A case study on how an Elearning Startup can start and grow it's digital presence. Key insights on the existing market and strategies for branding, awareness and sales.
2. SITUATION
● Courses offered :
Big data
Ethical Hacking
Robotics
Cloud computing
● Students can learn it during their free time & after taking the final assessment, the
company helps them in placements too.
● 10 lacs per month as budget for digital marketing, which must be spent on branding,
awareness & sales.
● This is a premium brand & the courses are little expensive comparatively, but excellent
in quality.
3. BUYER PERSONA
Demographics:
● Age - 20-30 yrs
● All genders.
● Students all over the world.
● Not earning.
● Unmarried.
● Parent’s income in the upper class
● Students with or pursuing bachelor’s
degree.
● Students with EEE, ECE, CSC, IT,
Mechatronics background.
Interests and behaviours:
● Looking for a job.
● Interested in Ethical hacking, machine
learning, Artificial Intelligence.
● Often visit websites related to the
courses offered.
● Search for online courses.
● Read technology related news
● Watch technology related shows.
● Buy high end products and brands like
apple products, Nike or often go to
starbucks.
4. BUYER PERSONA
Pain points:
● Too many choices for online courses.
● Doesn’t have time to organise all courses
at a single place.
● Lack of an Online Platform that assists in
placements.
● Increasing automations in every industry.
● Unable to choose the right career.
● Lack of one on one guidance in online
courses.
● Busy college academic schedule.
Goals and Dreams:
● Get best quality training and
knowledge in their desired field.
● Able to interact with the trainers.
● Learn at the their own pace.
● Get a high paying job.
● Get into a industry that will stand the
test of time.
5. COMPETITORS
1. UDEMY
● Offers 1 lakhs plus online courses.
● Courses are comparatively cheaper with each course costing around Rs. 800.
● Unlike other competitors who partner with other companies and universities to create the
courses, in udemy anyone can create a course and sell it.
● The quality of the courses is not always guaranteed.
● Provides separate plans for training the workforce in an entire business.
● Has courses in many local languages.
6. 2. UDACITY
● Most direct competitor that offers premium courses.
● Offers Nanodegree.
● Course are co created with industry leaders like google, facebook and amazon,
hence they are trusted.
● All courses are offered for Rs. 45000.
● Offers weekly live sessions.
● Offers Personalized learning plan.
● Offers dedicated personal mentor.
● Students can work on live projects.
● Chat option is available in the home page.
7. 3. SIMPLILEARN
● All courses offered for Rs. 45000.
● Offers Master’s Degree.
● Offers OMCP( Online Marketing Professional Certification).
● Provides money back guarantee.
● Provides different payment options.
● Uses videos in course description which is more interactive.
● Has mentioned lots of FAQs in each course page which is useful.
8. 4. COURSERA
● Offers courses and degrees partnering with top universities.
● Fee for Degree programs range from $20,000 to $50,000.
● Has a active community of learners, partners and developers.
● Provides training for small businesses and large enterprises.
● Provides training for governments and organisations.
● The website has great user experience and it’s easy to navigate to
any specific course page.
9. SEGMENTATION AND TARGETING
Segmentation and Targeting is done based on the Buyer Persona created.
For Example:
● Students in the age group 18-30
● Students in the Developed and Upper developing countries so that
they will able to afford our courses.
● Student interested in technology and the fields related to our courses.
● Targeting primarily mobile users as the mobile usage rate is
increasing everyday.
10. BRANDING STRATEGY
● Company name as logo.
● Consistent colour combination and fonts in website, social media and
all other platforms.
● Gaining trust from students and recruiters by ensuring quality of
trainers and quality of content.
● Positioning as the only brand that assists in placements.
11. ● Positioning as a premium brand that justifies the cost through
quality training from experienced instructors.
● Positioning as the only brand that truly provides one on one
interaction with the instructors.
● Positioning as the certificate from our platform is universally
recognised and authentic.
● Positioning as the only brands that allows students to work on live
projects.
12. GROWTH HACKING TIPS
● Have a Refer and Earn Option.
● Have a subscription option, where students can access all our
courses by paying a monthly fee.
● Have some free courses to give the students some idea of how the
training will be and also to gain trust.
● Get affiliation from a Reputed college so that the students can take
the course as a degree.
13. ● Form active communities for each course where students can
interact with each other and get their doubts cleared.
