Ultimate Guide to Using Kartra for Online Courses

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You likely already know that Kartra has many notable business automation benefits.

Therefore, it will be no surprise that Kartra has solid tools to help you create and market online courses or content.

This all-in-one tool can successfully host online courses but does not feature all the robust, advanced course-building software of some competitors.

Nevertheless, its marketing and sales funnels are ideally suited to promote your product. 

Kartra Online Course

Benefits of Building an Online Course With Kartra

Despite minor limitations in course creation functionality, Kartra course creators have access to valuable applications within the platform.

As mentioned before, Kartra funnels and campaigns deliver the goods as far as marketing is concerned.

Add the means to create pages, membership communities, affiliations, and valuable lead generation, and you have yourself a winner. 

Let’s look at the benefits of building an online course with Kartra.

Quizzes & Surveys

Utilizing quizzes and surveys to get to know your audience and manage student activities is invaluable.

Kartra supplies a selection of traditional and customizable templates to design custom pages using an easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder. 

Questions are optimized to trigger branched survey paths and auto-tag leads.

Kartra then uses the gathered data to gain insights into customer preferences and improve user experiences on your site. You can use the leads generated to grow membership in your community of dedicated learners. 

Site creators can automate and customize score ranges, award certificates and send follow-up correspondence to cement customer relationships

Kartra Quiz

Progression Tracking

Tracking your students’ progress is a key part of hosting online courses and takes your small enterprise a step closer to learner center status.

Internal progress tracking tools in Kartra allow for tiered access to content.

Course creators can structure lessons, upload resources, and track student advancement within course material, all at the same time.

Analytics provide average progression levels and registration-to-completion statistics at a glance. 

Student perks include automated congratulations on completing course modules and promotion to subsequent tier access.  

Kartra Online Course Membership at 12.29.42

Drip Content

Keeping your students and members interested in your course is vital. One way to achieve this is to automate content to release on a timed schedule.

For example, you can time drip content to match a student’s working pace as calculated from registration time.

The admin can set up an automation sequence by utilizing the Kartra calendar to prepare membership content in advance. You can also schedule webinars, training sessions, or one-on-one student appointments.

Additional advantages of this approach include moderation opportunities and improved interaction with students.

Restricted Access

Access levels help with mass management of student membership and status.

Additionally, utilize this function to grant access to posts, drip content, and notifications meant for specific students. 

When learners subscribe to one of your courses, they receive sign-on credentials that control access.

Then, as they progress, Kartra tools automatically unlock permissions as required.

Course creators can also manually grant or revoke access to membership levels in managing restricted access.

Kartra can then display restricted content with a lock icon, leave it off the menu or label it with a ‘post not available yet’ tag. 

Ultimate Guide to Using Kartra for Online Courses

Completion Badges

To keep students engaged and excited about course completion,  Kartra enables the use of individual content progression bars and the issue of completion badges at predetermined intervals.

Using a progress bar forces students to complete content in the correct linear sequence. Completion badges are displayed when 100% of the course content is complete.

The Kartra dashboard layout gives an at-a-glance summary of member contact details, access levels, progression, and actions to be initiated.

Course administrators can opt to add a badge title and customized badge recognition text in this instance. 

kartra membership badge

Great Page Templates

Drawing in and retaining membership is key to the growth of a successful online learning center. To this end, Kartra once again saves the day.

Kartra subscription gives users access to a grand array of professionally designed templates to help you model your course content pages.

Everything is fully customizable, and you can edit it for brand creation, preferred styles, and fonts. As a bonus, templates are 100% mobile optimized, giving students easy access to their courses from any device.   

All this is made possible with the easy-to-use Kartra interface and intuitive drag-and-drop page builder at your disposal.  

Ultimate Guide to Using Kartra for Online Courses

Great Marketing Tools

To round off a stellar package, Kartra has all the tools available to kickstart the promotion of e-courses.

The Kartra Membership System Campaign is specifically designed to market and sell online membership products.

The marketing funnel performs the following functions:

  • Creation of lead magnets by sending traffic to an opt-in page
  • Redirection to order or thank you pages
  • Deployment of the product marketing campaign
  • Configuration of new products and course content
  • Configuration of payment gateways and checkout pages
  • Creation of forms and auto-tags
  • Uploading videos and course material
  • Setting up a helpdesk
  • Configuring membership and affiliations
  • Testing and launching your campaign

Building an Online Course in Kartra: Easy Guide

How do you build an online course on the Kartra platform?

Step #1: Create a Sales Page for Your Kartra Online Course

First, decide whether you want to start with a blank page or use one of Kartra’s page design templates. Select, name, and categorize your template.

Then opt for the component mode to change individual elements on your page or column mode to customize the page format.

Next, access the page builder and edit to reflect your brand and course content. Customize text and effects and adjust the background by adding and resizing images or adding trademarks.

Finally, add icons, buttons, comment boxes, forms, or pop-ups to meet your criteria.  

Ultimate Guide to Using Kartra for Online Courses

Step #2: Set Up the Membership

Use the Kartra membership builder to create a new online course. 

Access a template and populate fields with the membership name, description, and an external URL to direct to your sales page.

Ensure that your title and URL are SEO-friendly for easy discoverability on Google search engines.

