Online course marketing: how to sell a course in the UK
Making the course is the part most creators enjoy. Selling it is where most courses stall. This is the order we'd do it in, with the UK rules that catch people out.
→The short answer
Online course marketing is finding the people your course helps and turning them into students: an email list built before launch, a sales page that answers every doubt, a launch with a deadline you mean, then steady content and ads. Selling from your own site keeps most of each sale; marketplaces like Udemy find students but keep a large share.
(01)Where to sell
Who finds the students decides who keeps the money.
Your own site, a course platform or a marketplace?
| A marketplace, such as Udemy | A course platform, such as Teachable, Thinkific or Kajabi | Your own website | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who finds the students | Mostly the marketplace | You | You |
| What you keep | 37% of sales where students find you on Udemy; 97% where they use your coupon or referral link, of the net amount after taxes and app-store fees1 | The sale, less the platform's subscription and, on some plans, a transaction fee | The sale, less card fees, such as Stripe's 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards2 |
| Who owns the student list | The marketplace | You | You |
| Best for | Testing demand, or reaching students you couldn't reach yourself | Creators who want course features without building a site | Creators with an audience, or several courses and services |
Platform plans and fees change often; check each one's pricing page before choosing.
| Where the student came from | You receive |
|---|---|
| Found you on Udemy | £37.001 |
| Used your Udemy coupon or referral link | £97.001 |
| Bought on your own site, paying by UK card through Stripe | £98.302 |
Udemy works its share out on the net amount after taxes and app-store fees, so real payouts are lower than these figures. Udemy also runs frequent sales, so the price a student pays is often below your list price.
Many creators use both: a marketplace to be found, and their own site for students who already know them, where every sale keeps far more and the email list is theirs.
(02)The email list
Start it before the course exists.
Build an email list before you build the course
A free first step
A short lesson, a checklist or a template that solves one small problem your course solves in full. People who take it are your likeliest students.
A waitlist page
One page saying what the course will do, who it's for and roughly when it opens, with a single sign-up form. If nobody joins, you've learned something cheaply.
Consent, properly
To email people about your course you generally need their consent. The "soft opt-in" only covers your own customers, about similar products, where they were given the chance to refuse when you took their details and in every email since3.
Ask the list
What are they stuck on? The answers become your course outline and, later, the words on your sales page.
(03)A launch plan
Six weeks, from waitlist to open doors.
A six-week course launch plan
Weeks 6–5
Interest
- Waitlist page and free first step live
- Share it where your students already gather
- Collect the questions people ask
Weeks 4–3
Pilot
- Run a small pilot group at a founding price
- Fix what confuses them
- Ask for honest feedback, and permission to quote it
Weeks 2–1
Sales page and emails
- Sales page written from the pilot's questions
- Launch emails drafted: one lesson each, then the offer
- A live Q&A booked for launch week
Launch week
Open, then close
- Doors open to the waitlist first
- A real deadline, kept
- Answer every question, publicly where you can
(04)The sales page
Tick off each question your page answers.
What your course sales page must answer
The 14-day right to cancel
UK consumers normally have 14 days to cancel a purchase made online. For digital content like an online course, that right ends once access starts, but only if the student agreed to start straight away and acknowledged they'd lose the right, and you confirmed it to them5. Your checkout needs to ask for both clearly, and the confirmation email should repeat it, or students can cancel within 14 days even after watching.
(05)Ads for courses
Advertising a course without breaking the rules
Facebook and Instagram
For problems people feel but don't search for. Send them to the free first step, not straight to the sales page.
Google and YouTube
For skills people actively search for, such as a software, a qualification or a craft.
Reminders to people who showed interest
Visitors to your free lesson or waitlist page, where they accepted cookies, are the cheapest people to reach again.
We run Facebook and Instagram ads and Google Ads for small businesses, and build the websites and sales pages behind them: see websites for training providers and course creators.
(06)VAT
A note on VAT
You must register for VAT if your taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in any 12 months, or you expect it to within 30 days8. Selling courses to consumers in other countries can bring their VAT rules into play too. It's worth an hour with an accountant before a big launch.
(07)Launch checklist
Tick them off as you go.
Online course launch checklist
Questions
(08)Questions
Start smaller than the course: a free first step and a waitlist page, shared where your future students already gather, such as groups, forums and communities. A marketplace like Udemy can also find your first students while your own list grows.
It can be worth it for being found, especially at first. But you keep 37% of sales where students find you on Udemy, and the students' details stay with Udemy, so most creators also sell from their own site.
On the value of the result to the student and what similar courses charge, not on how many hours of video there are. A pilot group at a founding price tells you a lot about what people will pay.
Not to start: a marketplace or course platform can host it. Your own site becomes worth it once you have an audience, more than one course, or services alongside, because you keep more of each sale and own the student list.
Sources
(09)Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of these. Checked on the date shown.
- 1Instructor revenue share, Udemy Instructor Support. Checked 26 October 2026.
- 2Pricing and fees (UK), Stripe. Checked 26 October 2026.
- 3How do we comply with the PECR electronic mail marketing rules?, Information Commissioner's Office. Checked 26 October 2026.
- 4Unfair commercial practices (CMA207), Competition and Markets Authority. Checked 26 October 2026.
- 5The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, regulation 37, legislation.gov.uk. Checked 26 October 2026.
- 6Employment and recruitment: earnings claims, Advertising Standards Authority. Checked 26 October 2026.
- 7ASA ruling on Robbins Research International Inc, Advertising Standards Authority. Checked 26 October 2026.
- 8Register for VAT, GOV.UK. Checked 26 October 2026.
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