves people: the 4-step story structure

You can communicate your offer more effectively with a simple storytelling flow. Monique shared a structure that sharpens your message and helps buyers understand why this offer fits their needs.

Hook: You pull them into the moment with one clear line.

Pain: You describe the challenge they recognize in their own life.

Solution: You show them how your offer helps them move forward.

Call to action: You guide them with the next step.

This format works on sales pages, social posts, emails, live streams, and short videos.

Turn your pre-sell into a digital doorbuster

You can use this strategy to generate fast action and keep your Black Friday sale running smoothly from start to finish. Jordan mapped out a clean, repeatable sequence that works across every niche.

You create a strong pre-sell. You generate a limited batch of high-discount coupons. You turn on the setting that displays how many remain. You share the countdown. You schedule the release. You let the coupons sell out. You roll into your standard Black Friday offer once the supply hits zero. You close with a strong final push.

This method rewards early buyers and builds healthy demand from the very beginning of your sale.

The Black Friday promotion checklist

You can widen your reach by promoting your offer across the channels your audience already uses. The webinar included a straightforward checklist that covers every major traffic source.

Channels to use:

• Social platforms
• Your email list
• YouTube
• Podcast mentions
• Affiliate partners
• Paid traffic for warm audiences

Each channel plays a different role. Social posts build awareness. Email drives conversions. Affiliates introduce you to new buyers. Paid ads help when you have existing audience data.

Teachable tools that support your Black Friday results

You can strengthen your sales performance with the tools already built inside your Teachable account.

• BackOffice unlocks smoother checkout options
• Order bumps increase average order value
• Cart abandonment emails recover lost revenue
• Buy Now Pay Later supports larger purchases
• Affiliate tools expand distribution

These features give creators more leverage during the biggest sales window of the year.

The Black Friday Sales Challenge

You can join the Black Friday Sales Challenge for extra rewards as you make sales through the end of the year. You can earn subscription credits, Creator Grants, and even a fully covered trip to Brazil for a major creator economy event. You can accelerate your progress when you use BackOffice which gives you a 1.2x multiplier on all challenge earnings.

Join the Teachable Black Friday Sales Challenge today

You know that your course deserves a lot of time and energy. But, there’s another feature of your online business that deserves just as much consideration—your course sales page. Your sales page is your best asset for proving your course’s value and cluing your audience in to the transformation they can expect to experience as your student. We’re breaking down exactly why a powerful sales page matters.

Power lies in clarity

When presented with two similar products consumers will always search for clues that one is more closely aligned to their needs and values than the other. You could have the absolute best resource for your niche, but if you’re not making that clear on your sales page, it’ll be hard to convince people to buy.

To create a powerful sales page for your course, think about two things:

1. The copy
2. The structure

Persuasive, authoritative copy builds trust with your audience and gives them points to relate to you on. But good copy alone won’t make a sale. You also have to make sure you structure your powerful sales page in a logical way that makes it seamless and easy for people to purchase.

Writing strong sales copy

If sales copy intimidates you, you’re not alone. Even skilled bloggers and content marketers make the mistake of writing sales copy as they would any other copy. But, your sales copy must be distinct because unlike a blog post, the end goal on a sales page is a purchase.

Great sales copy conveys at least two things: the value of your product and the urgency to enroll now.

How to write effective sales copy

You can think of writing sales copy as a step-by-step process. When executed correctly, sales copy can result in increased sales and more income for you. Here’s how to get started:

1. Define your audience

Your course isn’t a perfect one-size-fits-all solution for everyone. You shouldn’t advertise it as such. Before you write a line of copy, figure out exactly who your target audience is. Consider these factors:

• Is your course better suited for novices or someone who already knows the basics?
• What is the end goal of taking your online course? What transformation are you providing?
• If you had to describe them, who would your ideal customer be?
• Who is your course not for?

As you answer these questions, a persona will start to emerge. The more specific you can get, the better (imagine one person, maybe someone you know).

If you know that your target persona is a 55-year-old male who is a first-time entrepreneur honing his business idea, it’s much easier to develop copy that’s persuasive. You’ll be able to talk about technology and business in a way that makes the most sense to him, which will make it a no-brainer for him to take your course. After all, you understand him, and he can trust you.

An expert’s eye

Take a look at how Melyssa Griffin clearly describes who her online course is best fit for and who isn’t right for taking Pinfinite Growth.

Off the bat she says that this course is perfect for bloggers new and old. She states strategies in her online course will help anyone looking to grow their traffic and email list. Furthermore, the course is perfect for busy folk who are looking to run their Pinterest on autopilot without having to devote a ton of time or energy to the program.

By making it clear who you’re targeting with your course you accomplish two things:

1. You make your target audience feel included when they see themselves in your “who this course is for” section
2. You will have fewer people asking for refunds, because if a potential customer doesn’t fit into your “who this course is for” section they’ll be less likely to buy your course in the first place

2. Make your sales page easy to digest

A powerful sales page should be easily scannable and digestible. Your audience is likely to first scan a sales page before diving in. Divide your sales page into very clear sections set apart by images, graphs, and color blocking. You can also use plenty of bold text and colorful text to make certain points and statements stand out.

Your audience members should be able to take a very quick, 15-second look at your sales page as a whole and already have an idea of whether or not your course is going to be a fit for them. Based on an initial scan, your audience will decide whether they should stick around.

Try the following to making your page easy to scan:

• Use very clear headers – You can use headers to break up different sections in your sales page. They can be simple (i.e. “Testimonials”) or a bit punchier (i.e. “What people are saying.”) Regardless, including headers will help your audience know what to expect and prompt them to read your page.
• Vary text size and color – A huge wall of text is going to overwhelm your audience and encourage them to click away from your sales page. Using a variety of text types will make your page easier to read and encourage your audience to stick around and read more.
• Include negative space to make your page easy to read – Negative space is simply the area on your sales page that has no text or images aka white space. Adequate negative space keeps your page from looking too busy or overwhelming, and invites your audience to stick around a bit longer.
• Add images to break up the text – Much like the other tips mentioned here, images are going to make your sales page less intimidating. Images also serve to draw the reader’s eye, so make sure the copy surrounding the images is persuasive.

This one step will encourage significantly more people to stick around and take the time to read your page, giving you more opportunity to win your audience over via your superior sales copy.

At Teachable, we make dividing up your sales page simple. Our default template breaks up the sections for you. And, our text editor makes adding heading and different sized text simple.

