What do James Franco, Steven Spielberg, Venus Williams, and Nelson Mandela have in common? They all participated in e-learning. But knowing how to start an e-learning business is crucial for success in this emerging industry.
E-learning involves interesting articles, quizzes, and educational videos that are presented on a digital platform. One major advantage of e-learning is its accessibility. As long as you have a device available, you can study.
By 2025, the value of the e-learning industry is expected to climb to a whopping $325 billion. More people are making it their learning tool of choice when it comes to life skills, corporate training, and other courses of personal interest. More than ever, now is the best time to get into the e-learning industry.
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What Is E-Learning?
Think of your favorite fitness trainers. They probably service around 75 clients per month. But if their fitness programs are converted into an online subscription model, they won’t face the same time limitations. Instead, they can reach thousands of fitness enthusiasts.
This simple concept highlights the advantages of e-learning. Any person who wants to make extra money on the side or start a business can simply create an e-learning course. E-Learning programs can consist of any topic, such as how to start a social media agency, learning the basics of baking, or even knowing how to train your dog. Whatever your expertise, you can create a course for it.
E-learning uses educational technology to deliver, select, design, and administer learning. It’s hard to imagine that only a few years ago, e-learning was virtually impossible. But as more people got phones and other mobile devices in the early 2000s, e-learning emerged as a major player in the education industry. Not soon after, all phones, computers, and tablets were not only used to connect with loved ones, but also to improve one’s knowledge and skills.
8 Ways E-Learning Can Help Others
When it comes to new innovations to broaden one’s knowledge, e-learning definitely stands out. Before you learn how to start an e-learning business, take a look at how it can help your future customers.
Saves money and time
E-learning allows for access to content anytime and anywhere. For example, if the student is from New York and the author of the course is in London, students don’t have to save up for their flights, and take time off work to learn from the best. This makes e-learning one of the most cost-effective ways to study something new.
Companies who invest in e-learning for their employees also save money, not just on transportation, but also accommodation costs for both instructors and learners. There would also be no need to book a venue or print a syllabus since everything can be done on a mobile device.
Provides consistency
Each instructor has their own method of teaching, and this varied approach can lead to delivery changes and even mistakes. For example, if a yoga teacher caters to two classes, there is a chance the yoga positions she will teach may differ slightly.
This problem can be eliminated with e-learning since it provides everyone with standardized training. A learner from Singapore will look at the same material as someone who is studying in Michigan.
Gives flexibility
Adaptive learning has become an industry standard. Since e-learning courses are accessible on tablets and mobile phones, everyone can learn whenever it’s convenient – whether it’s on their morning commute, during their lunch break, or on a free weekend.
Not only that, but e-learning courses are also broken up into micro-learning pieces, which makes it even more convenient for learners to go at their own pace.
Improved retention
Have you ever wondered why you are so bored after a 3-hour lecture in school? This feeling develops because people prefer interactive and bite-sized content.
Students would rather listen to a podcast or watch a video rather than read through a 60-page manual. E-learning tools do not limit instructors or learners by dictating they should stick to traditional learning methods. In fact, they encourage making interactive content since the more engaging the information is, the more students can remember key points. If students enjoy learning, they can recall what they learned and apply the concepts to areas of their life.
Easily scalable
E-learning presents business owners with the opportunity to make thousands of sales per day without paying any additional cost. Just as e-learning is scalable as a business, it is also scalable for your customers. For instance, a company can roll out a course on how to properly take notes on meetings for as many employees as needed.
Offers personalization
The goal and preferred learning method of one student may be different from another. This feature is where the beauty of e-learning lies. It can cater to individual preferences by letting users choose their path to learning and navigate at their own pace. When people decide what to learn and how to learn it, they will remain interested and invested in their course.
Easily updatable
For some topics, presenting policies and rules is essential. However, this can be a challenge since rulings can change over the years. The need to reflect updated regulations and policies is easy to do in e-learning platforms. These changes ensure that the learning process is always aligned with current events. Compared to non-digital methods of learning like books, e-learning makes updates relatively simple.
