Marketing your online courses by email? Here are 8 tips to help you grow a customer base that's responsive and engaged with your emails.

8 Tips for Growing a Meaningful Email List

Got emails? Yeah, that's the norm. If email is your primary method for marketing your online courses, it can be discouraging to know that inboxes are so saturated.

But don't be dismayed! You can yet make a strong appearance in the inbox world.

Over the years, Pathwright has had uncommonly high open rates on messages:

Currently, our average email open rate is 53.44% (with the lowest being 19% and the highest being 100%).

In comparison, the average open rate for the education industry as a whole is only 21.80% according to MailChimp's research. The credit for those numbers goes to our founders and team who have been communicating with care for years.

Today, I want to share with you 8 essential things I believe have grown our meaningful customer base and may help you as you begin (or continue) growing yours:

1. Only email people who want to get your emails.

We sent an email out at the beginning of this year, and something went terribly wrong on the technical side of things. A lot of people who didn't want our email, got it. I was mortified because I was the person who hit the "send" button, and this is the number one rule for good emails:

Don't send marketing emails to people who haven't asked for (or at minimum OK'd) your marketing emails.

Not only is it incredibly annoying to the recipient, but you're also not likely to meet your goals in doing so. (In all probability, it will be nominated for a mass delete.)

This is more challenging when you're just getting started and building your email list, but the wait is worth it. You're building quality relationships with people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

Pathwright Tip: Create a custom pitch page for your account to really highlight what you're offering. You can include a "Sign-Up" or "Subscribe" button throughout the page with the pitch. For example, the call-to-action might be to "Sign-up for our newsletter to learn more about the 6-week online program."

While emails should be strategic and designed with a goal and purpose in mind, they don't have to be self-centered.

For example, let's say that your short-term goal is to build an email list. You also want to let everyone know about your new online courses, so you can get a lot of enrollments (woohoo!). Rooted in that is likely a love for teaching and helping people and a desire to do something you really enjoy full-time.

Your surface and root goals would look like this:

Your surface goals: Build an email list and get enrollments.

Your root goals: Help others grow and make a living, so you can keep doing what you love.

Say, in comparison, these are your learners' surface and root needs:

Your learners' surface needs: Determine if your course is going to fulfill the need and be worth the investment of their time and $$.

Your learners' root need: Grow personally or professionally by filling a current knowledge gap, so they can do what they love.

Your surface goal and your learners' surface need are very different, but your root goal and their root need are very similar.

By focusing strategy and email communication around the learners' needs, especially their root needs, you'll find that you reach your own root goals in the long-run.

While you want to let your customers know about new learning opportunities, there are limits. If your CRM (Mailchimp, Hubspot, etc.) shows that someone hasn't opened an email you've sent, but you know this person is interested in the content (say, they requested information on the topic), then you may email them again a couple of times.

They may be a messy inbox person and just haven't seen it. However, after emailing 3 or 4 times, if they still haven't opened the email, wait on sending further communication and let them reach out if they're still interested.

Mind the golden rule: If you don't want to be taken advantage of or have your privacy jeopardized, then best not to do that to anyone else.

Automated emails with custom data fields can be extremely useful for systematizing things and being consistent. However, as you adopt new technologies and ways of customizing, keep in mind that technology should improve the customer experience.

If automation gets in the way of a good learner experience, then rethink it and make sure you're always providing a way for human help.

One simple way to improve a learner's experience is by sending an automated welcome email that includes their next step:

Pathwright Tip: You can use Zapier integrations to send an automated email when a new member joins your school (from blog on Zapier). This is especially useful when your school is growing and you're getting a lot of new members each week.

Aim to keep the focus of your emails simple and the noise at a minimum. Any call-to-action that isn't the main call-to-action is noise.

One way you can keep your course emails simple is by leaving the details to your course About page or custom pitch page. Learn how to make your best course page pitch here.

While you want your goals to be aligned with your learners' (tip #2), you also want to be authentic. That means, if you're a for-profit company or individual, you can be transparent about how you benefit from their engagement with your course.