3. Tell a story

As an entrepreneur your story matters. And, telling a story on your sales page can really help your audience connect with you and your product. By painting a vivid picture of who can benefit from your product and the problems you’re going to solve, you can help people connect with your product. Start by telling your own story or sharing a case study featuring a friend or client you helped. This increases your authority and adds to a powerful sales page.

Describing a clear pain point that your online course is going to solve. Then explain how your course will help your students overcome that pain point. Doing so is very valuable in creating a powerful sales page.

4. Overcome objections

People naturally try to talk themselves out of making big purchase—whether it’s a new vacuum cleaner or an online course that can transform their life or business.

You need to nip that tendency in the bud.

Address any rational concerns someone might have when it comes to buying your course. Frame your online course as the best possible solution for the problems that your audience is having.

Common objections may be:

• “This course is expensive.” If you haven’t effectively conveyed the value of your course, people may think of it as expensive rather than valuable.
• “I could learn how to do this on my own.” In the internet age you can learn basically whatever you fancy online and for free. But that’s not the point of online courses. Online courses are a shortcut to an outcome and that’s what you have to emphasize in your copy. Say something like, “It took me two years to master this concept, but I’ll get you to where I am in just three weeks.”
• “Why would I buy from you when _______ is selling a course on the same topic?” A lot of course instructors get a case of “imposter syndrome” where they feel that they’re not enough of an expert to be selling a course on their topic, and that thought might run through your student’s minds, too. Say something like, “I’ve been where you’ve been, and it wasn’t all that long ago. I remember what you’re going through because I was in your shoes just two years ago. I’m not some expert who has been teaching on this topic for 20 years and has long since forgotten what it feels like to be in the beginning stages, I’m simply someone who figured out what works and wants to share my method with you.”
• “But how do I know I can trust you?” Chances are you customers have never met you, and you could be anyone hiding behind a fake online identity. Building trust online is a very important component of making sales. One way to build trust is through testimonials. Testimonials show that other people trusted you and are glad that they did.

5. Use clear calls to action

A call to action is exactly what it sounds like: text or an image that’s calling out to your reader to take an action. And, it can be as simple as “Enroll now!” or a little punchier, “Join the fun and buy today!”

It’s easy to worry about being salesy and opt for softer calls to action, like “Learn More.” But if your copy is doing its job, your future students are looking for a clear button that tells them exactly where to purchase. So, be upfront and ask people to purchase or sign up for your course, because that’s why you brought them to your sales page in the first place (and that’s why they’re there).

6. Use benefit-driven language

Benefit-driven language presents your course to your audience in a way that appeals to them and their needs. Instead of saying, “I’m giving you five hours worth of content that I spent two months creating!” You can say “After taking this course you’ll be able X which will result in Y and Z.”

Make sure that your sales copy is less about you and more about your audience and your online course. Here is an example of benefit driven language from Reach Your Readers by Creativindie.

Benefit-driven language helps people visualize what the outcome of the course will be, and they’re going to be more excited to buy.

Get inspired

Here are five great online voices to subscribe to for tips:

1. The Copy Cure – This is free training from Laura Belgray and Marie Forleo brings actionable tips (some that I’ve mentioned here) to your inbox.
2. Noah Kagan – A marketer who has built his brand on his writing style. His blog OkDork is filled with personality and actionable advice.
3. MozBlog – Notice how clean each article is. Some of it is long and detailed, but it’s all there for a reason.
4. Contently – Contently is an industry leader publishing articles on content marketing and copy.
5. CopyHackers – Joanna Wiebe has some great content you can learn from on how to make your copy compelling.

Now, let’s take a look at the actual structure to use for your sales page.

The nine-step sales page formula

When it comes to the design of a powerful sales page, there is a simple formula you can follow for maximum results.

1. Headline/hero
2. Course description
3. Case study/testimonial
4. Call to action button (CTA)
5. Instructor bio
6. Case study/testimonial
7. FAQs
8. Call to action button (CTA)

Luckily, Teachable’s sales page editor makes following this formula to create a beautiful sales page that converts easy and intuitive.

Headlines and heroes

The headline is your first place to really wow your potential customers and get them intrigued. In this example from “Creating a Profitable Podcast” you can see they use:

1. Eye-catching colors
2. Descriptive language

They give their most eager students a chance to enroll right on top of the page. Your Teachable school comes with a hero CTA right out of the box.

Now, you don’t have to use bright colors if they aren’t part of your brand. But, do consider color theory and how your colors are playing together. Make sure that your text isn’t hard to reach or blending into the background. The color wheel from Canva is a great resource.

As for using descriptive language, think of words like: ‘profitable’, ‘valuable’, and ‘monetizing’. These are powerful words because they are very clear and get at one of the primary things that drives people’s behavior—money. It’s more valuable to teach someone how to do something and be successful with it than just teach them how to do something.

Course description

Now that you have your audience’s attention, hook them in with a powerful course description. Create a description that will appeal to your ideal audience and get them excited about the prospect of taking your online course.

One thing to make sure you’re establishing when creating a powerful sales page: your transformation. What exactly will your audience get from taking your online course? Make it very clear what you’re setting out to teach.

Here’s a great example of a course description from Contino Workshop.

“Join me, alphastructaesthetitologist* Jon Contino, as I walk you through every step it takes to become a master lettering artist! From the history of written language all the way to customizing letters for logo design, this class will provide you with the tools it takes to make, break and rebuild letterforms into strong, interesting and unique works of art.

In this super-efficient crash course, I will share vital and core knowledge of typography history, the tools it takes to design letters, explain in detail how to master fundamental lettering and, of course, how to create your own style.

With 37 lecture and demonstration videos, a PDF workbook, and a detailed list of resources and where to get them, this class will benefit everyone from the first-time lettering artist to the seasoned pro!“

This description works because Jon:

• Describes exactly what the course was going to teach his students.
• Uses phrases such as “super-efficient” that hint at his course’s value. Remember, courses are a short-cut to an outcome. People want to learn as quickly as possible!
• Throws in a bonus. Even if you’re planning on offering free consultations with your course, consider framing them as an added bonus your students get on top of their purchase.
• Defines who his course was for: “Everyone from the first-time lettering artist to the seasoned pro.”

Case study or testimonial

A case study is a narrative account of someone’s experience after they’ve gone through your curriculum and benefited from it. For example, if you’re teaching how to negotiate for a raise in your corporate job, take a look at someone who took your course and successfully negotiated her biggest raise to date.

