Create an Email Course

[00:00:00]
>> So let's talk quickly about this email course, because I've just suddenly dropped this on you [LAUGH] as another thing you've got to do. So, there are reasons for doing this, right? One is that it leads nicely, because there are some people you have promised to give the report to for free, whether they had sign up for the email or not, right?

[00:00:25]
So anybody who's completed the survey, you've basically turned around to them and said, if you've completed the survey, I'm gonna give you the report, right? Everybody else, they will only get the report if they sign up for your emails. But that group that completed the survey, we also want to add, we want to encourage them to sign up.

[00:00:45]
So, we want to give them a course that packs a little bit more of the report, and that encourages them to sign up. Also, the course is a nice little kind of introduction, if you like, to the report, builds on the report and adds to it. And then the way that the course will work is it's basically what's called a trigger-based campaign.

[00:01:08]
So if somebody signs up today, they will get lesson one tomorrow, lesson two the day after, lesson three the day after. And if someone doesn't sign up for four days, they'll still get one, two, three, four, and those kinds of order. Does that make sense? So, that means that everyone is going through the same initial introduction, okay, no matter when they join.

[00:01:37]
So they're not just being dumped into your mailing list at some random thing, where maybe you're ranting about something that's very time sensitive and not appropriate. Everybody gets that nice structured introduction. So that's why the course is worth doing. In terms of how you create your course, very simple, one email for each of the topics in your report, right?

[00:02:01]
So we went six to eight topics, didn't we? And then you schedule those to go out once a week. So once somebody is subscribed, they get one a week. Now, I know that normally you might not be emailing them more than once a month. But it means to begin with, you're really building that relationship in those early days.

[00:02:19]
So once a week, they get an email from their course. They only need to be about 500 words each. Don't need to be very long. They only need basic formatting to aid a bit scannability. And that's it, that's all there is to the structure of the course. When they finish the course, then they just get your monthly email or your biweekly email.

[00:02:41]
Writing each email, right? Basically, it's really easy. You create a recap of what was said in the report, right? Recap briefly the challenge or piece of advice from the report that you're gonna focus on in that email. You're gonna give a little bit of advice, provide a few practical tips about how to address that challenge, or take them closer to that best practice.

[00:03:06]
And then you're gonna encourage them to contact you if they're struggling or if they've got any questions, so we're beginning to encourage that contact. That's it, right? Really nice and simple. A side I wanna say at this point is with any of this, with the report, with the emails, the whole thing, don't ever hold back.

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Share all the advice that you have freely. Don't worry about people doing it for themselves and not hiring you. People are still gonna reach out to you because they don't have the time or they feel too intimidated by the topic to try it themselves. Don't worry about your competition reading it and copying you, right?

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You're always gonna be a step ahead. People are gonna hire you because they know and like you, not because somebody copied what you did, right? And the other thing is still do not sell. You don't need to sell in those emails, right? There's no need to promote your services actively.

[00:04:05]
Be open about what you do, that's fine. You might wanna recommend to the reader that they might hire somebody to help them with this, but it doesn't have to be you, right? Don't push yourself at all, there's absolutely no need. And so that email series, those first six to eight emails that go out as part of this email course could be utterly automated, all right?

[00:04:35]
People will enroll at different times, but they'll all pass through the same course. And again, I use ConvertKit to do this, which will handle all of that, including, to be honest, building the landing page as well. Right, so that's what you're gonna do from the landing page. People can sign up, they can get the report.

[00:04:55]
And when they get the report, they get instantly. Then over the next few weeks, they get those emails, and then they go onto the normal mailing list. What about those people that took part in the survey or didn't take part in the survey, that cold list that we're contacting, what are we gonna do about them?

[00:05:13]
Well, those people that participated in the survey, we're gonna drop them one last email. And it's gonna make it clear that the email is about the report and showing our appreciation. So our title is gonna be, Your promised report, with a big thank you. And then it's gonna say how much you appreciated them being involved in it and how they'd managed to help turn it into something bigger.

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You're then gonna tell them what the report ended up covering, thanks to their feedback and involvement. You're then gonna actually attach the report to the email, right, as a PDF file, so people can help themselves. Also, if you did do the review, the audit of their site, attach their scores to it as well so they can see their individual scores.

[00:06:06]
And then you wanna just introduce this idea of the email series, what the email series is gonna cover. Finally, you say, if that email course sounds good, you can subscribe for free here. So you're not requiring that group to subscribe to get the report, because that group contributed to the survey, right?

[00:06:30]
So you promised you'd give it to them, you're giving it to them, right? You're hoping they will also sign up to the email course as well, but there's no guarantee. For everybody else, if they want the report, they have to sign up for the email course, right? So they just get a variation, which is very similar.

[00:06:48]
It just says, if you wanna download the report, get the email course, click here, okay? Right, so we got a landing page. We told a load of people about it. Hopefully, you've now got some sign ups, people who've gone in to get the report, or to get the email course, or to get both.

[00:07:07]
So they're in there. There are now on our list. They're beginning to move through that email course very slowly. In the meantime, what are you gonna do? Now, you've got to start promoting that report, any opportunity you get.