Course Correction: Where Are You Going Wrong with Your Online Membership Platform?

David Author

Aug 16, 2024 |

Online membership platforms have become an essential tool for educators, but even with this tech-driven shift, many still face significant challenges.

We’re actively entering the virtual era, where every industry is influenced by technology, including education, reducing the necessity for face-to-face human interaction; so much so that your reality will soon be digital. The potential of technology to engage with our senses, and by that we mean what we say, what we do, and what we understand, is truly fascinating - and it has stimulated a massive change in the education industry. We are yet to fully unfold the scope of what online learning can do to enhance knowledge for students.

2020 witnessed a record enrollment in the usage of online membership platforms, with rising interest and participation in online courses. The pandemic was a lesson for all, emphasising the necessity to adapt to new situations - the education sector being an industry that faced significant disruptions. Educators transitioned to online lessons, which initially impacted the knowledge and performance of learners, before they realised that the possibilities of online courses are endless; from building an effective virtual learning environment to fostering a thriving learning community.

Online membership platforms have become an essential tool for educators, but even with this tech-driven shift, many still face significant challenges. The market offers educators and entrepreneurs with a range of options including Zenler and Udemy to Unacademy and Coursera, but many users find it a struggle to manage their courses, regulate changes and analyse the results.

Such difficulties often arise due to specific shortcomings in the platforms being used. Let’s explore the 14 big common problems faced by users navigating the industry, and demonstrate how you can effectively address and navigate these issues while streamlining your online education experience. 

The 14 Big Problems

1. Inadequate onboarding process

2. Poor user experience (UX) design

3. Inconsistent communication

4. Ignoring member feedback

5. Complicated pricing structure

6. Failure to provide mobile-friendly experience

7. Inadequate marketing efforts

8. Ignoring competitor analysis

9. Poor Content Organisation

10. Neglecting SEO Best Practices

11. Lack of personalisation

12. Lack of Community Building

13. Failing to offer free trials or demos

14. Failure to adapt to market changes

Let's explore these 14 major challenges and discover how to build a larger audience for your online course.

1. Correcting Inadequate Onboarding Processes in Your Online Course

First impressions are always crucial - a seamless onboarding process that welcomes users to the platform can influence their engagement, and their long-term commitment.

New learners are often greeted and discouraged by complicated dashboards and unclear navigation that interrupts their interest in learning, making it difficult to begin. With confusing interfaces and lack of communication, many online membership platforms fall short of providing the service of seamless onboarding.

Users may potentially miss out on interesting features that enhance their learning, if they aren’t provided with proper tutorials or step-by-step instructions. A weak onboarding process can eventually lead to missed growth opportunities for many educators, as these challenges can not only frustrate users, and also diminish the value they get from the platform.

Instead of generic, one-size-fits-all emailers, addressing specific needs and goals of the individual users can help them be more interactive with the platform, leading to more engagement with the course.

If the onboarding process is inadequate, it can severely affect the success of an online learning platform. Here’s where a platform like Zenler can support your online course - With Zenler, you can send out automated emails without subscribing to any third party platform. Whether it’s a welcome email, a tutorial reminder, or tips on how to maximise course creation, Zenler’s mailers make users feel supported every step of the way.

This not only enhances their satisfaction but also sets the stage for long-term success with your online courses and communities.

2. Enhancing Your Online Course by Improving Poor User Experience (UX) Design

Delivering a good user experience, especially in terms of page design, plays a role in the success of any online platform, particularly an education platform. Research suggests that 31- 48% of users say that a website's design is the most crucial factor in deciding credibility. How can a well-designed website help users? It helps them navigate the page better, access features effectively, and also enhances user satisfaction while also increasing engagement. Meanwhile, a poorly designed page can frustrate the users and eventually lead to a decline in user retention.

The effect of a poorly designed user experience can lead to various challenges that impact the success of any online learning platform.

A good UX design is what creates a good first impression - that’s what makes UX worth investing in. Whether it’s course details or community forums, users should have access to everything that the course offers, without struggling to search for the features. This usually happens because of cluttered layouts and a lack of visual hierarchy. When users access a website, they look forward to a clean and consistent design; so varied fonts and colours can create a very disjointed experience.

