7 Emails You Need to Send to Promote Your Online Course

Studies show that email marketing is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than social media marketing, with 306 billion emails sent every day!

And for good reason!

The contacts in your email list are there by choice. They want to receive emails from you, and they are more inclined to purchase from you.

Promoting your online course via email marketing is also much cheaper than other types of advertising; all you need is an email marketing software that usually comes at a low monthly subscription cost.

This makes email marketing much easier to scale, and since you are talking directly to a targeted audience, you get to personalize your message to increase conversions!

All of this sounds great, but how exactly can you structure your emails?

In today's article, we will share the most necessary emails you should send, specifically if you are selling online courses.

We will cover both promotional emails you can send to new leads, both emails directed to your existing customers. Why should you bother to email your past and existing customers who already bought from you?

Your past and present students already purchased from you, they already know your brand, your teaching style and they experienced the value of your online course firsthand. These customers are more likely to purchase from you again if you run future promotions or up-sells.

Email marketing is the perfect medium to target your past and current customers, and it is super easy.

So let's see what some important emails you can't miss. If you need more in-depth information about how email marketing works and how to get started, check out this article from our blog first: Guide to Email Marketing to Promote and Sell an Online Course

#1: Informative, Sales-Free Emails

Why do people sign-up for your newsletter? Sure they expect to receive your sales emails about future promotions, but they also want to receive valuable information as they consider you an expert in your field.

So it's time to deliver!

It's crucial to maintain a balance between sending sales emails and valuable, informative emails. For example, for every three informative emails, you can send one sales email.

If you ask your leads to buy in every email you send, they will associate you emailing them with more salesy, spammy content- and you don't want this.

You want your contacts to be excited when they receive an email from you, since you constantly give out valuable tips and information for free.

Sending only one informative email will not cut it; you need to create a consistent schedule. An email sequence or automation can help. For example, you can set up an automation for new leads right after they sign up for your newsletter, where they receive one email each week packed with valuable content.

#2. Promotional Emails

Then, of course, we have our sales emails.

This is where you ask your contacts to purchase from you. As we specified before, you should balance these types of emails with other more informative, value-packed communications.

That said, don't be afraid to ask your leads to purchase from you.

After all, they decided to sign up for your newsletter for a reason: they are interested in your brand and what you are teaching.

As in the case of the informational emails, sending one promotional email is not enough. If you are running a promotion or offering a discount, try to build up excitement by planning an email campaign around it. You can send a sequence of emails like this one:

Email 1: A few days or a week before your event (could be a new launch, a promotion etc...) send an email teasing your audience and informing them that "something big" is coming

Email 2: Announce the promotion, ideally time-limited to create urgency.

Email 3: Announcement n.2 (you can send this to leads who did not open your first email)

Email 4: Inform your leads that your promotion is coming to an end

The above is just an example of an email sequence to announce a big event, and it should change depending on your audience, type of promotion and goals.

#3: Abandoned Cart Email

Abandoned cart emails are follow-up emails sent to potential customers who added some product to their shopping cart but didn’t complete the purchase. These are reminder emails sent to people to remind them about the product they left behind.

What is great about abandoned cart emails is that you get the chance to recapture that potentially lost revenue and increase sales.

Studies show that 10.7% of customers that receive abandoned cart emails return to complete the purchase. That's a significant amount of revenue simply by sending an email that most of the time is automated!

To make it even more powerful, you could send a second abandoned cart email, maybe a couple of days after the first one, offering a discount or some added value to the order.

#4: Welcome Email

As the name suggests, welcome emails are the first email a new contact receives after subscribing.

This type of email can be a valuable tool for your marketing campaigns. Welcome emails have great open rates.

Welcome emails tend to be opened more than other types of communications, which makes them a great place to set the tone of your email marketing and start engaging your new leads.

Welcome emails sent after someone enroll in your online course are equally important. Here you can share valuable information about your course, what your students should expect and a few tips on how to get the most from your program.

#5: "Just Checking in" Emails

A common mistake that online course creators make is to stop engaging with their students once they make a sale. Your first sale is only the beginning of your relationship with your customers.

Maintaining a relationship with existing customers has so many benefits. First of all, you want your customers to purchase from you again. You also want your students to get value from your online course, which can only be done if they are engaged and actually complete your program.

Emailing your students once in a while after they purchase your course can help you create engagement.

So why not send a quick email to check in with them, see if they have any questions about your course content, offer the chance to interact with you and so on.

This type of email also gives you the chance to collect feedback about your online course. You can use this information to improve the quality of your content according to your students' needs.

So it's a win-win for you and your customers.

#6: Review Request Email

Another extremely important email to not forget about is the one where you ask your customers to leave a review.

This email should be sent right after your students have completed your online course. This is the time where ideally your students have reached their goals thanks to your program, and the memory is still fresh for them to review your course properly.

Heights Platform lets you visualize the progress of your students so you know when to send this email.

Another great time to ask for a review is after you've just helped a customer with a problem or question they had while that good experience is fresh in their mind.

Collecting positive reviews can significantly help you increase your sales by proving social proof to other potential customers who are considering buying your program.

If you need more inspiration for ways to collect reviews, check out this article from our blog: 7 Quick Tips to Collect Reviews Easily and Increase Social Proof in Your Online Course.

#7: Future Promotion to Past Students

Your marketing emails should not only be addressed to new leads. Consider sending promotional emails specifically to your past students, by segmenting your contacts.

In Heights Platform you can send email campaigns to a selected group of students according to which product they bought. So if one day you decide to create a new online course, or offer a different type of service, you can contact your past students who purchased a similar course to inform them about your new launch!

This is an extremely powerful way of promotion, as your current and past students are more likely to buy from you again!

Conclusion

Sending emails to potential customers and current students can help you promote your online course, increase sales, foster engagement and receive valuable feedback from your students.

The ones described in the article are some of the most important emails for any online course creator.

Heights Platform lets you send announcements to your students, segment your customers into groups and send targeted emails, automate emails with each challenge lesson release, and even send private messages to your students.