Introduction
Since 2018 I practice Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan in an academy here in Curitiba, the JingWu.
With the pandemic, the business had many problems. And along with the crisis, the master, professor Jorge, looked for different sources of income while the academy was closed due to the sanitary regulations. He realized he could make online courses (taolus or forms) and sell to whoever wanted to practice at home, through an online platform. But in this platform, the user had to do a research inside the website to find all the courses.
I managed the entire lifecycle, starting with research to identify user needs, moving to the development of the website, and concluding with continuous performance tracking.
For those who don’t know, the “katis or taolus” are a sequence of martial movements (similar to a coreography), where each movement has an application in self defense.
The problem
In this case is: There were no expressive sales. Even his own students did not want to buy the online courses. Most of them just wanted to practice in-person.
Jorge learned about digital marketing, how to record videos, how to speak and how to create online courses inside the platform. But the most important point – to know what his target audience really wanted – he left behind. He insisted in teaching people what he wanted them to learn.
The challenge
To reach users outside of his school who sought his expertise, I promoted the courses in an affordable alternative – a simple website. Most of his regular students weren’t the target audience, as they intended to return to traditional classes once sanitary restrictions were lifted.
The process
MVP
The website was built on a WordPress theme, where I adapted according to needs.
At first, the page had accesses, but without clicks. Analysing hotjar, probably the users did not perceive the boxes as buttons.
After some modifications and analysis, we understood that these courses did not interest the users that visit the academy’s website.
Inside the Hotmart platform, the sales have increased. Mostly the beginner’s course, that led the sales immediately after its launch.
- With the interviews, I could notice that the courses content were well structured, but needed attention and improvement;
- Students that didn’t train in person were the most interested;
- We also faced marketing challenges that required more advertising to reach different targets. A centralized and organized space for the courses was crucial because it allowed for better SEO and improved our visibility within the Google algorithm.
After the launch, I measured Google Analytics data as well as Hotjar recordings and heatmaps to understand the user behaviour inside the catalog.
Conclusion
It was a challenging project, due to financial and time restrictions that didn’t allow a good development process. Despite these limitations, the platform helped generate new income for the school, although I identified certain external issues that impacted its performance. As these challenges were beyond my scope, I focused my role on organizing the course library. I managed the platform until the passing of Master Jorge, and the site is no longer online.
