There are so many details to consider when designing an online course. If developed properly, eLearning has the potential to boost your sales and conversion rates via improved training programs and sales enablement. However, there is plenty of room for mistakes along the way as you plan your eLearning strategy. Now, let’s take a closer look at the common eLearning mistakes that can ruin your sales and conversion rates.
Mistake #1. Failing to define a target audience
Overlooking the importance of identifying your buyer personas is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. It’s hard to sell your online course to the people you know nothing about. That’s why it’s so important to take your time and define your potential learners first.
One way of doing so is by setting up interviews or questionnaires with your prospects. You can either use email or your website as a medium to get to know your audience better. Keep your questions short and focused. Collect data like education level, age, interests, and related experience to identify your targets.
If you’re designing an online course for your employees, conduct interviews asking about the learning practices that work best for them.
Mistake #2. Lack of challenge for students
Developing eLearning content that doesn’t challenge learners is another common mistake. To stay engaged and keep on learning, your customers must feel as they’re being pushed beyond their boundaries.
Professionals from Essay Tigers suggest that creating engaging and valuable content is one of the best ways to keep your customers curious. Otherwise, once a customer feels bored, nothing will keep them away from leaving.
Add a story-based module that features a scenario that your learners can face in real life. Also, you can help your customers learn by integrating low-stakes testing. Studies show that self-testing has a positive impact on engagement and information processing. Implement quick pop quizzes to boost metacognition and challenge your students.
Mistake #3. Overwhelming learners with textual information
Creating text-heavy pages is another big mistake when developing eLearning courses. Did you know that human brains process images 60,000 times faster than plain text? That’s why it’s so important to create visual learning experiences.
Don’t clutter your page with loads of text. Instead, use a mix of infographics, explainer videos, animations, and audio clips to engage your customers. A good balance between the high-quality of the content and interactive design solutions will take your online course to the next level.
Visuals can not only support your subject matter but also help you convey more educational material in a shorter time frame.
Mistake #4. Creating a hard-to-navigate interface
Broken navigation can ruin any eLearning course. If a course is hard to navigate, the learners won’t get to see any of your high-quality content or interactive visuals.
Before launching your online course, make sure that all of the links are working and are easy to access. Don’t try to impress learners with original navigation controls. This won’t do anything but confuse them. Make a transition from one page to another as simple and straightforward as possible. Always remember that your online learners simply don’t have time to master complicated navigation controls.
Mistake #5. Ignoring mobile experiences
Failing to create mobile experiences is another mistake that can ruin your sales and conversion rates. Mobile learning is a fast-growing technology that shouldn’t be ignored by eLearning professionals.
Despite its name, mobile learning doesn’t only imply using smartphones to access learning materials. Today online courses can be accessed through various devices, including smartphones, tablets, e-readers, and laptops.
When it comes to mobile learning, creating a responsive design is crucial, but it is not enough. Consider the capabilities of different mobile devices, like screen size, internet connectivity, and storage space.
Mistake #6. Ignoring alternative learning approaches
It’s important to integrate different learning approaches into your online course. Keep track of the emerging learning technologies as you create and later update your online course.
For some training, like communication skills, a face-to-face component is a must. In this case, you can use blended eLearning to help students prepare before they go to class.
Simulation and game-based learning are the latest highly engaging learning approaches. A simulation can be utilized to put a learner into a real-life scenario where they’re presented with a challenging situation that needs to be solved.
As games are usually associated with entertainment, many fail to recognize them as powerful tools of experiential learning. Employ game-based learning to motivate employees/learners and increase productivity.
Final thoughts
Avoiding these mistakes will help you create a successful eLearning course. Keeping your customers coming back and increasing conversions should be your main objectives when creating an online course. Use the data received about existing knowledge gaps and user engagement as sales enablement tools. This will help you improve your training programs and increase conversions in the long run.
For your online course to recreate the experience of classroom learning, it’s important to evaluate your performance regularly. The last thing you want to do is launch your online course and have no idea how your learners respond to it. Collect performance data to identify the knowledge gaps your learners might have. Utilize this information to make your courses more suitable and personalized.