A testimonial is someone singing your or your course’s praise. Your call to action is simply the place where you’re going to urge your audience to take the plunge and purchase your online course. It could appear as a button or a hyperlink depending on the design of your site.

Instructor bio

Introduce yourself! People are going to be curious about who you are and what your credentials may be.

Depending on the nature of your online course, you might want to include the following:

• How long you’ve been in your field
• Any exciting highlights from your time in the field
• Any opportunities your skill has given you

Here’s a great instructor bio from Coding Explained:

Curriculum

If people are still on the edge of deciding whether or not to purchase, giving them a sneak peek of your curriculum can help them get excited. Here’s an example of how that might look from Pitch Perfect by Elana Gross.

Another case study or testimonial

Again, highlight how incredible your course is by sharing someone else’s experiences with it. Interspersing your sales page with endorsement from others is a subtle way to make major progress on convincing someone to buy your course.

FAQs

The more thorough your FAQ section is, the less time you’ll spend answering the same question over and over again via email. Your FAQ can calm your audience’s fears over things like refund policies. And, it also help them understand the nature of your online course a little bit better.

Here is a great example of an FAQ Section from Content Strategist Certification Course.

CTA

Here’s your final CTA. Hopefully by now your audience has made up their mind to purchase. And your last CTA is going to make it easy. Having multiple opportunities to buy on your page helps prevents your future customers from hunting for your “buy” button.

Three golden rules for powerful sales page design

When you’re designing your sales page, it’s easy to go overboard. But a few key design tips can prevent that:

1. Make your text black or dark gray. You can even get away with a very dark blue, purple, or maroon but choose your colors wisely. You may be super excited about your course and that compels you to want to use a bright, happy yellow for your main font, but that’s hard to read. Definitely incorporate color into other aspects of your sales page, but when it comes to the text, simple is often better.
2. Choose a color scheme. Do this so you’ve got brand consistency and your entire sales page is streamlined. If you choose from three or four main colors your page will look more polished and put together.
3. Be picky with your stock images. Ask yourself: Can your customers see themselves in your pictures? Maybe you love the picture of the graceful ballerina leaping with an arm full of roses, but if your course is about fashion for the office that image won’t translate well. There are so many stock image sites available, with a bit of digging you can find pictures that fit your brand, perfectly.

Oftentimes, a landing page sets the first impression a potential customer has of your business. The best landing pages inspire visitors to take action. It tells your brand's story, nurtures new customers, and drives conversions – landing pages have 160% higher conversion rates compared to other types of sign-up forms.

To maximize your chances of getting new leads and increasing your sales, you want to make sure you invest your time and effort in building a landing page with great design for your business. Improving your landing page design can lower your paid ad spend because each new visitor who lands on your improved page through ads will be more willing to stick around and convert into a new lead.

Sounds pretty good, right? Now that you know the benefits of a well-designed landing page, let's talk about how to create high-converting landing pages for your business.

What is a landing page?

A landing page definition is pretty straightforward — it's a single page with a specific target of getting visitors to complete an action. The name "landing page" comes from the idea that people will land on it from somewhere else, usually digital marketing, such as an ad campaign.

Your landing page design needs to speak to your target audience and drive them to your call-to-action (CTA). A CTA can be for a visitor to sign up for your newsletter, download an ebook, enroll in your online course, buy a product, or something else. Everything on a landing page, from copy and images to layout, should support that one goal.

There are different types of landing pages, and each has a slightly different purpose:

• Lead generation page: This type of landing page is designed to capture leads's information like name, email, industry and more by offering a lead magnet (ebook, trend report, etc.) in return.
• Click-through page: This landing page is the page that the visitor sees before they're asked to make a purchase, and it's goal is to entice the visitor with an irresistable offer such as a free trial of a product.  
• Squeeze page: A squeeze page is the most effective landing page, and its sole purpose is to capture the user's email address.
• Splash page: It's a page that precedes the main page of your website, with the goal of promoting a new offer, showing a disclaimer, or asking the user to verify their information.
• Sales page: These landing pages are often long and have a very clear CTA at the end, which is often a link to an expensive product like an online course. These pages are long because they are focused on selling a high-value product to those who land on the page.

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Key elements of a great landing page

Effective landing page design consists of a few key components. These six components need to work in cohesion together to create a high-converting landing page. The key landing page elements are:

Headline

Your headline is the first thing a viewer will see when they come to your page. It needs to be clear and concise, confirm your offer, and include messaging that reflects the audience's entrance point.

For example, Function of Beauty has a landing page for its line of custom skincare products. The headline is "the world's most customized skin care". It highlights that it is made for you, not just a skin type and it also uses a personalized quiz CTA to reinforce the custom skincare value proposition.

Subhead

Your subhead is a more in-depth description of your headline. It usually appears just below your headline, and it is in a smaller font. Use the subhead to be persuasive and explain your offer in greater detail.

Let's look at Slack as an example. It clearly highlights the value proposition — work faster and more flexibly — when you use Slack.

Compelling visuals

Include a striking image of your product or a photograph that relates to your message. It is even better if you can show your product or service in action or include a video — that alone can increase conversion rates by 86%.

According to The Next Web, our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Captivating images makes your page look better and gives your audience a better page experience. They also provide visual cues to entice your audience to remain on your page and learn more about your offer.

As a design tool, Figma needs to have well-designed visuals. This landing page for its prototype features includes examples of what you can create using Figma. It makes it easy to visualize using it for your design projects.

User-friendly design

Your landing page should be easy to navigate no matter what device people use to access it, and have all the important information in a very digestable form. Minimize the pop-ups, because too made might cause people to click off your page, and ensure your landing page loads quickly, because there is a 4.42% drop in conversion rates for every second of load-time.

Social proof

Including social proof no your landing pages can increase the conversion rates by 5%. Social proof shows your audience that others have taken your course or used your products and would recommend it. It is a necessity to design landing pages that convert. The more a visitor sees that others like and benefit from using your product, the more likely they are to convert.

You can leverage different types of social proof, including testimonials, reviews, and press features.

Usually, social proof will appear many times on a landing page, primarily right after the above-the-fold section. Semrush is a great social proof example. You can see they include top companies that use the product, leveraging their brand equity and creating credibility.

