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Read articleA course email funnel turns a stranger into a student in a predictable sequence: they get something useful for free, give you their email address, receive a short series of emails that build trust, and then get a clear offer for the paid course. On a LifterLMS site you can build every step of that with the core plugin plus one email marketing integration.
This article is for course creators who already have a paid course and want a repeatable way to sell it without relying on launches. You will see which free entry point to use, how the email capture works in LifterLMS, which emails belong in LifterLMS and which belong in your email platform, how to make the offer, and a small code snippet that stops sales emails going to people who have already bought.
The shape of a course email funnel
Most working funnels have the same five stages. What changes between businesses is the content, not the structure.
| Stage | Goal | Where it lives in LifterLMS |
|---|---|---|
| Attract | Bring the right people to a free resource | Blog posts, free lessons, course pages |
| Capture | Get the email address with consent | Free access plan checkout, or a form in your email tool |
| Nurture | Deliver value and build trust | Your email platform, plus LifterLMS engagement emails for progress |
| Offer | Present the paid course with a reason to act | Access plans, coupons, sale pricing, direct checkout links |
| Onboard | Get buyers started and stop the pitch | Enrollment triggers, welcome emails, list changes |
Choosing the free entry point
LifterLMS gives you three realistic options for the free step. They differ mainly in whether you capture an email address.
A free lesson inside the paid course
Tick Free Lesson on a lesson and guests can view it without registering or enrolling. It is the lowest-friction preview and it can rank in search, but it captures nothing. Use it as a taster that links to the next step, not as the funnel entry itself.
A free mini-course
Create a short separate course, three to five lessons, and give it an access plan with the plan type set to Free. A visitor clicks the enroll button, creates an account on the free checkout, and is enrolled. You now have their email, a WordPress user, and LifterLMS events you can trigger emails from. This is the strongest option for most course businesses because the prospect experiences your teaching inside the same platform they would buy.
A lead magnet delivered by your email tool
A PDF, checklist or video series delivered by Mailchimp, Kit or similar, with no LifterLMS account involved. It is quick to build but you lose the in-platform experience and the progress events. It suits audiences who will not create an account for a freebie.
A common combination is a free lesson on the public course page that invites people into the free mini-course, which in turn leads to the paid course.
Building the free mini-course capture
- Create the course. Keep it short and make every lesson deliver a result. The last lesson should naturally lead into what the paid course covers.
- Add a free access plan. In the access plan dialog choose Free as the plan type, set Lifetime Access, and write a clear Enroll Button Text such as "Start the free course".
- Decide where people land. Under Redirection Settings, Checkout Redirect lets you send new students to a page of your choice, for example a welcome page with a short video and the first lesson link.
- Connect your email platform. The official LifterLMS Mailchimp add-on adds new users to a default list on registration and lets you pick a New Enrollment List (and optional interest group) per course, with an optional consent checkbox on registration, enrollment and checkout forms. For Kit, see our LifterLMS and Kit integration guide; for ActiveCampaign or a CRM with tags, see LifterLMS with WP Fusion.
- Test the whole path in a private window: enroll, confirm the user appears in the right list or segment, and check the welcome email arrives.
Keep consent clean. Creating an account to take a free course is not the same as agreeing to marketing emails in many jurisdictions. Use the consent checkbox your integration provides, or a separate opt-in, and say plainly what people will receive.
LifterLMS engagement emails vs your email platform
LifterLMS has its own email system under Engagements. An engagement fires on a Triggering Event, sends an email you write, and can wait a number of days set in Engagement Delay. Triggers include Student creates a new account, Student enrolls in a course, Student completes a lesson, Student completes a course, Student passes a quiz and Student purchases a course. Our guide to LifterLMS engagements and automated emails covers the setup.
Use each tool for what it is good at:
- LifterLMS engagements are best for behaviour inside the course: "you finished lesson 2, here is what lesson 3 covers", or "you completed the free course, here is your next step". They are sent through your site's mail setup and go only to enrolled students.
- Your email platform is best for the nurture and sales sequence itself: segmentation, unsubscribe handling, A/B tests, analytics, and broadcasts to people who never finished the free course.
One useful detail from the plugin code: delayed engagement emails check, at send time, that the student is still enrolled in the related course and that the email and engagement are still published. If someone is removed from the free course, their pending emails for that course do not go out.