It also might mean that you need to dig deep to find your voice and brand and then keep that voice consistent across all of your emails.

This is one of the biggest things I've learned from Pathwright. Not everyone will respond to your course the same way, but you should stick by the value of what you offer, even if that doesn't get every sale.

When you're confident in your value, you can make decisions without regret. You can evaluate your message, strategy, communication style, and your own motives and then move forward knowing that your work matters and will help someone.

With this approach, you may have a smaller email list at first, but it'll be more meaningful and have higher engagement rates.

As a side note, knowing your course's value begins with setting up your course pricing. Here's a pricing recommendation from our CEO:

Pathwright Tip: We don't recommend offering courses for free because there's a scary high hidden cost associated with it. Read about the hidden cost here.

I hope you enjoyed these 8 tips for growing a customer base that’s interested in and responsive to your email updates. Want to discuss? Keep the conversation going with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and/or Instagram. We'd love to hear from you!

To share feedback or a topic suggestion, please email lydia@pathwright.com.

The story of the three-point shot and what it has to teach us about why point values matter in an online course.

It’s difficult to imagine basketball without the three-point shot. But before 1967, it didn’t exist. When the American Basketball Association established the three-point arc in 1967, it remade the game.

As the great people at 99% Invisible note, the three-point shot “critically changed the dynamic on the court.” No longer did players amass right under the net, looking to make a surer shot. Instead, shorter, faster players were rewarded for moving outside.

The added diversity and extra value of the three-point shot created the fast-paced, dynamic sport we know today.

To me, the story of the three-point shot parallels why point values matter in an online course. Just as the three-point line changed the landscape of the court, point values in a course create a terrain of value that helps your learners focus.

In short, points send value signals to your learners to help them pay attention. The bigger the learning outcomes and the further we have to travel from point A to point B, the more important it is to understand the value of each learning activity.

Your learners will benefit when they understand what’s intentionally practice and what activities have higher stakes. Varying these point values through the course also gives your learners a chance to relax in certain activities and ramp up efforts in others.

A few factors influence point values. First, I match value to activity. Short readings and videos warrant fewer points. But if a learner contributes to a discussion or writes a reflection, I often double the point value of that step. The increase in points signals that I notice their extra effort.

I also increase points as the course goes on. Early on, assignments carry less weight. Learners should feel comfortable trying new things, making mistakes, and finding out what they don’t know so we can fill in the gaps together.

In other words, lower point values early on signal that learners are in practice mode. Later in the course, point values will match their increased intensity and skill.

The overall effect is an ebb and flow that engages and re-engages learners at every step. With simple value reminders and small feelings of accomplishment along the way, we help learners reach their smallest and biggest goals.

If you’d like to create dynamic, engaging online courses, you can try Pathwright for free.

Jerry Seinfeld wants to know if you’ll watch his show. Well, that was a big question when developing his internet show "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”

How Long Should Your Online Lesson Be? Seinfeld Might Know

Jerry Seinfeld wants to know if you’ll watch his show. Well, that was a big question when developing his internet show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. He asked YouTube, Facebook, and others who know our watching habits well.

Seinfeld: I'd like to make this show. Each episode will be about 20 minutes.

YouTube: That'll never work. People will never watch past 5 minutes on the internet.

Seinfeld: Well, I'm going to make this show, and it's going to be about 20 minutes long. We'll see.

I wasn't in the room, but that's basically how Seinfeld says it went.

When the show aired, the creators of Comedians in Cars found that almost every viewer watched each entire episode. They hung around for an average of 19 minutes.

Does this mean that YouTube was wrong about people's attention spans? Not at all. YouTube collects millions of data points about our viewing habits every day. They know how long we pay attention.

It does mean, however, that YouTube doesn't know how you'll watch this particular show. YouTube can give a well-informed suggestion when it comes to the length of your internet show. But you might just surprise them.

A lot of people ask, "How long should my online lesson be?" My usual answer is: “About 20 to 30 minutes.” 