Strong call-to-action (CTA)

Your call-to-action is the most important element of your landing page – that's why you have a landing page. You want someone to sign up for your offer. What it looks like, how it reads, and where it is placed will impact your conversion rate.

Remember, you want to have just one CTA – multiple CTA's reduce the conversion by 226%. A single strong CTA makes it clear to potential customers what you want them to do. Plus, you'll increase your chance of conversion if you are driving them to one goal versus dividing their attention between more than one.

Be brief but clear. Avoid the "submit" and "send" CTA buttons because they are vague. You need to describe exactly what you want from your customers or the next steps — what will happen when they click.

Another element you can capture in your CTA is urgency. For example, this landing page for Nom Nom highlights a special offer to get 50% off and free shipping.

Best practices for landing page design

Let's talk about landing page best practices that will help you design great landing pages that convert well and bring in new leads to your business.

Utilize the white space

When it comes to design, sometimes less is definitely more. Utilizing the white space when creating your landing page can be a simple yet powerful way to increase your conversions. By definition, the white space is the space in between design elements, and it doesn't have to be white – it can be any solid color.

So, why white space is important? Well, it makes your landing page easier to read, which means that people will digest information much easier. Also, white space is prominent in modern designs, and it signals to your website visitors that you're a modern, innovative brand.

When designing your landing page, make sure you take the less is more approach and let the design elements you choose to use stand out on their own.

Optimize load speed

Load speed is the single most important aspect of a successful landing page. It has to load fast and efficiently so visitors can turn into warm leads. So, be wary of adding images and videos to your landing page, and make sure you're optimizing them to increase your lead speed.

Responsive design

Over 60% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices. It's crucial that when you're building your landing page, you optimize not only for desktop but also for mobile. You might even do better if you design your landing page through the mobile view (which most landing page builders like Unbounce and Leadpages should support). It's also smart to do a quick test once you're done with the design to make sure all the elements of your landing page work on mobile, too.

Conduct A/B testing

Once you have nailed the design of your landing page, it's time to put it to the test. That's where A/B testing or split testing comes in handy. Split testing involves splitting the traffic into two (or more) groups and directing them to different versions of the same landing page to see which one performs better. It's an essential component of conversion optimization.

The key to successful A/B testing is to focus on tweaking small details. Instead of creating two different landing page designs, create identical ones and test one element at a time (headline, visuals, etc.) to see what works the best and what might be your pain points.

So, what are the elements you want to test with split testing? We recommend starting with:

• Headline
• Visual assets like images and video
• CTAs: placement, color, copy
• Lead form length
• Landing page copy

These elements can have a huge impact on your conversions, and even the smallest change can make a difference.

Creating compelling headlines and CTAs

A headline and strong call-to-action can make or break your landing page – that's how important these two elements are. So, spend the time crafting the perfect headline and CTA for your landing page. Better yet – draft a few different options and conduct an A/B testing (as we discussed before).

Headline tips

Effective headlines have these three things:

• Clarity: The best headlines are clear, straight to the point, and easy to understand the moment people read them.
• A hook: Effective headlines capture readers' attention, draw them in, and make them curious to find out more.
• Empathy: Great headlines empathize with people's pain points and offer a solution or a transformation.

If you keep these three elements in mind when drafting your landing page headlines, chances are that you'll be able to craft just the right headline (or a few) that speak to your target audience and increase your conversions.

CTA design tips

When creating a CTA, it's best to enclose the CTA text in a box. This makes it look like a button, and people want to click buttons. When the mouse hovers over the button, have it change colors or shade. It entices people to click and shows them that it is clickable.

The button color doesn't matter that much, but contrast does. Your CTA button should stand out from everything else on the page. First, find the main color of your site, then look at the color that is directly opposite it on the color wheel. That is the best complementary color for you to use for your CTA. For example, if your page background is blue, use an orange CTA to stand out from the rest of the site.

Lastly, size is important. Make the button larger than the other text on the page. You don't want your ultimate goal to get lost. Include white space around your button, so it clearly stands out from everything else on the page.

Sun Basket has a CTA button that pops off the page. The bright yellow stands out from the background, and there is enough white space around it to draw your attention.

Using visuals effectively

Landing page visuals such as images and videos can elevate the design to the next level and improve your landing page conversions. Visuals help break down the text and make the landing page much easier to read. Also, visuals make the landing page much more engaging, which can be a great way to hook the visitors in and keep them on the page longer.

While not every landing page requires a video, using images on landing pages is a must. Always make sure that the images make sense and complement your copy, offer, brand, or tell a story that helps entice visitors to take the action you want them to take.

Including images like infographics can be a very engaging, and you might want to consider turning your social proof like testimonials and reviews into images instead of having them in the text form.

Landing page examples

The best way to understand the secret to building successful landing pages is to see all these practical tips we discussed today brought to life. So, let's take a look at a few powerful landing page examples:

Shopify

This is an excellent example of a click-through landing page.

A strong headline, a quick subhead explaining the most important thing, and a very clear CTA to type your email address and get a free trial of the software.

Lower down the page, it has social proof and an FAQ section addressing the most important questions and concerns people might have, which all add to a very simple yet effective landing page design.

Ali Abdaal

Ali Abdaal's landing page for his bestselling book Feel Good Productivity takes the landing page design to the next level. The landing page design is simple, yet effective and super interacting with all the visual element playfully moving through the screen as you scroll down, without impacting the load speed or responsiveness.

This landing page has a strong headline, video explainer, testimonials from industry experts, and very clear CTA's inviting you to buy the book at the very top and bottom of the landing page.

Pat Flynn

Pat Flynn's online course landing page is very modern and simple, and it captures the visitor's attention immediately. The headline and subhead tell you everything you need to know about the course, and the video explainer is engaging and enticing. There is a very clear CTA, testimonials, and even an FAQ addressing any questions people might have about joining his online course.

Jenna Kutcher

It's worth putting in the effort in your landing pages for free training, and Jenna Kutcher is a great example. Her free email-building training landing page is informative and engaging and has the best personalized CTA right at the beginning of the page. While there is no explainer video, there are visual assets like videos and images of Jenna, which make the design high-quality and professional.

Mel Robbins

Another phenomenal free-training landing page example is for Mel Robbins's 2-part video training. Right at the very top of the landing page, you see the benefits you'll gain from taking part in this training. Next to it, there is a video explainer, that's informative and engaging. The CTA is clear and simple and takes less than a few seconds of people's time.