These issues not only confuse and distract the user, but also reduces the value of the brand and the course.

Zenler understands the role that UX design plays in the perception of a user towards a course - which is why educators are allowed to customise their pages and are not just limited to a few sombre designs to choose from. Not only do they have a range of options in terms of design, but they can also edit, drag and move the elements to customise the sam

3. Solving Inconsistent Communication in Online Courses

Whether you’re launching a new course, conducting a live session or providing new course material, consistent communication makes learners feel like they’re being prioritised, interacted with, and engaged. It’s important that you personalise and customise the communication to each user, so it’s relevant and timely. The needs and milestones of each user must specifically be addressed, to communicate with a specific user base. It ensures that users stay informed, engaged, and connected, whether they’re accessing course materials, interacting with instructors, or participating in community discussions.

What are the consequences of inconsistent communication? It is likely that learners miss updates without clear and timely messaging. This can make them feel constantly out of the loop, and eventually frustrated. Even a lack of clear communication channels can confuse the users, regarding expectations and deadlines.

To address the challenge of improper communication, Zenler offers in-app communication support, avoiding the need for a third party subscription. The automated email feature allows you to maintain regular and personalised communication with your users. Their community forum also allows for real-time interaction, making it easy for learners to share their insights, ask questions and stay connected. By using these features, you can overcome the challenges of inadequate communication and create a more consistent, connected environment for effective education.

4. Correcting Course Content by Addressing Member Feedback

Gathering, analysing and acting on feedback is not just a courtesy, but an essential when it comes to online learning platforms. Knowing what works and what isn’t can help you better meet the needs of the learners. Yet, many platforms fail to do so, leading to the dissatisfaction of users and declining engagement. It can not only be a costly mistake, but also a missed growth opportunity due to unaddressed issues.

You can ensure that your platform remains user-centric and responsive with Zenler’s real-time analytics and community engagement features. Building a stronger, more connected community of learners is one of Zenler’s key features.

Users who feel that their concerns are ignored may become frustrated, leading to unresolved problems that can drive them away from the platform. Feedback often highlights areas where the platform can improve. Ignoring it means missing out on valuable opportunities to enhance your offerings and increase user satisfaction.

With Zenler, you can seamlessly set up a social network-like community for your course. This community can be created for your courses and membership sites, not only for the users to engage amongst each other and share insights, but also to gather thoughts from the learners on how courses can be improved and better learning can be implemented. Zenler also allows you to decide who gets to access the community, as the option of a community experience can be added on the pricing plans.

This empowers you to stay in tune with your users’ needs, helping you create a platform that evolves and improves based on the voices that matter most - your users.

5. Simplifying Complicated Pricing Structures for Better Course Enrollment

Avoid confusion that leads to decision paralysis. Even though the use of electronic payments have grown substantially, users are still suspicious of the medium. When pricing is complicated with varied options, it leads to mistrust amongst the audience. Unfortunately, many online platforms struggle with this, which leads to losing many users for their platform. Overwhelming pricing structures filled with hidden prices and jargon-filled explanations make users approach a more user-friendly alternative. So when users fail to see clear pricing structures, they move on to explore more transparent and flexible options.

As a platform that offers various customised pricing features for learners, depending on their needs, you can ensure pricing on Zenler without hidden fees and better flexibility. Each learner approaches Zenler with a different need - so plans are designed to be flexible, to cater to every user's specific need.

Learners are in search of value for their money - and the pricing structure offered by Zenlers provides exceptional value for money. Each plan is curated with comprehensive solutions, including access to the learning community and certain premium course materials.

This is precisely how a platform like Zenler allows you to build trust with your learners, with clear and straightforward options. Along with long-term loyalty, increased engagement and success, you can also improve user satisfaction amongst audiences with a user-centric approach.

6. Improving Your Online Course with a Mobile-Friendly Experience

Adapting your course to be mobile-friendly is a must - and as e-commerce continues to stand out, mobile commerce takes the front seat. Reports from 2021 suggest that mobile devices generated 54.4% of global website traffic. Mobile-optimised websites generally contribute to an increase in website traffic.

