Step 5: Email Marketing Solutions

You will need an email marketing solution to have a business offer online training. Without this, you won’t be able to communicate with your prospects or clients.

A few LMS or online course platforms offer email marketing built-in. These include Podia and Kajabi. So if you’re using one of those, then you can use the built-in email marketing tool. Other online course platforms integrate with a solution but do not offer one built-in. These are fine too.

You want to offer a lead magnet with a sign-up form and follow up with people on that email list. You want minimal tagging features so you can organize your subscribers.

Choose your email marketing tool before moving on from this step. Convertkit is an excellent all-around solution, and it will integrate with almost every LMS option. Otherwise, if you want to work with a cloud LMS, you can choose Kajabi and use their email marketing solution.

Transcript –

Everyone will need an email marketing solution. For simplicity, if you’re using Kajabi, I would stick with their email marketing solution until you have a reason not to. Those reasons might be because you need features Kajabi doesn’t come with.

I mention Kajabi because they are the only LMS offering a complete email marketing solution now. The rest do not. You might be able to email your customers, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.

You want to offer a lead magnet with a sign-up form and follow up with people on that email list. You want minimal tagging features so you can organize your subscribers. Only Kajabi offers this. At this time, that means if you choose any other LMS, you’ll need to pay for an email marketing solution.

There are hundreds of email marketing solutions out there. I’ve used about a dozen of them throughout my time running online businesses.

If you need an email marketing tool, I suggest making it easy and using ConvertKit if you’re unsure where to start. They offer a free plan for a certain number of subscribers, so it’s great if you’re on a budget.

ConvertKit has decent prices and connects with all the LMS solutions as best as possible. They’re also pretty easy to use and have decent support.

I’ve used them for a few years, and I don’t think you’ll go wrong with them. If you get to the point where you need some other feature they don’t offer, you can upgrade to something else. But it’s likely that you will be OK with ConvertKit for a long time.

If you want to shop around, the first place to start is to see what will connect to your LMS. Again, that’s why we started there. These learning management solutions are limited in what they will connect with.

ConvertKit is a top-rated solution with integrations for everything I’ve mentioned. That’s part of the reason why I recommend them plus you can start for free. While the user interface is good, they also offer all the features you need which include the ability to create forms, tag your users, and send out your follow-up emails. So again, it’s an excellent email solution.

When you’re checking on the integrations, make sure the complete integration is one where you’re not going to have to pay extra for a tool called Zapier. Zapier allows you to connect tools. It’s like duct tape for online tools. It’s pretty cool, but it does add to your tech ability.

Zapier has a free plan, but you can’t do everything with their free plan. So watch out for this. I like Zapier, but I don’t like companies telling you they have an integration for your tools when you can’t fully integrate the tool unless you use Zapier.

If you are OK using it, then that’s fine, but you want to make sure you know that going into it.

It’s all very complicated which is I’m having you look into this now. A lot of people will stop at this point and give up. I don’t want you to do that. Please keep going!

Spend the time now figuring out the tools you want to use, and the rest will fall into place easier. I’m walking you through it all, but since there are so many options it’s difficult since it’s dependent on which tools you choose.

Right now I can say that LearnDash works well with the email marketing tools they have integrations with. Thinkific does as well. Kajabi is all in one, so that one works too. And if you decide not to use Kajabi’s email marketing, they have good integrations with a few tools that will work pretty close to seamlessly (like ConvertKit).

This can all change. Hopefully, the tools with very simple or challenging integrations will work better in the future.

With some LMS options, you have to be flexible and limit yourself to what the LMS can do. Starting out, it will be better for you just to do what the LMS allows you to do.

Finish the task and then mark this step off as complete. Then I’ll see you in the next training!

Task

Choose your email marketing tool here now. Convertkit wins my vote for the best all-around solution, and it will integrate with almost every LMS option. Otherwise, if you want to work with a cloud LMS you can choose Kajabi and use their email marketing solution.

Strategic Planner

Sign up and log in to download the ‘Tool Stack’ Strategic Planner from the first task in this module. Fill it out, and then save it. Start moving your business forward!