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Understanding Maven's course discovery system

Learn how Maven's discovery system works with your marketing efforts. Build momentum, get listed, and grow enrollment.

Chelsea Wilson avatar
Written by Chelsea Wilson
Updated this week

Summary

  1. Build momentum first: Get 200 waitlist leads OR 5 paid enrollments to qualify for Maven marketplace listing through Lightning Lessons and sharing with your network.

  2. Two discovery paths: Students find courses by browsing Maven.com (clear titles matter) and through personalized weekly emails.

  3. Marketing amplifies discovery: Your efforts create initial traction, then Maven amplifies your reach to relevant students once you're listed.

Maven's discovery system

Your authentic marketing efforts and Maven's discovery systems work together to connect your course with the right students.

You can think of your marketing and Maven's discovery systems as working together in 3 important phases:

  • Phase 1: Pre-launch momentum building. Start sharing valuable content and building your waitlist now with a survey and/or Lightning Lesson. This creates the traction needed for Maven listing.

  • Phase 2: Launch and listing. Publish your landing page, meet the listing requirements, and become discoverable on the marketplace while continuing your authentic marketing efforts.

  • Phase 3: Amplified discovery. Once listed, Maven's system amplifies your course's momentum by showing your course to relevant students through homepage browsing and personalized emails.

How students find courses on Maven

Maven has two primary ways students discover new courses:

Homepage discovery

Students browse Maven.com by category and search for courses using keywords related to their interests. Your course appears in these browsing experiences once it meets Maven's listing requirements.

💡 The language you use in your course title, description, and syllabus impacts how discoverable your course is to students searching for specific topics. Clear, descriptive language works better than clever or abstract titles.

Personalized email recommendations

Maven sends weekly emails to students featuring courses that match their interests. These recommendations are highly personalized and consider multiple factors:

  1. Time to cohort start: Courses starting soon get priority in recommendations

  2. Earnings momentum: Courses with recent enrollment activity are promoted more frequently

  3. Individual relevance: Each student sees courses matched to their interests based on their Maven activity and past enrollments

💡 Building early momentum through your own marketing efforts increases your chances of being featured in these personalized recommendations, creating a compounding effect.

Important note: every version of Maven's emails that you see is personalized. This means your course is likely included as a personalized recommendation for a specific group of students, even if you don't see your course in our emails.

Maven's listing requirements: your first milestone

Getting listed on Maven.com is an important milestone that unlocks discovery opportunities. You need to demonstrate traction to achieve listing by getting either 200 leads on your waitlist OR 5 paid enrollments.

By hosting a Lightning Lesson, you should easily get 200 signups by sharing it with your networks and communities. These requirements ensure that courses reaching the marketplace have already validated interest with real students.

Options to build this traction:

  • Launch your course interest survey (which automatically adds respondents to your waitlist)

  • Run Lightning Lessons that showcase your teaching style

  • Share your course landing page with your network once it's published

  • Create lead magnets that attract your ideal students

Other important listing requirements:

  1. Complete your course landing page, including:

    1. Professional headshot (builds trust and credibility)

    2. A polished syllabus

  2. Your cohort must be open for enrollment to be eligible for listing.

The review and listing process

Once you meet all requirements, Maven's team automatically reviews your course within 1-2 business days. We're looking for:

  1. Course quality and originality

  2. Professional presentation with all required images

  3. Clear value proposition for students

  4. Alignment with the career-related, professional skills categories we surface: Product, AI, Marketing & sales, Business & finance, Design, Data & engineering, Leadership & career

Important note: You don't need to wait for marketplace listing to start marketing your course. Once your landing page is published, you can share the direct URL with potential students and begin building momentum.

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