Why 2026 Is Changing Everything for Digital Course Creators
Guest Article By: Joanna Newton, Co-Founder of Millennial Marketer & Creator of the COOLab
2026 has the digital marketing world shook.
Earlier this year, Amy Porterfield announced that she was closing her Digital Course Academy, her capstone, money-making, mega course.
This course was huge in the online marketing space. Most of my clients had her templates uploaded into their Kajabi accounts when they started working with me.
Amy’s exit has left lots of course creators questioning everything.
Is the online course space dead?
Should I change my entire strategy?
If Amy is quitting, should I?
In this article, I’m going to break down exactly what I am doing (and not doing) with my clients at Millennial Marketer to help them succeed this year.
Why the old model is breaking
Digital courses aren’t dead, but the old way of doing things is.
I’m not going to lie, I really didn’t like Amy’s course.
I never took it or went through it myself, but it always caused friction between me and my clients.
I’d review the health of their social media, email list, and partnership connections, look at the trends and tactics in their niche and audience, and build a custom launch plan.
And then they’d say, “Well, that’s not how Amy does it.”
They’d walk me through Amy’s methodologies, and here were my gripes:
- They were complicated and overwhelming for an entrepreneur.
- There were a lot of steps and places where a lead could drop, so if you had a smaller audience, very few people would end up getting the pitch.
- They relied on email opens and show rates to get sales.
Because of Amy’s course (and many others in the space), course creators followed suit.
They built complicated multi-step launch plans that worked in 2018 for creators with large email lists but simply don’t work for most people in today’s landscape—especially if they are just starting out.
So what is working now in 2026:
#1 Simpler funnels
I’m seeing the most success for creators who strip their funnels down to what really works.
One free (or low-cost) offer, followed up by one solid paid offer.
You have to apply the 80/20 rule to your course marketing. Twenty percent of your marketing work is already bringing in 80% of your sales, so focus on what is working (and I’d bet it’s the simplest work that is working the best).
This year, I give you permission to:
- Stop using your 20-step funnel if it’s not making you money.
- Stop selling that offer that takes hours of your time but results in very few sales.
- Quit that social platform that is not growing or bringing in new leads.
You don’t need a more complex or broader strategy; you need a focused one.
#2 Using social media as a funnel
People are inundated with emails, and many even have an email address they use to give to companies and then never open that inbox (me, I’m people).
So how are successful creators selling?
Last year, the most fascinating thing happened. I ran three launches just about simultaneously.
In all three launches, the sales directly from social media were greater than the sales from email.
And honestly, I was shocked.
In my 20 years as a marketer, I’ve never seen that happen. Before then, I was frustrated with people’s obsession with their social followers and going viral because email sales won over social sales every time.
But recently, there has been a shift.
Creators who use social as their funnel win every time.
What do I mean by that? It’s actually not that complicated.
On social, you need different types of content to act as a funnel.
Top of Funnel Content: This is content that helps you find new followers. This is content using trending sounds, sharing pain points from your ideal customer, POV content from their perspective, or humorous content that pokes a little fun at the issues people face that you solve.
This content should not sell or take people off the social platform.
But it should make people want to share and comment.
Middle of Funnel Content: This content is meant to nurture the audience you have. This is where you can educate, talk about the problems you solve, talk about your life doing the work, and share thought leadership content around your niche.
Again, this content should not sell or take people off the social platform. But it should help people get to know and trust you more and start to see how you can help them solve a key problem.
You also want people to save this content or engage in your comments.
Bottom of Funnel Content: This is content designed for sales. It’s meant for people who are already following you and have seen other content in your “funnel.” We don’t care if this goes viral or has a huge reach; we just want the right people to see it.
This looks like case studies, transformation stories, your results. It looks like stating the problem and then the solution (which is your product, program, or service).
And instead of sending people to a complicated funnel or sales page, you’re going to do this instead.
#3 DM-driven sales
If you are using the content plan above, DM-driven sales can really work because you are meeting people where they are.
You want to make it as easy as possible for people to buy from you. No hoops. No complications. No having to switch to their computer from their phone to make it happen.
When posting your Bottom of Funnel content, say something like this:
- “Comment ‘Win’ to get the application to join my mastermind.”
- “Comment ‘Audit’ to sign up for my 1-hour business audit.”
- “Comment ‘Grow’ to get my $27 ebook.”
From there, you can manually handle replies by DMing that person the link for their next step, but there are also automation tools that can help you manage it.
If you are a Kajabi user, you can use Kajabi’s Universal Inbox plus Automations to handle this automatically for Instagram and Facebook posts.
If you aren’t a Kajabi user or need a more robust suite of tools, ManyChat works very well for the same thing.
If you want to automate conversations like this on platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, or others, you can use Zapier alongside ManyChat or other automation tools (but that’s a conversation for another day).
#4 Courses with a live component
I know we all dream about passive income. And I love the idea of creating a gigantic course that costs $2,500 and sells itself.
Unfortunately, I rarely see that work, even for creators with hundreds of thousands of followers.
So what am I seeing work now?
- Creators that weave things into their offers like:
- Live office hours
- Homework submission with real feedback
- Milestones that must be completed before unlocking the next step
- Community connection and motivation
In all of these things, you’re still working on strategies that go beyond trading your time for money—just adding personalization and experiences that make people want to buy.
Your 2026 action plan
If this article got you thinking about what you can do differently, good! That was my goal.
Here’s what I want you to do:
- Review your offers and identify which marketing activities are actually driving sales.
- Focus on optimizing that through simpler funnels and/or building your funnels directly on social media.
- Make it easier to buy. No hoops. No complications.
Plus, if you are ready to create a digital offer built to sell in 2026, check out my free 10-Day Course Creation Challenge.
Here’s to your success in 2026.
Learn More About Joanna:
I don’t just help people launch courses—I help them build businesses that change their lives.
After 10+ years in EdTech marketing, selling courses at scale, I saw firsthand how founders can grow profitable businesses based on digital product sales. But I also saw something else—most of the success stories looked the same.
The truth? Climbing the corporate ladder isn’t enough to build financial freedom, especially for traditionally underrepresented populations and those who don’t come from wealth. That’s why my Co-Founder and I built Millennial Marketer—an agency that’s helped 200+ business owners turn their knowledge into scalable online businesses. We’ve generated over $1M in revenue, and we’re just getting started.
I’m a top Kajabi Expert who specializes in web development, funnel building, marketing launch strategy, and digital product creation—all with a focus on building in Kajabi. More importantly, I help founders avoid the fluff and focus on what actually works to grow and scale.
So, if you’re serious about building a digital course business (and not just chasing vanity metrics), let’s talk.