Do you want to offer your course participants added value that goes beyond the actual training? Then share new insights on your topic with them every month! It’s best to package these in an online course and notify your participants via email – for us, that's the monthly newsletter.

Online courses do not always have to consist of data protection guidelines or manuals. The various media formats and configuration options for individual learning content and chapters give you the opportunity to tailor your course to any topic, target audience, and course goal. That's why we present you with exceptional ideas in this series that you can implement in your online courses! Today’s topic: The monthly newsletter

How the monthly newsletter works

You’re surely familiar with the principle of a newsletter: Recipients receive an email at regular intervals with information to stay up to date. However, this method is often abused, and more and more emails accumulate in the inbox, which eventually land in the spam folder. This has given newsletters a negative connotation, making it more difficult to attract new subscribers. But that’s where the monthly newsletter comes in:

With the monthly newsletter, you create new content once a month in the online course and make it available to all course participants. This way, recipients can “experience” new information in the form of texts, images, videos, or audio files on the blink.it platform.

Similar to the classic newsletter, customer acquisition and retention are the focus here:

• Customer retention: With the monthly newsletter, you establish contact with your course participants every month by sending them an invitation to the new content. Through the online course format, you encourage exchange, as the course can also contain interactive chapters (e.g., quizzes, comments, and surveys).

• Customer acquisition: You send your target audience impulses with relevant information on specific topics every month. These impulses could be: news from the industry, personal stories, customer stories, or interviews.

Online Course vs. Newsletter

While the newsletter is more similar to a personalized letter, the monthly newsletter invites exchange. We have compared both variants:

| Monthly Newsletter (Online Course) | Newsletter || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Diverse media formats: In the online course, you have the option to easily incorporate different media formats such as text, images, videos, audio, or links. This makes your monthly newsletter exciting and varied. | Focus on a core theme: Are your contents text-based with only one core message? Then the newsletter is the perfect format for you! The classic email consolidates all your information in one message. || Interaction is encouraged: On the blink.it learning platform, you can integrate various interactions into your online course. For example, you can create a chapter with a quiz or a survey. This makes your monthly newsletter interactive. With the comment feature, you can promote exchange among participants if you wish. | Interaction is only limited: The classic newsletter is more focused on texts and images. This means recipients can interact very little with the content. To get in touch with you about the newsletter, they can only write an email. || Participants have access to all content: When you make the online course available for new participants, they can also see the contents of previous monthly newsletters. | Recipients only receive new content: Newsletter recipients only receive emails that were sent after registration. Therefore, they do not have access to previous content. || External content on a learning platform: The online course format stores your content on an external learning platform. This can be a hurdle for your course participants to actually access the external content. | Direct access to content: Your recipients can access the new content directly in their email inbox and do not need additional access. This shows that the newsletter is a straightforward medium. |

You see: Both the online course and the newsletter have advantages and disadvantages. Which of the two formats you choose is entirely up to you and your use cases. However, the monthly newsletter offers you the opportunity to provide diverse content. Additionally, you can engage in discourse with your course participants. Ultimately, your choice depends on your offering, your course goal, and your preferences.

Info: By the way, we have already written about the extraordinary ideas of our customers. The “Reach The Top” challenge from the company "Customer 21" shows how successful the implementation of an extraordinary idea can be in the online course. Learn more now about the blink.it course on the challenge: Gamification in Online Courses: The Success Story of “Reach The Top”

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You want to learn more about blink.it and e-learning topics? Then check out our learning materials and get inspired for your next online course!

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