Add recognizable logos and images if preferred. 

Decide whether you want membership to require personalized login facilities. Then, Kartra will automatically generate these if you wish.

Ultimate Guide to Using Kartra for Online Courses

Step #3: Add the Content

Next, select the ‘Contents’ button and click on the ‘Builder’ tab. Minimize the page to get an idea of the layout you have in mind. 

Adjust profile icons for users, featured posts categories, and header and accent color preferences. 

Then simply drag and drop your content onto the ‘Post contents’ box on the ‘Home’ page. 

Next, you can edit sidebar content to display the name of the course host, progress bar, products, posts, and banners in the preferred configuration.

Toggle on to include social media icons as circles or to represent your brand colors. 

Kartra Online Course Membership at 12.29.42

Step #4: Adjust the Settings for Your Students

You need to optimize some settings for your course to function smoothly.

  • Comments: Adjust to auto-approve or redirect comments for moderation
  • Access levels: Configure multiple access levels to your course to allow permissions according to membership levels and content delivery schedules
  • Progress: Opt for a progress bar to show how much of the course your members have completed
  • Helpdesk: Consider implementing Kartra’s helpdesk on your course
  • Welcome: Include an automated welcome e-mail whenever a customer buys your course
  • Automations: Set up e-mail automations to engage customers and tags to trigger ‘If and Then’ actions
Ultimate Guide to Using Kartra for Online Courses

Step #5: Set Up Payments

Kartra allows for PayPal or credit card payment options on transactions. 

Once you have added your course to your site, integrating a payment gateway is required. You can add one credit card gateway and a single PayPal gateway in this instance. Include a description of the price-point for subscriber benefit. 

Next, choose the payment options and the schedule thereof:

  • One-time
  • Recurring
  • Limited installments
  • Recurring Installments

After setting up payments, format initial payment amounts, trial periods, and refund policies.

Complete setup by refining product, thank you, and checkout pages and adding product bumps and upsells. 

kartra payment gateways

Step #6: Link Your Sales Page to Your Course

Linking your sales page to your course is the final step. Ensure that your CTAs link with membership pages to boost conversion rates. Adding a pop-up on your sales page is particularly successful in this regard. 

To effect a link, revert to the sales page editor.

Then, edit the previously created CTA links and click on ‘Pop a Product Checkout.’ Next, select the course you wish to link and apply the changes. 

Kartra will now direct prospective students to checkout pages from your sales page.

Ultimate Guide to Using Kartra for Online Courses

Tips for Launching An Online Course on Kartra

Launching an online course using Kartra depends on how well you can manipulate the tools at your disposal. 

Our experts offer the following tips to make it work for you: 

Standalone Online Learning Platforms

Tip #1: Showcase Your Expertise Through Your Sales Page

You already know the adage that first impressions are crucial.

So, make sure that the first glimpse of your page conveys expertise and professionalism. Also, keep in mind that your site must be user-friendly and easy to navigate.

Consider a design that promises a positive browser experience and uses strategic points of engagement to elicit consumer interest.

Online Course Martketplaces

Tip #2: Offer Free Introductory Lesson

It doesn’t matter who you are; receiving something for free is always good.

Course creators should use this premise to create a connection with potential customers.

Give away e-books, webinars, or an introductory lesson free of charge to hook leads into your sales funnel. A free trial or sneak peek can also be very successful in this situation. 

Ultimate Guide to Using Kartra for Online Courses

Tip #3: Use Scarcity & Urgency Marketing Tactics

‘Fear-of-missing-out’ (FOMO) is a powerful lead magnet.

To create an emotive urgency in site traffic, offer a never-to-be-repeated discount, product, or service applicable to your online courses. 

However, be careful how you employ scarcity and urgency in your marketing tactics and keep it honest and tasteful.

Do not ever neglect to follow up on your agreements and deliver the goods as promised. 

Ultimate Guide to Using Kartra for Online Courses

Tip #4: Provide Top-Tier Content

The quality of services rendered or products bought sticks in our minds long after we’ve forgotten the price tag.

Always ensure that the content you include in your courses is verified, truthful, and of the highest quality.

Be conscious of the needs of your target audience and keep bias and preferences in mind when creating course material.   

Bottom Line

Creating an online course to share your knowledge is a labor of love.

Therefore, marketing and selling the product should show equal passion and commitment. To this end, Kartra inherently exhibits all the elements you need to complete the task. 

Use templates and tools to create quizzes, track students’ progression, and deliver professional content.

Then motivate and congratulate students with progression bars and completion badges.

Be sure to showcase your expertise from the start and to create a connection with your students by providing top-tier material and ethical services.  

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Samuel Fletcher
Samuel Fletcher is an entrepreneur with over fifteen years of experience in course development. Sam enjoys researching and experimenting with the latest tools in the industry. Beyond this, Samuel is a blogger, online business coach, and regular contributor to community and volunteering projects. Samuel believes strongly that dedication, perseverance, and commitment are keys to success in any business. He was motivated to start SupplyGem after discovering how difficult it was to find good, honest, unbiased information online about online course platforms. Sam is a current member of the Association for Talent Development (ATD), the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), ISA (the Association of Learning Providers), The Learning Guild, and the Training Magazine Network.
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