Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 Like most businesses, you offer value to your customers through your products and services. But did you know that there’s an additional way to create value that also provides your business with long term benefits? Creating educational content is an impactful way to build value for your customers. If you think that making educational content isn’t for you, then this post might convince you otherwise. Here are the top reasons why you should consider building an online course for your audience: People build skills with online material and creating an online course will send more traffic to your content or website You can educate your customers on how to use your product to achieve their goals. This helps them get better results which then makes your product look good It’s another way to generate leads and turn them into future customers Online courses can be leveraged to create a brand community Providing your audience with educational content can improve your brand image. You’ll develop a position of authority in your area of expertise When you create a community around an online course, you’ll be able to answer questions that people have around your industry or business. If nurtured well, this would make your website a hub for information Online educational content can be a powerful tool that brings more people to your business and make current customers happy. An example of brands doing this well can be found in SEO tool brands Moz, Ahrefs, and SEMrush. They provide SEO courses that help people improve their site rankings and use their tools effectively. Another example is OptinMonster’s OptinMonster University, where anyone can learn digital marketing for free. You’ll have to put in a good amount of effort to create an online course but the payoff is often worth it. There are several ways to create educational content. Here are different ways to share helpful information with your audience. Ways to offer online course materials Thanks to technology, you have several ways to offer educational content. We’ll cover different formats that you can use and how you can strategize the best way to deliver content. With the right setup in place, you can help your customers and meet your own goals. Create blog posts A simple way to share educational content is through a series of blog posts. You can combine text, videos, and images to teach your audience helpful content. The benefit of using blog posts is that you can improve your SEO, get more traffic, and readers will find it easy to consume these posts at their own pace. You can pre-write your posts and schedule when you want to publish them. These types of posts are suitable for solving simple problems. You can leverage social media, email marketing, and other methods to market your content and to help people achieve their goals. Send email newsletters Another interesting way to deliver educational content is to send emails in a planned manner to your users. If you want your users to access modules in a specific order, then you can create a drip-email campaign to do so. Many businesses also offer online course material in the form of emails as a type of lead magnet. A major benefit of making email-type courses is that it can be entirely automated. Use your email marketing tool to launch your emails when a user signs up. You can also choose the frequency with which your subsequent emails reach users. In this way, you can control how your audience learns from your content. Do live video lessons Live videos with the help of conferencing tools or even with Facebook’s Live Video feature are necessary when people need to see how to do something. By creating live videos, you’re able to connect with your audience more and will also be able to answer questions in real-time. You can follow up the live video session by sending recordings of the content and having discussions through social media groups and messaging apps. Create a YouTube channel YouTube is a widely used platform with 2 billion monthly users logged in. You can create a channel, upload videos, set up playlists, and also host live videos. One major advantage of using this is that virtually anyone can access your content if they have a phone or a personal computer. You have the potential to reach a large number of people and you’ll only need to create content, not host it. One problem with this is that you don’t be able to stop your users from leaving your content and watching competing videos. You also have limited branding opportunities. Leverage a membership platform The options we just looked at are impactful in themselves. However, they lack the control and branding opportunities available with a membership site. Making an online course with a membership site will help you combine blog posts, videos, email integrations, interactive tools, and forum features in a single place. Consider making your content exclusive to your customers by using a membership plugin. Look for membership plugins with addons for building your online course. It should have multiple features like email integration, CMS, video support, Q and A features, and more. If you take this route, you’ll be able to access all your data and maximize engagement with your audience. Conclusion In the current crisis situation, more and more people are looking for greater value from companies. They’re also seeking ways to boost their skills and get the best out of their businesses. Offering tutorials, courses, or other types of educational content helps your audience and also improves your brand image. So, don’t wait. Get started and start sharing helpful educational content that customers will appreciate. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article was written for Business 2 Community by Thomas Griffin.Learn how to publish your content on B2C Author: Thomas Griffin Follow @jthomasgriffin Thomas is the president and co-founder of OptinMonster and TrustPulse, the leading conversion optimization sites. … View full profile ›More by this author:How to Blend Online and Offline Communications5 Key Reasons Your Social Media Strategy Is Not Succeeding4 Critical Steps in Your Customer Acquisition Journey