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Your course strategy reimagined with free trials and course access duration

min read
Oct 26, 2020
Your course strategy reimagined with free trials and course access duration

Your business goes far beyond your courses. There’s an entire strategy behind every decision you make as a creator. So, that’s exactly why we’re adding two new features to help you reimagine your course strategy entirely and help you further grow your business—introducing free trials for student subscriptions and limited course access duration.

With these two features, you have even more control over your business’s marketing plan and will be able to convert a casual audience into a meaningful customer base. In fact, we believe in free trials and limited course access as marketing tools so much that we integrated them into Teachable so you can see the benefits for yourself.

We like the sound of free

And we have a feeling most students do as well. Now, we’ve made it simple for you to offer free trials for subscription-based courses or memberships. We know not everyone likes to jump head first into the deep end, so we gave you the ability to let students wet their toes with your courses first.

Teachable Pricing Option
Price option

Many of our Teachable creators have found ways to offer free trials for online courses.  We’ve now made it official to help you convert paying students. You can seamlessly offer a free trial with your subscription pricing options. Now students can get a sneak peek of your course for a limited time before being billed.

Teachable Order Summar
Order summary module

On your check out page, students will see your designated free trial period—we leave that part up to you. From there, they simply provide their credit card info to enroll. Then they are billed for the subscription once the trial period ends. It’s really that easy to give students a taste of your courses and for you to unlock a whole new cohort of eager students to convert.

Outside of appealing to everyone’s love of all things free, offering free trials helps acquire new audiences entirely. It also introduces current students to new courses or subscription options, and lowers the barrier to entry for first-timers, making it a powerful marketing tool.

Time is valuable, so offer it wisely

Your knowledge and time are two of the most precious commodities you have as a creator. One of the best ways to highlight the value of your knowledge-packed course is to put a time limit on how long your students can access it. Restricting the time a student has access to a course is an impactful way to incite motivation. It can get students to enroll, encourage immediate action once enrolled, and energize students to continue services once the trial is up. Most importantly, it can generate more revenue for your business.

We heard when you said you wanted an easier way to control course access duration. Now you can implement parameters and set exactly how long students have access to your courses for the Free and One-time Purchase pricing options.

Teachable limited access
Limited access options

To enable limited course access duration, choose the Enrollment expiry setting. Then select the date you wish to end student access. Students will see the end date and have the ability to repurchase your course post expiration. Thus providing you more opportunities to make sales.

Maybe you want to drum up buzz for your course. Maybe you want to offer it for free for a short time to acquire more potential students. Or maybe you’re not quite sure how students will take to the course so you’d like to offer it for a cheaper price in order to get some valuable user feedback. Whatever your reason for limiting your course access, assigning a limited time to your product only encourages action even more.

Teachable course curriculum page
Curriculum page

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Boost your business

Both of these features give your free trial for your online course added value. You’ll have more leverage over your business’s marketing strategy. Beyond that, you’ll have more opportunities than ever to reach your target audience.  It’s time to convert casual visitors into paying students.

Caitlin Miller

Caitlin Miller, Caitlin Miller is the Manager of Content Marketing Strategy at Teachable. In her spare time, she's often found listening to vinyl records, buying too many house plants, and enjoying a run on the streets of Brooklyn.

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