A sample sequence
| When | Sent by | |
|---|---|---|
| Immediately on enrollment | Welcome, what to expect, link to lesson 1 | LifterLMS (enrollment trigger) or email platform |
| Day 2 | A story or case for why the topic matters | Email platform |
| On completing lesson 2 | Encouragement and what lesson 3 unlocks | LifterLMS (lesson completed trigger) |
| Day 4 | Answer the most common objection to the paid course | Email platform |
| On completing the free course | Congratulations and the paid course offer | LifterLMS (course completed trigger) |
| Day 7 | The offer for everyone, with a deadline | Email platform |
| Day 9 | Last reminder before the offer ends | Email platform |
The pattern is simple: time-based emails from the email platform carry the sales message, and event-based emails from LifterLMS react to what each student actually does.
Making the offer
LifterLMS core gives you the tools for a time-limited offer without extra plugins:
- Coupons. Create a coupon restricted to the paid course, with a Coupon Expiration Date and an optional Usage Limit. Our guide to LifterLMS coupons explains the options.
- Sale pricing. An access plan can be On Sale with a Sale Start Date and Sale End Date. Remember that on a recurring plan, buyers who join at the sale price keep it.
- Direct checkout links. Each saved plan shows a Direct to Checkout Purchase Link. Put that link in the email so readers skip the sales page and land on checkout with the plan selected.
- Hidden plans. A plan with visibility set to hidden does not show in the pricing table but works through its direct link, which is handy for an email-only price. It is not private; anyone with the link can use it.
Some people will start checkout and leave. LifterLMS sells a paid Cart Abandonment Recovery add-on that sends up to three recovery emails, with an optional one-time coupon in the last one. Our article on setting up LifterLMS checkout covers the checkout itself.
Stop pitching people who already bought
Nothing damages trust faster than a "last chance to join" email arriving the day after someone paid. Handle this in two places.
In your email platform, move buyers out of the sales sequence when they enroll in the paid course: with the Mailchimp add-on, set the paid course's New Enrollment List or group, and exclude that segment from the sequence.
In LifterLMS, delayed engagement emails pass through the llms_proccess_email_engagement filter (the spelling is the plugin's) just before sending. Returning an error there cancels the send. This snippet skips specific pitch emails for anyone already enrolled in the paid course:
<?php
// Skip delayed LifterLMS sales emails for students who already own the paid course.
add_filter( 'llms_proccess_email_engagement', 'llmsx_skip_pitch_for_buyers', 10, 5 );
function llmsx_skip_pitch_for_buyers( $can_process, $user_id, $email_id, $related_id, $engagement_id ) {
$pitch_email_ids = array( 1234, 1235 ); // IDs of your llms_email posts that pitch the paid course.
$paid_course_id = 987; // ID of the paid course.
if ( true === $can_process
&& in_array( (int) $email_id, $pitch_email_ids, true )
&& llms_is_user_enrolled( $user_id, $paid_course_id ) ) {
return array( new WP_Error( 'llmsx-already-bought', 'Student already enrolled in the paid course.' ) );
}
return $can_process;
}This applies to engagements with a delay of one day or more. Engagements with no delay are sent immediately and skip these checks, so time-sensitive pitches should always use a delay.
Measuring results and avoiding mistakes
Track three numbers: free enrollments per week, the percentage of free students who complete the mini-course, and the percentage who buy within 30 days. LifterLMS reporting shows enrollments and completions per course, and the Customers screen under Orders shows purchase history and lifetime value. Add UTM parameters to every link in your emails so your analytics separates email sales from other traffic. If completion of the free course is low, fix the course before rewriting the emails; see how to improve course completion.
Common mistakes
- A free course that is too long. If it takes weeks, people never reach the offer.
- No reason to act. An offer with no deadline or bonus is easy to postpone forever.
- Sending marketing from WordPress only. Engagement emails are not a newsletter tool; there is no unsubscribe management or segmentation.
- Immediate pitch emails that cannot be cancelled for buyers.
- Untested mail delivery. If site emails go to spam, the whole funnel fails quietly. See LifterLMS emails not sending.
Frequently asked questions
Can a free lesson collect email addresses?
Not on its own. A free lesson is viewable without an account. To capture emails, use a free access plan on a mini-course, or add an opt-in form from your email tool to the lesson.
Do I need a paid add-on for an email funnel?
The free course, engagements, coupons and checkout links are in core. You will want an integration with your email platform, either an official LifterLMS add-on or a connector such as WP Fusion or Zapier, and a payment gateway add-on to take card payments.
How long should the nurture sequence be?
For a single course, five to eight emails over about two weeks is a sensible starting point. Test, then adjust based on when sales actually happen.
Next steps
Build the smallest version first: a three-lesson free course with a free access plan, list sync to your email platform, four emails and one offer with a deadline. Run it for a month, then improve whichever step loses the most people.
If you want the integrations, list logic and custom rules set up for you, our LifterLMS integrations service handles email platform and CRM connections. Get in touch with the courses you sell and the email tool you use.
