The aim of these guidelines is to provide general guidance about course marketing and key timelines, however it is not meant to be prescriptive in any way.

1. Identify objectives, target audience and marketing opportunities
2. Develop course marketing plan and identify key channels
3. Identify key moments that are relevant to your audience(s)
4. Identify learner stories and engage with the community
5. Monitor feedback

1) Identify objectives, target audience and marketing opportunities

Ideally when submitting a course idea you will have thought about your objectives and how you plan to meet them.

Think about the following:

• Who is this course aimed at?
• What is the desired outcome?
• Are there any relevant pathway courses?
• Are there any special requirements?
• Is this course suited to an international audience?’ 
• What are the key messages?
• What relationships can I build to support me with course promotion?
• Do I have a budget?

Refine your key messages as you go along but remember to get involved in the process and talk to your Partnership Manager and our Content team. This way you’ll be able to feedback early in the process and ensure you have everything you need to promote the course.

2) Develop a course marketing plan and identify key channels

This is when you should start thinking about how you’ll get those thousands of learners to join your course. Resource and budget availability will dictate how you should structure your marketing plan and what you should focus on.

You may have a small team and be unable to do any paid activity, but you can certainly think creatively and use the resources you have.

Think about the following:

• Where can I find relevant learners?
• What’s the best way to reach them?
• Which messages will appeal to them the most?
• Do I need different key messages per channel?
• Do I need different key messages for different groups of learners that this course might be relevant to?
• Which channels will give me better return? (high impact / low effort)
• What great examples have worked out for other partners in the past?
• Which of my current networks should I tap into?

Remember the importance of prominent links on your organisation's website as a key driver for enrolments, as well as emailing and reaching out to your current network and promoting the course during events.

Consider PR; social media promotion; website highlights with a dedicated page to your courses on FutureLearn; emailing staff, prospects and alumni (if applicable); open days and other relevant events; potential partnerships; outreach opportunities, etc.

Get in touch with your course team to get a range of assets you can use to promote the course. Repurpose what’s already being created and make sure your course video really sells the course and its USP in an engaging way. Original, quality, relevant content is essential.

3) Identify key moments that are relevant to your audience(s)

Make sure you promote your course within your own networks when it goes live but also think about how you might tap into resources such as local media and influencers that can support the course promotion.

Other key moments might include:

• course content that links in with national/international days and/or weeks (e.g. Earth Day, Mental Health Awareness Week)
• the start of the academic and calendar year
• the anniversary of the course going live

4) Identify learner stories and engage with the community 

You should be ‘listening’ to what learners on your course are saying. Not just on the platform but also on social media, blogs, etc. This will allow you to identify stories that can potentially support promotion and give you valuable insights into what will enhance the quality of learners’ experience during your course.

If you spot interesting learners on social media, reach out to them and ask them to get involved and share their story as many others are doing already.

5) Monitor feedback

Take a look at the data from your post-course survey to ensure you can use that feedback to improve the next run of your course.

What kind of people signed up for your course? Did this match your initial expectations and marketing efforts?

There is much we can learn from survey data, mainly qualitative information, which can be useful to support decisions for re-runs so go through it and take appropriate action.

Once you evaluate the course success against your initial objectives and key metrics, you should make changes to your marketing strategy, assets and activities.

One thing to keep in mind is that you may need to explore alternative channels and come up with new creative ideas on top of the standard course promotion activity that you should do for every course. Assess whether your channels are saturated and explore other channels and approaches if needed so you can make the most of your learners’ data.