In the last two blog posts ( find them HERE & HERE), we discussed a simple course promotion strategy & online platforms. Today we will talk about the glue that holds it all together. The 3rd party integrations that are important for your online course/membership platforms.
PAYMENT PLATFORMS: A way to receive your money-super important don’t you think? There are lots of payment platforms to choose from.
- Paystack: accepts Naira & Dollar( i advise against it though, the topic for another day) Can receive recurring (subscription) payments too
- PayPal: Accepts Dollar payments & inaccessible for Nigerians except you have an Llc. It cannot receive recurring payments directly
- Flutterwave: Accepts Naira & Dollar payments
- Stripe: Accepts multiple currencies and allows recurring (subscription) payments
- Transferwise & Payoneer ( though you need some maneuvering, which isn’t the focus today, )
EMAIL MARKETING: It’s no longer news that the money is in the list. If you are an online entrepreneur and you aren’t growing an email list, well you are simply leaving money on the table, or shooting yourself in the foot is a better analogy. Here a few of my favorites based on my personal experiences
- Mailchimp:
- Sendinblue
- Convertkit
- Aweber
- Getresponse
Free & Paid options for all except Getresponse. You can have landing pages, automation, campaigns, and run Facebook ads from them.
CHECKOUT PLATFORM: Another 3rd party integration you definitely need is a checkout platform that helps to increase conversions (you can promote multiple products), allows you to process global payments & integrates with multiple platforms you use in your business like your email marketing platforms. You can choose to leave out a checkout platform and link your CTAs directly to your payment links. Here are some examples
- 2checkout:
- Gumroad
- Samcart
- Click Funnels
- Shopify: Now this is an eCommerce platform but it can be used as a checkout platform. Fortunately, it integrates with Paystack for Nigerians.
AUTOMATIONS: You need to automate the process so that you are not directly involved in EVERY aspect. Your automation can enroll your students in your course platform, add them to an email list, add them to a spreadsheet, etc.
This will depend on your individual needs. Here are my top 2 automating tools. They both integrate with a larger majority of the tools listed above.
- Zapier
- iautomate
Creating and promoting an online course/membership will require quite a few online tools & integrations and the truth is, it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive to be effective.
In the next post, I will share a simple sales funnel diagram for your online course using the systems & platforms we’ve discussed so far.