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How I can convert visitors to customers on my English language learning platform?

by missruth
13 replies
After years of teaching English as second language in the classroom, I just launched my own online learning platform, Miss Ruth's English Podcast, where I offer ESL lessons based around recordings of more authentic conversation.

I spent months intensely planning and designing all these interactive lessons, but after launching on Oct 1st with Google and Facebook ads, it seems like very few of the many visitors to my website want to take the time to see what I have to offer.

At first, I had my home page as my landing page, but once I learned from Google Analytics that I had a high bounce rate and read up about how to reduce it, I decided to change to the free episode/lesson to fulfill the promises of my ad. But still the bounce rate was high.

So I thought I'd better make the content more compact and to the point. I created a landing page that went through many iterations, and right now, it's much shorter than previous ones with a sign-up form to access the free episode, and once they click the "Start Now" button, they should be taken to the more compact version of Episode 1, the free episode.

What's happening now is that I've got quite a few emails, which is great so I can now reach out to potential customers, yet none of them have really spent time looking or trying out the free episode! I've gotten much more traffic than I expected, almost 1000 visitors, so there's clearly interest in my ESL platform, there's demand, but they don't want to try anything out once they get to my website. I can't figure this out.

This is my first entrepreneurial attempt and I'm learning as I go, and I understand that you have to capture the user's attention as soon as possible or they leave. But for the readers here who might be kind enough to check out my current landing page, what more can I do to entice them to stay and stick around? For the readers who are or were once English language learners themselves, are my interactive lessons (based on research and experience and jazzed up with Joubel's H5P plugin) appealing or are they lacking something? I'd be grateful for any advice. And I've tried to find my buyer intent keywords, though it seems to be trickier for online ESL learning - I wonder if anyone has any suggestions for that.
#convert #customers #english #language #learning #platform #visitors
  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    How do people find your site?

    That matters.

    Many people would like to learn English. Far fewer have to do it.

    You need to find a way to get in front of the latter.

    The spouse of someone who was offered a job in the US is more likely to pay to learn English than someone who loves the US but has no plan to move to an English speaking country.

    Learn English for business people
    Is more likely to attract paying customers than
    Learn English
    Or
    Learn basic English.

    Why should they buy from you when there are Rosetta Stone and free apps? Does your landing page address that?
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    • Profile picture of the author missruth
      How right you are, DABK! I'm not teaching the language and context of business English, but I could still market it to that audience and those immigrating. Thanks for the ideas, which have given me some new keywords to work with.
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  • Profile picture of the author marksmith121
    you should target your right audience and who needs an English class and you should put the hashtag in your Online course. You should do promote all social media like youtube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn
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  • Profile picture of the author SARubin
    Hi Ruth,

    I just visited your website and may have one suggestion for you...

    A lot of the copy on your site is at an advanced level of understanding.

    For example... On your main "episodes" page (where you have the boxes for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced) the content is all written at a high college level of understanding.

    I just ran the "Beginner" text through the Flesch Kincaid score and it came back with a score of around 5. That's PHD level English (way too complicated for most native English speakers, much less ESL learners) so your visitors probably don't even understand what it says.

    And on your free lesson "episode 1" page, the text that reads -

    Warm-Up Questions
    Answering these questions makes it easier to understand the conversation better since they will help you remember vocabulary and grammar related to the topic.

    - rolls in at a college level of readability.


    (Even the word "episodes" on your main menu can be changed to "lessons" so more people can more easily understand what it means)


    If your visitors don't speak English yet, most of them probably don't even understand what you've written on your website. And they may even be a little intimidated by the advanced language being used.

    Many people want to learn English, but they don't want to look or feel stupid while doing it.

    In sales, we always want to meet people at their own level.

    You may have a high level of English understanding, but many of your visitors are coming to you with a basic desire and maybe a 1st grade level of English understanding.

    You can't really introduce a first grader to college level English, or they'll just get frustrated and give up before they even get started (or in your case, bounce before they even get started).



    So my main suggestion for you is...

    I highly recommend toning your copy down, a lot, until you get that FK score closer to 70 (around an 8th grade level)

    This way more people will feel welcome, as opposed to intimidated by your lessons


    Anyway, it might be something to consider...


    Best of luck with your venture.
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    • Profile picture of the author missruth
      You're right - I guess I was more concerned about sounding professional and being detailed when I was writing everything up.
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    • Profile picture of the author DarioHitchi
      Very good advice ! And indeed it's always important to offer a content at the same level of people can have. They feel more confident :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author susan2015parker
    You should be more specific about your page name to get more traffic. For instance, you can try names like "Basic English Learning Classes," or "English learning classes for kids." When you specify it, people visitors who actually need such type of services will come. Moreover, you can also use the power of useful web content to convince you visitors that your service is beneficial for them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aileen Joy
    Hello you need to be more specific on what are you offering . Your levels should reflect from basis to advanced. All the materials are already advanced at your site so you need to mention that this is for advanced , however if i would be at your place i will offer some basics also with touch of pro and amateur
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  • Profile picture of the author sailingdom
    You could try one of the Funnel builders. That would give you a more targeted approach for each selection. You could then introduce a type of Membership model for the stages.
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    • Profile picture of the author missruth
      Hi there, can you suggest a few funnel builders I could use?
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    If the idea is you are selling English as a second language, why is ANY of your sales text in English? Why is your facebook in English? etc etc...

    You are not converting because you are not targeting - plain and simple. Right now you are targeting English speaking people to learn English as a second language. I would hope that now it is being presented as such you would understand why it is not working for you.

    On your homepage, you PRIMARY call to action should be getting the visitor to the correct Mother Language so that you can make a pitch vs a small link in the upper right that will "Translate"

    Regardless of the person you attract right now, you are immediately not meeting expectations. If I am a Native Russian speaker... I really don't want to land on a page in English. You should have ads targeting Russian speaking people and they would land on a specific page written in Russian.

    Hope that Helps!
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    Success is an ACT not an idea
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    • Profile picture of the author DABK
      Probably should have both: one in the native language only, for beginners; one in not-too-advanced English for those who've studied it in high-school/ college for 2 years and now need to get as close to fluent as possible in a short(ish) period of time.

      There's snobbery involved here, too. And, if you reach the level where they can understand most but not all you're saying, additional proof that they need you. Can be set up like this:


      Native language text... where you have something like: self-test; figure out your level.

      And you provide paragraphs of different levels and ask them to mark the last paragraph they where they understood every word.

      Based on that, you'd offer them: beginners 1; beginners 2, intermediate 1, intermediate 2, advanced 1, advanced 2.... Beginners 1 could be a 12 week course, while beginners 2 could be a review kind of thing and only 6 weeks.


      Which requires a bit more work upfront, but they self-select... And you can market to them better.



      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      If the idea is you are selling English as a second language, why is ANY of your sales text in English? Why is your facebook in English? etc etc...

      You are not converting because you are not targeting - plain and simple. Right now you are targeting English speaking people to learn English as a second language. I would hope that now it is being presented as such you would understand why it is not working for you.

      On your homepage, you PRIMARY call to action should be getting the visitor to the correct Mother Language so that you can make a pitch vs a small link in the upper right that will "Translate"

      Regardless of the person you attract right now, you are immediately not meeting expectations. If I am a Native Russian speaker... I really don't want to land on a page in English. You should have ads targeting Russian speaking people and they would land on a specific page written in Russian.

      Hope that Helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author DerickMows
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author missruth
      You can just search the title, Miss Ruth's English Podcast, since I can't provide links here. Thanks for the interest in helping.
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