But here’s my real answer: I don't know, and we might be asking the wrong question. 

I wish there were a magic number of minutes that hit that sweet spot between getting a learner's full attention and tiring them out just enough to sleep well at night. But, alas, I haven't found that number.

Seinfeld's experimental show teaches us a question to ask instead of “how long should an online lesson be?” 

What kind of lesson do learners need and want?

Seinfeld knows his audience. He knows there are people out there who'd love to watch their two favorite comedians chat. As a teacher, you know your learners best. You know how to get in your learner’s shoes and retrace their path. If you do that, you'll know where and how to lead them. Maybe practicing physicians learn best through bite-sized lessons taken between seeing patients. Maybe those learning to cook will be happy with an hour long lesson as long as you chop up the cooking demonstration into shorter videos. Get to know your audience (your learners), and you’ll know what they need in a lesson.

Despite its variety of guests, Seinfeld's show has a lot of predictability. You know you'll find comedians, cars, and coffee. That framework makes the variety of guests sparkle even more. The comedians, cars, and coffee become the cozy living room where you can have a surprising conversation. So try designing a pattern for your learners to follow each day or week. Then, let the information sparkle on its own. 

"People are less likely to fall asleep when you move," Seinfeld says about his show. The same is true of courses. Give your learners movement, and they'll stick with you. Sure, they could learn a lot from an essay that takes an hour to read, but they aren't as likely to stick around for that (especially if they’re reading online). Instead, pace your lessons by changing up activities: something to read, something to write about, something to watch. (You can also add pacing with point values.)

YouTube could’ve been right, by the way. There’s a chance Seinfeld’s internet show could’ve failed. But part of the point here is that Seinfeld tried this new kind of show for a new kind of audience. 

So go make a new kind of learning experience your learner hasn’t seen before, one that matches their needs and is paced just for their skill level. But if it doesn’t work, don’t sweat it. Keep asking the right questions and iterating on your design. Engagement is the key, and, with time and attention, you can find it.

Pathwright supports learner engagement in several ways. Check out how to evaluate course performance, so you can iterate on your design with expert know-how. 

Free courses are an easy way to attract new sign-ups and help people who don’t have the budget to learn what we teach. Win-win, right? Well, not exactly.

The Scary High Cost of “Free” Courses

✅ Attract new sign-ups.
✅ Help people who don’t have the budget to learn what we teach.

In the past five years, I’ve seen thousands of courses published— paid and free. That’s enough to recognize the same pattern again and again:

Free courses don’t produce lifelong learners.

In fact, “free” works against creating lifelong learning relationships.

So before deciding to offer your course for free, take a moment and consider a few things.

(Before we do, let’s take off our teacher hat for a bit and put on our 🎩 business hat).

Across thousands of courses and topic areas, we’ve seen that free courses yield significantly lower completion rates (often < 10%). In fact, about half of those who register for a free course never even start.

In contrast, paid courses — even inexpensive ones — yield much higher completion rates, satisfaction rates, and learning outcome achievement.

But that’s not all. What’s perhaps a bit more unexpected (and troubling) is what we call the “Free Course Trap.”

Free courses become a trap because they inevitably keep learners from ever registering for another course, even when they report really liking the course they’re stuck in. What gives? We wondered the same thing, so we asked.

In a survey of hundreds of people who’d taken a free course but never purchased or completed another course, we mostly heard responses along these lines:

“I really like [school name] but I want to finish [free course] I’m in first.”

“I love my course, but just didn’t have time to finish it. So taking another one just doesn’t make sense for me right now.”

“I just haven’t had time to finish yet! I hope I will some day.”

In short, there was nothing wrong with the courses themselves. People loved them. So what went wrong?

🚨 “FREE” is like a big, red hot button

Have you ever picked up conference swag or some other free trinket and then wondered why in the world you took home something you didn’t really want? Well, you’re not alone. There’s a psychological reason why we humans grab free stuff:

For a full explanation and entertaining examples of this human flaw, check out Chapter 3 of the book “Predictably Irrational”.

