Integrating Online Education With Your Existing Business Strategy For Maximum ROI

A decade ago, the main thing a business needed to succeed was a stellar product. Things are different now, and only having a great product doesn’t cut it anymore with so many options available to customers.

So, if you want to retain your customers and attract new ones, you have to show them why your product is best for their needs. This requires creating learning resources that communicate your products’ unique values and features.

Forward-thinking companies have started monetizing these resources to generate extra revenue.

In fact, revenue in the online education market is projected to reach $203.80 billion in 2025. However, to drive revenue through online education, you’ll need to integrate your e-learning strategy with your existing business strategy.

In this article, I’ll show you how to do just that.

Skip ahead:

• Why integrate an e-learning strategy into your business plans
• 5 benefits of aligning e-learning with business goals
• How to build an e-learning strategy that drives revenue
• Tips for integrating your e-learning strategy with existing revenue models

Why integrate an e-learning strategy into your business plans

Online education (or e-learning) has quickly become a smart choice for businesses that want to stay relevant amid rapid market changes. By creating and uploading learning resources like courses, eBooks, guides, worksheets, and webinars to a learning management system (LMS), you can reach a wide audience. This includes current customers, employees, and external partners.

Because these materials live entirely online, they’re flexible. You can expand training programs without large-scale overhauls, add new courses quickly, and push updates as soon as new information comes in. This effortless scalability makes e-learning a practical tool for businesses that are always evolving.

Beyond flexibility, online education improves workforce development, customer engagement, and operational efficiency. Your employees can learn at a comfortable pace, helping them refine their skills and boost productivity without the usual logistical hurdles of traditional classroom training.

Your customers also benefit from timely and accurate information about your products or services. And managers find themselves spending less time coordinating training events, which frees them up for other high-value activities. Altogether, you get smoother operations and happier learners across the board.

E-learning shines brightest in remote or hybrid work environments—especially vital now that around 70% of companies are remote-first. With a unified LMS, every team member gains access to high-quality, standardized training, no matter where they’re located. This helps nurture a strong team culture and keeps day-to-day processes running smoothly.

5 Benefits of aligning e-learning with business goals

From driving a new revenue stream to accelerating workforce skill development, here are five benefits of making online education offerings a part of your core business goals:

1. Create a new revenue stream

Online courses let you package your expertise and offer it to both employees and external audiences. While employee training programs are usually free, you can monetize online courses for your customers. This not only diversifies your revenue but also builds a recurring income model that scales with your business.

2. Increase customer retention and loyalty

A great way to retain your customers and keep them loyal is by offering online learning resources that show them how to get the most out of your product or service. When your customers see how dedicated you are to helping them succeed, they’ll feel more attached to your brand and will likely keep renewing their subscriptions.

Online education also keeps customers in the loop on updates, new features, and best practices. By rolling out fresh lessons or informative webinars, you’re giving them reasons to stay engaged rather than wander off to a competitor.

3. Reduce costs and boost ROI

High travel fees, venue rentals, and printed materials can eat into a training budget fast, especially when you have remote teams scattered across multiple regions.

By offering online content on a centralized LMS, you cut these hidden costs and give stakeholders the freedom to learn whenever and wherever they like. This digital setup also makes it easier to track participation, measure outcomes, and tweak your materials for better results.

With fewer operational expenses, you can channel funds into other areas, whether that’s new product development or marketing strategies, to get better returns.

4. Accelerate workforce skill development

Your employees are your strongest advantage, especially during market shifts. By offering online training, you give them the power to pick up new skills whenever they need it, which makes your team even more agile than it already is.

Whether it’s mastering the latest software or diving into new industry best practices, this flexible setup keeps everyone on top of their game.

5. Elevate your brand’s market position

By offering specialized training modules or courses led by in-house (and even external) experts, you position yourself as a go-to source for industry knowledge. Not only does this build your credibility, but prospective customers may appreciate your in-depth, hands-on guidance and feel motivated to sign up for a free trial or hire you.

Online education may seem like a costly investment, but it has helped many large companies solidify their reputations, placing them at the forefront of their markets and reinforcing their authority in the field.

A great example is HubSpot. Over the last two decades, this company has built a solid moat of content resources–blog posts, eBooks, templates, online courses and certifications, and free tools–that cover several verticals, including content marketing, SEO, social media marketing, and sales.

These web pages bring in millions of pageviews and conversions every year.

