After tweaking the concept of your online course again and again, improving it, changing it, shortening it or adding something to it, your finished project is finally ready to go! 🏁

Now it's time to publish it so that you can bring your idea closer to countless people and deliver added value. However, in order to inspire people with your idea, they first have to become aware of you - so what's the easiest way to reach as many potential interested parties as possible? 📣

Newsletter marketing can help you sell and promote your online courses. But first we need to clarify what newsletter marketing actually is. 📄

What is newsletter marketing?

Newsletter marketing is a form of email marketing. This is because you send emails to your subscribers to stay in touch with them and not be forgotten. 🧠

You are probably already familiar with this strategy, as you may be a subscriber to several newsletters yourself. So you know that some are sent out regularly and others irregularly. There are probably newsletters that you want to be kept up to date with and that you like to read, but you also receive other newsletters that you send to the trash unread, even though you have been meaning to unsubscribe from them for a long time. 🗑️

Newsletters can contain new products from the company, special offers, news about the company or even the topics of current blog posts . Newsletter marketing can be clearly distinguished from email marketing automation. ✉️

The latter is about addressing and supporting customers in a personalized way at the various stages of their customer journey. They are specifically tailored to the various phases of the customer journey. 🗺️

A newsletter, on the other hand, is primarily the general dissemination of information about the company. The newsletter is also part of the sales funnel and can also be advertised via other social media channels. 💻

Creating a newsletter is also less complex compared to a funnel for email marketing automation. 👍🏽
All you need to do is integrate a newsletter sign-up button on your website and take into account the double opt-in. 🔒

Double opt-in is a method of confirming your recipient's email address and obtaining their consent to receive your emails. This involves confirming the subscription to your newsletter in two steps. This ensures that you act in accordance with data protection regulations, as the recipients must actively consent.

It also helps to filter the recipients, because they only receive emails if they confirm their registration, so it is more likely that they are active in an email campaign, that they actually consume the content and that they are not bought or fake email addresses. ✅

As already mentioned, you are on the safe side with this method, because an important part of operating online is compliance with data protection laws, in particular compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). If you take data protection seriously, this increases the trust of your customers and lends your company a certain respectability. 🔐

Newsletters can have different formats, such as text, images, videos or links to further information. 📐

With the right newsletter format, you can now keep prospects and customers up to date and maintain your relationship with them. The aim of newsletter marketing is to build a long-term relationship with them and regularly provide them with interesting content to maintain or increase their interest in your company or your online course. 📈

Through targeted personalization of the content, you can also achieve a higher open and click rate and thus achieve your marketing goals more effectively. Over time, you build up a community that not only buys and appreciates your courses, but also recommends them to their friends and acquaintances and leaves positive reviews. ⭐

With newsletter marketing, you can implement important communication goals in your business and support processes. The use of email newsletters offers you a variety of benefits that have a positive impact on the success of your marketing campaigns. 💪🏽

What are the advantages of newsletter marketing?

Newsletter marketing is a widely used marketing strategy in which companies send email newsletters to customers to inform them about news, offers and events. This marketing method offers you a variety of benefits, making it an important part of your marketing mix. 📊

You benefit from several advantages, which we have summarized for you here 😉

• Focus on the target group: You can send the message directly to a part of your target group that is already interested in your products or your online course. By subdividing and sorting the mailing list, you can create targeted emails for different groups. 🔎

• Customer loyalty: Newsletter marketing makes it possible to stay in touch with your customers, keep them up to date with news and offers and thus build long-term relationships. 🔗

• Cost efficiency: Compared to other marketing channels, such as print advertising, email newsletters are more cost-efficient, as there are no high costs for printing or mailing fees. 💰

• Time saving: You can reach a large number of your customers and prospects quickly and easily without having to spend a lot of time and resources on personal calls or visits. ⏳

• Flexibility: It is possible to send your newsletter at any time and from anywhere, so you can adapt your campaigns as required and react quickly to changes. 🤸🏽

• Personalization: Based on the behaviour and interests of your customers, you have the option of personalizing content and offers. This allows you to offer relevant and appealing content, which leads to a higher open and click rate. 🖌️

Newsletter marketing has several advantages! By using personalized and relevant content that you send specifically to those interested in your target group, you can strengthen customer loyalty, increase sales and raise brand awareness.

So if you use it correctly, newsletter marketing can be an effective and inexpensive marketing strategy for your company. To achieve a greater reach with your newsletter, you can also use third-party newsletter marketing. 🗞️

What are the differences between in-house and third-party newsletter marketing? 🤷🏽

What is the difference between your own and third-party newsletter marketing?

First of all, let's summarize what newsletter marketing is. It's about email newsletters that you use to provide your own customers and prospects with news, offers and added value. 🏆

You can build your own mailing list by collecting the email addresses of your customers. These customers have voluntarily signed up for the newsletter and are therefore more likely to be interested in you and your online course. 🫵🏽

However, you also have the option of having your courses marketed by affiliates via third-party newsletter marketing. Affiliates who have good access to your target group and a wide reach are particularly suitable here.

