Want to grow your online business courses without stress?

Automated email sequences make it easy for online course creators to reach students.

With Systeme.io email automation, you can pull back people who ditch your course or upsell those who finish. Tools like Kajabi and Thinkific work the same way.

In this post, I give five simple sequences for email marketing for beginners. You’ll see how they save time and boost sales—no tech skills needed!

No matter if you sell online business, fitness, wellbeing, or relationship courses, your students fit the same groups.

Here’s how I group my students for my own online courses:

Here’s how to use email to stop losing your students and start building your income.

For the rest of this post, I’m going to be using Systeme.io for my examples. It’s a simple, easy-to-use product for hosting and selling online courses.

I use it myself and I really like it. It’s great that you can start out for free. No sense paying lots of money if it’s not going to work out for you.

If you’re using Kajabi, Thinkific, ClickFunnels, Go High Level, or anything else, it’ll still be applicable.

These are people who have expressed an interest in my course but didn’t complete the checkout process.

Systeme.io has a really cool two-step checkout widget. Step One is to enter their email address. Step Two is to enter in their credit card.

What I like about this specific widget is that their email address is captured the moment they go from Step One to Step Two.

Anyone who gave me their email address at Step One and didn’t finish Step Two are my CHECKOUT ABANDONERS.

I send 3 emails to the Abandoners. In my emails, I reiterate the benefits mentioned on my course sales landing page. The call to action of each email is to finish their purchase.

I send the emails every other day to stay top of mind but not be annoying. Once someone buys the course, I automatically pull them out of the Checkout Abandoner sequence.

Once I have a course buyer, I immediately start sending a series of daily emails. The first email of the automatic email series is like a “Welcome” email. I thank them for their purchase and build the excitement.

The purpose of this series is for my buyers to get the most out of what I’m teaching them.

Satisfied buyers lead to repeat buyers. And repeat buyers are my BEST customers.

I’ve found that focusing on what they will do (thanks to this course) is way better than just talking about what they will learn.

Every email in this series builds upon all the great things they’ll be able to do as a result of what they’ll learn. I like to include testimonials to build that excitement.

Depending upon how many modules I have in the course, I’ll send between three and five emails of this automated sequence.

Let’s face it. We all forget what we paid for. Me included.

I wait until after the Course Buyers automated email sequence ends. I’m relying on each email of that sequence to remind the buyers about the course they purchased.

Anyone who finishes the Course Buyer series and still hasn’t started the course are my NON-STARTERS.

I use an automated sequence of five emails. The first email is sent on the seventh day after they bought the course and still haven’t started it yet.

I send the second email the next day. Then the remaining three emails I send every other day.

Why five emails? It’s going to take more than a few emails to overcome their inertia. It’s long enough to build momentum but short enough to keep their attention.

This is a type of “abandoned recovery” email sequence. But because they’ve already bought the course, the message, tone, and call to action are going to be unique.

I remind them of all the benefits of why they bought the course in the first place, and that they’ve already spent the money. No sense letting it all go to waste.

Once someone completes at least one module of my class, I immediately pull them out of the Non-Starters email sequence.

I know by experience how long it takes someone to complete any of my courses – depending upon how many modules I have in each.

I want to give people enough time to finish a course with their busy schedules. But I don’t want to wait too long before I flag someone as a “ NON-FINISHER.”

I send a four automated email sequence to these “course abandoners.” The first email is sent the moment I flag someone as a NON-FINISHER. The remaining three emails I send every other day.

Four emails are a good number. They’re closer to action than are my NON-STARTERS. I still want to maintain contact and create a sense of urgency.

Since they’ve already started the course, the tone of my emails starts out encouraging. “Don’t stop the momentum you started,” is the gist. Then at the end of the sequence, I use more urgency. Something like, “Others have finished; why haven’t you?” and, “What are they receiving that you’re missing out on?”

I immediately pull them out of this sequence once they’ve finished the course.

These are my FINISHERS. Upon completion of the course, I automatically add them to an educational email sequence. The emails hit the benefits of everything they learned again and again.

I use this email sequence to build the value of the course and encourage them to immediately apply what they learned.

The Ebbinghaus “Forgetting Curve” says that 50% of information is lost within 1 hour of learning. Then 70% of the information is lost within 24 hours. One week later without any reinforcement, 90% of the learned material is lost.

So, it’s very important that I review all that was covered in my course as soon as possible.

I send a series of five emails over a two week period. The first email congratulates them for completing the course. The second email reinforces the value of what they just learned. Then emails three through five give practical tips to apply what they learned in the course.

The purpose of this email sequence to the new grads is to keep the excitement and the perceived value fresh.

That way, once that email sequence is done, they are my ALUMNI. I automatically add them to my email sequence to upsell them on additional online courses that I offer.

I send at least four emails every other day – depending upon how many other courses I offer that complement the one they just finished. No need to hard sell either.

I use these emails to build upon the value of what they just finished. And the tone I use is to make purchasing my other courses the most logical next step.

Ready to help your online business courses shine? Automated email sequences are the secret weapon online course creators need. From nudging abandoners to buy, to cheering finishers toward more courses, each sequence has a clear job.

With Systeme.io email automation, you can set them up fast and watch engagement grow. No matter your audience -- starters, quitters, or buyers, these emails save time and lift sales. Start small, test what works, and see how easy it is to keep students hooked!