How to build an e-learning strategy that drives revenue

Developing an e-learning strategy that directly boosts your bottom line isn’t a walk in the park, but it doesn’t have to be overly complicated, either. Here are the steps to follow to build a profitable online education initiative that drives revenue:

Step 1: Identify revenue goals

The first step is to pinpoint exactly how your online education efforts will generate income for your business. For example, you could sell standalone courses, offer exclusive memberships, or bundle educational add-ons with existing products. There are many paths to take, so pick one or two to start.

Then, identify the revenue metrics you want to improve. Do you want to increase your monthly recurring revenue (MRR)? Boost average transaction size? Or increase customer retention rates? Knowing exactly how you want to improve helps you see the bigger picture as you develop and execute your e-learning strategy.

As you define these details, make sure they fit with what you already have in place. For instance, you could integrate your online courses into your existing revenue model by giving premium subscribers early access to advanced training. Or, if you use a traditional sales process, your sales team can highlight these resources as a value-add during negotiations.
This not only streamlines your efforts across departments but also ensures that your online learning strategy complements, rather than competes with, your main revenue channels.

Step 2: Understand your target audience

Knowing exactly who you’re teaching is key to shaping effective online education. To identify your target audience, focus on these three things:

• Demographics. This includes age, gender, occupation, income level, and geographic location.
• Psychographics. Also, consider their interests, values, and motivations.
• Firmographics. If your products/services are geared towards other businesses, check for company size, industry, and revenue.
• Behaviors. Don’t forget to factor in how your audience behaves online—what online platforms they use and whether they prefer short video modules, in-depth webinars, or community-driven platforms.

Gathering these insights doesn’t have to be guesswork. Instead, set up surveys to gauge interest and learn what people want, create feedback loops to track satisfaction, and analyze what your competitors are offering and how they present it. You can also dig into your own analytics data, like social media engagement, email click-through rates, and website traffic—to see which topics draw the most interest and which ones fall flat.

For larger businesses, multiple products/services often mean multiple audiences. If this is you, you’ll need to segment your customers. For example, you might segment by customers who need onboarding, professionals who want specialized skill development, and organizations looking for bulk licensing options.

Since each group has different goals and pain points, segmenting them helps you tailor course content and marketing strategies that hit the mark for each audience. This way, you won’t send highly technical sessions to newcomers or promote entry-level modules to corporate clients who need advanced, specialized training.

Download: Free Target Audience Templates

Step 3: Choose a monetization model

Next up, choose how you’ll monetize your online learning resources. There are several models available, and each one has its strengths. I’ll break down some of the common ones below, but keep in mind that you’ll need to pick the one that best suits your audience, market position, and growth objectives.

Subscription model

A subscription model charges learners a recurring fee (usually monthly or annually) for ongoing access to your resource library. This setup works well if you plan to regularly update content or add new materials.

MasterClass uses this approach. It has a library of over 200 courses across several verticals, including art and design, business and entrepreneurship, health and wellness, music, and many others. To access this library, you’ll need to pay between $10 and $20 monthly.

The subscription model can generate a steady cash flow, but you’ll need to consistently update your offerings and create fresh material to keep people subscribed.

One-time purchases

This model allows learners to buy specific courses outright, which they can access anytime. It’s a great fit if your courses are evergreen or don’t need constant updates. For example, Hootsuite uses this approach for a number of its courses.

With the exception of the Hootsuite Platform Certification and DEI on Social Media courses, Hootsuite’s online courses range from $199 to $999 each.

One-time purchases make sense if your audience is comfortable with an up-front payment, but you’ll need new or additional courses to drive repeat business.

Bundled offers

Bundling courses, webinars, and other digital resources into a single package creates a comprehensive learning experience. This can be especially appealing if your business covers various verticals or product lines.

Udemy does this well. Say, for example, you want to buy a full-stack web development course on the platform. As you scroll through the course’s sales page, you’ll likely see something like this:

Udemy offers a whopping 83% discount if you buy all three courses!

You don’t have to offer this much of a discount, but selling bundles at a lower price gives learners a sense of added value and incentivizes them to make a larger transaction.

Group sales for B2B markets

Selling course licenses in bulk is ideal for businesses looking to train entire teams or departments. For example, a project management software company might partner with large clients to provide onboarding and professional development courses for hundreds of employees at once.

This approach can yield significant revenue from a single sale, but you’ll need strong corporate relationships and a scalable platform to handle large groups efficiently.

