How to Write an Email Sequence to Launch Your Online Course [11 Tried and Tested Templates Included]

The secret sauce to your next successful course launch is hiding in plain sight. 

Can you guess what it is?

It’s email! 

No matter how good your course is (and if it’s from my shop, that’s guaranteed), selling is an uphill battle without an effective email sequence. And I'm not talking about a measly three-email sequence sent out before the big launch. What you need is a trifecta: a pre-launch sequence, a launch sequence, and a post-launch sequence, all carefully designed for your future students.

Think of these three email sequences as the special switch that turns a dribble of sporadic sales into a raging waterfall of eager customers. With just 11 well-crafted emails, you could transform a minor income source into a formidable stream of passive income.

Writing those email sequences though? That takes work, and lots of it if you start from scratch. 

Read on for my complete guide to writing an effective email sequence to send when you pre-sell your course, launch your course, and welcome new students to your course. Steal these templates and tweak them to match your personality (and your offer) and watch your sales take off!

Why Send A Launch Sequence for Your Course?

Before we get to the good stuff, why bother with these launch sequences anyway?

Because email is the MVP of marketing channels. 

Email is not even close to dead. In fact, going by return on investment (ROI), it is one of the most effective marketing channels - so much so that every dollar you spend on email marketing returns between $40 and $50 in revenue generated.

Beyond email’s jaw-dropping potential to grow your business, here are three reasons to send an email sequence when launching your course:

Alright, now that we've covered the 'why', let's get down to the 'how'. On to the 11 email templates!

A 3-Step Sequence to Pre-Sell Your Course

There’s one key step that will guarantee a profitable course launch: pre-selling the course.

Aside from a stellar email sequence, pre-selling a course is one of the best things you can do to ensure it is a success right out of the gate. I’ve written a complete guide to preselling a course so check that out if you haven’t done this before. For the sequence here, I’m assuming you’ll be offering an exclusive early bird deal to people who you already know will be interested in enrolling. That way, you’ll know that you’ll have revenue from the course and you’ll be validating it at the same time.

If you’ve already set up the course as self-paced (recorded), you can give people access immediately and then start gathering feedback and testimonials to use in your wider launch.

If you’re running the course live, you’ll need to gather that feedback and testimonials before you move on to the main launch sequence.

Now buckle up and read on for the three essential emails to shoot out when you're pre-selling your course.

Email 1: Announce The Offer to Your VIP List

This is the first email in your sequence, where you will announce the offer to your existing customers. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point while making your VIPs feel valued.

Email 2: Share A Testimonial

While plenty will leap at the chance to be the pioneering students of your course (especially with a nice discount tucked in their wallet), some will need a bit more nudging. 

This is where testimonials are essential. So for the second act in your email sequence, I recommend you play the testimonial card. It's quick, it's persuasive, and it adds the ‘trust’ factor to your offer. And if you don’t already have testimonials for the course, you can always use one from people who have worked with you and can attest to the results you deliver!

Email 3: Remind Them To Take Action

Finally, you're going to have to roll out one last email before the curtains close on the pre-sale discount window. This is your final shot at roping in those early birds, so it's crucial to play up the ticking clock and the immense value your course brings to the table. It's all about combining urgency, scarcity, and opportunity in this grand finale!

A 5-Step Sequence to Launch Your Online Course

Once the pre-sale sequence wraps up and you’ve finetuned the course (and gathered testimonials), it's time to let your course take flight before a wider audience. This crowd could be your entire list of subscribers (or a specific subset, if you've got a CRM savvy enough), so you're going to have to pull out all the stops to encourage and nurture these potential students into buying your course.

But don't break a sweat. This five-step email sequence is your ticket to reinforcing the value of your course, nudging those hesitant buyers, and sealing the deal on course sales.

Email 1: Announce The Course Launch

Your first email in this sequence will be a quick one, as you’ll announce the course. Make sure to give an overview of the compelling value propositions your course offers and reasons why your audience should consider hitting that 'purchase' button.

Email 2: Problem & Solution

You’ve announced the course launch, but we have more work to do. People who don’t know you well will rarely buy right away.

Think of your course as a superhero swooping in to save the day, your customers are facing a problem (potentially a serious one) and this course is here to help. This second email works like a spotlight, shining on that problem (and why it's such a headache), while presenting your course as the ultimate problem solver.

This tactic pumps up the perceived value of your course and adds a pinch of 'gotta get it now' urgency to the mix.

Email 3: Share A Testimonial

Just as in the pre-sell sequence, customer testimonials are ready to play the part of your indispensable sidekick for building trust and converting more students.

