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If you’ve had your site for some time and already have an autoresponder in place, you may be considering creating a mini course. They are great for enticing visitors to give up their email, making them a popular addition to your lead generation strategy.
A mini course is a series of emails that offer your subscribers valuable information about a certain aspect of your niche or industry. The main purpose of this course is to teach people something they don’t already know, which is why they are seen as valuable.
Your affiliate marketing strategy can also benefit from email courses. In fact, if done properly, they can be one of your most profitable undertakings yet. After you read up on the basics of writing an effective mini course, you’ll need to know what the best practices are to get the most results.
Here are 5 expert tips for writing an actionable mini course that delivers value to readers and guarantees a boost in sales:
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Write Personally
Emails were originally ‘personal’ before they became a marketing strategy. Why do you think businesses started using emails to attract buyers and clients? Because we normally associate emails with conversations with real people. So why not make your mini course stand out from all the useless spam by adding your own personal touch? You can customize each email to include the recipient’s first name. Or you can just say “hello, friend!” This helps build a connection with your subscribers.
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Tell Your Story
Neil Patel doesn’t have a problem telling people how his first job was at Knott’s Berry Farm emptying trash cans. That’s because everyone has to start somewhere, and even the most popular online marketing guru started by making a few cents per hour.
Try injecting your start-up story at the beginning of your course. You don’t have to bare your soul to subscribers (unless you want to). Just give them a bit of background of why you’re doing what you’re doing and how your course is designed to help them achieve the results they want.
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Promote Affiliate Products as ‘Tools’ or ‘Resources’
Along the course of the email series, offer resources to help subscribers along their journey. It may take some creativity to promote your own affiliate products in the course, but if done right, your readers won’t hesitate to spend their hard-earned money on all your recommendations.
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Be Careful with What You Promise
You should never tell your audience you’re going to do something you can’t (or won’t). If you say the mini course includes a free report, make sure they’ll eventually get that report. One of the biggest mistakes businesses and blogs make is to promise results they can’t fulfill. So, don’t say the course is guaranteed to make them thousands of dollars a month if, in fact, it won’t.
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Open a Two-Way Conversation
Sometimes, successful affiliate marketing requires a lot of hands-on interaction with people. You can encourage them to respond to your emails, or you can suggest that they join the discussion on your website or blog. Ongoing discussions help turn casual subscribers into your biggest advocates.
Also, invite new course subscribers to connect with you on their favorite social media platforms, like Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
And there you have it; the five top tips that can help you refine your email mini course and make it shine! But we’re not stopping there. Below are three more great tips that should help you in the initial stages of your mini course creation.
They’re not related to writing. They’re advices we want to share with you from our own experience with email courses. Here they are:
- Don’t send subscribers other emails on the same day. The line between ‘useful’ and ‘spammy’ is so thin that we tend to cross them unknowingly. If someone is scheduled to receive one of your email courses on a certain day, make sure you don’t bombard their inbox with content notifications and newsletters, too.
- Don’t stress about people who unsubscribe. You can’t please everyone, and you shouldn’t strive to. Sometimes, people will unsubscribe because they realize later on that they never really needed your course in the first place. If you know who your target audience is, have written and structured your email course properly, and have smartly promoted your affiliate products, you have nothing to worry about.
- Implement the Rule of Seven. According to this age-old marketing rule, your readers need to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times to feel comfortable buying your affiliate products or services. While there is no magic to the number “7”, the point of the rule is to make sure you stay in front of your subscribers until they like and trust you.
A great mini course has the potential to boost your affiliate sales twofold. Just keep the above tips in mind and make sure to deliver exactly what you promise. You’ll have them swooning over your blog in no time!
