The eLearning industry is growing at a fast rate. It’s now predicted to reach $275 billion by 2022. It is also getting more widespread each year. The reason being that it’s faster and more effective than traditional training. Online courses offer an impactful way to gain new skills and knowledge. An online training academy is also a great way to access and spread knowledge. Moreover, it’s a cheap and profitable business. Hence starting your online training academy in 2020 couldn’t have come at a better time.
Now before you begin, go through our easy guide for 2020. It will help you get started on your successful journey. In this article, we show you 5 simple steps to start an online training academy.
How to Start an Online Training Academy:
1. Find your Target Audience
The first step to start your own training academy is to know your specific target audience. If you are a company this could be your employees. If you are an individual this could be people who want to enroll in your course. Knowing your audience will make creating your course content easier. It will also make marketing your academy easier. You can hire a market research organization to do it. You can also do an informal survey or put a “sign up for updates” form on your landing page or Facebook. With this information find out who they are and what they want to learn. Next, determine the size and location (local/international) of your audience. As this will affect your content, its delivery, and payment methods. It's also important to consider is if you’re targeting businesses or the general market.
2. Create your Course Content
Next, you have to think about choosing profitable and sustainable eLearning content. It’s also important that the course is relevant to your industry and target audience. The course topic should also be a topic that you are passionate about and have experience (life or formal) in. This will make your content more engaging. Your content quality has to be good with professional-looking writing. As it will make your training academy stand out. You can either do it yourself or hire a writer. Next, you will check if the course content has a market demand or not. It will be essential to also check if the competition is offering similar content. With MindScroll you can create online courses in minutes. You can use generate certificates, track learner progress and customize score calculation parameters. There is support for instructor-led and blended training. As well as for PDFs, PowerPoints, audio lessons, videos, SCORM, and web links.
3. Choose your Tools and Integrations
For a successful training academy, you should choose the right technological tools. eLearning is 50% delivery and 50% content. Technology will also affect the scalability of your business. You will want your business to be infinitely scalable. But that’s not easy or affordable to do if you build the platform yourself. But if you use a cloud LMS like MindScroll, you will not face this issue and you can easily increase your reach and plan. It will make creating and selling online courses simple. And it will also make it possible for your learners to access the courses on their mobile devices. You can also provide a seamless single sign-on experience to them. This is possible with MindScroll’s direct integrations with third-party applications. These include software tools like Dropbox, Slack, Vimeo, Zoom, Microsoft Azure, and ProctorEdu.
4. Set Up your Analytics Tools
Now that all the course content on your website, you have to set up your analytics tools. This is important before you start your online academy. Since these will help you analyze your performance in brand awareness and site traffic. There are many analytics and integrations available. Google Analytics is a powerful tool to track your web traffic. Facebook Pixel is another tool that you can use to find the actions your website visitors take. This will help you to create more effective Facebook ad campaigns. With MindScroll, you can integrate both of these tools in your platform. Besides, you can use the in-built dashboard of MindScroll to see learner progress. You can also get insights on course progress and track learner participation.
5. Start your Sales and Marketing
Now that everything is set up, you need to create a marketing plan. This will help in selling and promoting your courses. This will also help in enrolling more learners. The way you market your academy will depend on your budget and the type of your target audience. You can create teaser/trailer videos on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. This will help you to reach many people and drive web traffic. You can reach potential customers and alert them of new courses by email campaigns. You can also use MindScroll's in-built coupons to give discounts and increase interest in your courses.
Final Word
So, there you have it – all the major steps you need to know to start an online training academy. We hope these will you a clear idea of what to expect from creating, marketing, and selling your courses. And how it can generate more money and create a great learning experience for your audience.
Move your learning operations online and improve the productivity of your employees. Sell your solutions online and grow your business. Explore virtual classrooms, training management systems, test platforms, and collaborative eLearning tools. Discover how MindScroll is among the best cloud LMS available today. Start your 15-day free trial today and join our 100,000 users worldwide.
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