This is where the magic of pre-selling a course really shines. By securing testimonials from the early students of your course, you can easily cherry-pick quotes and anecdotes that demonstrate just how beneficial your course can be to a broader audience. Note that this email is going to be similar to the one you already sent when pre-selling the course, so try to use a different testimonial to help it stand out if your audience has seen it before.

Email 4: Overcome An Objection

This next email is all about stepping into your potential students' shoes and tackling any qualms that might be holding them back from signing up for your course. 

Now, we're not looking for a debate here. Rather, the goal is to gently guide their thoughts, show them a new perspective, and illustrate how your course can be their ticket to progress. It's like shining a light on the bridge they might be hesitant to cross, showing them it's sturdy, reliable, and leads to a better place.

Email 5: Final Offer

By this time you’ve captured the interest and imagination of your list, so we’ll make one final pitch for a sale. 

There's a variety of creative tactics you can try out here. Maybe you could set a purchase deadline for your course to inject a sense of urgency, or restrict the number who can get their hands on a special offer included with the course. 

Ultimately, this email sales letter's mission is to remind your audience of the persistent problem they're grappling with, frame your course as the hero ready to eradicate that obstacle for good, and hand them a roadmap to a solution.

I'd recommend using this final email template to play around with those urgency-sparking tactics between your launches to discover what resonates best with your audience. 

A 3-Step Email Sequence to Welcome Students to Your Course

Don't be that course-creator who drops the ball on sending a post-sale welcome sequence to your students!

It's absolutely crucial that you circle back with your students to thank them for purchasing the course, jog their memory about the benefits and value they're going to reap from taking the course, and politely ask for their feedback and testimonials after they've crossed the finish line of the course.

These three emails are your tickets to making your students happy with their purchase, and will also hand you a treasure trove of insights and success stories you can use to fuel your future course sales.

Email 1: Welcome!

The first email in this sequence is a simple one: welcome your students to the course and thank them for purchasing. If you include a CTA in this email, it’s a link to the course on your online course platform of choice.Or, if you’re running it live, link to your course community, the place where the first live session will run, or other orientation content they can watch in advance.

Email 2: Call Out Key Benefits Of The Course

Send this one a few days to a week after the initial welcome email as a quick reminder of the benefits your course can unlock and tips on how to get the most out of it. This email reinforces their good decision to enroll while reminding them to take action.

If you’re running the course live, you can send this out before the first live session to increase your ‘show-up’ rate. When people remember and visualize the benefits, they’ll make the time to attend live.

Email 3: Ask For Feedback

The final email in your post-launch sequence is your invitation for course feedback. Remember, feedback is the breakfast of champions, and it's the secret ingredient that can take your course from good to great to magnificent while helping you rake in more sales down the line.

I’ve written a complete guide to asking for feedback for an online course, but here’s the main email that you’ll want to send.

Email Sequence Sending Best Practices

Now these templates will give you a serious head start on emailing like a pro, but I have a few more tips to ensure your email sequences are as successful as possible.

Give recipients a way to opt out of the sequence

Sure, you have to give your subscribers an exit route (hello, GDPR!), but here's a nifty trick I've found works: give them a way to tap out of the sequence without bailing out of your list entirely.

Launching a volley of emails carries a risk—you might switch folks off, leading to a spike in your unsubscribe rate and a crash in your subscriber count. A sneaky "extract me from this sequence but keep me in your loop" link can be a godsend to ensure you don't wave goodbye to subscribers just because they're not ready to hop on your course ride this time around.

How you pull this off will hinge on your email marketing software platform, but most allow you to trigger an automation action when a link in an email is clicked.

Give Every Email One Clear CTA

Every email—no exception—needs a single call to action (CTA).

Apart from the welcome sequence, every email has a sole mission: to pitch the course. That means every email needs one clarion call: enroll in the course.

It's tempting to load up your readers with every piece of info under the sun, but resist. There's one action you want them to take, so pave a clear path for them to make that move and don’t distract them with other options.

Review Your Sequence And Spot Areas To Improve

Once your sequence hits the ground running, your job isn't over.

Circle back and give it a once-over to review your emails and optimize them for the next launch. 

Which emails were the crowd favorites that were opened the most? Which boasted the highest click-through rates, or triggered a mass exodus? Inspect your sequence post-launch, because you're going to dust off this sequence again—only after optimizing and jazzing it up, of course.

Download These 11 Email Templates And Unlock 30% Off Your Next Order!

Armed with these templates there is no stopping you from launching a successful course that takes your business to the next level. 

Rather than bookmark a page and wonder when you’ll get back to it, you can download these 11 templates for free by clicking the button below. 

These three email sequences are all you’ll need to ensure your next launch is a successful one, but let’s not stop there. Not only will you get access to these 11 email templates, you’ll also get a coupon for 30% off your next order from my shop.

Click the button below to get these templates and put them to work with your next purchase!