7 Strategies To Build An Email List For Online Courses (2023)

One cannot ignore the importance of building an email list as a tool for marketing online courses. Email marketing has the highest ROI among all marketing channels - a dollar spent is equal to $42 earned.

To build an email list, you need to start by attracting visitors to your website or landing page. Utilize the marketing funnel to gain an audience and sell courses online. Build an audience using the marketing funnel for your online course.

Once you have an audience, here are 7 effective strategies you can use to build an email list.

7 Effective Strategies to Build an Email List

1. Create Pop-ups

Pop-ups have an average conversion rate of 11.09%, which can significantly contribute to your email list. By offering an incentive to sign up, such as a discount or exclusive content, you can encourage visitors to provide their email addresses.

• Slide-in pop-ups: These are a type of pop-ups that slide in from the side of the screen, most often after a user has spent a certain amount of time on the website. They are subtle in nature and less obtrusive - not blocking the website’s content. Slide in pop-ups effectively grab the user's attention and encourage sign-ups.

• Timed pop-ups: Timed pop-ups appear after a set amount of time has passed. They are best at capturing the user’s attention who is already engaged with your website and won’t mind sharing their email IDs for the benefit of extra information.
  
• Exit intent pop-ups: Exit intent pop-ups are triggered when a user moves their mouse cursor outside the website window with an intention of leaving. Exit intent pop-ups are great at grabbing the attention of users and offering them an incentive to sign up for your email list before they go.

2. Create a lead magnet

50% of marketers who use lead magnets to encourage signups report higher conversion rates. A lead magnet is a valuable free resource that solves a part of the larger problem you are solving through your course. They are often in the form of an e-book, a workbook, a cheat sheet, etc.

While being ‘quick fixes’ most often, lead magnets are less threatening, requiring lower commitment than, say, an immediate purchase. The users are tempted to grab the resource in exchange for their email IDs. Once you have created a lead magnet, you can promote your online courses on your website, social media, and other marketing channels to attract new subscribers to your email list.

3. Offer Discounts and Deals

Offering a special promotion, such as a discount code or exclusive sale, on your CTAs can be a compelling reason for your audience to provide their email addresses. People love a good deal, and most would not want to miss out on an offer to save money on your online course. Make sure that the offer, while being relevant, also aligns with your overall marketing goals.

Additionally, you should promote the offer through various channels, such as on your website, social media, or ads, to reach as many potential subscribers as possible.

4. Place an email sign-up form at the sidebar and the footer

When a user interacts with your website, a fixed sign-up form can be an effective method to draw their attention toward the incentive. Keep in mind that a generic ‘sign up for my newsletter’ won’t do as well as ‘Sign up to get the 3 most effective hacks to increase your productivity.’

Hence, the words you use and the offer you make is the key. But this method has the potential to generate a sustained number of email sign-ups consistently.

5. Create Quizzes

In an experiment, the company, Futrli, found that 85% of the people participating in their display quiz converted into leads. That’s the power of using Quizzes as an effective list-building strategy. Introduce an element of fun and make your audience feel more comfortable by getting them to participate in a quiz. People love challenging themselves and seeing how they perform.

However, the catch here is they can see the results only after signing up with their email address. You may use a quiz related to the course topic or something light and entertaining.

Not all course-selling platforms allow you to create quizzes to engage your audience. Check out our top picks of Platforms for Creating and Selling Online Courses.

6. Create Squeeze Pages

Create a resource so irresistible that your audience will have to part with their Email IDs to view the content. As suggested by the name, you are squeezing the information out of a visitor to gain access to the desired content. Squeeze pages are often considered to be the most popular landing pages.

Note that the exit rates on squeeze pages can be exceptionally high, but as long as you have a high no. of conversions, you shouldn’t be worrying much about it. You can, of course, offer the visitor the option to visit other pages on your website or blog and see other helpful information.

7. Add personalized CTA to each blog or landing pages

Adding CTAs or Call To Action Buttons is an effective email list-building strategy. Honestly, all the strategies we discussed above have to be supported by a persuasive CTA. However, a personalized call to action on each blog page can feel more helpful and valuable to your visitors.

A visitor is more likely to sign up when your CTA offers them something related to the page they are already engaging with.

Next Steps

Creating an email list becomes 10X easier if you have your own website. Not only will you be able to implement all of the above strategies, but it will also help you stand out as a brand among your competitors.

This is where Miho can help. Miho is a platform designed exclusively for online course creators. Miho allows you to create, sell, and market your online courses all in one place, setting you up for the win. You can get a 14-day free trial when you signup today.