Measuring and optimizing performance

Once your landing page is live, your landing page analytics will be your best friend. Through analytics, you can learn what works and what doesn't, and you can get a better look at your audience's behavior. By analyzing your analytics, you'll be able to improve and reap better results for your business.

Here are some of the most important metrics you want to pay attention to when it comes to analytics and optimizing landing pages:

• Page visits/views: This metric tells you how many people visited your landing page, and it's a good indication of how well your marketing is working – if you have lots of visits and views, it means that your marketing efforts to drive traffic are working. And if not, it's a sign you might to review your strategy.
• Traffic sources: This metric allows you to inspect where people are coming from, and it's a good way to understand which marketing channels are worth your time and which might need a new approach.
• Bounce rate: Bounce rate tells you how quickly after someone lands on your website they leave. A higher bounce rate means that people are not getting what they expected when they clicked the link to visit your landing page, or that they loose interest.
• Submission rate: This metric tells you how many people filled the submission form, and it's an important metric that tells you how enticing your offer is.
• Form abandonment: This metric shows how many people started filling out the submission form, but chose to leave mid-way. It could mean that your submission form needs some adjustment to make it shorter or maybe you need a stronger offer.
• Heat mapping: This metric is a bit more advanced, and it allows you to see which parts of your landing page got the most action. Tools like Hotjar allow you to see which elements of your landing page design work, where people lose interest, or which parts are not interesting to them.

Biggest landing page mistakes people make

The two most common landing page challenges businesses face are high bounce rates and low conversion rates. If you're also facing these challenges, don't be alarmed – we have landing page solutions for every challenge you might face.

High bounce rate

On average, landing pages have a bounce rate of between 70-90%. Obviously, you want to keep your bounce rate at the lower side of things because if you have a high bounce rate, it means that something on your landing page is not working for people. It could be a marketing problem – you're attracting the wrong people, so they bounce quickly. Or, it could be an indication that you need to improve your landing page design.

So, consider tackling the issue at hand in small steps. First, review your marketing efforts and see if your social media promos, and paid advertisement is driving the right people to your landing page. If you find that you are targeting the right people, then it's time to take a look at your landing page design.

Consider tweaking small elements like headlines and your visuals (include visuals if you have none), and review your CTA's – are they clear? Is there more than one? Make sure your copy is easy to read and digest. Utilize the white space and simplify your landing page design.

Low conversion rate

The average landing page conversion rate across all industries is 4.3%. A good conversion rate is anything above 10%. If you notice your conversion rate to be low, don't get discouraged – there are plenty of things you can do to change that.

One thing that could compromise your conversion rates is your CTA. So, the first thing you want to do is review your CTA's – is there one clear CTA or multiple ones? Is the CTA personalized or general? Does your CTA stand out, or does it get lost amongst other design elements on your landing page?

Once you review your CTAs and make adjustments where needed, you should see an increase in your conversion rates. If not, then consider looking into your submission form, especially if you notice high form abandonment rate. Remember, the more information you ask in the sign up form, the less likely people are to sign up. Maybe it's worth simplifying your submission form to minimize the obstacle.

Alternatively, you might need to reconsider your offer. Maybe it's not clear enough, or maybe you need to find a different angle to convince people why they should sign up for your offer, and how much value they'll get from it if they do sign up.

Design your landing page with Teachable

Ready to boost your business with high-converting landing pages? With Teachable, you can easily create pages for your learning products. Sign up for a free Teachable account today and get access to powerful tools and resources to help you design pages that drive sales and capture leads. Start now!

Oftentimes, a landing page sets the first impression a potential customer has of your business. The best landing pages inspire visitors to take action. It tells your brand's story, nurtures new customers, and drives conversions – landing pages have 160% higher conversion rates compared to other types of sign-up forms.

To maximize your chances of getting new leads and increasing your sales, you want to make sure you invest your time and effort in building a landing page with great design for your business. Improving your landing page design can lower your paid ad spend because each new visitor who lands on your improved page through ads will be more willing to stick around and convert into a new lead.

Sounds pretty good, right? Now that you know the benefits of a well-designed landing page, let's talk about how to create high-converting landing pages for your business.

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What is a landing page?

A landing page definition is pretty straightforward — it's a single page with a specific target of getting visitors to complete an action. The name "landing page" comes from the idea that people will land on it from somewhere else, usually digital marketing, such as an ad campaign.

Your landing page design needs to speak to your target audience and drive them to your call-to-action (CTA). A CTA can be for a visitor to sign up for your newsletter, download an ebook, enroll in your online course, buy a product, or something else. Everything on a landing page, from copy and images to layout, should support that one goal.

There are different types of landing pages, and each has a slightly different purpose:

• Lead generation page: This type of landing page is designed to capture leads's information like name, email, industry and more by offering a lead magnet (ebook, trend report, etc.) in return.
• Click-through page: This landing page is the page that the visitor sees before they're asked to make a purchase, and it's goal is to entice the visitor with an irresistable offer such as a free trial of a product.  
• Squeeze page: A squeeze page is the most effective landing page, and its sole purpose is to capture the user's email address.
• Splash page: It's a page that precedes the main page of your website, with the goal of promoting a new offer, showing a disclaimer, or asking the user to verify their information.
• Sales page: These landing pages are often long and have a very clear CTA at the end, which is often a link to an expensive product like an online course. These pages are long because they are focused on selling a high-value product to those who land on the page.

Note: At Teachable, you may sometimes hear us call a landing page a “sales page”.

Landing page vs. homepage

A landing page is different from a homepage. A homepage is designed to appeal to multiple audiences and convey information to anyone interested in your overall brand.

For example, Monday.com is a popular work management tool. If you look at its homepage, it speaks to all of its audiences and products from project management to CRM.

However, it also has Google Ads running for its different verticals. If you search for a project management tool in Google, you might see a Monday.com ad. It takes you to a project management-specific landing page.

Similarly, if you were to search for CRMs, you might see a CRM landing page. With this, you can easily visualize how a homepage differs from a landing page.

How to write a landing page

To create a landing page, you first need to craft your copy. These tips can help you write a landing page that communicates your brand story, what your product or service does, and why visitors should take action.

1. Get clear on your value proposition

These four questions explain what potential customers get from you and why they can’t live without your offer, while also creating a sense of urgency.

1. What is the offer?
2. What are the benefits?
3. Why does your audience need your offer now?
4. How do they get the offer?