If you are new to the market or even just new to online business, your reach is usually manageable at first, so it makes sense to increase your reach with the help of affiliates and influencers. 🌐

In addition, you can place ads in newsletters from other companies to send your message to a larger number of recipients. However, this requires the purchase or rental of address lists from third-party providers and can therefore be riskier, as the recipients may not be interested in the content. 👤

With your own mailing list, however, you can be sure that the recipients are interested in you and your online course. This way, you can build up a real email list with high-quality leads over time. So what are the advantages and disadvantages of third-party newsletter marketing for you? 🧐

Advantages that third-party newsletter marketing has for you and your business:

• Increased reach: Your marketing message reaches a larger target group because you use contacts from other companies and affiliates. This leads to a greater reach and therefore you generate more conversions and sales. 🌍

• Access to new target groups: By working with another company or affiliate, you can take advantage of their brand awareness, as their customers may not be on your own list and thus become aware of you. So here too, you can gain interested parties for yourself. 🗝️

• Increased credibility: If you find an affiliate with a large reach who sells your online course to their audience, you will also benefit from their reputation. His community will buy your course because they trust him and you will gain a leap of faith. 🕵🏽

• Time saving: Other companies offer you their mailing list, so you don't have to build and manage one. ⏰

• Affiliates: They also benefit from the sale of your courses because they mention them in their blog, for example, and if a customer then buys the course via the affiliate link, the affiliate receives a predetermined commission. This creates a win-win situation for you, as it is worthwhile for both parties. 💸

• Traffic to your website: The affiliate places a link to your online course in their newsletter and the recipient is forwarded directly to your site by clicking on the link. Even if they don't make a purchase immediately, they will first look at your offer, take advantage of your freebie and/or sign up for your newsletter. 🖥️

Although third-party newsletter marketing has many advantages, there are also some potential disadvantages that you should consider:

• Limited control: You have less control over the content, layout and timing of the newsletter sent by the affiliate if you use a third-party mailing list. 🚓

• Lack of target group relevance: If the target group of the affiliate's external mailing list does not match your customers, the external newsletter marketing will be less or hardly effective for you. 🤏🏽

• Bad reputation: If the affiliate has a bad reputation or is known as a spam sender, this will negatively affect your own business. 🫣

• Risk of spamming: If too many newsletters are sent, this is tantamount to spamming and leads to a poor reputation. 🙅🏽

You should therefore carefully consider whether external newsletter marketing is an option for you. Initially, it will help to boost your reach, as you will reach a larger number of potential customers than with your own mailing list.

However, you should always bear in mind that you have limited control over the content and target group with third-party newsletter marketing and that this may have a negative impact on your customer loyalty. In addition, the third-party mailing list may not always appeal to the right target group. 🛑

Plan and monitor external newsletter marketing closely to ensure that it has positive long-term effects and does not harm you. At the same time, you should also build up your own mailing list to strengthen your customer loyalty, which will help you to be successful in the long term. 🌟

The combination of your own and third-party newsletter marketing helps you to increase your reach, attract new customers and retain them. But what do you need to look out for if you decide to go down the affiliate route? 🪧

What do I need to bear in mind if I use affiliates to promote my online course?

In order to find the right affiliates, the most important thing when working together is awareness. Because if they don't have a large reach, they won't sell your course (often). 📢

To find suitable affiliates, research websites or blogs that appeal to a similar target group. Use search engines and focus on the first search results that appear for your keyword. This is because these domains are relevant to your course and will also attract your target group.

Contact the site operators and ask if they are interested in working with you. 🤝🏽

Analyze your competition to find out who is selling their courses. This will give you an insight into the work of potential partners who could also promote your courses. Take a look at their website, as they may offer an affiliate program or an affiliate partnership. 🫂

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Some of your competitors may also have affiliate links or recommendations on their website from other websites or influencers who are already promoting them.
Once you've found this out, you can contact the affiliates and introduce them to your own course offer. If they are already promoting similar courses, it is more likely that they will also be interested in your course and willing to promote it. 🚀

You can also increase your reach by contacting topic portals and websites with the same target group for cooperation. For example, if you offer an online course on digital marketing, you can contact websites that specialize in marketing or social media strategies. A collaboration could be a guest post or a joint PR campaign. 👥

You can also find suitable affiliates on social media, because everyone is out and about here. It is worth contacting influencers from your subject area with a large reach for a collaboration. ☎️

You can find these affiliates in corresponding groups on Facebook, Xing or LinkedIn, for example. In any case, they must match your course offering and should come from the same niche. When contacting them for a collaboration, you should definitely create an incentive, such as a commission or free access to your course, to reward the affiliates for their work and increase their motivation to actively promote your course. 🔝

To make your research easier, you have the option of quickly making your course available to a large number of affiliates by using affiliate networks such as:

• AdCell
• Awin
• Affilinet
• SuperClix
• Belboon
• Tradedoubler
• Commission Junction

However, these networks are usually subject to a fee and potential affiliates are only activated after payment. Only then can they apply for your offer. 📝
The disadvantage: The entry costs are relatively high for most networks, so you should always weigh up what really makes sense for you. 😶

If you would like to know more about affiliates, simply click on the link here. 👈🏽

You can generate leads through affiliates, but there are also other ways. So how do I manage to generate leads for my email list myself?

