Two months ago, I created a free 28-day email course.
I just wanted to test if there’s any interest out there for the type of insights that might I have to share if I compiled them into an email course.
After all—email marketing is still very much underrated.
I did have a one-week email course five years ago, but that was before I had an actual email list to speak of.
Now that the email course has been live for a while, I want to share what I’ve learned so far:
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 put up 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, and this 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
Besides Mailchimp, I often recommend AWeber and Infusionsoft.
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 email often do.
How I Managed To Promote the Email Course
I promoted the email course with 20 USD on Facebook and did a send-out to my email list, but you could do so much more, of course.
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 so far, and I’ve manually unsubscribed about 20+ people. And only seven people have emailed me about having technical difficulties of various sorts.
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” — and not in a pleasant way.
For some reason, they’ve all been male Swedish digital marketers between 35-45 who seemed to be angry with me for sharing knowledge for free. Why they bothered to sign up will remain an irony, I guess.
I unsubscribed them with a polite notice explaining why I did so.
Yes, I Would Definitely 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 taking it, then you’ve got yourself a great marketing asset!
Update 2020-12-18: The email course is unpublished to be updated—and for some much-needed copy-editing.
