The main goal of every E-Learning website is to sell online courses. Creating valuable courses for your audience is just half of the battle. The real struggle is promoting your course to drive more sales. One of the most profitable strategies out there is also the most simple: e-mail.
In this article, we’ll explain why e-mail marketing is still so effective.
Building e-mail Database
Building an e-mail list is the first step of any e-mail marketing campaign. Your recipients should be categorized into three groups:
- Cold Traffic – List of people who have never purchased an online course
- List of existing customers who recently purchased
- List of people who have bought courses for extended periods of time
Here’s a few popular methods of how to actually build a database:
- Purchasing an e-mail list – A reliable and fast method to start off with the first e-mail campaign. Your messages should offer a clear opt-out feature.
- Use of Pop-ups – Pop-ups can be annoying but they can also do a good job of grabbing your attention. Pop-ups are also more flexible than you might think in terms of where and how they appear. For example, they can be shown to exclusively prospects, or you can show a different one for returning audiences, etc.
- Creating valuable free content – You can generate leads by providing valuable, free content through blogs, webinars, podcasts, or E-books, all in exchange for the e-mail addresses.
e-mail Content Strategy
It’s critical to always remember that E-Learning courses are a solution to a problem. Whether they’re looking to enhance existing skills or learn new ones, your audience will use your courses to improve some aspect of their personal or professional lives. This is why it’s essential that you clearly state the benefits of your courses in your messages.
Engaging cold traffic is tough because they’ve never heard of you. So, use your subject line and content to explain who you are and why you are e-mailing them. The subject line should be short, and the content should aim to build trust, not make a sale.
For this type of traffic, it’s best to provide a clear CTA offering a percentage off your first course. (e.g. Get 20% Off Your First Course).
The second list of recently acquired customers should be updated about upcoming courses, events, and promotions. The best way to send content to this audience is via newsletter.
The most important group from your e-mail database is your long-time customers. Thus, the subject line should be personal, and the content should provide exclusive offers to show how much you value their business. You can also ask these customers to leave a review or testimonial, which have proven to play a major role in the decision to purchase a course.
Optimizing your landing page
Your e-mail efforts will be useless if your landing page does not maintain the user’s attention and provide sufficient information about your course. However, your landing page should only list the primary benefits of signing up for your course, without too much detail. You should also be very clear about your pricing, discounts, and the action required for signing up.
Conclusion
If used correctly, e-mail marketing can be one of the most profitable channels for building sales and customer engagement.
I hope this strategic approach of building your e-mail database, content strategy, and optimizing your landing page helps you reach a wider audience!
