What Mailing List Provider Should Course Creators Use?

Q: You mean course creators need an email list?

A: Yes!  Yes!  Yes!  

Q: But....why?

Course creators (especially those who want to build long term sustainable passive income) need to have direct access to their customer list.  When you upload your classes to any site you don't own, you also don't own the access to the customers who watch your classes.

That means that if you want to self-publish a book in a year or put a class on your website, you can't market it to the people who have watched your courses because most platforms forbid marketing of products outside their platform.

Yes, you do have access to your followers through social media, but how often do we see the algorithms change and prevent posts from being seen?  With an email list you have direct (unrestricted) access to your followers, so you can talk to them about whatever you want, whenever you want (unless of course you annoy them and they unsubscribe!).

All that being said, it's important to choose the best mail service that is right for your budget and skillset.  Here are the three platforms I've used and like for the various reasons listed below.

Flodesk is a super-sleek and easy to use platform with all the functionality I need in a mailing list (forms, automations, and email templates). Flodesk is the easiest mailing list provider I've ever used, so it wins the prize for design and user interface.

The BEST thing about Flodesk is that the membership price does not increase as your subscribers go up.  Just to give you an idea of the power of this model, I was paying $300+/month on Mailchimp, and now I pay $16/month on Flodesk for the same service.  Yeah, I know.  Just try it.

They're also offering 50% off to new signups if a Flodesk user gives you their link, so use this link to get 50% your monthly bill.

Mailchimp doesn't come without it's benefits though!  It has much more robust analytics and reporting that you won't get in Flodesk.  However I never found a need for all the extras they offered, so Flodesk worked fine for me. 

One great thing about Mailchimp for beginners though is that it's free up to 2000 followers (don't quote me because they may change that!).  So if you're starting from 0, you may not be ready to pay a monthly fee for your list.  That is where Mailchimp or Mailerlite (comes in).

If you are going to host classes on your site (and may eventually do a membership, blog, website, and want to have detailed sales pages) you can just keep your mailing list and emailing all in Kajabi.  Kajabi is an "all-in-one" service, so once you sign up, the mailing list is included.  Kajabi also makes it really easy to integrate your products and other features in your emails, so you're not copying code from one platform, pasting in another, and praying that it all works when it hits people's inboxes.

In short, these are 3 (and there are a lot more!) great options, but the one you choose will depend a lot on your budget and needs for your list.