When you are first writing a landing page, answering these questions can help you form your outline.

Simply put, these questions are the beginning steps to building your page’s unique selling proposition. Also known as the value proposition, it is a statement that clearly identifies why a customer buys your product or service.

2. Nail your audiences's pain points

When you build landing page, consider your audience and your competition. Your landing page copy needs to be tailored to your audience.

• What are they getting out of your product?
• How are you solving their painful problems?

Knowing their hopes, ambitions, and goals will make writing engaging copy much easier.

Try visiting online communities, forums, or websites where your audience hangs out. You’ll discover their desires, problems, and what they enjoy. You can use this information to help tailor your copy to their preferences.

In addition, do competitor research. Make a list of at least three competitors and audit their landing pages. How do they position themselves? Where do you beat your competitors?

3. Include power words

The goal of your landing page is to get your audience to convert. The copy of your page needs to be centered around this goal and reinforced each time you write a headline, a subhead, and a call-to-action.

Each of these sections communicates your unique value proposition: why people will buy from you and not your competition.

Your text needs to be captivating, persuasive, and above all else, clear. You don’t want your audience to be confused about what you are telling them or what they are getting from being on your page.

One way to do this is by using “power words”. These specific words evoke emotion and establish a connection with visitors, which can help increase conversions.

Words that work

There are many power words that you can use, but these are three of the most common.

• You – When you use the word “you”, it feels like your product fulfills their goals, desires, dreams, and interests.
• Because – Because is an indicator of an upcoming explanation of the reason why. Hearing or reading the word “because” cues the brain’s gatekeeper to let the message pass into the subconscious.
• Imagine – The word “imagine” helps the audience envision the outcome of a purchase, not the act of purchasing, which helps lower their purchasing resistance. By feeling like they already have something, buyers will want to keep it, aka make the actual purchase to keep those desires fulfilled.

Use these three words to connect with your audience and entice them to buy your product.

If you are unsure of what other power words to use, get some inspiration from your existing customers. Is there a word or phrase they keep using in emails, on social media, or on online forums when talking about your product? If so, try out that phrase.

Talk to a friend, peer, or audience member to see if the message you’re envisioning translates correctly to them. You can even A/B test to see if one performs better than the other.

What are the key components of a landing page?

Now that you have a rough draft of your landing page copy, you’ll need to organize it into sections or components. There are six main components that are crucial to landing page optimization.

1. Headline
2. Subheading
3. Images
4. Benefits
5. Social proof
6. Call-to-action

These six components need to work in cohesion together to create a high-converting landing page.

1. Headline

Your headline is the first thing a viewer will see when they come to your page. It needs to be clear and concise, confirm your offer, and include messaging that reflects the audience's entrance point.

Effective headlines have these three things:

• Clarity: The best headlines are clear, straight to the point, and easy to understand the moment people read them.
• A hook: Effective headlines capture readers' attention, draw them in, and make them curious to find out more.
• Empathy: Great headlines empathize with people's pain points and offer a solution or a transformation.

If you keep these three elements in mind when drafting your landing page headlines, chances are that you'll be able to craft just the right headline (or a few) that speak to your target audience and increase your conversions.

For example, Function of Beauty has a landing page for its line of custom skincare products. The headline is "the world's most customized skin care". It highlights that it is made for you, not just a skin type and it also uses a personalized quiz CTA to reinforce the custom skincare value proposition.

2. Subhead

Your subhead is a more in-depth description of your headline. It usually appears just below your headline, and it is in a smaller font. Use the subhead to be persuasive and explain your offer in greater detail.

Let's look at Slack as an example. It clearly highlights the value proposition — work faster and more flexibly — when you use Slack.

3. Compelling images

Include a striking image of your product or a photograph that relates to your message. It is even better if you can show your product or service in action or include a video — that alone can increase conversion rates by 86%.

According to The Next Web, our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Captivating images makes your page look better and gives your audience a better page experience. They also provide visual cues to entice your audience to remain on your page and learn more about your offer.

As a design tool, Figma needs to have well-designed visuals. This landing page for its prototype features includes examples of what you can create using Figma. It makes it easy to visualize using it for your design projects.

4. Benefits

You need to sell your audience first on why they need your product, and how it solves their problem.

The benefit statement section is where you can address the pain points you’ve found for your audience. Use a bulleted list to explain how your offer directly solves their pain problems. Make sure to focus on the benefits of your product, not solely on the features.

Adding in all of the features at this point may confuse or complicate their decision, which can lead to them not buying at all.

Semrush’s landing page for its free trial highlights six benefits of using the marketing tool. It focuses on what you can achieve within seven days of trying its product, including signing new clients and learning about your competitors.

5. Social proof

Including social proof no your landing pages can increase the conversion rates by 5%. Social proof shows your audience that others have taken your course or used your products and would recommend it. It is a necessity to design landing pages that convert. The more a visitor sees that others like and benefit from using your product, the more likely they are to convert.

You can leverage different types of social proof, including testimonials, reviews, and press features.

Usually, social proof will appear many times on a landing page, primarily right after the above-the-fold section. Semrush is a great social proof example. You can see they include top companies that use the product, leveraging their brand equity and creating credibility.

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6. Call-to-action

Your call-to-action is the most important element of your landing page – that's why you have a landing page. You want someone to sign up for your offer. What it looks like, how it reads, and where it is placed will impact your conversion rate.

Remember, you want to have just one CTA – multiple CTA's reduce the conversion by 226%. A single strong CTA makes it clear to potential customers what you want them to do. Plus, you'll increase your chance of conversion if you are driving them to one goal versus dividing their attention between more than one.

Be brief but clear. Avoid the "submit" and "send" CTA buttons because they are vague. You need to describe exactly what you want from your customers or the next steps—what will happen when they click.

Another element you can capture in your CTA is urgency. For example, this landing page for Nom Nom highlights a special offer to get 50% off and free shipping.

CTA landing page design tips

• Enclose CTA text in a box. This makes it look like a button, and people want to click buttons.
• When the mouse hovers over the button, have it change colors or shade. It entices people to click and shows them that it is clickable.
• Color doesn’t matter. Contrast matters. Your CTA button should stand out from everything else on the page. First, find the main color of your site, then look at the color that is directly opposite it on the color wheel. That is the best complementary color for you to use for your CTA. For example, if your page background is blue, use an orange CTA to stand out from the rest of the site.
• Size is important. Make the button larger than the other text on the page. You don’t want your ultimate goal to get lost.
• Include white space around your button so it clearly stands out from everything else on the page.

