How the best instructors create landing pages that sell
By Rachel Cai
Instructor Marketing
Summary
Read on for a guide on how to build your landing page.
For a demo on Maven's templated and customizable landing page builder, check out this tutorial.
Main section/Above the fold
☑️ Highlights the key benefit
☑️ Simple but powerful language that illustrates the problems of the target learner, and briefly explains their transformation
☑️ Include your name and credibility markers (e.g., PhD, Founder of XYZ)
☑️ Bonus: share your spiky point of view
Resources:
Target audience
☑️ At least 2 qualifiers
☑️ Clearly explains the problems and needs of your target student
☑️ Specific enough to disqualify people. Scope is not overly broad in your industry
☑️ Evokes emotions from your target student (and is not fear-mongering)
Resource:
Key outcomes
☑️ Written as outcome statements.
🔖 Template: “You’ll be able to [action word] so you can [achieve outcome]. You'll leave with [this takeaway/output]."
☑️ Uses higher order skills from Bloom’s Taxonomy. Does not use passive verbs like learn or understand
☑️ Sell the benefits of joining a cohort-based course. Click here for examples.
☑️ The outcomes offer a tangible or relevant benefit to the student. For example, if you’re teaching a course on salary negotiation, the outcome is to earn more in their next role. For courses without obvious financial upside, the outcome should still be valuable in that it’s hard to get from other sources. For example, if you’re teaching a course on philosophy, your unique offer is an engaged and diverse community to have debates about philosophy.
Resource:
- Examples: Andy Gupta, Annie Duke
Instructor bio
☑️ Showcases your relevant experience, relevant personal details
☑️ Appeals to your ideal student. Includes a line about why you’re building this course and who it’s for
☑️ Student-centered in that you’re telling about your experience while focusing on how it will lead to student outcomes
Resources:
- Wes Kao’s tips on how to improve your bio in this video (at 2:00)
- Example: Christine Carillo, Taylor Davidson
Testimonials
☑️ At least 2 testimonials
☑️ Includes name and company/role
☑️ Relevant to your target student (e.g., if you are targeting CEOs, the testimonials should feature CEOs)
☑️ Illustrates a before/after, or shares a specific detail on how you or your course helped them
Resources:
- Automatically gather testimonials with Maven end-of-course surveys
- Psychotactics: how to get great testimonials
Course syllabus
☑️ Module titles are specific and action-oriented
☑️ Outcome-oriented description:
- 1-2 sentences: why students should care about this topic
- 1 sentence: what students will do in the course.
- 1 sentence: a tangible outcome students will produce
🔖 Here's a template as a jumping off point: "What usually gets in the way of {this outcome}? {This struggle}. That's why learning how to {X} is foundational. You'll learn how to {X} using {this tool/framework}. By the end, you'll {produce a thing}."
☑️ Uses higher order skills from Bloom’s Taxonomy. Avoids passive verbs like learn or understand
Example: Write of Passage’s course overview
Course schedule
☑️ The schedule should lay out the date and time of each live session.
Example: Maven Course Accelerator schedule
FAQ
☑️ Use this section to sell the benefits of your course and preemptively answer questions/concerns that you target student may have, such as:
- “What’s this course about?”
- “Are there any prerequisites for this course?”
- “What if I can’t make the sessions?”
- “How much time should I expect to spend on the course?”
- “What deliverables/outcomes can I expect to walk away with?”
- “What’s your refund policy?”
- “Who is this course NOT for?”
- “How much access to [the instructor] do I get?”
- “What if I have more questions about the course?” Here you can include your contact information or an option to book a 15 minute coaching call with you.
- For business/work related courses: “How do I get this course reimbursed by my company?” In this case, you should include a templated letter to their manager that they can download.
Examples: Christian Wattig, Dave Kline
Visuals
☑️ Includes visuals such as: frameworks, worksheets, screenshots of happy students on Zoom
☑️ Eye-catching course image: check out Maven Brand Toolkit to create your own image
☑️ Instructor image conveys professionalism and credibility
☑️ No stock sections or images (ex: featured media isn’t the default Rick Astley video)
Copywriting
☑️ Repeat hot keywords to create eyes light up moments
☑️ Use sentence case (Sentence case looks like this, Title Case Looks Like This)
☑️ Active voice
☑️ Concise and easy to understand
☑️ Avoid cheesy marketing terms like “supercharge”, “10x” or “unleash”
☑️ Avoid superlatives like "best", "works every time", "most effective"
☑️ Writing and visuals show your personality and unique voice
☑️ Grammar and spelling is correct