Online education has seen massive growth over the last couple of years as businesses realize the potential of new technologies to educate and train their employees remotely and inexpensively.
The lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic only accelerated this trend with online academies sprouting up all over the place. Many people who were stuck at home, when they weren’t binging on Netflix, were signing up for eLearning courses to stay up to date with trends, learn new skills or hobbies or even launch completely new careers.
Today, the eLearning industry is undergoing further change as anyone with any knowledge on any topic can create educational videos and start monetizing them on platforms like Udemy, Coursera, Kajabi and Thinkific.
So, with this changing dynamic, a pertinent question is – who is the target market for online education?
In this article, we’ll tackle this question by analyzing the main reasons why people turn to online education instead of going back to traditional classroom education.
Understanding The Target Market For Online Education
One of the best ways to understand the target market for online education is to understand the reasons why people are going online to learn new things.
Once we understand people’s needs and their motivations, we can design online courses and develop marketing strategies to cater to this audience.
Such a needs-based segmentation gives us the following types of people who are most likely to sign up for an online course:
- Professionals who want to stay ahead of the curve
- Busy people who want to learn on their own schedule
- People who want to save money on tuition
- People who want to learn new skills for their job
- People who want to change careers
- Companies who want to train their employees
- Businesses who want to market their products or services
Let’s dig deeper into each of these market segments.
1. Professionals who want to stay ahead of the curve
In any given field, there are always new technologies or methods being developed.
For professionals who want to stay ahead of the curve and be seen as thought leaders in their industry, online courses offer an easy and convenient way to keep up with the latest trends.
The benefit of these online courses is that the learners are not limited to experts in their own company or their own region. They can take courses offered by experts anywhere in the world.
2. Busy people who want to learn on their own schedule
One of the benefits of online education is that it’s flexible and can be done at the learner’s convenience.
For busy people who have trouble fitting traditional classroom learning into their schedules, eLearning provides a great solution.
Most eLearning courses are not live and can be consumed by the student anytime and as many times as they want.
3. People who want to save money on tuition
Online courses are often more affordable than traditional classroom courses since there are no costs associated with room and board, commuting, or other expenses.
Also, the cost of producing an online course can be amortized over hundreds or even thousands of students and so the cost per student can actually be quite low. Plus the teacher’s time is spent once – the time the course is created.
For people who want to get a high-quality education without breaking the bank, online education is a great option.
4. People who want to learn new skills for their job
In today’s competitive job market, employers are always looking for candidates with the latest skills and knowledge.
For job seekers, taking online courses is a great way to beef up their resumes and make themselves more attractive to potential employers.
5. People who want to change careers
Online courses offer an accessible and flexible way for people who want to make a career change.
Whether someone’s looking to switch to a new industry or start their own business, online courses can give at least some of the skills and knowledge needed to get started.
Now, even the world’s top universities offer courses online, many for free. Here are two examples: HarvardX and MITx.
6. Companies who want to train their employees
Online courses are also a popular choice for businesses who want to train their employees.
By investing in eLearning, companies can save on the costs of sending employees to off-site training seminars or conferences. Plus, online courses can be easily customized to fit the specific needs of any organization.
Taking traditional classroom training and converting it into eLearning, also brings down the cost of training by many orders of magnitude. This cost-saving is golf for companies.
Furthermore, by converting the training to an online course, companies can make the same training available to their entire employee base which can often be spread across continents.
7. Businesses who want to market their products or services
Many businesses use online courses as a way to market their products or services.
By creating a course on a relevant topic, businesses can attract new leads and customers, and build brand awareness.
Also, when customers see that a new product comes with its own online academy of courses, they are more likely to buy it as they know that their learning curve will be shortened thanks to the online courses.
Conclusion
As you can see, the target market for online education is quite diverse and is growing rapidly. From busy professionals looking to stay ahead of the curve to those wanting to change careers, online education offers an affordable way to acquire new skills at your own pace and on your own schedule.
Companies looking to train their employees are also turning to online education as a way to make the same training reach a wider employee base and to bring down the cost of education per employee.
Finally, businesses who want to market their products or services are using online courses as marketing tools to spread the word and the knowledge about how to use their products and the value they provide.