How to monetise your learning.

Selling online courses can sometimes feel like a challenge too big for many organisations. You know your content is good enough to sell, but the logistics of packaging it up and delivering it to your clients is too daunting to imagine. But it needn’t be this way. When you’re working with the right learning platform and partner, it should be quick, simple and easy to monetise your learning. But why would you want to sell your learning content? And what considerations should you make before jumping in head-first?

Why would you want to monetise your learning?

A lot of time and effort goes into developing learning content. And often, the content is relevant to a multitude of organisations. So, for some organisations, licensing or selling learning content through an eCommerce platform is a great way to boost the return-on-investment (ROI) of learning. But aside from boosting ROI, why else would you want to sell your learning content?

Well, selling your content is a great way to position yourself as a subject matter expert on a particular topic. For example – if you work for a healthcare organisation, and you’ve got a wealth of learning content about care – why wouldn’t you sell it? Not only will you make money from it, you’ll also be sending a message far and wide that you are the expert in that topic.

And monetising your learning content is more appealing now than ever before, as digital learning booms in the wake of the pandemic. With organisations looking to digitise their learning, whilst simultaneously upskilling and reskilling their employees – there is a huge opportunity to leverage eCommerce in digital learning.

Considerations you should make before selling your learning content

But despite the clear opportunity when it comes to selling digital learning content, it’s important to consider all angles before jumping in head-first. So, before you make the business decision to sell your content, think about these four things

1. The capabilities of your learning platform

How robust is your learning platform? How easy will it be to give your clients access to your learning content? Does your learning platform come with built-in eCommerce functionalities? Or is it an open-source platform that you can customise and build upon?

Knowing and understanding your platform’s capabilities is the first step to selling your learning content. If you do not have the ability to deliver the end product to the client, selling your content may become an expensive initiative rather than a money-making exercise.

2. Your eCommerce ‘shop front’

Your clients will expect you to have a slick, easy-to-use and modern eCommerce interface. In today’s day and age, clients are comfortable with online shopping, and the blocker of a clunky interface will push them into the arms of your competitors. In fact, 39% of people will leave an eCommerce site if it takes too long to load – so getting this right is key.

Make it easy for your target market to browse, explore and purchase your eLearning courses, by adding a shop window to your LMS. An eCommerce add-on to your platform is a great, responsive way to sell your learning content – without the headache that often comes with monetising learning content.

2. Pricing structure and payment methods

So you’ve made the decision to sell your content – but how much are you going to charge? What will your pricing structure look like? Will you charge per course? Or will it be a one-off payment? Or will you build a subscription model? Do you have the technical capabilities to sell your content through a subscription model? There are a lot of questions that need answering before you can make a decision here. And these answers will be entirely unique to your organisation (and your learning tech set-up).

Another pricing consideration to make is how you will obtain payments from your clients. The best eCommerce plug-ins will use world-renowned commercial payment services, such as Stripe or PayPal. And by utilising these well-known platforms you’ll be putting your clients at ease with a familiar user experience to their other online buying habits.

 Commitment to continuous updates

If you sell your learning content, you’re making a contract with your clients to provide them with learning that really works. And if you’re selling your content through a subscription offering, your clients will also expect you to keep it fresh and up to date.

Of course, this sounds simple – but do you have the internal capacity to keep up with this? Do you have the manpower to continually ensure that any content and resources within your learning content are accurate and correct to the best of your ability? Make sure you have this capacity before jumping in headfirst with selling your learning content.

So, if you’ve made these considerations and decided that you want to monetise your learning, why not get in touch? Our expert team can help you design an eCommerce shop front for your digital content and help you make the ROI on your learning that you really want (without the headache!)