Step 4: Develop scalable content

Developing content that can grow along with your business saves you from constantly reinventing the wheel every time you add new learners or roll out fresh courses. Here are some practical ways to ensure your content remains profitable and easy to scale in the long run:

• Focus on evergreen topics. Cover subjects that will stay relevant over time rather than chasing short-lived trends. This allows you to sell the same courses repeatedly without frequent overhauls, leading to steady revenue and less downtime for content updates.
• Cater to multiple skill levels. Offer beginner, intermediate, and advanced modules within the same topic, like Webflow University does with its web design courses:
  
  Learners can start at the level that suits them, and large enterprises can train diverse teams using one central resource. This layered setup also boosts your sales potential by appealing to a broader audience.
  
• Incorporate interactive elements. Add quizzes, video demonstrations, and completion certificates to make courses feel more engaging. Interactive tools help maintain learner interest, increase perceived value, and encourage them to explore additional courses. This kind of active participation also aids in knowledge retention.
• Repurpose and expand existing content. If you have high-performing webinars, workshops, or blog posts, convert them into on-demand courses or downloadable resources. This saves production time, maximizes your initial investment, and ensures your content library stays robust and ready to meet changing demands.

Step 5: Perform a technology audit

Before rolling out your e-learning program, do a technology audit to confirm that you have the tools you need to handle high volumes of traffic and host multiple resources without compromising quality.

Here are some things to look out for as you do your audit:

• Multiple monetization options:
  Look for an LMS that can handle one-time purchases, subscriptions, bundles, and bulk licensing. This allows you to experiment with different pricing structures and reach more audience segments.
• Third-party integrations:
  Customers love a seamless checkout process, so make sure your LMS integrates with popular payment gateways like Apple Pay, PayPal, and Stripe. Also, ensure that the tool allows you to integrate analytics tools and marketing automation platforms.
  
  These platforms give you deeper insight into learner behavior and help you run targeted campaigns that align with your overarching business goals.
• Ability to handle growing demand:
  As your online courses gain popularity, your platform must keep up with higher traffic and user loads. An LMS that’s built for scale will let you add new courses, onboard large enterprise clients, and manage thousands of learners without performance hiccups. Without this scalability, you risk service disruptions that can frustrate learners and ultimately hurt your reputation.

Step 6: Plan for marketing and distribution

No matter how great your courses are, they won’t bring in revenue unless people know about them. A solid marketing plan will put your eLearning products in front of the right audiences at the right time. Here are some marketing tips to guide you:

Develop a tailored marketing funnel.

Execute your marketing in a way that guides potential learners from casual interest to committed enrollment. First, offer free resources like blog posts, webinars, or mini-courses to attract leads and showcase your expertise.

From there, nurture your prospects with targeted email sequences that highlight your paid offerings and the value they provide. You can segment emails based on user behavior—those who attended a webinar might need an extra discount to push them toward purchase, while those who only read a blog post may need more introductory information.

Partner with affiliates or influencers.

Affiliates and influencers can significantly expand your reach by tapping into their existing follower base. When choosing partners, make sure their audience matches your ideal learner profile so you have the best chance of getting results. With affiliates, you typically offer a commission on each sale they drive. But with influencers, you may need to pay their fee (or part of it) upfront before they promote your resources.

Download: Influencer Marketing Templates

Use retargeting ads to recover lost opportunities.

Not everyone will buy on their first visit. Retargeting ads let you reconnect with those who showed interest but left before hitting “Purchase.” Placing relevant course ads on the social media platforms or websites they visit afterward can help you stay top-of-mind and even tip the scales in your favor.

Over time, you can refine your ads based on which segments respond best, leading to more efficient ad spend and higher conversion rates.

Tips for integrating your e-learning strategy with existing revenue models

Now that you know how to create a revenue-generating e-learning strategy, here are some specific tips to integrate that strategy with your existing revenue models:

1. Create paid certifications

Go beyond regular courses and create paid certifications for your audience. By adding an official credential to your course offerings, you create a premium learning track that justifies a higher price point.

For example, customers who have already subscribed to you might see added value in a certification course that teaches them how to use your advanced features. This generates extra income and positions your business as an industry authority.

