Read on to learn top strategies for marketing your class, from creating pre-launch buzz to sustaining engagement for the long term.
Marketing Fundamentals
In a nutshell, marketing is the process of making people aware of what you have to offer and enticing them to actively take it. Effective class marketing considers your audience and the most creative ways to call them to action — or in this case, signing up for Learnfly in order to watch and engage with your class.
It’s important to remember that marketing isn’t a single action that’s done once a class publishes. It’s a continued conversation with your community and audience and needs sustained attention from you throughout the lifespan of a class.
Class Marketing Best Practices
Here are some general guidelines to help you market your class.
Plan Ahead
Don’t wait until your class has launched to start thinking about marketing! Think about your overall strategy for marketing your class. Write out your discussion announcements and social media posts in advance and set a schedule for when they will go live. During class production, set aside time to film some b-roll for short clips you can share on social media — such as Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube.
Set Goals
Setting benchmarks for your marketing campaign can help you build and sustain momentum all the way up to class launch and beyond. Here are a few examples if you’re just getting started:
- Get 50 students
- Make at least ten membership referrals
- Get five or more positive reviews
Start With the Platforms You Already Use
Think about the ways you communicate with your audience off of Learnfly. If you already have an established online presence, you’re in great shape to start marketing your class to your followers outside of Learnfly. In fact, it was teaching on Learnfly that sparked the large followings those teachers have today. It’s OK to start small: even sending an email to your personal contacts about your new class is a great first step.
Go-To Platforms For Promotion: Email, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest.
Potential Unconventional Platforms: Reddit, Twitch, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn, Quora, Medium, personal blog.
Post Often
Sharing about your class or Learnfly teaching regularly helps drive more visibility in your social feeds. For social media, aim to post one to five times per week for your regular feed, and three to ten times per day for stories.
Don’t be shy about resharing a class, either. Many people miss the first post, especially with current social media algorithms.
Work Those Hashtags
Use topic-relevant hashtags (such as your creative medium as well as the audiences it appeals to) to help people discover your content. Use hashtags for every post in your feed and make sure to put it as the first comment and not the post itself. For example, for a post about a graphic design class you might use: #graphicdesigner #graphicdesigners #designers #artists #digitalart #digitalartists #Learnfly #onlineclass #art #onlinelearning #virtualclasses.
Create Compelling Marketing Content
Marketing is all about standing out and cutting through the noise so it’s important to get creative with how you spread the word about your class.
Reuse Class Assets for Promotion
No need to reinvent the wheel! Lean on content you’ve already created for your class for marketing purposes. Some ideas:
- Your class cover image. Make sure it’s visually compelling and follow our recommendations.
- A snippet of your class introduction video.
- Bloopers — use these as a way to show your personality to your audience.
- A sneak peek of your class lesson list.
- A brief excerpt of a talking head video from your favorite section of the class.
Capture “Behind the Scenes” Footage
While you’re filming your class, don’t miss the opportunity to capture “behind the scenes” footage. You can use your phone to capture candid shots or video.
Give Insiders a Sneak Peek
Everyone loves insider info and exclusive access. Get your followers excited about your class before you publish by sharing sneak peeks and class teasers, giving them a window into your creative process. You can also share some useful tips or a short lesson along the way.
Consider Short-form Content for Social
Create shorter-form content that can be used to promote your creative style and teacher brand on social media and mix up your class offerings. Some major platforms with short-form video components are: Facebook and Instagram (Reels), Youtube (Shorts), TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter and others.
For example, “watch me work” videos of about 30 to 60 seconds in length offer a behind-the-scenes look on your creative process and shortcuts. These are great for your introduction video, b-roll throughout the class, as bonus content, and for cross-promoting on social media.
Make It Interactive
Facebook and Instagram’s native tools, such as questions, quizzes, polls, and like meters, help drive engagement. All of these encourage your followers to interact with your posts, which results in a higher ranking in the channel’s algorithm and more visibility for your content.
Channel Your Enthusiasm in Written Copy
As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, but don’t let your images speak for themselves. Make sure your photos and videos are accompanied by written copy that conveys your enthusiasm for your class and what your future students will get out of it.
Here’s some example language that you can adapt for your own pre-launch teaser post on social media:
As some of you may know, I’ve been [your art form/medium] for [amount of time you’ve been practicing it in months or years] and I want to share some of my secrets with you. I’m thrilled to be creating [title of your class] on @Learnfly, a class that teaches you how to [what you’re teaching them]… and it comes out in 1 week! I can’t wait to share it with all of you! Drop a [your favorite emoji] if you’re ready to learn [what they’ll be doing in the class].