3 Things You Should Automate in Your Courses

By: Justin Ferriman • October 17, 2017
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Automation is all the rage today as it has proven to be an effective strategy when used correctly. But what exactly should be automated in your online courses?

It is a question I come across nearly daily. People want to know what parts of a LearnDash courses can be automatized.

The answer isn’t so simple. There are in fact a lot of areas that can be automated, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it they should be.

Before you start incorporating automation into your program you should first assess whether or not it is a good choice for learners and their expectations. If they purchased your course with a certain notion and then you make that component automatic… well, you will have some pretty angry customers!

That said, there are some areas that you could consider automating that would free up your time to work on your business and also improve the overall experience for your learners. These areas include:

COMMUNICATIONS

Whether you are sending an email when a learners starts a new course, completes a lesson, or fails a quiz – this kind of thing can be automatic.

No need to download progress reports and open up gmail. Leverage a professional system like Active Campaign or MailChimp, or if you don’t want to use one of those you can always use the LearnDash Notification Add-on.

CERTIFICATIONS

Gone are the days of massive spreadsheets. The delivery, download, and authentication of certifications should definitely be automatic.

Not only that, but email notifications relating to certifications should also be strategically timed and delivered so as to increase your recertification rate (and therefore your revenues).

UPSELLS / CROSS-SELLS

For some reason “selling” is viewed as a negative by some, but the reality is that businesses need sales. There is nothing wrong with presenting your learners with options that you think they will find interesting or beneficial.

So if you sell your courses then you should have a system in place that will both upsell and cross-sell your customers on your other offers. In LearnDash this is pretty simple to do – and it doesn’t always have to be by email.

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter