Marketing for online schools and courses
from a free lesson to a paid cohort
A free lesson or lead magnet is easy to get people into and easy to lose them out of, if the sequence after it does not earn trust before it asks for money. We build the funnel end to end and measure enrolments, not sign-ups.
Where the money leaks today
Course and online-school funnels usually lose people in the warm-up, not the ad. A free lesson or lead magnet brings in a lead, but the sequence after it either sells too early, before trust is built, or never sells at all and lets the lead go cold. Objections that come up on every sales call - price, time, “will this really work for me” - often go unaddressed until a live call, by which point most leads have already decided not to book one.
What we do
We build the lead magnet or free-lesson funnel around one specific problem your ideal student has, with a landing page that makes the next step obvious. Campaigns target by topic and real buying intent, not broad interest categories. The warm-up sequence - email, messenger or both - is written to answer the objections your own students actually raise, in order, before the offer is made, the same discipline we use when writing sales playbooks for other education-adjacent businesses: one project got a 13-script, 50-objection playbook before a single outreach message went out.
For cohort-based courses, we build the webinar or launch-event funnel and the countdown sequence around it; for self-paced courses, a shorter nurture sequence into a direct offer. Every lead moves through a CRM or tracked sheet so you can see where people actually drop.
What we need from you
Your course content or curriculum at a high level, the real objections you hear before someone buys, your current pricing and payment options, and access to whatever email or messenger platform and ad accounts you already use.
How we measure
We report on enrolments and revenue, not leads or webinar registrations, because a large free list that never converts is worth less than a smaller one that does. Show-up rate and cost per enrolment are tracked by launch cycle so you can compare one cohort to the next.
Price and timeline
| Option | Price | What it covers | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch or audit | from $1,000 | Lead magnet, campaigns, warm-up sequence | 2 to 3 weeks |
| Monthly management | from $1,000 / month | Ongoing campaigns, sequence updates, reporting | monthly, no lock-in |
| Full control, handover to your team | from $2,500 (one-time) + $400 / month for edits | Documented system, access transferred, your team runs it | 3 to 4 weeks to hand over |
Related
See sales funnels, lead magnets and CRM for the warm-up build and performance marketing for the ad side. Related playbooks: marketing for kids and education brands, marketing for law and accounting firms, marketing for SaaS and app companies. For automated nurturing, see recruitment candidate nurturing, whose logic of scored, sequenced follow-up applies directly to student nurture. Real-world reference: an AI sales playbook and outreach pipeline for a B2B certification body and an AI persona product with a 973-page SEO site.
Free lessons filling up but enrolments lagging? Get in touch and we will look at your warm-up sequence first.
FAQ
How much does marketing for an online school or course cost?
Launch work starts from $1,000: lead magnet, campaigns and a warm-up sequence. Ongoing management starts from $1,000 a month. A full launch funnel with webinar and CRM usually runs $2,500 to $4,000 per launch cycle.
How long until we see enrolments?
Campaigns and the lead magnet launch in 1 to 2 weeks. Leads typically start within days; enrolments depend on your launch cycle - often 4 to 8 weeks for a cohort-based course, faster for a self-paced one with a short warm-up.
What ad budget do we need?
A realistic minimum is $600 to $1,200 a month to feed the top of the funnel consistently, though many course businesses grow the list organically first and add paid reach once the warm-up sequence is proven.
What do you need from us to start?
Your course content or curriculum outline, the real objections your students raise before buying, your current price and payment structure, and access to your email or messenger platform and ad accounts.
How do you report results?
Weekly: leads, webinar or lesson show-up rate, enrolments, cost per enrolment, so you can see where the funnel actually loses people.