Are you wondering how to get more students for your online course? Or are you just getting started with selling online courses and looking for the best ways to promote them?
Either way, one of the most important steps in marketing an online course is to create an email list. An email list is an automated email sent to your subscribers with new content to keep them in the know about your brand or site.
The goal of your online course is to help people accomplish their goals, but how do you get the word out? You’ve come to the right place.
Creating an email list is the first step toward attracting subscribers. After that comes other stuff, such as building a website. Your business will succeed if you get people on your list as soon as possible.
Besides, every online course creator knows that having an email list is a must, but how do you create one when you don’t have any customers yet? Here are tips for starting your own email list before you even have your first student.
1. Create a Lead Magnet
Creating an email list for your online course is straightforward.
First, you need to create a lead magnet that will attract your ideal students to sign up. This can be anything from a checklist, a cheat sheet, or even a chapter from your full course.
A lead magnet is a small piece of content that will be relevant to your product, but just provides a small taste of your best material.
Users will “opt-in” to your email address to access this content. A lead magnet aims to accomplish one thing—convince people to sign up for your email list.
By offering helpful information such as guides, eBooks, and checklists, you can start building an audience that will likely return again and again for your expertise.
Lead magnets are a common way to grow email lists and for good reason. If you create something so good, people will want to exchange their contact information for it.
2. Highlight Specific Problem(s) You Intend to Solve
Another important tip in creating an online course is determining your intended audience, the problem you intend to solve, and highlighting the specific problem you intend to solve with your online course.
When creating an online course, you have to remember that your potential students don’t know who you are and what value you offer. They won’t be able to find your course unless you let them know about it and give them a reason to sign up for it.
Online courses are generally expensive, and it’s your job as the owner to prove why your course is worth their money. If the users don’t see value in your course, they are unlikely to spend their money on it.
The best way to show that your course is worth the investment is to give them a free sort of taste of what they can expect from the rest of your course.
3. Create a Sense of Urgency by Using a Call to Action Learners Can’t Resist
Do you want to grow your email list every day with people who are passionate about taking your course? Do you want an email list filled with eager students who can’t wait for your class to start? Create a sense of urgency by using a call to action that learners can’t resist.
One of the biggest mistakes course creators make is not creating a clear call to action. Sure, you want learners to sign up for your email list, but what exactly do you want them to click on? The better the call to action, the more likely they are to do it.
If you want to automatically attract interested students to your course, you need to include a call to action that entices them.
For example, if you are offering a free trial, explain the benefits of the trial and emphasize that it is available for “a limited time only.”
4. Build Anticipation Before Launching your Online Course
If you’re looking to build a community for your online course (and you really should be), then it all starts with growing an email list. Before you get started on the content for your online course, you’ll want to do some prep work to get yourself ready to launch it.
One of the things that I always recommend is that you build anticipation before launching your online course.
Building anticipation before you launch a course can help out in a lot of different ways, including making sure you get as much traffic to your launch as possible.
Creating an email list while building anticipation for your course is a smart move. It will help you market your course more effectively when you do launch, and it’ll also help you understand your audience better.
5. Use an Automation Email Service Provider
Creating an email list isn’t hard if you follow these steps. Once you set up the course, you’ll want to learn the best way to make sure students get regular announcements about the course, resources for their class, experiences of previous students, and other updates.
That’s where email lists come in. With a good email service provider, you can build a list with ease.
Using an automated email service provider will allow you to send out multiple emails in a sequence and to track and measure the performance of each email over time.
Automating transactional emails makes it easier for you to stay in touch with customers and potential customers by sending information about your business regularly. The more often you stay in touch, the more likely you are to keep their interest.
6. Leverage Social Media Shout-Outs
One way to create buzz around your online course is to leverage social networking sites. Keep in mind that people are more likely to take recommendations from their friends and colleagues. So you should learn how to leverage social media shout-outs like a pro.
Keep an eye out for when other related accounts give shout-outs for an event or product launch. You can then contact the admin to ask them if you can swap with them.
This can be very effective at helping grow both of your email lists. It’s also a great way of giving back and helping each other.
