Integration
4 Easy Ways to Integrate Your Website With CourseStorm
You worked hard to create a website your organization can be proud of. It displays your brand colors, shows off your logo, and strikes just the right tone with your audience. The good news is all of that can remain in place when you become a CourseStorm customer, thanks to website integrations that allow you to seamlessly move students from your site to your CourseStorm-hosted class catalog.
Website integrations let you give up the burden of dealing with course registrations and financial transactions, but keep the benefits of a branded site that students instantly recognize as yours. They make course registration seamless for students and simple for you. Before we share the five easy ways to integrate your website with CourseStorm, let’s talk about how integrations can simplify the registration process.
How Website Integrations Improve the Registration Experience
Have you ever used Amazon’s one-click payment feature? It allows customers to make a purchase with a single click using the payment and address information already on file. The results were impressive. Cart abandonment rates fell drastically because Amazon had made it a lot easier for people to complete their purchase.
In fact, the lesson here is a pretty basic one: the less work customers have to do, the more likely they are to make a purchase. That’s where website integrations come in.
When you integrate your website with your CourseStorm-hosted course catalog, you create a seamless experience for students.
With website integrations, students can access your course catalog from your website with a single click, or even view your entire course calendar on a page. That makes it easy for them to learn about your program, view your course catalog, and easily register for classes.
4 CourseStorm Website Integrations
Starting with the most simple and ending with the most robust, here are four website integrations that can connect your course catalog with your website.
1. Add a Simple Link or Button
The simplest way to connect web visitors to your courses is to create a link from one of your web pages to the CourseStorm catalog. Most customers put a link on their home page. A simple link might look like this:
All you have to do is create a hyperlink from the text or button to your CourseStorm course catalog. When users click on the link, they are sent directly to your catalog. From there, potential students can view featured courses, browse course categories, or use the search bar to find classes. Online registration features are built in so the student can register right away.
If a simple link doesn’t feel like quite enough information, you can also link directly to course categories. It might look something like this:
Clicking on a category link takes the potential student to a listing of all the classes in that category.
2. Embed a List of Upcoming Classes Using the CourseStorm Widget
If you’d like to display a list of classes on your website, you can use our simple CourseStorm widget to display upcoming classes. We provide you with a snippet of HTML code. You use a web editor to copy and paste the code into one of your web pages.
A simple widget showing upcoming classes might look like this:
By default, the widget displays five classes, but you can customize the code to display any number. You can also choose how the classes are sorted and whether or not you want to display information like start date, description, and course price.
3. Integrate Class Registrations on Your Own Website With the WordPress Plugin
If you use WordPress and want your classes to display on your existing website, the CourseStorm Class Registration for WordPress plugin is available via the WordPress plugin marketplace. This free plugin imports, displays, and syncs your CourseStorm class catalog directly within your WordPress website, allowing you to integrate class registrations seamlessly. Students can browse, register, and pay for your classes in just a few clicks.
Here’s some more information on how to download and install the WordPress plugin.
4. Subscribe to an iCalendar Feed
If you’d rather show your classes on a calendar, CourseStorm can provide a calendar feed that syncs your class offerings to a standard Google, Apple, or Outlook calendar. Then you can embed the calendar on your website. The calendar program will import all your classes and events, then continuously monitor the events for changes and update accordingly.
You can choose to display a daily, weekly, or monthly calendar. Here is an example of what a monthly calendar might look like:
If you’re not sure if your existing website can use an iCalendar feed, ask your web development staff or webmaster.
Why We Offer Multiple Website Integration Options
We understand that your program is unique, and there’s no one-size-fits-all model that works for all organizations. That’s why we offer multiple options for website integration with CourseStorm. Choose the one that works best for your program, or try out different options across your website. If none of these integrations quite meet your needs, please contact our integrations team. We’re happy to share our API or discuss new integration solutions.
Website integrations are just some of the integration options we offer. You can also connect CourseStorm to useful, time-saving software tools. Our most popular software integrations include PatronManager for performing arts programs, Axiom Elevate for Higher Ed, and Zapier for almost anything you want to automate.
Ready to become a CourseStorm customer and get a hosted course catalog with seamless class registration and online checkout? Contact us today to get started.
Brian Rahill
Brian is a scientist-turned-education technology executive. He has founded and led technology companies for more than 20 years and uses his analytical mind and experimental approach to spur growth in small and medium businesses and start-ups. He is passionate about using technology to enhance access to lifelong learning.