Provides tracked and measured learning
Compared to other modes of studying, e-learning is easy to track. Instructors and students can instantly get the data they want, including completion rates, areas of weaknesses, and performance. This data will help individuals measure their progress. It will also enable the identification of students who could use additional assistance.
6 Steps to Follow When You Start an E-Learning Business
Now that you know the benefits of e-learning, you’re probably excited to start an e-learning business. Here’s how you can do it.
Choosing your industry
If you are already part of an industry that perfectly fits into the e-learning space, you’re in luck. For example, if you are a web designer with a huge following on Instagram, you can easily create how-to courses and promote it to your followers.
If you want to cater to a general market, there are also a lot of course opportunities. You may offer courses on retail, writing, video production, voice over, social media, information technology, or gardening. In particular, you may prepare lessons on web development using examples of websites built with Django.
Building a website
Building your company’s website is one of the key steps when you start an e-learning business. Making a website from scratch requires money, effort, and expertise. However, there are various learning management systems (LMS) for small businesses that you can use, including free options such as Wordpress.
Your website will be the main avenue where students can access your courses through a cloud-based system. If you want more personalization, going with paid services. There are tons of open platforms that offer complete customizability.
Creating courses and a catalog
After you’ve determined what industry you want to focus on, you can start putting together your course catalog. Without this, it would be impossible to start an e-learning business since these courses will serve as your products.
When developing this crucial step, you need to consider how to present it effectively to the public. You may want to go overboard with integrating media and other resources to your offers, but keep things as straightforward as possible. Keeping elements to a minimum will ensure that your development process and the learning journey of the students are less stressful.
To help with the perception of potential customers, you can write out summaries of your offered courses. This process includes what students can gain from the course, such as accreditation, certificate, or degree.
In this step, you also need to decide what type of course you will offer. For example, will you be making it a webinar series, or do you want to stick to interactive web modules with videos? After you’re done, it’s time to structure your landing pages. As much as possible, keep it informative yet not overwhelming.
Setting rates
Your goal when you start an e-learning business is to make money from it. Naturally, you need to assign a value to the courses you offer. Figure out how much time it takes to make the course and what your market can get from it. Generally, courses range from as little as $25 to $125, but the price may also depend on the experience of instructors. Also, factor in the rate of the competition.
In the beginning, you may be tempted to cut the competition by offering low rates and promos. If you plan on being connected to an educational organization such as a university, be prepared to have restrictions on what the course will be and how much money you’ll be getting from it.
Determining your target audience
When you start an e-learning business, you have to determine whether or not there is a demand for your chosen topics. The last thing you want is to spend a few months on a course and find out it has limited demand.
One of the biggest mistakes an entrepreneur can make is to forego assessing and analyzing what the audience wants. As much as possible, spend time and effort researching content guidelines. You also need to have an in-depth conversation with your target market. This step will give you an insight into what they want to achieve by buying e-learning courses, and what their expectations are.
Making a sales funnel
One of the major areas of starting any business is making a sales funnel. This process refers to how potential customers learn about your offers and purchase them without speaking to a salesperson.
It includes generating a lead where potential customers learn of the offer and having a marketing strategy to lead them into the buying process. The secret to earning profit in e-learning is an
effective marketing strategy.
Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms work well for paid marketing. Search engine optimization is also integral. As much as possible, you should eliminate the human resources required for this process. Automated processes will allow your revenue to skyrocket.
Good Luck on Your Journey
If you ask any successful entrepreneur whether or not it was hard to establish their company, they’ll tell you that Rome was not built in a day. The same is true when you start an e-learning business. Expect to do a lot of work before and after offering courses. No matter what happens, do not give up. It may take a while to build an e-learning business, but if you learn from the small victories and mistakes you make along the way, the path to success will be clearer.
