There’s often a dissonance among new online educators about how to approach marketing their products without feeling “pushy” or overly commercial.
They may initially experience excitement and hope after launch, but when sales don’t materialize quickly, they might struggle with self-doubt and frustration. They may stick to organic methods for a few months before feeling the pinch of low sales.
After 6-12 months of consistent effort without desired results, educators may start to recognize that their current approach isn’t yielding the needed conversions. They’re now open to new strategies like paid advertising.
Can they still turn things around?
CHECK OUT OUR FULL GROWTH TO BOOST ONLINE COURSE SALES
Awareness vs. Conversion
Many creators think of marketing as purely about raising awareness or building a following. They focus on the softer, organic side of things — posting content, building a community, and hoping people will naturally move down the funnel to buy their products.
While that’s part of the puzzle, it’s a mistake to assume that awareness automatically translates into sales without a more direct effort.
Educators need to realize that awareness is the first step, but sales require strategy.
You can’t just “build it and they will come.” Ads need to be tailored to drive conversions — meaning well-thought-out calls to action (CTAs), urgency, clear offers, and specific audience targeting.
It’s the difference between passive marketing (hoping people engage) and active marketing (designing campaigns to encourage them to take action) – an essential one for effective lead generation for online education.
Characteristics of the Softer Approach
Fear of Alienation
Many creators who have built their following organically through authenticity, relatability, and community engagement often fear that hard sells will alienate their audience.
They worry that aggressive marketing tactics may disrupt the trust and connection they’ve cultivated. This is particularly relevant in educational spaces, where relationships can feel more personal and impactful.
Misunderstanding of Selling
Some educators might equate hard selling with being pushy or aggressive, leading them to shy away from tactics that could effectively convert leads into customers.
They may believe that if their audience perceives them as “salesy,” it will tarnish their reputation as genuine educators. This reflects a misunderstanding of what effective selling truly entails — it’s not just about being aggressive, but about being persuasive and clear about the value you offer.
Lack of Confidence or Skill in Sales
Even when they want to sell, many educators may lack the training or experience in sales techniques. They might feel more comfortable teaching than selling, which can lead to a reliance on softer, more passive marketing strategies that feel more aligned with their identity.
This lack of confidence could stem from previous experiences or a belief that they’re not cut out for “sales,” leading them to stick with what they perceive as less confrontational approaches.
Over-Reliance on Organic Reach
Creators who have built their brands through organic growth may feel that their existing audience is only interested in free content and may assume that anything that requires payment will be met with resistance.
This can result in a lack of willingness to leverage paid advertising effectively, as they associate it with pushiness.
They may also mistakenly believe that because they’ve successfully attracted an audience organically, they should be able to convert that audience without spending money on ads, leading to frustration when their efforts to convert fail.
Moving from Awareness to Action Marketing
Let’s dig deeper into how you can shift from just awareness-based marketing to action-based marketing, where the goal is to actually drive conversions and sales, rather than just get eyes on the product.
The Anticipated Impact of Hard Selling
Identity Crisis
Many educators see themselves primarily as teachers, mentors, or community builders. Hard selling can feel like a departure from their identity, creating an internal conflict. This might lead them to view selling as a necessary evil rather than a natural extension of their value proposition.
Audience Expectations
Creators often worry about the expectations they’ve set with their audience. If their content has always been free or informal, a sudden pivot to hard sells could confuse or frustrate followers who expect a different kind of interaction.
There’s also a concern about how their community will perceive this shift. They may anticipate backlash or a drop in engagement, which reinforces their reluctance to adopt a more sales-focused approach.
How to Ground Yourself in Your Strategy
To overcome this dissonance, educators should focus on integrating their sales messages with their core values. This means viewing the sales process as an opportunity to further educate and empower their audience.
For example, a soft sell could frame the course as an extension of the free content they already provide, highlighting how the course deepens or expands on that learning.
Audience Segmentation & Targeting
You need to start thinking of your potential audience not as one monolithic group but as distinct segments.
For example, someone aware of your education brand but not ready to buy should get a different ad than someone who has already engaged with a free lead magnet.
Ads tailored to different stages of the customer journey can move people along from awareness to purchase.
Start with a modest budget to test the waters. It’s low risk and you can experiment without committing to a large investment. Track results and adjust strategies based on what works..
Emotional Triggers & Storytelling
Ads don’t need to be “buy my course” in a bland way. They should focus on emotional triggers. What does the potential student really want? A career change, more freedom, higher income, etc.?
Storytelling solves this for you. A successful ad might start with “I was stuck in a dead-end job and then I…” drawing people into the narrative, making it less about the “push” and more about identifying with the transformation the course offers.
CHECK OUT OUR 14 PROVEN AD HOOKS FOR ADVERTISING ONLINE EDUCATION
The Importance of the Offer
Instead of just saying, “Check out my course,” your ads should focus on specific offers: time-limited discounts, bonuses (like extra coaching), or bundled services. People need a reason to act ASAP.
Hard sells don’t have to be about aggressive tactics, they can be framed positively. By using clear CTAs and emphasizing the transformative outcomes of their courses, educators can present their offers confidently.
You can communicate urgency or exclusivity (like limited-time offers) without sacrificing your authentic voice.
Consider also developing a content strategy that includes hard selling. This could involve alternating between soft, value-driven content and more direct sales-focused content so that you can maintain your brand identity while also driving conversions.
What Online Educators Could Do Differently
Budgeting for Conversion
New creators often underinvest in paid ads, thinking organic growth will carry them. However, an education product is often a high-consideration purchase (it’s not as impulse-driven as a low-cost consumer item), so consistent ad exposure and retargeting are what’s going to convert people over time.
Ads should be placed strategically during enrollment periods, when bonuses or scarcity can be introduced (like closing registration). Outside these windows, your ads can focus on nurturing and priming the audience for future launches.
Testing Different Creatives
Creators operating on a shaky strategy also tend to create one or two ads and hope for the best. But paid marketing is all about constant iteration.
You should be running A/B tests on different creatives (video ads, testimonials, demo clips) and adjusting language to see what drives the highest conversion rate.
A soft, awareness-based ad might work initially, but as people move down the funnel, your ads need to evolve to be more sales-focused — highlighting benefits, social proof, and urgency.
CHECK OUT OUR 100 ADS Q&A
Investing in Retargeting
This is something many smaller online educators skip, but it’s hugely effective. Retargeting ads, meaning targeting people who have visited your sales page or engaged with content but haven’t purchased, should focus on answering objections or sweetening the deal (e.g., “You didn’t purchase? Here’s a free module to try first.”)
With advances in data tracking and AI, retargeting campaigns will likely get even more sophisticated.
Dynamic content based on a potential buyer’s past actions (for example, watching a demo but not signing up) could help you create and run highly customized retargeting ads that directly address their unique concerns or hesitations.
Conclusion
At the core of this dissonance sparked by not knowing how to approach marketing your products without feeling “pushy” or overly commercial is a mindset shift that content creators and online educators need to make.
You need to go from viewing marketing as something that feels overly commercial or pushy to understanding it as an integral part of delivering value to the right people.
Advertising is about creating the right conditions for people to make a decision that benefits them. By viewing ads as an opportunity to tell a story, provide solutions, and build genuine connections, online educators can shift their mindset and get comfortable with using advertising to drive real sales instead of just increasing awareness.