Your course is all set and ready to go. Hooray!
Now what?
Well, it’s time to promote it, but also to enhance the learning experience for your students.
One of the best ways to do that is to utilise email marketing.
Why email?
Well, it is a familiar and effective medium that aligns with the professionalism of an online course.
So, how can you use email marketing to boost your online course? Let’s answer that very question now.
Why Email Marketing?
Email marketing has one of the highest ROIs of any direct marketing tool (4,200%). But while email marketing is a great tool for selling online courses, it can also be used to improve the client experience for your existing customers.
The numbers don’t lie, and the statistics for email marketing are pretty compelling:
- Email generates $42 for every $1 spent, which equates to an ROI of 4,200% (Hubspot, 2022)
- More than 306 billion emails are sent and received each day (Statista, 2021)
- Nearly 22% of all email campaigns are opened within the first hour of sending (GetResponse, 2020)
- Emails sent by education businesses have the second highest open rate at 34.1% (Constant Contact, 2021)
- A whopping 99% of email users check their inbox every day, with some checking 20 times a day (OptinMonster, 2020)
Pretty impressive numbers, right?
I’m sure you’ll want a piece of that action for your online course.
What Is Email Marketing?
Before we delve too deeply into the topic, let’s cover the basics - what is email marketing?
Email marketing is a form of direct marketing (which is where you sell products or services directly to the consumer). It involves sending regular emails to your list of subscribers that includes valuable content, newsletters, and sales information.
When it comes to eCourse marketing, you will often hear email marketing referred to as a sales funnel. A sales funnel is a sequence of emails that takes your prospective customer through several stages (the funnel), with each stage moving your prospective customer closer to making a purchase.
The great thing about email marketing is that it can do much more than just provide sales. It can also boost the client experience, improve brand awareness and create a sense of community.
How Can Email Marketing Increase Online Course Sales?
Regular email marketing can increase brand awareness and customer relationships, which makes customers more likely to purchase from you.
You don't just want to send any old emails though. Emails that have interesting content for your customers will get them used to and excited about seeing your emails in their inbox. When it’s time to sell your course, they’ll be much more likely to open and read your emails.
Then, once they’re a customer, you can use email marketing to personalise their experience and make them feel valued.
Don’t Forget About Previous Customers
Some of your best sales can come from your previous customers as they already know, like and trust your brand. And list segmentation can help you target those previous customers effectively.
List segmentation is when you break your list of email subscribers into different segments depending on what they are interested in or what stage of the customer journey they’re at. Marketers who use segmented campaigns see as much as a 760% increase in revenue (Hubspot).
The most common list segmentation is to break your list into those you’ve sold to in the past, and those that haven’t been customers yet.
Emailing previous or existing customers as though they’ve never purchased from you can make emails seem impersonal. On the other hand, sending them emails that recognise that they’ve already purchased from you will make them feel appreciated and more likely to recommend you or purchase from you again in the future.
Make Your Content Compelling
To get someone to take action from an email, the content of the email needs to be compelling.
The best way to make your content compelling is to delve into your ideal client avatar. You can also do some thorough market research to get clear on what your customers want to hear about, what their needs are, and what problem you can solve for them.
If you’re not clear on those yet and already have an email list? Ask them what they want to hear about! You could do this as a short survey, or use a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of your email.
For example:
“Did you find this email useful? Hit reply and let me know what else you’d like to learn about ”.
Boosting Their Client Experience
We know that email is a great channel for creating sales and action on your course. But, it is also a fantastic way to nurture existing customer relationships.
Once someone has bought your course, you can use email marketing to improve the client experience as they work through the content. Don’t just send the initial email with their log-in information and then disappear. Send emails regularly as they work through.
Soon after the course begins, send an email to check in. Make sure that they’re enjoying the course, and use a CTA that encourages them to reach out if they have any questions.
Monitor their progress through your course. If it looks like they might have stalled partway through, email them to check in. You can automate this process with an online course provider such as Thinkific which will flag inactivity and automatically send out a customised email.
Then, when they’ve completed the course, make sure to check in and ask them how it went. It’s totally fine to ask for a review or honest feedback. This is also a great place to upsell them to your other products if you feel it is appropriate.
So, as you can see email marketing is a great sales tool for online courses, but it can also be used for so much more than that. If you’re ready to take your client experience and course sales to the next level, get in touch now to find out more about how I can support your email marketing campaign.
If you’re interested in setting up a course or want to know more about how it all works, sign up for your FREE four-page online course planning checklist.
Perhaps you just want to get started on your online course, then my 90 min Zoom Online Course Planning Session might be just what you need.
Checkout my Online Course Creation Packages:
Online Course Planning Session
Online Course Setup Package
Online Course Complete Package
Would you like to check out my preferred online course platform, here's a one month free trial of Thinkific (note this is an affiliate link).
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Author
Debbie Mills Robertson
Online Course Creation | Email Marketing | Website Design
debbie@taskdiva.co.nz
027 345 7000
