10 Steps to Confidently Setting Up Your Online Course in Kajabi

Online courses can be a great addition to your coaching or service-based business, allowing you to scale your business from solely a 1-1 model of services.

When you add an online course to your repertoire of services and products, you are expanding the reach of your audience and you are diversifying your income stream from solely relying on income from the one-to-one services you offer.

There is no better time to dive into the e-learning industry than today. The e-learning industry has been growing rapidly over the last few years and it is forecasted to continue to grow. According to Statista the global e-learning market is expected to reach US $400 billion by 2026.

However, it is not as simple as deciding to create an online course and finding success right away. Some people may not fully understand the process of developing a course that clearly offers a solution to someone’s problem in an engaging format, and they may end up wasting time trying to figure it out by themselves or setting things up in a way that is inefficient for both themselves and those who purchase the course.

Another big drawback or challenge to creating and setting up an online course is the technical difficulties of learning how to use a learning management system. Not everyone has a basic level of technical knowledge or a desire to take the time to learn how to use a system like Kajabi.

Kajabi is a powerful all-in-one system that has everything you need to successfully grow and sell your online course. To learn more about the benefits of Kajabi, take a look at this article: 5 Benefits for Choosing Kajabi to Host your Online Courses.

Today, I am going to take you through 10 steps to get your course fully set up in Kajabi so you can start changing and transforming more lives. When you complete these 10 steps, you will cross that finish line with excitement and confidence that you have created a beautiful, intuitive and engaging experience for future students of your course.

10 steps to fully set up your online course in Kajabi

Step 1: Gather all the necessary information

Before you can start building anything in Kajabi, you need to have all of your information easily accessible. There are two key pieces to this step:

1. Map out your course framework – Store the key information of your course in a spreadsheet or document for quick and easy reference including the Course title and subtitle, the Course promise or learning outcomes, the titles of each Module, lesson and learning outcomes. It is also beneficial to know what type of learning content will be included within each lesson and the file location for each of those items.
2. Collect your brand information – To streamline the process of setting up your course in Kajabi, store all of your brand information in one document including your brand colours, fonts, file locations of your logos and images you will be using.

Step 2: Customize the Theme Settings

Before you start to upload your course content, you will want to go into ‘Customize’ within the Product to personalize the appearance of your course and customize the theme settings to match your branding and website design (if you have created your website on Kajabi).

This is where starting with Step #1: Gathering the Information comes in handy as you have that quick reference for customizing the theme settings for your course layout.

• Customize your brand settings – Update the Typography, Colour scheme, Favicon and Message colours
• Customize the appearance and layout of each page or section of your course within the Product Editor

Some key questions to consider when you are customizing the theme settings are:

1. Do you want to allow students to be able to download your videos?
2. What layout style do you want for each lesson?
3. What information do you want to be included in the sidebar? Some options include the link to your community, an upsell to the next level of product or service, or a short Instructor bio.

Step 3: Upload all the Course Content

Now it’s time to begin building your course in Kajabi! With the help of the framework you created from step #1,

• Create each Module, including the Title, Description and thumbnail image.
• Create each Lesson within the Module, uploading the relevant video, text, download files and lesson thumbnail image.
• Update the status of each lesson, whether you want it visible to students right away, to be dripped out in a certain time period, or to stay in draft mode until you are ready for your students to have access to that particular lesson.
• Decide if you want comments to be visible, hidden or locked. This will need to be set up within each lesson, so make your decision before you begin uploading your course content. If you are unsure, consider whether having the comments ON is the best way for members to communicate with you? Or do you want to encourage them to use the Community area for their questions and feedback?

Step 4: Set up the Community Access Group

This is an optional but highly recommended aspect of offering an online course as it allows the members of your course to interact with one another and it promotes further discussion on the various topics within your course.

If you have a community component to your course, it can be beneficial to create the community directly within Kajabi to keep everything in one place. As of January 2023, you can set up a community using the next generation of “Kajabi Communities” using the recent acquisition of Vibely, an all-in-one community platform.

