Online Course Marketing Tips from Ted Lasso
Ted Lasso Marketing Tips
Hi, I’ve got to tell you about something happening this week that I’m really excited about. It’s the next season of the sitcom Ted Lasso. If you haven’t seen it before I’m sure you’ll love it. I just finished re-watching the first two seasons and it’s still my favorite show right now.
The third season comes out this week, and I wanto to share with you something about Ted Lasso that you may not have noticed.
Ted Lasso Marketing is Awesome
I want to go over the way they’ve been marketing this upcoming season. Think of it as a launch, something we can/should use marketing our online course or membership site? It doesn’t matter whether its an online course product or service, the same steps can be applied.
Tip One: They’ve done an absolutely wonderful job, so let’s take a look at what they’ve done during the last month. All in the buildup for this week’s launch. Over the last couple weeks they’ve done a really great job using suspense in their marketing messages.
How have they done that? Well, they’ve done two really important things. The first thing is, is they’ve been talking about this being the final season… but in every inteview they haven’t made a commitment. They’ve been talking about it but have never made a commitement either way.
The result is everyone’s wondering, is this gonna be the final season? Is it going to go on after this? The other part that’s great is the way they have used the cast of characters. Many of them were in some kind of relationship and they’ve done a wonderful job of leaving last season’s relationships open, and using the inteviews to mention those relationships but not telling people what’s going to happen.
So what’s the lesson here? You have to make sure that you use some form of suspense ( eg what’s inside), but more importantly they’ve added the fear of missing out there. Missing the launch of your online course or membership site will answer set the tone for the rest of the content inside and answer the questions that you referred to in your marketing. It’s like if you’re not watching on these first episodes during the launch, you are going to miss out like everyone else knowing exactly what’s going to happen.
Tip Two: So here’s the next thing they did really well. There has been a stream of promotions and when you see them notice that it’s not just ‘Ted Lasso’ the main character that’s doing all the promotion. All of the main characters are involved.
They’re not just doing cast promotions. They’re all individually promoting. Now, how can we use this? When you are promoting your course, your video, a lot of times you just focus on the main idea which usually revolves around the title of the content. Instead think about what are all the benefits and values that this content provides or this course provides, and how can you get them emotionally involved?
That’s what they do by using the cast members because it’s not just about ‘Ted Lasso’. They have the individual cast members going out answering questions about their characters getting you emotionally involved with them. If you can get the emotions involved with more than one part of your online courses and membership site using both suspense and the fear of missing out you’ll have a far more likely chance of getting them enrolled.
Tip Three: The next thing to notice is the number of channels that they’ve been using. For me personally I’ve seen multiple YouTube interviews, previews and ads.
The previews again are not just of ‘Ted’ they include past seasson along with each of the individual characters even some sessions with partial groups of the characters.
And it’s not just Youtube. I’ve seen multiple interviews on the nighttime talk shows. I’ve seen multiple interviews on the entertainment shows. I’ve heard multiple interviews on podcasts on iTunes.
And it not just online, I’ve seen magazine articles as well. They have included all sorts of different channels each using different characters. So what’s the lesson here? Don’t just think, oh, great, I posted something on YouTube and that’s enough. Or I sent out an email to my list. You have to use all of the marketing channels available to you online and even offline.
Tip Four: This is all part of a complete strategy. They’ve been doing this for the past month, and it’s building up to the middle of this month when they release the first two episodes but it won’t stop with first episode.
What’s a lesson here? Launch this single course and tease ongoing courses and membership. You will be dripping out content after in the form of new video tutorials, community and membership. This keeps people engaged which is exactly the same thing we have to do.
Marketing an online course, product or service requires more than a focus on a launch. It’s not something you can do and then leave alone. You have to have a follow up strategy.
So if you get a chance, watch Ted Lasso. It’s a great series, but also pay attention to all the promotion that you’re seeing on all of these channels during this seasons launch.
