How to Use the ECourse in Your Email Marketing Campaign

Trying to get more potential customers to brand up for your email marketing opt-in list?

There are several ways to gather visitors to “opt-in” or give you their email address and permission to use it. All of them come down to just one thing. You have to offer the visitor something they perceive as having value to them.

This article is about using ecourses to get visitors to opt-in and enhance your email marketing campaign. An ecourse is information, in the form of a lesson delivered in parts via email.

The value of an ecourse from the stand point of the customer is, it gives them information that they’re looking for at no cost to them. All they have to do is give you their name and email address. then just click and read. They benefit from the information and your email marketing.

The value to the provider is, it gives you the chance to start sending a potential customer emails. The starting point of all the components necessary for a successful opt-in email marketing campaign. That’s all those opportunities to gain their trust, build a relationship, construct them familiar with your name.

Maybe plug a product or service of yours (but only if it ties in directly with the basic concept of the ecourse) and just in general keep them thinking of you. That’s the main objective of a kindly email marketing campaign. And there is of course, the rest of the email the ecourse comes in to slip in some other diminutive bits and pieces of advertising. Just remember to hold it subtle. No hard selling allowed.

You want to choose a topic for your ecourse that you know enough about to be able to offer valuable (meaning useful, correct, up to date, and that they can’t pick up on every cyber street corner) information. And obviously, you need a topic that relates to your products or services, and targets your current and potential customers. A well targeted email marketing campaign is much more likely to succeed.

Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into sub-topics. Then offer it as a free 3, 7, 10, or 15 day course. Each email offering a different sub-topic. Your ecourse mailings don’t have to be daily. You could mail a smaller ecourse out weekly or at other preset intervals.

You should have the ecourse already entered into your email autoresponder (you do have one don’t you? email marketing 101). Email autoresponders are a vital part of email marketing. Without one, you’ll be sending out everything by hand. And if your email marketing campaign is successful, that will be very time entertaining. Aweber and GetResponse are two of the best and most reliable. But there are many others available. Using your favorite search engine will show you plenty of choices. Just be sure to glance closely at what you get. My article “Are You Ready To Learn About Email Autoresponders? ” has more information on the value of an email autoresponder in your email marketing campaign.

You should let your opt-in subscriber know in reach that you use a double opt-in system (which most email autoresponders now use) for your email marketing. A good place for that is on the thank you page they recognize fair after they give you their information. Interpret that they will be receiving a confirmation email within a few minutes. After confirming their address, the first lesson should be received within an hour. Or they should receive an email telling them their subscription has been confirmed and when the first lesson will be arriving. Since part of your email marketing campaign success depends on them looking forward to reading your emails, don’t leave them wondering when they will arrive.

The subject line of every email should contain the course title and the lesson number. And inside the email, the same information along with your name should be included.

The first topic should include a welcome message, a thanks for signing up, maybe a reminder of where they signed up and an explanation of what’s to follow. You want to give them a brief over view of the course. It should sound enticing. Get the point across again that you’re offering free, quality information. Information they will find of great value. Give some reasons for it’s value. Or ways they will be able to use this new knowledge.

With every lesson, include the lesson number, topic title, information about your company and its services or products. At the end, include a few comments about the next lesson to entice the subscriber to continue reading the lessons.

Make sure each topic contains essential and valuable information, and leaves the visitor eager to read more. A free ecourse is not the time for a hard sell. Otherwise, the ecourse will be seen as just a ploy to get the reader to catch something. Which may result in losing a possible long term customer. Leave the real selling to later email marketing mailings.

While delivering this first ecourse, I wouldn’t suggest bombarding the reader with a lot of other emails, but, if you happen upon something you truly think they might be interested in…well, you do have their permission to send them emails after all. But only if you believe it’s something they really might be interested in. Not just something you want to sell. Don’t send them everything you have just because they signed up for a free ecourse. And at the end of the ecourse, unless they let you know otherwise, you can continue to send them things you mediate will interest them. But for now, put them in your subtle email marketing section.

If you have more than one ecourse to offer, the end of one is a good time to offer another. If nothing else, it might keep them reading your emails. If you’ve given them edifying value for their time spent reading and have done a reliable job building the trust and basic foundation of a good relationship, then another ecourse, and another one after that, will just continue building that relationship. Chances are you will gain a valued customer for life. And I can’t stress enough, that IS the purpose of a your email marketing campaign.

An email marketing campaign that continues to offer them something of value for free, builds worthy relationships and trust worthy better than an email marketing campaign that consists only of attempts to sell. Read “How To Build The Foundation Of A Successful Email Marketing Campaign” for more on this.

The most difficult thing about an ecourse is writing it. And now I know you’re saying “No kidding, really? Now tell me something I didn’t know”. But it’s really not as hard as you might at first judge. There are private label rights (PLR) eBooks and articles that you can find all over the Internet (you can of course, commence with my site. I won’t mind) that you can use to get you started.

You don’t want to just put together stuff others have written, slap your name on it, call it an ecourse and send it out. Even though PLR gives you permission to do that, it will most likely destroy up being the exact same thing hundreds if not thousands of others are offering.

What you can do though, is get the knowledge, some ideas and even some wording (I mean lets face it, some people can put words together so much nicer than the rest of us) and go from there.

If you absolutely can not arrive up with your own, there are full ecourses you can buy and claim as your own. Some that aren’t sold to thousands and thousand of others. Or you could get a freelance writer to write one for you. They really don’t cost as much as you might think.. They can do an excellent job and have no problem with you putting your name on their work. No one will ever know.

The main thing is, a free ecourse is a very effective business tool. They’re an excellent way to get opt-in subscribers. And opt-in subscribers are the foundation of your email marketing campaign. Try one. I think you’ll be glad you did. Let me know how your ecourse helps your email marketing campaign and your opt-in list building.