How to promote live online classes on your website
Several of my clients run Reiki, meditation, fitness, and yoga classes, both in person and online. During the time of the pandemic, many who were offering classes in person adeptly switched to running classes online, primarily through Zoom video meetings. I thought it would be timely to give you some ideas for using your website to help you promote your classes. If you would like to automate some of the process, you can connect to a scheduling system that provides online forms where people reserve and pay for a class in advance.
What is a class?
For the purpose of this blog post, classes are a type of recurring group educational event, held in person or online. Each time the class is run, it will have a different date and possibly a different time. The location may be the same as previous classes or it may change. A webinar is a type of class in the form of an online lecture or demo session led by a presenter. Participants listen to the presenter and may add comments or respond to the presenter’s survey questions during the event. Other classes, either in person or online, are more participatory, with a teacher leading the activities for the group.
Steps for running a class
1. Prepare class materials (handouts, a slideshow, videos, instructor notes). If needed, prepare pre-class materials that will be emailed or placed on hidden pages on your website (PDF documents, URLs for required reading, videos). Get equipment ready. Reserve the location if needed.
2. If you are setting up online class registration through a scheduling program like Acuity Scheduling, set up the class in the program. (Squarespace owns Acuity Scheduling and also has its own built-in appointment scheduling program.) The payment processor Square has also introduced a group scheduling option, available with a premium subscription. Decide on a student limit, registration deadline, payment options, and write the follow-up emails you want sent.
3. Announce the class on your website. Include a way to register, collecting names, phone numbers, and email addresses of your students.
I give ideas for how to design your website to promote your classes later in this blog post.
If you set up online class registration, the registration method on your website will be in the form of an embedded form generated by code from your scheduling program or a link to the class registration page in the scheduling program. The registration deadline and student limit is handled by the scheduling program.
If you prefer to register people without an online registration system, you can ask them to email or call you to reserve their spots. You’ll monitor your class limit and registration deadlines as you accept reservations.
4. Students register, paying in advance if you've set it up that way.
If you set up online class registration, the process of collecting payments is included with that program.
If you are registering people without an online registration system, you can also collect money by adding a PayPal button to your website; sending people to a PayPal.me link; accepting Venmo payments; having checks mailed to you; or accepting checks, cash, or credit cards in person.
5. Send out a confirmation about registration. Include a link to the Zoom video meeting if the class is online or an address and parking instructions if the class is in person.
If you set up online class registration, you should write a confirmation email in your scheduling program that gives a description of the class, the date and time, the Zoom meeting link for an online class or physical address information for an in-person class, and links to any materials students need to read before class.
If you are registering people without an online registration system, you can email the same information to each person directly as you accept the reservation.
6. Send a reminder just before class.
It’s a good idea to send a final reminder about class the day before with the same details you provided in the confirmation. This can be set up automatically through your scheduling program. If you are handling registrations on your own, you can email the information to your students (using bcc: so they don’t see each other’s email addresses).
7. Hold the class.
See the ideas below for what to bring for class materials and the kind of equipment you might need to have for class.
8. After the class, follow up with a thank-you email and links to any additional materials. This thank-you email is appropriate for a class not held that often. For a yoga or fitness class people attend regularly, you don’t need to send out a thank-you note after each class.
A thank-you email gives you a chance to tell people about additional materials they may want to read and also allows you to remind them about ways to stay in touch with you on social media or through your mailing list. This email can be set up automatically through your scheduling program. If you are handling registrations on your own, you can email the thank-you note to your students (again using bcc: so they don’t see each other’s email addresses).
Adding classes to your website
There are many ways to highlight upcoming classes and the registration for them on your website, but in general, I like to use the Home page for announcements of just one or two classes that are coming up very soon and have a Classes page for fuller descriptions of the classes you offer and a method for registering for a specific class. If you only offer one class, you might add it to a Services page instead. If you offer many classes of different types, you might add multiple Classes pages, one for each type of class. The most important thing is that the Home page points people to classes coming up soon (and omits those that aren’t) and the Classes page(s) is organized in a way that allows people to scan the page quickly to find the class they want.
Examples: Squarespace
Squarespace makes it easy to create class listings and announcements. There is a handy Events page, a type of summary page similar to a blog page, that displays all classes and events that you set up. Squarespace also has a Summary block that allows you to collect specific events to highlight on the Home page.
Here’s an example of a Summary block on a Home page that automatically displays a list of upcoming classes. Clicking one of the classes goes directly to the class listing.
A summary block that collects a collection of events
Here is the individual class listing. I’ve set the class up in my Acuity Scheduling program, I have a Zoom link that students will go to when it’s time to run the class, and payment will be asked for at the time of registration. The button has a link that goes directly to the Acuity Scheduling page.
A class or event listing with Zoom link and scheduling program
There is also an Events page that shows all the classes that have been scheduled. This page can either be shown as a calendar or a list (as shown here).
An events page shows all the classes that have been created.
Preparing class materials
In-person classes: If relevant for your class, you can print handouts to distribute during class. You must also load the slide show presentation and any videos you want to show during the class on your computer.
Online classes: You can prepare handouts as PDF documents and either put them on a hidden page on your website or email them to students. After the class, you can also make slide shows, videos, and links to additional resources available on a hidden website page for a limited time.
You can upload videos directly to your Squarespace website. There are some limits (for example, the video can be no longer than 30 minutes in a video block). For all size and time limits, see this Help document. You can also put the videos on a video hosting platform, such as YouTube or Vimeo, and embed them on your website.
Equipment needed for running a class
I’m not an expert at running a class, but here are some of the types of equipment I can think of that you might want to have on hand.
In-person classes: You need a space that has the equipment you need or ask people to bring their own equipment from home (such as a yoga mat and water). If you are going to show something from your computer, like a slide show presentation, the location must have wi-fi, a screen, a projector and cable that connects to your computer, and depending on the size of the class, a microphone for people to be able to hear you.
Online classes: Zoom is the product I recommend for online classes and you need a paid plan to get the features you want for group classes. You need a high-speed Internet connection and a computer with a built-in camera. You also need either a good computer microphone and speakers or you can buy a headset to improve sound quality. You need a room setup that allows you to be seen clearly and is well-lit (without glare from windows), with a background that isn't distracting. If you're teaching a class with physical movement (like yoga or dance) your camera should show you in your entirety and you need access to a microphone so people can hear you. If you're teaching a class that includes a slide show or videos, use an online meeting product like Zoom that allows you to share your computer screen and still have the ability to show you too.
So does this give you some ideas for consolidating and promoting classes on your website? Above all, you want to make classes easy to find and easy to sign up for on your website, so all the people who might benefit from your knowledge will find it easy to sign up. If I’ve missed any critical information that you think I should add, based on your own experience running and promoting classes, feel free to let me know.