How do I get leads for my email list?

There are various ways to collect leads for your email list. 📧

One of the most common lead generation strategies is to offer a free offer such as free e-books, checklists, templates, white papers, webinars, courses, free consultations and much more. The free offer provides your customer or

In return, you will receive their contact details for your email list. Motivate them to sign up for your newsletter so that you can provide them with regular information and get them excited about your offer. 😮

Especially at the beginning, your email list will probably only consist of a few recipients, so it is all the more important that you approach your newsletter marketing in a disciplined and strategic way - later you will be able to reap the rewards of your efforts.

You can use ads on social media, such as Instagram, to draw attention to your lead magnet and collect leads - so stay on the ball. 🧲

The lead magnet is designed to motivate customers to leave their contact details:

• Define your target group, as you need to cater specifically to their needs 🎯

• Define a lead magnet for your target group 📃

• Create motivating ads for Instagram, for example, and make your potential customers curious 🤓

• Build a convincing landing page and set up an email registration form with a call to action 🛠️

• Define the sources (affiliates, ads) from which your traffic should come ☝🏽

Your lead magnet, such as a guide, is the offer that visitors to your site really want to have. However, this will only remain the case if you ensure that you offer your potential customers the best quality in the form of real added value. 

You don't get a second chance to make a first impression! 😦

Now that potential customers have signed up for your lead magnet in the registration form, the question arises as to how you actually sell your online course via the newsletter. 💡

How do I sell my online course via my newsletter?

If you want to sell a course via newsletter emails, you will quickly realize that most people (almost 100%) will not buy your product right away, especially if you have just started your business and you are still more or less unknown to them. 💼

Now you're probably asking yourself how you can actually sell your online course via the newsletter? 👀

Don't worry, it's not that difficult! The important thing is to keep at it and tell your recipients a story, because people like stories, which is why products with storytelling sell so well. 📘

A small real-life example:
When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod, he talked about "1,000 songs in your pocket". With this sentence, he gave people the ultimate argument as to why they should spend $399 on his MP3 player of all things. 📱

You can also make use of this principle if you want to promote your online courses in your emails:
Tell your subscribers an interesting story over the course of at least seven emails. You will see that things will change. Alternatively, you can also tell a new story in every email. 📖

The important thing is that you hit your subscribers' pain points and that your online course ends up being the perfect solution to their problem. 😉

So you need to stand out from everyone else, because your subscribers want to know who you are and what makes you qualified to offer them a solution to their problem . 💭

A seven-part newsletter sequence will help you do this, allowing you to guide your recipients to buy your course. Make sure that you position yourself clearly in your emails so that your subscribers can build trust in you. ✨

To set yourself apart from the competition, you need to appear serious and respond to the wishes and problems of your prospective customers. 🪄

Are you worried that the structure of your online course is not of high quality? Or you don't know where and how to start? If you need support in creating your online courses, we will be happy to help you with our Memberspot offer!

Because Memberspot is the German e-learning platform for creating and managing your online courses. Memberspot is suitable for every industry - whether company, agency, coach or trainer! You can use Memberspot for a variety of use cases, such as the individual creation of online training courses, digital onboarding or online courses and much more, and make them available to your employees or customers. 🤗

You, your customers and employees can expect an intuitive and clear user interface that allows you to create your own online course in no time at all. The high level of flexibility ensures that everyone can work through your course independently and does not have to adhere to fixed times. What's more, your users can work with your courses at any time - even when they're on the move with our app. ✏️

Would you like to see Memberspot for yourself? 

Click here to go directly to our free 14-day trial version!

Conclusion

Newsletter marketing is an important element for the successful sale of online courses. If you follow a clear strategy , show patience and discipline and establish a cooperation on an equal footing with the right affiliate partners, you can be successful in the long term and increase your sales figures. ⛰️

However, to work successfully with partners, you should make sure that you select affiliates with the same target group and a wide reach and make clear agreements. Good cooperation requires open communication and clear coordination of marketing measures. 💬

It is also important that you take the time to build a high-quality email list that appeals to your target group. By sending regular newsletters, you stay in touch with your subscribers and increase customer loyalty and trust. 🤲🏽

You should therefore always make sure that you provide your target group with high-quality content in your newsletters and regularly provide them with relevant content. Your work will bear fruit and this will be reflected in your sales in the long term. 💎

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We hope you enjoyed reading it. 📚

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Best regards

Your Memberspot Team