How to Launch Your Course Platform Through Squarespace
It’s time to begin building that course that you have always dreamed of launching! Your next question may be, “How do I host my course to be easily found through my Squarespace Website? Don’t worry! You have options to be able to do so while keeping your brand aesthetic, a smooth customer experience, and while keeping your paying customers on your main website!
CHOOSE A LEARNING PLATFORM
First, you will need to choose a learning platform to hold all of your course material and allow your customers to see their real time progress. This will also keep your course secure to paying customers only. There are many platforms out there, but these are 3 that work well with Squarespace: Podia, Teachable, and Teachery.
How do I link my Course to my Squarespace Website?
After deciding on a learning platform, use it to create your learning content and build out your course. When you are ready for launch, here are a few ways to link it to your Squarespace Website
SET UP YOUR CUSTOM COURSE DOMAIN
All of the platforms have the option to integrate your custom domain.
***Teachable’s free account does not allow custom domains.
Example:course.highflierpowerhouse.com
Set the domain in your Learning Platform course URL settings. This allows the branding of your course to look professional and easy for clients to find as it will have the URL that they recognize.
How to Set Up Custom Domain in Podia
How to Set Up Custom Domain in Teachable
How to Set Up Custom Domain in Teachery
Once you have this set up, here are a few great ideas to integrate your course with Squarespace.
Integrate with Squarespace Ideas
1. Have a course page on your website with buttons linking to course checkout
Within your website, have one of your navigation menu options be a Course tab. When your customers click on this tab, have branded buttons for each course that you offer. These individual buttons will then link out to the learning platform that allows them to sign up for that individual course. You want to be sure to set it to open a new window upon click, so that they continue to have access to your website and can shop around for other courses. This is a great way to have them find your courses from your original website you have already created traffic on.
***Podia has another option that is not creating a button on your Squarespace page to route them over to the learning platform checkout. Podia uses product cards in order to allow the user to have a pop up lightbox that completes the purchasing process, allowing the user to remain on your website through the entire process. All you have to do is copy and paste the Podia HTML code provided into a code block on your Squarespace course page, or anywhere you would like them to see the option to purchase. This could be the footer of your website, your header, or anywhere you would like! They will then receive a confirmation email and their login instructions.
2. Navigation page within your menu
In your Navigation menu on your squarespace website have a Course Page. When people click on this tab in the menu, it will be set up to link to the custom course domain you created, directing them to your branded course within your learning platforms. This still allows it to be a link through your own domain and have a sleek branded feel. You will want to be sure that you have this set as well to open a new window upon click to keep your customer’s access to your website.
How to Set a Link In Your Squarespace Navigation Menu
3. Use Zapier integrations to allow all purchasing to occur on your website store
If you would like them to complete the entire purchasing process through your website and are not using Podia, Zapier is a great option. This is an integration tool that links apps to talk to each other and auto-complete work flows for you. Zapier has integrations with PayPal or Stripe and each of the three learning platforms: Teachable, Teachery, and Podia.
To get these to communicate, you will:
-Create a store page within your Squarespace site and add your course as a product.
-Set up Paypal or Stripe as payment options for customers in Squarespace.
-Create a Zapier.com account. This is FREE if you think you will have 100 people or less a month purchasing your course. If you think you will have more than 100, $19.99 will get you 750 purchases a month and even higher plans are available.
-After setup, set your Zap (name of a workflow in Zapier) to have a trigger in Paypal or Stripe that whenever anyone makes a purchase of your course, the response of your learning platform is to create a new user account that emails them automatically their login information. Your customers will then have their login set and can begin taking the course.
This option allows a sale to occur without ever clicking out of your website, to be sure that the sale is finalized and the client experience is high quality.
All of these ways allow seamless transitions for your clients into course platforms that are designed for high quality instruction. Connecting to your Squarespace website can be done with any of these tools.