It’s not so much about “free” or paid, but commitment. If your course is free, the only commitment you’re asking for is “I don’t want to miss out on this deal” and that’s usually not enough to sustain the hard work of learning something new.

A better way to think about free courses

It is possible to offer a course for free and create lifelong learners. The key is to get some kind of commitment signal up front. These signals …

Help those who join understand the value of what they’re receiving (price is the #1 value signal), and

A few of our partners have successfully approached this issue with this tactic:

Set a price that reflects the true value of the course.

Right above the price, link to an application form anyone can fill out to get a “scholarship” price (often from the support of a grant, donor, etc.). This form can be very short, but should include a few questions that signal real commitment to learn the topic.

Once they fill out the form, review it and send qualified applicants a free coupon code (this can also be automated).

Another scenario that we’ve seen work well is to offer free enrollment in a short, limited-time offer that includes some commitment to join a live event or submit a small project.

And I’m sure there are many other creative ways to cast a wide net with a free course but still avoid the Free Course Trap.

🍎 Now let’s put our teacher hats back on

When it comes down to it, it’s not really about free or paid courses. Paying money just happens to be a universal way of signaling value and creating commitment.

But from our perspective as teachers, thinking about pricing is more about understanding and meeting our learners where they are even before they sign up for our courses. It’s recognizing that –– regardless of how much they love “free” stuff –– they really need some type of buy-in to succeed in the long run.

Last year, after working in the “real world” for three years, I decided to move to England in order to study for a Master’s degree.

Last year, after working in the “real world” for three years, I decided to move to England in order to study for a Master’s degree. (By the way, if you can, find a company cool enough to let you move to another country to get a Master’s degree.) Going back to school reminded me that students often miss what a grade is meant to communicate. And teachers often fail to remind them.

After a year of classes, writing, thrown-away pages, and then slightly better writing, I found myself waiting for a big grade for my big, final project. The waiting was accompanied by a familiar, antsy feeling. You probably remember that feeling you’d get waiting for a big project to come back?

While I waited, I asked myself what this grade would say about me.

An A+ will say I’m as smart as I think I should be. A B will say I’m not quite as good as the really smart girl who sits next to me.

A C — well, *gulping sound* a C will mark me forever as plain ol’, stinkin’ average. *Secretly shudders at the thought of anything lower than a C.*

That’s how old, undergraduate me would probably think of grades. In other words, grades were a final marker of my ability, a certification of my innate intelligence or skill (or lack thereof).

Four years later, I realized how stifling this mindset was. It’s the mindset that our current system of education, I believe, has pushed us toward. Or, at the very least, it isn’t a mindset the system tries to correct. And there isn’t a single part of it that is wise or helpful.

Grades don’t tell us anything about who we are. They help us measure what we’ve gained. In other words, they don’t mark genius. They mark growth.

If we believe grades mark genius, we’ll always see them as endings. As markers of genius, grades act as a rubber stamp smushed against a forehead, telling a person what they can or can’t do. This kind of grading is symptomatic of conveyor-belt-education in which quality control inspectors toss out products that don’t seem quite up to snuff.

But if we view grades as markers of growth, they can be generative — continually opening onto the next right step up. Like signs in a forest marking a trail, grades can let us know things about the path ahead.

“The trail ahead gets really steep. If you found the trail you’re on difficult, maybe you should take this other route until your legs are stronger or camp out and do some stretching.”

“If you found this trail easy, why not give yourself a challenge on the next leg?”

What would our classes look like if we pressed our learners to think of grades as ways to make a plan instead of as stamps marking innate talent and skill?

“It looks like you found this a little challenging. Let’s identify the prickly points and take another pass at it. We’ve got time to learn.”

“You found this really easy it seems! Why not bump up the intensity next time?”

All a grade says, in other words, is that you’ve grown into a new challenge.

The pervasive mindset of measuring for genius instead of growth is subtle, but powerful. Teachers should probably address it according to their context, whether that means doing away with the word “grades” altogether or explaining clearly to learners what grades are all about.

