LearnDash Developer Advice on How to Use Email Marketing Like a Pro – Part 1

Because I’m a LearnDash developer, I get a lot of people ask me, “How do I get people into my course?” Much to their surprise, I often start my response by telling them about the most powerful tools in your digital marketing tool chest.

That is email marketing.

“Email marketing?” they typically ask. Yes.

As much as everyone says they don’t pay attention to email marketing messages, they do. It works and getting results from email marketing is something every small business owner can do with just a little bit of training.

So here is this LearnDash developer’s advice on how to use email marketing like a pro. Here are some tips and strategies:

• Building an engaged email list,
• crafting compelling content, and
• analyze your results in order to achieve a high return on investment (ROI).

LearnDash Developer Advice #1: Build a Quality Email List

The first step any good LearnDash developer will tell you for any successful email marketing is building a quality email list. There are different types of email lists you can create. The ones you need to understand are:

• opt-in lists,
• customer lists, and
• segmented lists.

Opt-in lists are created by asking people to sign up to receive a lead magnet of some sort. A lead magnet is something free you give people in exchange for their email addresses. Customer lists are created by importing your existing list of customer data. Segmented lists are created by dividing your email list into smaller, more targeted groups based on specific criteria. These can be divided up by demographics, interests, behavior, or other criteria.

To grow your email list, you want to offer something your ideal customer values. This can be exclusive content or a discount. You can promote this attractive item via your website, social media profiles, and, if you run a brick-and-mortar operation, in-store. This isn’t something you do once and forget about it. It’s something you need to focus some attention on so it’s kept up correctly. For example, many people don’t know that email list hygiene is critical. You have to regularly remove inactive or non-responsive subscribers.

Here are examples of free items you can offer to get potential customers to share their email with you:

• Exclusive discounts or promotions: Offer a special discount code or limited-time promotion for signing up to your email list.
• Free resources or guides: This can be anything from a free e-book or PDF guide to a how-to video or tutorial.
• Contests or giveaways: Hold a contest or giveaway and require participants to provide their contact information to enter.
• Free trials or consultations: Offer a free trial or consultation of your product or service in exchange for contact information.
• Webinars or workshops: Host a free webinar or workshop and require participants to provide their email address to register.
• Checklists or templates: Provide a downloadable checklist or template that helps solve a common problem or simplify a task related to your industry.
• Free samples or demos: Offer a free sample or demo of your product or service to encourage potential customers to try it out.
• Interactive tools or calculators: Create an interactive tool like a ROI calculator, website grader, social media audit tool, in exchange for their contact info.
• Newsletter subscription: Offer a regular newsletter that provides valuable information, industry insights, and exclusive updates to your subscribers.
• Free shipping or delivery: Offer free shipping or delivery for a limited time to encourage potential customers to make a purchase.

Your lead magnet should address a specific pain point or problem that your ideal customer has and provide a clear benefit for signing up. By offering something of value, you attract potential customers, build trust and credibility and start someone down the path to long-term business relationships.

Promote your email list on different platforms like your website, social media accounts, and even in your physical store to reach a wider audience.

LearnDash Developer Advice #2: Choose the Right Email Marketing Platform

The next step to using email marketing like a pro is choosing the right email marketing platform. If you’ve been following me a while, you know that I’m a Keap Certified Partner. Our road to becoming a strong LearnDash developer started when I first discovered Keap in 2010. That lead to my learning Memberium for building membership sites for Keap users (back then Keap was called Infusionsoft). That eventually led us to LearnDash…but I digress.

So we are baised towards Keap, but other popular options for Mailchimp, Constant Contact, , aWebber and Campaign Monitor.

When choosing an email marketing platform, it's important to look for features such as email templates, automation workflows, segmentation tools, and analytics. Pricing considerations include monthly fees, email send limits, and additional features such as A/B testing and integrations with other marketing tools.

This article’s running long. You can visit part 2 of this article where I give an additional seven pieces of advice on using email marketing like a pro.