Free preview lesson: let people try your course before they buy it

Nobody buys a paid course blind if they can avoid it. They want to hear you speak, see how you explain things and check that the pace and level suit them. A free lesson answers all of that better than any sales page, and in LearnSuite you switch it on with a toggle per lesson.

This article describes exactly what it does, what someone who has not bought sees, what limits it has and how to decide how much to give away. If planning is your worry, the article on the free lesson funnel complements it.

What it does

Inside each course, the instructor can mark any lesson as a preview. It does not have to be the first one or a short one. On the course's public page, that lesson shows a badge that sets it apart from the rest, and a visitor can open it without buying and without paying anything.

There are two nearby variants worth knowing:

• Lesson open only with an account: the visitor has to register (with a verified email) to watch it, but does not pay. Useful if you want their contact details in exchange.
• Lesson marked "not available yet": a flag for content you are still preparing.

And a separate case: a whole course can be set to free pricing. Then all the content is open and any attempt to buy it is rejected as unnecessary. It is the option for a lead-generation course or content you want to give away entirely.

Who it is for

It works best when:

• You sell on trust in a person (your method, your way of teaching) and the visitor needs to get to know you.
• Your course has a medium or high price and the doubt is "is this for me?".
• You get cold traffic (ads, social media) and need to give a reason to stay.
• You teach something that is appreciated by seeing it: a technique, a movement, an exercise.

Step by step

1. Create the course and upload the lessons.
2. Pick the lesson that represents you best. It is almost never the generic introduction; it is usually the first one where the learner achieves something concrete.
3. Mark it as a preview from the course dashboard.
4. Publish, then open the public page in a window without a session to see what a visitor sees.
5. Check that the lesson plays and that the buy button is visible when it ends.

Step 4 is the one most often forgotten. Always look as a visitor, not as an administrator.

What the visitor gets

When the sample lesson is opened, the video is served through a signed temporary address, like the rest: it is not a permanent public link to the file. That stops anyone from copying the address and passing it around.

But there is a difference you should know about.

The open lesson has no watermark and no device limit

On paid lessons, the platform can overlay a watermark with the learner's name and email and limit the devices they watch from. On the free lesson those two layers do not apply. It is consistent (there is no purchase to tie the mark to) and still you must keep it in mind: anything you mark as a preview can be watched by anyone without identifying themselves. We explain this in how protected video works.

Practical consequence: choose for the sample something you are willing to see circulating. Do not put your most valuable module on show, nor material that depends on exclusivity to have value.

How much to give away

There is no magic number, but there are criteria:

• A lesson of 5 to 10 minutes is usually enough for someone to decide whether they like how you teach.
• Give a result, not a promise. A lesson in which the visitor does something and gets a small result beats a welcome introduction.
• Do not give away the ending. If the course teaches how to solve a problem step by step, give the first steps, not the full solution.
• If the price is high, give more. The greater the perceived risk, the more proof the buyer needs. To decide the price, see how to price an online course.

What problem it solves

Two, really. The first is conversion: a visitor who has seen how you explain things buys with fewer doubts. The second is less obvious and affects what happens after the purchase. Someone who has tried the style, pace and level before paying arrives better matched, and regrets less. That reduces refunds and early dropout, and ties in with what we explain in why learners drop out before finishing.

If you are also just starting and want to know how to set everything up without technical help, launch your academy without a tech team walks through the whole path.

Honest limits

• It is not an automatic funnel. Marking a lesson as free does not send emails or reminders to visitors. Automatic follow-up emails are not available to customers today, so following up with someone who tried the lesson and did not buy is something you do yourself (a manual message to people who registered, for example).
• No copy protection on the sample. We have said it already, but it bears repeating: someone watching the open lesson is not identified.
• It does not measure by itself how much it converts. It counts sales and sign-ups, but interpreting them (which lesson works best as a sample) is your job, by trying one and then another.
• It is not right for everything. If your content is pure information consumed in one go (a fact, a template), giving a part away can give away the value. There it is better to offer a detailed outline or an excerpt.

Which plan includes it

The preview lesson and free courses are available on every plan, including the 14-day trial. To see what each plan includes, check the pricing page.

Summary

The free lesson is the cheapest tool you have for selling better: one toggle, a careful choice of what to give away and a check as a visitor. Pick a lesson in which the visitor achieves something, not your most valuable one, and follow up by hand while there are no automatic emails.