How Design Practice generated $240,000+ in online course sales in just 2 weeks

First online course. Massive success.

Digital Designer marked the Design Practice duo's first foray into cohort courses. Previously, Aga and Paulina had focused on in-person industry conferences, typically lasting 2-3 days. This time, they decided to develop and launch a two-month-long online course. This ambitious project required meticulous planning, agile design work, and stellar team collaboration.

The course's development kicked off with a survey, designed to pinpoint what designers seek and the challenges they face.

"We had a sense of what was missing in the Polish market, what web design and Figma resources were needed, but we wanted to validate that we were creating content that people genuinely needed." Aga Naplocha, Design Practice

The survey attracted over 500 participants, and its findings significantly influenced the creation of the course's content and promotional materials. The survey results confirmed the market need and validated the direction of the course.

The next step was to offer potential customers high-quality free video lessons prepared by Tomek Biskup. These lessons provided a snapshot of the course and further explored user interests and needs. The goal was to attract at least 1,000 interested individuals who would sign up for the mailing list to access the free video lessons. If this target wasn't met, Aga, Paulina, and Tomek wouldn't proceed with the course.

"The first free lesson garnered over 5k views on YouTube - that encouraged us, and we decided to initiate the presale. The course didn't exist yet - we wanted to gauge how many people would trust us enough to invest. We needed to ascertain this before Tomek began recording as it's a time-consuming process.” - Paulina Kacprzak, Design Practice

$240,000+ in gross revenue, close to 1000 participants

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The course was sold in two sales windows. Potential participants had only a few days to decide to join the course and make a purchase. Outside these sales windows, purchases weren't possible. This strategy allowed Aga and Paulina to ramp up marketing efforts during the sales windows, without inundating their audience with prolonged promotional content.

The presale began in January 2022 and ran for 10 days. The critical determinant for the project's continuation was the number of people willing to purchase the Digital Designer course for $190 gross, knowing it would only commence in 2 months. The sales window started and ended with informative webinars, and the promotion was primarily conducted through newsletters and social media.

The results were swift - within 10 days of the campaign, the minimum threshold was surpassed fivefold, and the course was preordered by 540 people. Only then did Tomek Biskup begin recording the materials.

"For the next two months, Tomek was recording the course, and we were preparing for the sale. The second sales window lasted a week, and the sale was much quicker. In the end, we had 991 participants." - Aga Naplocha, Design Practice

The promotional activity during the second sales window mirrored the first, and a total of 991 people purchased access to the course.

The total revenue generated during the two sales windows amounted to $240,00 gross.

“That was super convenient”

One of the keys to the course's success was the precise selection of tools. Managing a project of this magnitude within a small team required an efficient and agile approach.

Easycart perfectly suited these requirements and managed the technical aspects of the course's sales. The user-friendly configuration of the sales cart in various versions and the ability to launch sales in mere minutes allowed Aga and Paulina to open and close the course’s sales windows effortlessly.

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In the cohort format of the course, it was also crucial to manage users post-purchase. Thanks to the integration built in Make, data from Easycart is automatically transferred to Airtable, making participant management, payment information, and course access a breeze.

Easycart features that aided in effective course sales included:

• Time-limited offer - display of a countdown clock until the end of a promotion or sales window
• Redirect after purchase - automatic redirection of users to the course page post-purchase
• Login wall - restrict course access only to those who have purchased access
• Events sent to webhook - automatic transmission of data from Easycart to Airtable using Make
• Discount codes - display of a cart with a field for entering a discount code to users who received it

However, Easycart wasn't the only tool that enabled the small Design Practice team to deliver a cohort course on such a grand scale. While working on the course, Aga, Paulina, and Tomek also utilized:

• Airtable - a calendar for content publication (emails, newsletters, ads); participant information management
• Notion - task management
• Slack - communication
• Make (formerly Integromat) - automations
• MailerLite - email dispatch and mailing list management
• Figma + WebFlow - course website design and implementation
• StreamYard - webinar organization

Conclusion

The Digital Designer course is a product born out of genuine customer need. Moreover, its development process serves as a stellar example of how the right tool selection, phased work, and proper planning can lead to project success. As of the time of publishing this success story, Design Practice has already rolled out three successful editions of the Digital Designer course, along with two entirely new trainings - Interaction Designer and Brand Designer. Access to each can be purchased (if the sales window is currently open, that is) via Easycart. To learn more, visit: https://www.designpractice.pl/