Today, a smartphone has way more than basic features - from surfing the web to making video calls and instantly streaming videos. So if your course is not mobile-friendly, then you miss a lot of users.

Many users may not have access to a PC or a laptop, as they can access most online material on their smartphones. If you have substantial proof that your learners will only access a PC for their courses, then you can save the additional costs of building a mobile-friendly experience. But most learners would prefer an option that they can access easily in the palm of their hands - and what better than a smartphone to access courses in the most remote manner.

While helping you with course creation, Zenler also supports you with building a mobile-friendly experience for learners. This helps users access courses from any part of the world, only with their smartphones. It supports you in your course creation journey in viewing your learners as digital nomads, and a mobile-first platform will avoid them from moving on to other platforms.

7. Boosting Your Online Course with Effective Marketing Efforts

How do you make your customers aware of your offerings, engage with them, or elevate your growth? Irrespective of whether you’re a business owner or if you’re curating a course as an educator, marketing is an essential to promote your offerings. Without marketing, it can be strenuous to sell your course and run it profitably.

What marketing does for your course is to take it to the next level. It helps them stay relevant in their domain. But beyond staying relevant, it helps to maintain the reputation of an educator as a provider of pertinent knowledge, and boost sales. By analysing competitors, demographics, consumer personalities and behaviour, it gives you the understanding of what your audience wants and helps you draw up the right strategy to amp up your course.

Your decisions, when it comes to marketing your course, must always be informed. Understand the how’s and why’s of what makes your audience attracted to your offerings, and what makes them lose interest in the same. Learn and analyse what makes a happy customer by understanding where the users drop off, and how you can build and maintain a good relationship with them.

Here’s how Zenler can support your course with the same: With the help of this platform, you can create a high-converting marketing funnel, including emailers, webinars, surveys, video series and so on. You can also schedule and run live classes through Zenler, with features including chat, screenshare, and whiteboard. The marketing features on Zenler help you build a language for your course and a personality for your offerings, in just a few clicks!

8. Ignoring Competitor Analysis

How are other educators marketing their courses? Do they have any new methods? What is their pricing like? No matter how popular your course is and how many students you have onboarded, it’s important to explore what your competitor is doing right, and how you can mirror the same for your course. Additionally, understanding your competitors would help you understand your brand better.

Firstly, start by analysing what sort of competitors you would like to be compared with. Explore educators with a similar audience range, the courses that they offer, the customers that they target, and the strengths of a few larger competitors. When exploring larger competitors, be diligent to include the ones that you admire, and the ones that you consider a threat. A complete SWOT analysis of your competitors can help you understand what strategies to keep away from, and how to grab hold of newer opportunities.

The next step is to notice the gaps between your course and the courses of your competitors. To do so, make sure to understand what your competitor provides, what their objective is, how they develop their marketing strategy, and how they add more opportunities for their course.

Accordingly, start updating your course and marketing strategy. Add a more personalised approach to your course, up your marketing game, start sending out customised emailers, and build a community of learners - because community is one of the most powerful forces behind effective online learning. Start developing the future for your course, according to everything you have learnt.

8. Leveraging Competitor Analysis to Improve Your Online Course

How are other educators marketing their course? Do they have any new methods? What is their pricing like? No matter how popular your course is and how many students you have onboarded, it’s important to explore what your competitor is doing right, and how you can mirror the same for your course. Additionally, understanding your competitors would help you understand your brand better.

Firstly, start by analysing what sort of competitors you would like to be compared with. Explore educators with a similar audience range, the courses that they offer, the customers that they target, and the strengths of a few larger competitors. When exploring larger competitors, be diligent to include the ones that you admire, and the ones that you consider a threat. A complete SWOT analysis of your competitors can help you understand what strategies to keep away from, and how to grab hold of newer opportunities.

The next step is to notice the gaps between your course and the courses of your competitors. To do so, make sure to understand what your competitor provides, what their objective is, how they develop their marketing strategy, and how they add more opportunities for their course.