Sun Basket has a CTA button that pops off the page. The bright yellow stands out from the background and it has enough white space around it to draw your attention.

Bonus page: Thank You

Once your audience completes your CTA, you have one more page to keep their attention and inspire further conversion: the Thank You page.

The Thank You page is the perfect place to introduce your audience to other products you have since you’ve already captured their attention. This could be another CTA asking them to share the content they just signed up for, subscribe to your blog, sign up for your newsletter, attend a live training webinar or even give them a bonus piece of content.

For example, when you download a template from one of Hubspot’s resource landing pages, the Thank You or confirmation page looks like the below. It includes a CTA to learn more about Hubspot software.

How to create a landing page

Landing page builders

You don’t need to be a web designer or developer to create high-converting landing pages. In fact, there are many do-it-yourself builders, offering an easy user interface plus hundreds of landing page templates to choose from. You can plug these into your existing website and maintain the same user experience site-wide.

Here are a few user-friendly platforms to design a landing page:

• Instapage
• Unbounce
• Hubspot

If you sign up for Teachable, you can create a landing page for your first course in as little as 10 minutes.

5 principles for landing page design

Next, we’ll discuss some simple landing page design elements (color, typography, images) to think about when you’re creating your page to make it even better.

Whichever path you choose, there are still a few things that you need to think about when building your landing page: color, fonts, and images.

1. Choose meaningful colors that contrast

It’s the great marketer debate: Does color affect conversion in terms of landing page design?

To keep it as simple, we’re going to discuss a few elements to consider when thinking about colors for your landing page design (and brand).

Every color has psychological implications associated with it. When choosing your landing page color palette, consider what characteristics you want your brand to portray.

Colors have meaning

Pick colors that are associated with the characteristics you want to exude. If you want to portray luxury and trust, blue and black would be good options. If you want to hint at optimism and health, use yellow and green.

Complementary colors

Contrast is important. When two complementary colors are placed next to each other, their contrast is the strongest, and actually makes the colors appear brighter.

When choosing the palette for your site, make sure to include a color complementary to your page’s main color.

Here are some sites for palette inspiration:

• Adobe Color
• Colour Lovers
• Coolors

Make sure the colors that you pick are readable. You don’t want a green background with blue text. A helpful hint is to use a light background with dark text.

2. Pick typography

If you’re designing your own landing page from scratch, you have to pick your own fonts. The best practice is to stick with commonly used Google web fonts like:

• Georgia
• Verdana
• Geneva
• Arial
• Helvetica
• Tahoma
• Trebuchet MS
• Monospace
• Lucida Console
• Monaco

Using these fonts ensures that the majority of browsers and operating systems render your text correctly. Plus, it’s much easier when sending newsletters and dealing with different email service providers.

When choosing fonts, stick to one font to reduce the clutter on your landing page. Each of the fonts above has bold and italic styles, which are simple ways to differentiate text. Also, make sure you have the proper licenses to use these fonts for your business.

3. Use the proper font sizes

Another way to differentiate text is with size. A study by Wichita State found that body text is best at 12pt because it’s the easiest to read in the least amount of time. If your audience is older, bumping up the point size to 14 may make it easier on the eyes. Headlines look best at 17 to 25pt.

In that same Wichita State study, it was discovered that any font, larger or smaller than 12pt, decreases readability. If you want someone to spend time reading your copy, try enlarging the size in the testimonial section or reducing the size for the money-back guarantee statement.

The last size factor to consider is line spacing. Make sure there is enough space between each line to give the text room to breathe and be read easily.

4. Select clear images

Earlier, we explained the importance of having an image of your product. Now we’ll go into more detail on how to choose an image and its importance to landing page design.

Most importantly, you want the image to add to your landing page, not detract from your message. Include a clear, high-quality image that is not busy.

Think about how the text will look on top of the image. If your image has a lot going on, consider darkening it up with Photoshop. This way, the text will be easier to read.

A quick hack is to add a dark rectangle over the photo and reduce the opacity. The image should be dark enough for the text to be readable.

5. Check all devices

Once you’ve created a landing page, be sure to double check it on mobile devices, which is often where traffic comes from.

With these landing page design tips, you’ll be well on your way to understanding how to convert customers. Test out a few different landing page designs first and A/B test each to see how it performs. Your first version can always be refined after you have some data to understand how users interact with your page. If you are creating a landing page for a course, you can get started easily with Teachable’s sales page template.

Landing page examples

The best way to understand the secret to building successful landing pages is to see all these practical tips we discussed today brought to life. So, let's take a look at a few powerful landing page examples:

Shopify

This is an excellent example of a click-through landing page.

A strong headline, a quick subhead explaining the most important thing, and a very clear CTA to type your email address and get a free trial of the software.

Lower down the page, it has social proof and an FAQ section addressing the most important questions and concerns people might have, which all add to a very simple yet effective landing page design.

Ali Abdaal

Ali Abdaal's landing page for his bestselling book Feel Good Productivity takes the landing page design to the next level. The landing page design is simple, yet effective and super interacting with all the visual element playfully moving through the screen as you scroll down, without impacting the load speed or responsiveness.

This landing page has a strong headline, video explainer, testimonials from industry experts, and very clear CTA's inviting you to buy the book at the very top and bottom of the landing page.

Pat Flynn

Pat Flynn's online course landing page is very modern and simple, and it captures the visitor's attention immediately. The headline and subhead tell you everything you need to know about the course, and the video explainer is engaging and enticing. There is a very clear CTA, testimonials, and even an FAQ addressing any questions people might have about joining his online course.

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Jenna Kutcher

It's worth putting in the effort in your landing pages for free training, and Jenna Kutcher is a great example. Her free email-building training landing page is informative and engaging and has the best personalized CTA right at the beginning of the page. While there is no explainer video, there are visual assets like videos and images of Jenna, which make the design high-quality and professional.

Mel Robbins  

Another phenomenal free-training landing page example is for Mel Robbins's 2-part video training. Right at the very top of the landing page, you see the benefits you'll gain from taking part in this training. Next to it, there is a video explainer, that's informative and engaging. The CTA is clear and simple and takes less than a few seconds of people's time.

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Product landing page

This landing page (below) was quite long. The top “above-the-fold” section offers an easy way for customers to sign up (the CTA), alongside descriptions of what exactly is included in the online course. Further down the page are video testimonials (social proof), an overview of the modules, and buttons to reinforce the CTA.