● Negotiate with the recruiters to pay our students a salary higher
than the industry standards.
● Use the testimonials from out top students to persuade the new
audience.
● Use the videos from the actual trainers on the website and youtube
channel.
16. FACEBOOK
● General Page creation.
● Specific Groups for each course members.
● Encourage active participation of the students in discussions and
Q&As in the group.
● Engage with audience.
● Post consistently and frequently.
● Post a variety of content.
17. INSTAGRAM
● Create a account with Professional DP and a Compelling Bio.
● Follow top influencers in this niche.
● Post quality content regularly and frequently.
● Repost other people’s content relevant to this niche.
● Use hashtags and tagging in your posts.
● Go to your competitors accounts and engage with their customers. Comments, Likes, etc.
● Use a Instagram Growth service.
● Study Instagram Analytics to find out what is working best for increasing your followers and
engagement.
18. FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM ADS
● Run Carousel Facebook Ads with each image linked to a specific
course page.
● Test different Ad copy and different Call to Action buttons.
● Run sponsored Instagram posts and Instagram stories.
● Use Facebook and instagram Ads primarily to drive traffic to your
website.
● Test capturing capturing leads using forms in the ads.
19. YOUTUBE
● Repurpose and use the content
in all the platforms, driving
traffic to the youtube video.
● Links in description to drive
traffic to the website and
specific course pages.
● Interact with the users in
comments.
● 40% content - Educational.
30% content - Inspirational
30% content - Salesy
● Post videos regularly.
● Perform Video marketing.
20. GOOGLE ADS
● Search Ads Budget - 2 lakhs per month
Display Ads Budget - 1 lakh per month
Video Ads Budget - 1 lakh per month
● Search Ads - Separate Campaigns for each course.
Right keywords and variety of ads.
● Display and Video Ads - For brand awareness and reach. So create
Ads for the entire platform.
● Optimize the landing page(home page) to capture leads.
21. EMAIL MARKETING
● Capture leads using a Email newsletter subscription form in the home page.
● Use a email marketing service like mailchimp.
● Keep segmenting and tagging the students.
● Create a email sequence to automatically send a series of emails to a specific segment of
the audience.
● Personalise the emails with the student’s name.
● Analyse the success of your email sequences to continuously improve.
● Write great subject lines and test them.
22. LINKEDIN
● Create a business account and post at least two times a week.
● Post any blog post on your website, youtube videos here.
● Create a Showcase page for each course - An extension of your business page, but dedicated
to a particular course.
● Create Linkedin Groups: Important to get more leads. Its more like a niche forum.
● Start a conversation in your group, once you have healthy members. Send mails to the group
members within linkedin.
● Run linkedin ads targeting the users interested in our niche.
● Share other people's content also.
● Post some promotional content as well.
23. WEBSITE SUGGESTIONS
● Have a Call to Action button in the home page.
● Have Login option in the header.
● Include Testimonials from the past students in the website.
● Include Testimonials from the recruiters in the website.
● Clearly mention the profile of the trainers.
● Use chatbots to interact with the users.
24. ● Have a short description of all the courses in the home page with a
Call to Action button to know about the course in detail.
● Include videos of the trainers explaining about the courses.
● Header menu should contain ‘Courses’ with a dropdown of all
courses.
● Integrate social media buttons.
● Include Placement record.
● Each course page should contain the Syllabus and Fee structure.
25. ● Have an option to subscribe for email newsletter for lead capture.
● Separate portal for Online assessments.
● Students should be able to save their progress so that they can learn
at their own pace.
● Provide downloadable and easily shareable certificate after they
complete the course.
26. TEAM PROFILE REQUIRED
Web developer:
● Develop a interactive website with all
the backend coding for SEO.
● Provide payment and subscriptions
options in the website.
● Make changes to the website whenever
necessary.
Content Writer:
● Write blogs for the website.
● Write content for social media.
● Write content for email marketing.
● Write ad copy for Google ads and
Facebook ads.
27. TEAM PROFILE REQUIRED
Social media content creator:
● Possess graphic designing skills.
● Create regular content for instagram and
facebook.
● Interact with audience and other related
accounts.
Video maker and editor:
● Plan, Create and Edit videos for youtube
and other social media accounts.
● Perform Video Marketing.
● Get video testimonials from students
and recruiters.