2. Set up payment infrastructure

A hassle-free payment process is key to maximizing revenue from your online learning products, so here are some ways to improve yours:

• Offer multiple payment methods, like credit cards, PayPal, Stripe, Google Pay, etc., to accommodate audiences with varying preferences;
• Provide flexible payment plans like “Buy Now, Pay Later” to appeal to learners on tighter budgets or those looking to stagger payments;
• Have advanced features like bulk purchasing so that corporate clients can easily buy seats for entire teams;
• Provide automated tax calculations to remove friction for international customers, cut down on administrative stress, and stay compliant with regulations.

3. Implement a pilot program

A pilot program lets you test the waters before fully committing to a new e-learning strategy. Start by launching a limited version of your platform for a carefully chosen audience, like a subset of loyal customers or an internal team. You can offer early bird discounts or exclusive access to encourage participation and gather real-world data on how learners interact with the content.

Take note of feedback on pricing, course difficulty, and overall user experience. This information is invaluable in refining your strategy before you roll it out on a larger scale.

4. Monitor your analytics

Tracking key metrics helps you understand which parts of your e-learning strategy resonate with learners and which need extra attention.

Use built-in analytics or link your platform with tools like Google Analytics to measure conversion rates, completion rates, and average revenue per user (ARPU). These numbers reveal whether visitors are becoming paying customers, how thoroughly they engage with your courses, and how much revenue each learner generates.

Armed with this information, you can expand high-performing courses, perhaps offering advanced modules or new related topics. At the same time, identify and rework—or even retire—low-performing offerings to make room for content that better fits your audience’s needs.

5. Scale through partnerships and licensing

Licensing your courses to corporations for internal training allows you to tap into bulk enrollments and lock in long-term contracts. You can also offer co-branded learning products for B2B clients to widen your market share and introduce your courses to new audiences.

White-labeling your content is another avenue to explore if you want to get into new markets without building separate marketing strategies for each one. By allowing businesses to sell your courses as their own, you help them maintain a consistent brand experience for their learners.

In return, you get access to their existing customer network and generate recurring revenue with minimal additional effort.

6. Create a continuous upsell loop.

It’s not enough to get new prospects to become paying customers. Also, direct your marketing efforts to your existing customers by upselling them on advanced or more expensive resources. Here’s how to do that:

• Send your customers personalized recommendations and curated learning paths to encourage repeat business. For instance, once a learner completes a foundational course, point them toward intermediate or advanced modules that build on what they already know.
• Offer a membership that customers can pay for (monthly or annually) to get access to exclusive perks. Think specialized courses, eBooks, templates, or even live Q&A sessions.
• Use limited-time promotions or special bundles to spark urgency and highlight the added value of higher-tier options.

Execute a profitable e-learning strategy with Thinkific Plus

To drive revenue from your e-learning strategy, you’ll need to do several things, including creating scalable learning resources, experimenting with various pricing models, offering different payment methods, and keeping a close on your analytics dashboard(s).

However, you can’t do any of these things without a full-featured LMS.

That’s where Thinkific Plus comes in.

Our platform is designed to help large businesses and enterprises like yours build robust and scalable online learning programs. It does this through a suite of powerful features, including:

• A user-friendly drag-and-drop editor
• AI teaching assistant
• Customized learning paths
• Multiple environments
• Advanced analytics and reporting tools
• Third-party app integrations, including Zapier
• Branded mobile app
• Support for memberships and learning communities
• TCommerce (our selling and payments solution that processes payments, automates upsells, and calculates taxes), and more.

If you’re not sure where to start to build your online learning content, check out our Guide To Diversifying Revenue Streams With Online Learning.

FAQs

1. How does e-learning generate revenue?

Online courses (and other learning products) can be sold individually, offered through subscription models, bundled with existing products, or licensed out to other businesses. Each approach taps into different revenue streams, making e-learning a flexible way to monetize expertise and reach broader audiences.

2. How do you integrate e-learning into your existing revenue streams?

You can align course content with your current offerings—like using product tutorials to reduce churn or adding premium certifications to existing service packages. The key is to ensure that each learning product directly supports your business objectives.

3. What tools help to generate revenue from e-learning?

The main tool for generating revenue from e-learning is a robust LMS that supports different pricing models, has built-in payment gateways, and offers third-party integrations, including analytics tools and marketing automation platforms.

4. How do I measure the ROI of e-learning?

You can measure the ROI of e-learning by tracking metrics like conversion rates, revenue per user, and course completion rates. Compare these figures against your upfront investment in course creation and marketing. If the revenue and learner engagement outweigh the costs over time, you’re seeing a solid return on your e-learning strategy.