Lemme

As you’ll see on Kourtney Kardashian Barker’s new online shop of herbal vitamins, this landing page has bright, eye-catching images and a few different CTAs—the dominant invitation being to “Shop All”. As you navigate to individual products, you’ll find social proof, more easy-to-digest information about ingredients, and more.

Real estate landing page

When it comes to real estate, the images are often front and center. You’ll notice this example doesn’t even have a heading or subheading. The benefits are the features of the home, which can be found in the descriptive paragraph and the charts above the CTA button.

Event landing page

Here is an example Unbounce recognizes as effective because of how it speaks to a specific target audience (women entrepreneurs in the digital space). Meanwhile the design treatment above the CTA bar highlights incentives to sign up: watch anytime, many experts featured, and free.

Lead generation landing page

Popular website builder Wix uses a pop-up to capture visitor information, while all of the benefits remain in the background on the landing page. The CTA button clearly indicates that there is no harm, risk, or commitment to trying: “Start for free.”

Webinar landing page

While this webinar, hosted by Mailchimp, doesn’t have a main image (just headshots of the speakers), the branding is consistent with the email and marketing platform. From the headline (and lack of subheading), it’s clear that the intended audience is MailChimp users. Meanwhile, the landing page offers two actions: to sign up or spread the word.

Coming soon landing page

Whether you’re about to launch a course or enrollment has already closed, you can still track interest and capture site visitors’ information. Here’s an example of Kris Carr’s membership container, Thrive Bootcamp.

SaaS landing page

SaaS stands for “software as a service” and allows customers to access applications over the internet through cloud-based delivery. This landing page example features the six key components in a fluid (and effective) way.

Measuring and optimizing performance

Once your landing page is live, your landing page analytics will be your best friend. Through analytics, you can learn what works and what doesn't, and you can get a better look at your audience's behavior. By analyzing your analytics, you'll be able to improve and reap better results for your business.

Here are some of the most important metrics you want to pay attention to when it comes to analytics and optimizing landing pages:

• Page visits/views: This metric tells you how many people visited your landing page, and it's a good indication of how well your marketing is working – if you have lots of visits and views, it means that your marketing efforts to drive traffic are working. And if not, it's a sign you might to review your strategy.
• Traffic sources: This metric allows you to inspect where people are coming from, and it's a good way to understand which marketing channels are worth your time and which might need a new approach.
• Bounce rate: Bounce rate tells you how quickly after someone lands on your website they leave. A higher bounce rate means that people are not getting what they expected when they clicked the link to visit your landing page, or that they loose interest.
• Submission rate: This metric tells you how many people filled the submission form, and it's an important metric that tells you how enticing your offer is.
• Form abandonment: This metric shows how many people started filling out the submission form, but chose to leave mid-way. It could mean that your submission form needs some adjustment to make it shorter or maybe you need a stronger offer.
• Heat mapping: This metric is a bit more advanced, and it allows you to see which parts of your landing page got the most action. Tools like Hotjar allow you to see which elements of your landing page design work, where people lose interest, or which parts are not interesting to them.

Biggest landing page mistakes people make

The two most common landing page challenges businesses face are high bounce rates and low conversion rates. If you're also facing these challenges, don't be alarmed – we have landing page solutions for every challenge you might face.

High bounce rate

On average, landing pages have a bounce rate of between 70-90%. Obviously, you want to keep your bounce rate at the lower side of things because if you have a high bounce rate, it means that something on your landing page is not working for people. It could be a marketing problem – you're attracting the wrong people, so they bounce quickly. Or, it could be an indication that you need to improve your landing page design.

So, consider tackling the issue at hand in small steps. First, review your marketing efforts and see if your social media promos, and paid advertisement is driving the right people to your landing page. If you find that you are targeting the right people, then it's time to take a look at your landing page design.

Consider tweaking small elements like headlines and your visuals (include visuals if you have none), and review your CTA's – are they clear? Is there more than one? Make sure your copy is easy to read and digest. Utilize the white space and simplify your landing page design.

Low conversion rate

The average landing page conversion rate across all industries is 4.3%. A good conversion rate is anything above 10%. If you notice your conversion rate to be low, don't get discouraged – there are plenty of things you can do to change that.

One thing that could compromise your conversion rates is your CTA. So, the first thing you want to do is review your CTA's – is there one clear CTA or multiple ones? Is the CTA personalized or general? Does your CTA stand out, or does it get lost amongst other design elements on your landing page?

Once you review your CTAs and make adjustments where needed, you should see an increase in your conversion rates. If not, then consider looking into your submission form, especially if you notice high form abandonment rate. Remember, the more information you ask in the sign up form, the less likely people are to sign up. Maybe it's worth simplifying your submission form to minimize the obstacle.

Alternatively, you might need to reconsider your offer. Maybe it's not clear enough, or maybe you need to find a different angle to convince people why they should sign up for your offer, and how much value they'll get from it if they do sign up.

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FAQs

What’s the difference between a landing page vs. website?

A landing page is different from a homepage. A homepage is designed to appeal to multiple audiences and convey information to anyone interested in your overall brand. A landing page, on the other hand, is defined as a single page with a specific target—getting visitors to complete an action. The name “landing page” comes from the idea that people will land on it from somewhere else, usually a digital ad or another marketing campaign.

Your landing page design needs to speak to your target audience and drive them to your call-to-action (CTA). Everything on a landing page from copy and images to layout should support that one goal.

What should a landing page include?

There are six main components that make a landing page successful. These six components need to work in cohesion together to create a high-converting landing page:

1. Headline: the first thing a viewer will see when they come to your page; should be clear and concise, confirm your offer, and include messaging that reflects the audience’s entrance point
2. Subhead: a more in-depth description of your headline
3. Images: striking graphics of your product or photographs that relates to your message
4. Benefits: why audience needs your product, and how it solves their problem(s)
5. Social proof: shows your audience that others have taken your course or used your products and would recommend it; could be testimonials, reviews, or press features
6. Call-to-action: the reason you have the landing page/action you want visitor to take

What should not be on a landing page?

The elements of a landing page, including copy and graphics, should be intentional and specific to the goal (CTA) or offer. Your text needs to be captivating, persuasive, and above all else, clear. You don’t want your audience to be confused about what you are telling them or what they are getting from being on your page.