Regardless, if we equip our learners with the right mindset, a grade never has to be discouraging. No matter the mark, it can be the beginning of new growth.

Grades don’t tell us anything about who we are. They help us measure what we’ve gained. In other words, they don’t mark genius. They mark growth. If we equip our learners with the right mindset, a grade never has to be discouraging.

Online courses should be more than just an attractive way to convey information, because learning is more than just relaying facts. It’s about relationships that build frameworks for information.

Online courses should be more than just an attractive way to convey information, because learning is more than just relaying facts. It’s about relationships that build frameworks for information. Asking useful discussion questions will help your students in three key ways:

To learn through explaining things themselves

To synthesize what they’ve learned with their experience

Below you’ll find four tips to help you write questions that accomplish these goals:

Strong open-ended questions guide our thoughts without expecting specific answers. Asking an open-ended question is like fencing in a pasture—a farmer wants his cattle to have plenty of grass on which to feed, but he doesn’t want any of them going too far off on their own. The right discussion question will push students in a helpful direction without giving them too much room to follow unhelpful tangents. Let’s imagine what open-ended questions about this blog post would sound like:

What’s one thing that you found really helpful from our discussion about open-ended questions? (Too broad.)

How do you think your specific subject material will shape how you write open-ended questions? (Helps students apply information to their own context)

What are some important things to remember when you’re writing open-ended questions? (Expects regurgitation of what’s been discussed, doesn’t push students for original thoughts)

How can open-ended questions in early lessons prepare your students for what you want to teach them later in the course? (Pushes students to consider specific benefits we didn’t discuss)

Even if you write the perfect open-ended question (broad enough to be challenging without being so broad it’s unhelpful), expect to see a wide array of answers. Students will combine what you’ve taught them with their own experience to bring something original into the conversation. That’s discussion’s superpower—each student becomes a teacher, and each benefits from the experience of others.

The community aspect of discussion groups will also provide more (and better) feedback. Feedback from peers not only helps a student benefit from someone else’s ideas, but it applies positive pressure to the learning process. No one wants to come to a discussion empty-handed, knowing that their fellow classmates will be watching, so they’ll put more time into answering a question well.

As you write discussion questions, consider asking yourself: “Does this question help students to add their own experience to this discussion?” Try following that up with: “Does this question motivate students to give a thoughtful response?”

Offering more than one question to answer — providing some that are very accessible, others that are more challenging — will draw in more students to participate. Many of your students won’t be used to online discussion. And others will squirm at the thought of having to share in front of their classmates. For these students, easily accessible questions will become a training ground for healthy discussion. These easier questions will familiarize students with what it’s like to discuss and get feedback. Again, let’s imagine an accessible question we might ask if we were teaching this blog post:

How have discussion questions helped you learn in the past? (Simply focuses on the student’s personal experience while drawing out information about the subject.)

4. Offer Incentive (Grade the Discussion)

It’d be difficult to grade every discussion post (much less the feedback on those posts). And, if you’re asking the right kind of discussion questions, there shouldn’t be a “right answer” to grade. But offering points for participation will usually draw in the stragglers.

Participation points may seem a little too pragmatic at first. After all, we want students to want to discuss, right? But no one learns to swim without getting in the water, and some of us need a little push off the edge of the swimming pool. Giving out points will get them involved, and once the student is in the discussion, they just might find that it’s really helpful. 

(Read more on grades at their worst (and best) and how points create dynamic courses.)

Helpful discussion questions take time to write. The process isn’t easy, though it gets easier with practice. But when you’ve mastered it, your online course will feel more like a class and not just a textbook. Students will begin to engage with what you teach and with their classmates. You’ll build a community of learners prepared to apply what they know.

8 Tips for Growing a Meaningful Email List

How Point Values Create Dynamic Courses

How Long Should Your Online Lesson Be? Seinfeld Might Know

The Scary High Cost of “Free” Courses

Measuring for Genius or Growth

How to Write Discussion Questions

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