Using a Free Mini-Course to Grow Your Email List
As a coach, you know you bring a lot of value to your clients...the trick is getting potential customers to recognize that and sign up for a session! If you're feeling exhausted by discovery calls that don't lead to the right fit, you might want to try offering an email-based mini-course. While a mini-course won't completely replace discovery calls, it's a useful (and super time-efficient) way for you to give potential clients an idea of what it's like to work for you. Mini-courses are also a great lead magnet for growing your email list. You can build out a pipeline for future courses, group coaching calls, webinars, and other ticketed events.
What is a Mini-Course?
Mini courses are short groupings of about three to five modules that deliver some kind of actionable information. A mini-course should provide real value, but will focus narrowly on one relatively brief course topic. The idea is to cover the material fully in the course, not leave it on a cliffhanger. The value (and satisfaction!) a potential client gets from your mini-course will be what inspires them to sign on for a full coaching program.
The Best Way to Run a Mini-Course
There are a few ways to launch a mini-course. You can:
Structure it as an online course using your website or a course platform like Teachable
Share links to private YouTube videos
Create a private podcast feed
Run it on social media, such as in a Facebook group
Distribute the course content to email subscribers
We particularly like using email to run a mini-course. By setting up a landing page and automated email workflows, you can set your mini-course on autopilot. Here's how it works:
You promote your mini-course to your target audience on social media with a link to the course landing page
Business owners and entrepreneurs sign up via a form that connects to your email platform of choice
After enrolling, each participant gets placed into a segment specific to the mini-course
Your email program automatically sends course content to enrollees at pre-scheduled intervals
This way, you don't have to worry about launch dates or cohorts. The email workflow you set up will automatically start each time someone signs up. You can run your mini-course continuously with minimal effort! When it's over, you can upsell recipients on a full course, or add them into a nurturing sequence.
Plus, there's no limit to what you can do when running a mini course over email. You can treat it as a newsletter, share links to freebies and downloads, embed YouTube videos, and more.
How to Launch an Email-Based Mini-Course
All you need to start your first email-based mini-course is a course idea and an email marketing platform. If you're brand new to email marketing, we can help you get everything set up perfectly—just drop us a line and set up a consultation call with Shawley Marketing today.