Each person can cross-promote the other’s content on their social media channels while creating valuable content that resonates with both sets of audiences. However, to do this, you need to make sure your content is valuable and relevant to each audience.
7. Offer Extremely Valuable Content
Creating an email list for an online course might seem overwhelming, but it’s not, as long as you have a plan. Want to create an email list for your online course?
Start by creating a super valuable piece of content that you offer your visitors in exchange for their personal information (like an email address).
Also, decide how your course will be structured. Will you include video lectures and downloadable slides? Is there a project or quiz at the end of the course?
Next, create a welcome email that introduces yourself to your students and reiterates what they’ll learn in the course.
If you’ve thought carefully about what your course is going to cover, then you’ll likely have a good idea of the types of problems your course students will be trying to solve. It’s these problems that can be used to create evergreen content for use in your email opt-in.
8. Add Forms and Landing Pages
One of the best ways to build your email list is to include a signup form on your website and/or landing page. A form may not seem like a big deal, but it can make a huge difference in building your customer list and marketing tactics.
Another thing to think about is building a landing page. You can use a landing page to send people to promote your online course. Once they land on your page, they will immediately want to sign up for your course.
You can use a widget to promote your form and landing page on your website.
9. Add a Bonus or Discount on Signup
Your email list is one of the most important assets you will create for your online course. Keep in mind that as you build your email list, most of your subscribers won’t be ready to buy.
But, it’s also these subscribers who will ultimately become buyers if they enjoy your content. Encourage them to stay engaged with your content by offering freebies or special discounts and bonuses to subscribers only.
Offering a small discount or bonus for signing up to your email list early is a great way to pique the interest of potential students. You can always extend it past the launch date, but the early bird gets the worm.
Bonuses can be free webinars, worksheets, and more that give prospective learners insight into what they can expect if they enroll in the course.
Incentivize them with a bonus that’s right for your audience, and urge them to sign up before the courses start to get them while they’re interested.
10. Host a Webinar
One of the best ways to start your email list is by hosting a webinar. Webinars are fun and engaging, and, if you plan them, can lead you to a massive email list. However, it can be overwhelming. How do you fill out a webinar? What should it be about? What else needs to be done?
If you’re new to hosting webinars, start by watching some of your favorite experts (other course creators) and noting what they’re doing that inspires you.
Also, make sure to attend a webinar that uses major webinar platforms. This will help you get to know the features available and make you a more informed consumer.
11. Don’t Send Too Many Emails
The more emails you send to your audience, the more likely they will become desensitized to them and opt out of your email list. Think about it—how often do you open an email from a brand you haven’t heard of recently?
Do not send more than two emails per week to your list.
A successful email strategy does not try to increase revenue by sending many emails every day. This ends up as spam, and subscribers will unsubscribe faster than you can say “spam” (if it makes it to their inbox).
FAQs
Will my online course business still thrive without an email list?
You can make money with your online course, even if you don’t have an email list. However, the benefits of building your email list are huge.
For example, an email list allows you to send out weekly lessons to students before they order your course.
You can then direct these students back to your sales page when they’re ready to purchase, which will lead to more sales.
Who will be the target audience for my email list?
Your target audience is anyone who is interested in your online course but hasn’t signed up yet. You want to draw them in and make them feel like they’re missing out on something big by not signing up yet.
Final Thoughts
Creating an email list for an online course is one of the most beneficial steps you can take early in the launch process.
Not only does it provide you with the opportunity to engage interested students, but it will also build your brand and instill a sense of community as prospects become customers.
Hopefully, this has given you plenty of ideas and tips for how you can begin to create your email list from scratch.
Of course, it’s not an overnight process, but if you take the time to build up an audience over time, the reward will be well worth it. And remember: the key to building a successful email list is giving people a reason to want to stay subscribed.
Combining a worthwhile course with your email list should help you do that—and it will also help create a powerful marketing channel for your business.
Now that you know how to create an email list for your online course, you should also learn how to get honest feedback on your online course. As a result, you’ll discover what’s currently working on your online course and what needs improvement.
Thank you for reading.