Accordingly, start updating your course and marketing strategy. Add a more personalised approach to your course, up your marketing game, start sending out customised emailers, and build a community of learners - because community is one of the most powerful forces behind effective online learning. Start developing the future plans for your course, according to everything you have learnt.

9. Correcting Poor Content Organization in Online Courses

In this digital age, content is king - so how you phrase and develop your content can make or break your online platform. From a drop in platform effectiveness to user disengagement, the lack of a proper content structure can cause several challenges in user retention for your course. Users are less likely to be engaged and bound to look for newer options if they can’t find what they’re looking for.

Learners may struggle to find their suitable course, resources, modules, or a community post, if content isn’t structured accurately - which makes it a priority to create a course that is easy to navigate, user-friendly, and professionally organised.

Additionally, without the clear categorisation of content, learners can undergo a massive information overload. As a user, they would ideally look forward to being exposed to new information in a step-by-step manner. If they’re not provided with this categorisation, then they get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content, which reflects the lack of professionalism and leads them to draw back from the course.

Make sure to be consistent with the structuring of content across the platform. If content is uploaded in a very inconsistent and unorganised manner, it can create a very disjointed experience for users, which can likely confuse them.

Zenler understands the importance of a well-organised platform and offers several features that help you streamline content. Users who find it challenging to navigate content are more likely to abandon the platform in favour of one that offers a more seamless experience.

10. Avoiding SEO Pitfalls by Correcting Online Course

In the digital world with information filled to the brim, it’s crucial for your course to stand out. It’s what helps you get discovered by new learners, and get discovered by users looking out for new information. Many online forums neglect the implementation of SEO, which leads to reduced traffic and visibility. It leads them to a massive missed growth opportunity, as an effective SEO strategy can boost your platform's presence.

When you overlook SEO, you tend to impact the success of your online learning platform. Without accurate optimisation, your course can be exposed to low search engine rankings - your platform ends up with a low ranking, making it difficult for potential learners to find your course online. This low visibility can result in fewer organic sign-ups and reduced overall traffic.

Most platforms today have understood the importance of SEO best practices in elevating their course visibility. This would put your course at a disadvantage, simply because other courses would outrank you, leading them to their platform instead of yours.

Zenler recognizes the importance of SEO in driving traffic and growing your platform. For your blogs and posts on the platform, you can access the feature of implementing SEO to your content. You can easily add meta titles, descriptions, and keywords, ensuring that each piece of content is fully optimised for search engines. Neglecting SEO practices can be a very costly mistake, and when you choose a platform to promote your course, choose one like Zenler that provides you with a comprehensive suite of SEO tools.

11. Personalising Your Online Course for Greater Audience Appeal

When courses ​​use data to tailor offerings, content, and communications to their audience, they begin to make learners feel more included and engaged. A one-size-fits-all approach no longer cuts it for modern users. Lack of personalisation can make your platform feel generic, and customising features can help you create a tailored experience that resonates with every user.

When learners apply for a course, they expect the platform to directly speak to them, and to their interests and needs. If they’re not provided with the same, they’re less likely to engage with content or participate in community activities. A lack of personalisation makes the platform feel impersonal and generic, which can reduce the perceived value and appeal of the platform. One of the top reasons personalisation is essential is to build trust amongst your audience base.

Zenler’s email automation features make it easy to create personalised email campaigns that speak directly to individual users. You can segment your audience based on factors like course progress, interests, or engagement levels and send targeted messages that resonate with each group. Personalised emails help maintain a connection with users, encouraging them to stay active and engaged on the platform.

12. Building Community Around Your Online Course

Learners are more likely to be more engaged and have a positive attitude towards the process if they feel like they’re a part of a community. Experiences outside of traditional lessons, assignments and exams, can have a very significant impact on the information grasped by users. Sharing insights, engaging in conversations and learning together can not only help individuals thrive in their courses, but can also help the community as a whole to grow and expand - this especially occurs if they know how to work together.

One of the biggest drawbacks of online course platforms is that users tend to feel isolated. An impersonal, disconnected experience is not what attracts them to a course. The most gainful step that you can take to promote your course would be to develop an active community, with increased peer-to-peer learning. Every individual that’s a part of this community would contribute to essential and valuable user-generated content, and will learn from each other by sharing knowledge, experiences, and support.