Within “Kajabi Communities”, you can create multiple Community Access Groups to organize different groups of people based on your products and specific Kajabi plan. Don’t forget to include the URL link to your community in the sidebar of your Course area to allow your members to easily access the Community area.

Step 5: Create the Confirmation and Welcome Email

Kajabi has a default confirmation email that you can customize for all products you set up. This is the email that will automatically be sent to your members as soon as they purchase your course. However, I recommend writing a specific welcome email for each course you have instead of using the default email. When writing this welcome email, remember to include some key information:

• A warm welcome emphasizing the benefit or solution they will gain from taking your course.
• Information on how to access the course.
• Contact details on how they can reach you should they require additional support.

Step 6: Create the Thank You Page

Kajabi has many different templates you can use to help in designing the Thank You page. Before you begin to design this page, I recommend creating an outline of the copy and layout for the page within a document for easy access when you are ready to create the Thank You page in Kajabi.

The copy on the Thank You page should celebrate their purchase of your course - a quick video welcome message is an effective way to express your excitement and provide them with a warm welcome! Don’t forget to include a link to the course dashboard for them to access the course right away and information on how to contact you should they require additional support.

Step 7: Set up the Offers and Checkout Pages

For collecting payment you can integrate Kajabi with Paypal and/or Stripe. With Paypal, your course members will be connected to their Paypal account from the checkout page. With Stripe, your course members will be able to enter their credit card information directly on the checkout page.

Before setting anything up in Kajabi, you will need to decide on the pricing options you want to offer for purchasing your course. Do you want to offer a Full Pay option as well as a payment plan? Once you have decided on the pricing options, create an offer and the corresponding checkout page for each pricing option.

The checkout page is a great place to remind potential buyers of the benefits of the course and include a testimonial or two. Treat the checkout page like a mini sales page! Don’t forget to include links to the purchase terms and refund policy at the bottom of the checkout pages.

Step 8: Create the Sales Page

A Sales Page is not necessary to have in order to promote and sell your course as you can share the Checkout Page link that you created in step 7. However, it can be beneficial to have a more detailed Sales Page especially if you are setting up a ‘big-ticket’ course, as you can share the benefits and value of your course in much more detail.

The copy of the Sales page should be straightforward and engaging to entice people to make the decision of purchasing your course because you have clearly explained the benefits, value and deliverables offered in your course. Just like with the Thank you page, I recommend taking some time to outline the copy and layout of the Sales page before you begin to design it in Kajabi.

Step 9: Test, Test, Test

Before promoting your course, you want to test everything to make sure it is all set up and integrated properly. Use an Incognito window or a different browser to test from the viewpoint of a potential buyer. Test EVERY button and link to make sure it’s working properly, and go through the full purchasing path from the sales page to the checkout page to logging in and viewing the course lessons.

Step 10: Launch your Course (and keep marketing)

Congratulations! Your course is ready to launch! If this is a brand new course, you may want to consider a soft launch by offering a Beta or Pilot version to a smaller group of people that fit your ideal client. This option can be a great opportunity for you to gain valuable feedback on the content provided within your course and is an excellent way to collect testimonials that you can use on your sales page and in additional marketing materials.

Whether you choose to do a soft launch or an official launch of your course, you need to be marketing and growing your audience of potential leads before it is launch time. Marketing is essential to a successful launch, but you will only see success if you are already attracting those potential buyers before launch time by sharing valuable tips and educational content that is relevant to your course topic. Let people get to Know, Like and Trust you before you give them a sales pitch.

There you have it – 10 steps to confidently set up your online course in Kajabi.

To help you through these steps, I’ve created a guide that walks you through the details of each step. Grab your copy here and start checking off those steps, one by one. 

Still feeling overwhelmed and looking for more support through this process of setting up and launching your online course in Kajabi?

I get it. You don’t have to try and figure this all out on your own. Let us bring your course to life in Kajabi without the headache of having to learn new skills and new tech. All in a way that saves you time, allows you to focus on what brings you joy and gifts you confidence that your message is being heard! Take a look at our Kajabi Course Setup packages here and book a quick teatime chat with Natashia to move your online course past that Kajabi tech roadblock.