Examples of Educational Email Courses

In this blog post, we’ll go through 5 examples of Educational Email Courses used by creators and businesses to build their email list and nurture leads into paying customers.

Without further delay, let’s dive into the first example:

1. James Clear

James clear is the author of New York Times Bestseller Atomic Habits and has over 980k followers on Twitter. He has an Educational Email Course on his website where he offers 11 email lessons over 30 days to build habits that stick.

The email course follows the format of a ‘step by step guide’:

Day 0: Welcome email.
Day 1: How to Choose a Habit That Sticks
Day 2: The Two-Minute Rule for Building Lasting Habits
Day 3: How to Fit New Habits in Your Life
Day 4: How to Design Your Environment for Success
Day 5: How to Make Good Habits Automatic
Day 6: Prime Your Environment to Make Future Habits Easy
Day 7: Two Strategies to Combat Fading Motivation
Day 8: How to Create a Reward that Makes Habits Satisfying
Day 9: Visualize Your Progress and Stay the Course with a Habit Tracker
Day 10: The Role of Family and Friends in Shaping Habits
Day 11: Habit Graduation: Moving from Two Minutes to Mastery

3 observations from the ‘30 Days to Better Habits’ Email Course:

This email course is delivered as 11 lessons over 30 days. In general, I prefer the lessons to be sent on consecutive days to keep the momentum going. However, stretching it to 30 days is logical, as forming a habit typically takes over 21 days.
At the end of each email, there is a ‘Progress check in section’ where James provides a two-sentence summary of the lesson and links to free bonuses and downloads. This helps readers clarify their understanding and also dive into further resources.
The end of the week email summarises the lessons in a couple of bullet points offering the readers a reminder of the key messages.

2. Nicholas Cole & Dickie Bush

Nicholas Cole and Dickie Bush are digital writers and have over 560k combined followers on X. They have multiple paid courses and newsletters and each of their paid products have a dedicated landing page with an educational email course.

Start writing online is their flagship digital writing course. The landing page offers a 7-day educational email course where they guide readers to start writing online.

This is the structure for the 7 day Digital Writing Email course:

Day 0: Are you ready to START writing online?
Day 1: Legacy Writers vs. Digital Writers
Day 2: How To Become Prolific
Day 3: Demolish Your Biggest Problems
Day 4: 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Writing Online
Day 5: DON’T Start A Blog!
Day 6: How To Make Writing Effortless
Day 7: The Power of Writing Within An Online Community
Day 8: 3 bonus writing resources for you

3 observations from the Digital Writing Email Course:

The Day 0 Welcome email inquires about the reader’s digital writing experience to tailor the lessons, showcasing the owners’ commitment to customizing their email course.
The main body of the email focuses on educating the reader, and in the small print at the bottom of the email, there is a link to their paid course, Ship 30 for 30.
This course features a clear, uncluttered landing page that solely prompts the reader to enter their email and clearly explains the benefits they’ll receive.

3. Jay Clouse

Jay Clouse is the founder of Creator Science and he offers a 7-day educational email course to teach you how to earn a living as a professional creator.

You can access the ‘Professional Creator Crash Course’ through Jay’s website under the ‘Freebies’ section. You also receive a pop up directing you to sign up to the free course when you are attempting to exit the website.

This is the structure of the Crash Course:

Day 1: How magical internet money happens
Day 2: The most important first step
Day 3: How to grow -FAST
Day 4: How to get attention
Day 5: How to actually create revenue
Day 6: What makes people buy
Day 7: The meta-skill all creators need
Bonus: A few of my favourite tools

3 observations from the ‘Professional Creator Crash Course’:

There is a ‘Homework’ section in each email where the readers get to apply the information they learnt. This is an excellent method to get users to see the value they are receiving through the email course.
The daily emails contain links to various podcasts hosted by Jay, articles on his website and his newsletter. This helps drive traffic to his website.
In the bonus email, Jay talks about building a paid membership platform for those on the journey to becoming professional creators and invites readers to sign up for the waiting list. This is a soft sell method and drives readers to your paid courses/ services.

4. Jeff Felten

Jeff Felten helps founders and solopreneurs with email marketing and offers a 7-day ‘How to drive sales with email’ course. When you sign up for his weekly newsletter, you also get the option to sign up for this email course

The structure of the lessons is as follows:

Day 1: Your first lesson on email marketing
Day 2: My dead simple email story telling format
Day 3: Customers can be slippery
Day 4: Tips for writing emails
Day 5: The thing you need the most
Day 6: Showing the transformation
Day 7: Giving you a peep show.

3 observations from the ‘How to sell in marketing emails course’:

Jeff has a link to his paid course in the main body of all of his daily emails, a method some readers may find too direct.
The emails feature stories, testimonials, and examples that engage readers and leave them wanting more.
The tone of his email is conversational and it very easy to read and understand.

5. Patch Plants

Patch Plants sells indoor and outdoor plants and you can sign up for their Houseplant Parenting Course on their website.

The 11 day ‘Houseplant Parenting Course’ is structured as follows:

Day 1: How do I pick the right plants for my space?
Day 2: How much should I water my plant?
Day 3: How much light does my plant need?
Day 4: Are my plants harmful if my pets or kids eat them?
Day 5: Do I need to clean my plant?
Day 6: How do I make sure the humidity is right?
Day 7: How do you find the right soil and fertiliser for house plants?
Day 8: Should I trim – or ‘prune’ – my plant?
Day 9: What to do when my plant has bugs?
Day 10: Should I change how I look after my plant during winter?
Day 11: Why are my plant’s leaves falling off?

3 observations from the ‘Houseplant Parenting Course’:

The email course uses short videos, infographics and photos to educate the readers. Therefore, use other formats if it helps to communicate the information easily.
The website hosts all the email course videos in one place, raising the question of why anyone would provide their email address for the courses.
The email effectively cross-sells by linking to plants and accessories like pots, showcasing multiple products of interest.

We have covered 5 different examples of educational email courses. I am sure you have you taken away plenty of ideas to help you create an educational email course of your own.

Check out our guide to write your own Educational Email Course.

Or contact us if you need help building an Educational Email Course for your business.

Click here to see an example of an Educational Email Course and landing page I have created.