A stronger community can effectively drive growth for your course. Neglecting the importance of a community can result in slower growth and lesser users. If your competitor courses leverage this feature, it may also lead you to a disadvantage.

Zenler puts a priority on a community experience for learners. With the platform, you can seamlessly manage a social network-style community for your course. strong community for your courses and membership sites. Accordingly, you can also decide who gets to be a part of your community, based on their contributions.

13. Offering Free Trials or Demos to Attract More Online Course Enrollments

Want to build trust amongst your prospective users? Remember, everyone loves free stuff. Whether your course requires a free trial/demo or not, largely depends on the popularity of the course itself. Unless your course is predominantly known amongst the learning community with no alternative options, it is always best to offer a chance to explore whether it's the right option for the user or not.

The opportunity of a free trial or a demo is likely to allow potential users to experience the value of your course before committing to a purchase. When lesser known courses fail to offer these options, it may lead to missed conversions, reduced growth prospects, and a lack of trust amidst potential users.

With regard to online payments, new users who have not experienced the course, are particularly hesitant to commit to a paid subscription. To engage with the course, unravel the benefits. and become invested in your content, it is critical for new users to be given the chance to explore the pros of the course.

Once you develop your course on Zenler, ensure to create effective pricing packages that also prioritise a free trial and demo, so the users can get an interesting overview of what they’re set to experience. It may even attract more users to your course, and effectively weather the storm against users who may be edging towards alternative courses.

14. Adapting Your Online Course to Market Changes

The world of online education is fast-paced and constantly exposed to new changes - which is why it is essential to stay ahead of the market trends. In recent times, especially post the COVID era, our ability to cope with uncertainty and elevate growth in unprecedented scenarios have been put to test. It puts forth the question - is adaptability to market changes key to weather any storm?

New technologies and learning methods emerge every day, and courses that don’t stand with the times become outdated. Users may turn to competitors that offer more modern, effective solutions. Competitors that quickly adapt to market changes can attract your users, leaving your platform struggling to maintain its user base and market share.

Market changes often present to you newer opportunities to grow your course, such as emerging niches or innovative features. Failing to capitalise on these trends can result in missed opportunities to expand your course and increase revenue. Without adaptation, your platform risks stagnation, where it fails to innovate or improve. This lack of progress can lead to a decline in user acquisition and retention over time.

The critical need for adaptability in the ever-changing online learning scenario is identified by Zenler - so to help you stay ahead, Zenler offers a range of features that allow your platform to quickly respond to market trends and evolving user needs

Conclusion: Where Are You Going Wrong with Your Online Membership Platform?

While navigating online learning membership platforms, it’s essential to remember that success is only achieved when you address key challenges that can hinder growth and user satisfaction. From an unwelcoming and inadequate onboarding platform, to underdeveloped marketing strategies and impersonal communication towards the listeners, each challenge stops you from achieving the success through the platform's full potential. However, as we have read above, with the right tools, objectives and strategies, these challenges can be effectively mitigated, and can pave the way for a more engaging, efficient, and user-friendly platform.

As an online learning platform, Zenler’s commitment to flexibility and adaptability while creating courses means that your course can evolve alongside market changes, always keeping you ahead of the competition. Whether you’re in need of personalised mailers, an intuitive page designer, automated communication tools, SEO support, or support to build the layout for your course, your course built on Zenler is optimised for user experience and operational efficiency. Zenler provides you with everything that you need to remain responsive and relevant in an ever-evolving, ever-changing digital environment. It not only allows you to build the course that you want, but also one that’s personalised for your users.

Addressing the common challenges and pitfalls of an online learning platform can allow you to build a better course that is suitable for your audience. It doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task, as it provides you with the right features to support you, every step of the way. By making use of these tools, you can transform every challenge into an opportunity - this way, you not only meet the needs of the users, but also exceed their expectations, and there’s no better way to drive long-term success for your course, while ensuring sustained growth. 

If you need a platform that addresses and guides you to success then try Zenler for FREE Just signup today!

Categories: : Zenler Marketing Help/Advice