Summary:
Maven's built an automated launch campaign designed to help you drive sales by promoting your course to your waitlist.
You can customize the campaign once and then use it to automatically announce each new cohort.
Students who are already on your waitlist or who join when the campaign is turned on, will automatically receive each email on a set schedule.
The Cohort Launch Campaign
Overview of the campaign
Four or more weeks before your course starts, you'll open up your cohort for enrollment. Once your cohort is open, you'll offer exclusive early enrollment to people on your waitlist. These are your most interested students: they've already signed up to get more information about your course and are eager to dive in, so let them know that they have a chance to enroll before you open your course to the public. Nurture them with a series of emails, about 1-2 emails per week leading up to the start of your course, to keep you course top of mind. Remember that it takes an average of 7 touch points with potential students before they make the decision to enroll in your course.
Letting your waitlist know that your cohort is open for enrollments is super easy using Maven’s cohort launch campaign. We've designed a series of 8 emails that will send from the time you open your cohort for enrollment to the payment deadline (or application deadline if you're using an application) that you set in your course settings. Each email has templated default copy written by Maven marketers. We pulled together best emails sent across many of Maven's most successful courses and created these customizable templates just for your course.
How to use the campaign
Edit your campaign emails. Be sure to check out Maven's guidance on how to personalize each email. If the email you're editing uses information from the landing page, now is a great time to finalize that section in your landing page builder.
Send yourself a test email if you'd like.
Open your cohort for enrollments by first setting a start and end date and payment deadline in your course settings. If you're using an application, set your application deadline.
If you currently have a cohort already running, connect your new cohort to the launch campaign or make further edits, like customizing the dates the emails send. If you're launching a brand new cohort or don't already have an active cohort, opening your cohort for enrollments automatically turns on the cohort launch campaign.
How to Customize the Emails
Customizing the copy
Each of the 8 emails in the cohort launch campaign series comes templated with default copy. It was written by Maven's marketing team and is based on what we've seen work across many successful Maven courses. Keep in mind though, this is just default copy. You should personalize each email using your voice and key details about your course that will resonate with students. Check out our guidance in each email
We've provided some guiding questions and suggested framing to help you think through what to add to the copy in each email. Just click on the email you want to edit to pull it up:
Customizing the timing and dates
We've also provided a templated cadence for the series of 8 emails. If you open your cohort 4 weeks from when your course starts (Maven's recommendation), the campaign will send 2 emails per week. We recommend opening your cohort about 4 weeks from the start date since students might not be able to commit to something too far out, and a 4-week window drives some urgency to enroll.
Except for the first email which sends the day after you open your cohort for enrollment, you can customize the both the time of day and the cadence of when the emails send if you want. The default time of day for the emails to send is 9 am in the time zone of the school owner. The cadence is that a new email is sent every 5 days.
The Student Experience
When a student signs up for your waitlist, they'll enter the cohort launch campaign in 1 of 2 ways:
They joined your waitlist via your landing page, course interest survey, or lead magnet page prior to you opening the cohort for enrollments: they'll get the campaign as soon as you open your cohort for enrollments and connect it to a campaign.
They join your waitlist via your landing page, course interest survey, or lead magnet page while the campaign is running: they'll enter the campaign as it's running. For example, if your student joins when the 6th email is about the send, they'll start on the 6th email of the campaign.
All emails contain an unsubscribe button, so if a student wants to opt out of getting the emails, they can. When they opt out of your cohort launch campaign for a specific cohort, they are not removed from your waitlist and they will get the next cohort launch campaign when you use it again for a future cohort.
P.S. - If you're interested in learning more about how your course waitlist works and how to grow it, check out this article.
FAQs
Can I still send a broadcast email to the waitlist while the cohort launch campaign is running?
Yes you can! You can also send broadcast emails other groups, like your "dropped off" students. If know you'll want to send more emails than those in the cohort launch campaign, you can add new emails to the campaign in the editing screen.
Can I add emails to the campaign? Can I remove some?
Yes, you can add or remove emails. You can also turn emails OFF without deleting them. Andy changes you make will carry over the next time you run the campaign.
Does the cohort launch campaign replace the "engage your waitlist campaign"?
No, the waitlist campaign is automatic and will help to nurture your waitlist between cohort announcements.
What if I want to turn off the campaign?
You can turn off individual emails that are set to send in the future and they will not send to students.
Can I edit emails after they've been sent?
Once the entire campaign has been sent, you can. When you edit an email, it’s also edited for the next time you run the campaign for a different cohort. This includes the dates - if you change when an email sends, we will note that change for the next cohorts too.
What if I'm running 2 cohorts at once?
If you’re running two cohorts at once, you'll connect your campaign to one cohort at a time. This ensures that you don't send someone on the waitlist the same email twice. You can change which cohort you're using the campaign for in the campaign settings.
Where can I learn more about the email variables used in the templates?
Check out the explanations of all the variables here.
If you have further questions about using the cohort launch campaign, please reach out to [email protected].