Two months ago, I created a free 28-day email course.
I just wanted to test if there’s any interest in the type of insights I might have to share if I compiled them into an email course.
After all — email communications are still very much underrated.
I had a one-week email course five years ago, but that was before I had an actual email list. Now that the email course has been live for a while, I want to share what I’ve learned.
Here we go:
Why I Wanted To Convey Ideas Instead of To-Do’s
I wanted my email lessons to serve as short but inspiring aha moments.
I know that sending 28 emails for 28 days straight is quite a big ask.
I, therefore, didn’t want to send out stuff that would feel like work but rather ideas or concepts. I wanted to share insights that would give the reader a boost of energy and inspiration and a notion of “yeah, I could do that”.
How I Managed To Get Enough Content for the Course
It took me the better part of a working day to write 20 drafts.
It also took me an hour to create a landing page and tweak some menu items and links on the blog.
Then I published an early draft of the course to get a few sign-ups, which forced me (in a good way!) to finalize all those 28 emails in time.
Please note: If you’re charging for the course, invest in a professional to proofread and copy-edit your email course. My email course was free, but I still regret not doing this.
Setting Up an Email Automation Drip Was Easy
The tool setup couldn’t be any easier. I created an automated responder in Mailchimp. Very easy to use and very easy to set up.
I used an elementary template because most email send-outs do better when they look like emails often do.
Recommendation: I use Mailchimp as my default email list manager.
How I Managed To Promote the Email Course
I promoted the email course with 20 USD on Facebook and sent it to my email list, but you could do so much more.
Results: In less than 60 days, 1,452 participants have signed up for the email course (744 of those are not already on my blog email list).
I’ve only had 12 unsubscribers and manually unsubscribed about 20+ people. And only seven people have emailed me about various technical difficulties.
I Unsubscribed Competitors Behaving Like Douchebags
Unsubscribe people who misbehave — it’s your list and your giveaways.
A few people emailed me back to give me “advice”:
For some reason, they’ve all been male Swedish digital marketers aged 35 – 45 who seemed angry with me for sharing knowledge. Why they bothered to sign up will remain an irony, I guess.
I unsubscribed them with a polite notice explaining why I did so.
Recommendation: I use Email List Validation to protect my sender reputation by keeping my lists free from bouncing emails.
Yes, I Would Consider Doing Another Course
All in all, I think creating an email course like this was worth the effort.
If you’re a B2B company, consider letting your experts share their best advice in a giveaway course for sign-ups. (And no, it doesn’t have to be 28 days long!)
As long as people taking your course are willing to recommend it after it, you’ve got yourself a great marketing asset!
Please support my blog by sharing it with other PR- and communication professionals. For questions or PR support, contact me via jerry@spinfactory.com.
Update 2020-12-18: The email course is now unpublished since it’s due for an update.