6 Ways to Differentiate Your Online Course from the Competition

As the world continues to realize the benefits of online courses, new courses continue to be created and launched. This means course creators are faced with rising competition – just consider this: the total number of MOOCs at the end of 2017 was 9,400 - up from 6,850 in 2016.

In such a saturated market, the battle to stand out keeps rising. It’s not enough to build the perfect course anymore. You have to differentiate your offering clearly and attract the right audience to this offering. The more you set your course apart from the rest, the better a niche you can carve for yourself.

In this post, I’ll show you six ways you can differentiate your online course and get the attention and visibility you need to grow your business.

#1) Let Your Results Speak

The default market mechanism, in the case of increased competition, leads to declining price levels. The same is true for the eLearning industry, where online course creators brag about offering ‘cheap,’ and affordable courses.

However, knowledge and expertise is not a product that can be mass produced. Students are also not looking for the cheapest course online; what they truly want is learning and real results.

In order to differentiate your course from other courses out there, you must understand the reasons why people would want to take your course in the first place.

Focus on selling benefits, tangible results, and experience, rather than competing on the price or course content.

What results can people expect if they buy and implement your course? How will the knowledge acquired make people feel more fulfilled? What can you “promise” them?

Essentially, you’re trying to do one thing: Communicate your outcomes and transformations in a crystal clear way. It’s about how you will change people's lives, not about how you look or what your course covers. 

Note: What you communicate in your marketing campaigns and sales page will depend on what your audience is actively seeking. If they are looking to position themselves for a raise or promotion, you’ll want to highlight that.

Read more: The Secrets to Selling More Online Courses – It’s Not What You’ve Been Doing

#2) Ascertain Your Unique, Selling Proposition (USP)

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) should be well defined, and ingrained in your course, as it is the most crucial factor in differentiating you from your competitors.

For this, there are specific questions that you need to ask yourself, such as:

• Why should anyone take your course?
• What does your course offer that not any other course does?

Many well-renowned online course creators, much like speakers and coaches, derive their USP from their personality. Take Seth Godin and Martha Stewart; they both have persona-driven brands.

Why? Because that is their USP. In turn, their brands reflect their personality, their passion for the field, and their individual views.

While your USP doesn’t have to be something out of the box, you have to ensure that it is something that remains true to who you are.

#3) Create An Engaging User Experience

The key to success for online courses is to focus on the students and make their learning process enjoyable and easy.

The eLearning boom has led to an abundance in the number of courses being created. Topics that were once considered niche subjects now feature tens, or even hundreds, of online courses. In such a competitive atmosphere, online course creators need to understand how adults learn best, and what type of format and structure increases course comprehension.

If your course is streamlined into easy, consumable components, not only will it improve comprehension, but also more students will complete the course, meaning more students will achieve the results they desire and paid for, therefore benefiting the online course creator (you!) through increased referrals, high satisfaction levels and great reviews on your site!

It is your role to present the right amount of information in an exciting way. Recording some videos, uploading them to a platform and calling it a day is not enough! From a tidy course layout to reduced content overload, to a frictionless navigation experience, every step can enhance the student experience.

In order to ensure a world-class student experience, you need to ensure that you dedicate enough time to strategizing your course. It's not only about technology as many people use to think. There's not a technology solution you can throw at it and say, "Boom, boom, I'm done. I'm gonna have rabid success." I actually believe it’s 75% strategy, 25% technology. An unorganized and content-laden course is likely to confuse and frustrate students. 

Read more: How to Organize Your Course Content for Short Attention Spans

4) Reward Your Students 

Course completion is a special event that deserves to be celebrated – for many students, it might signal the beginning of a new journey or the opportunity to showcase their achievements to the world and get recognized. This is why a little touch of humility and acknowledgment can set you apart from other course creators they might have previously taken.

You can reward completion in the form of digital badges and certificates. These can be set up so that students receive the badge or certificate when they have finished the course.

Moreover, you can also use badges to shape user behavior during the course. For instance, issue a badge after achieving a certain level in a quiz, for completing certain course activities, or if you want your students to participate actively, reward the most active users. Not only will this make engaged students feel “seen,” but it will also encourage less active students to increase their engagement.

Such actions encourage students to take part in your ‘community,’ and foster an environment that promotes course completion, and engagement.

Here are a few more ideas that could work for online learners.

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