A welcome sequence for your course that lands in Primary
Your welcome emails are read most in the first days after someone signs up. If they arrive in Promotions, most new subscribers never see them, and the free lesson, the masterclass or the course you mention goes unseen with them.
What a course welcome sequence has to do
Three jobs, in this order: get the first email opened and read, earn enough trust that people read the next one, and only then make the case for the course.
Course creators often do the third job first: the welcome email pitches the course, offers a discount and adds a countdown. That is also the email most likely to be filed under Promotions.
What sends course emails to Promotions
- A "free masterclass" or "free training" offer in a sales tone
- Several links, or links styled as buttons ("Access now", ">>> Watch here")
- Discounts, prices and countdowns in the first emails
- Exclamation marks, emoji and Title Case in the subject
What we saw at AlgoCademy: our own welcome email kept landing in Promotions. Rewriting single lines wasn't enough. Rewritten as a personal note that asked the reader where they were stuck, with the same masterclass and the same link, it reached Primary in 4 of 4 test sends.
The formula that fits
The Soap Opera Sequence suits courses well: five emails that tell the story behind your course, from the struggle to the moment you found what works, and end with the invitation. For a longer runway, the 10-email Welcome and nurture formula adds a quick question to get replies, a common mistake, a myth to question and the objections people have.