How email services like Mailchimp, Lemlist, and Sendpulse generate leads using academies

Email services are often used as a tool for generating leads.

But what do these services use to attract their own clients?

After all, they need clients, too.

We did some research and found out that most email marketing companies have their own academies for attracting users and user adoption.

In this article, we'll share stories from Mailchimp, Sendpulse, Reply, and Lemlist. We'll learn what exactly an academy is and how they're created.

What is an academy?

An academy is a training portal where a company can offer lessons and courses on their product, test learners, certify users, and on top of all that, view statistics.

But as far as what an academy has to offer, that's just the tip of the iceberg. To understand how to get the most out of an academy, let's take a look at the experiences of well-known companies that have already launched academies of their own.

Academies created by email marketing companies

Mailchimp

In 2020, Mailchimp launched its Mailchimp Academy, a resource for training users and members of the Mailchimp & Co. community.

In 2020, Mailchimp launched its Mailchimp Academy, a resource for training users and members of the Mailchimp & Co. community.

The academy is only available for account holders, and there are two training paths available. The first is oriented towards gaining basic knowledge about how Mailchimp works. The goal with this route is to help current users better understand Mailchimp and use it as effectively as possible. The second path teaches learners more advanced email marketing skills. The company noticed that 40% of its users are freelancers. The idea behind the academy was to provide these freelancers with quality support in the form of training.

In this way, Mailchimp uses its academy to expand its partner network. If you want to become a partner, you need to complete the Foundations course in the Mailchimp Academy. And if you want to achieve the status of professional partner, you need to complete the certification in electronic marketing or automating email in their Academy.

Sendpulse

Sendpulse, a service for email mailouts, has also launched an?academy.

In it, there are both free courses available to all and courses you have to pay for. When you complete their courses, you get a certificate that you can share on social media. For the company, this is an opportunity to spread awareness of their brand.

And there's a bonus for learners who complete the paid course: they get the cost of the course back in credit they can use on SendPulse services. This system attracts potential clients and motivates people to use their tools.?

Reply

The?Reply Academy?was launched in 2017 with the task of training not just current users, but potential clients.

It all started with a course called Outbound Sales Mastery Course, for people who have never used their product before and want to learn about it.

Now, their academy has product courses for Reply users, as well as expert courses for people who want to learn new business skills.

With the help of their academy, Reply was able to grow customer loyalty and increase the conversion rate from courses to subscriptions by a third.

Lemlist

The?Lemlist Academy?is a public resource where people can learn a great deal about working with email.

There are courses about how to manage your inbox, how to write cold emails that get responses, and of course how to effectively use Lemlist.

The Lemlist team understands that a user's highest priority is results. That's why their course about their product contains a step-by-step explanation of how to launch your first campaign. It starts with adding contacts and takes you all the way to writing engaging emails.

The courses in the Lemlist academy are interesting and memorable because of their interactive format, combining text and video lessons. And of course, the content is top-notch.

Lemlist's academy helps them increase customer loyalty, and they attract new potential users by placing a link to the academy in their online resources.

Benefits of an academy for email services

Different companies have different goals with their academies and different ways of using training. Now that we've taken a look at the positive experiences well-known companies have had with academies, we can summarize the values that an academy brings to clients and businesses.

?What do your clients get?

• Knowledge?so they can use your tool to its fullest potential.
• Results?from using the tool = loyalty to your company.
• Help?with professional development and an opportunity to learn a new skill to add to their resume.
• Confirmation of expertise. Learners can share their certificates on social media or networks like LinkedIn.

?What does your company get?

• New clients. Your academy can be the first stage in your sales funnel and serve as a lead magnet.
• Increased conversions.?Interactive courses make the first day using your product simple and easy, and they substantially increase conversions from trial users to paying clients.
• Reduced user churn. Teach learners how to correctly and effectively use your product, and they'll be more likely to get results and renew their subscription.
• Increased LTV and product value. An academy is more than a knowledge base — it's a way of showing clients that you care. It's also a great resource for releasing new features and supporting ongoing communication with users.
• User segmentation. Unlike on an FAQ page or in a knowledge base, in an academy, you can create separate courses for new hires, more established employees, and experts, and you can segment users by knowledge level.
• Analysis of your tool.?One way you can do this is by creating courses for different features, and then using reports to see which courses are more popular or more difficult (based on how often users access the courses).
• Additional monetization. Try making basic courses free and offering higher-level courses that share company methodologies and "secrets" as an additional paid service.

How can you create your own academy?

You can make your academy on your own, of course, if you really want to: adapt WordPress plugins or develop your own solution from the ground up. That work will run you at least $10,000.

The alternative is using an existing platform to support your academy, one that was created specifically for that purpose.

AcademyOcean?is a smart LMS that SaaS companies have been using to create their academies for over five years. Our platform has an industry record-high ease-of-use rating.

We've helped launch training for businesses from over 20 countries worldwide.

Fun fact: Reply, Lemlist, PoliteMail, and eSputnik created their academies using our platform.

??Read?AcademyOcean case studies?from these and other SaaS companies.

Our experience working with businesses across various industries and countries has enabled us to create unique features that you won't find in other LMS: unlimited training portals, dynamic content, custom interface, teaser lessons, smart teams, and GTM.

??Want to learn more about how AcademyOcean can help your business? Book a?free demonstration?with an expert from our team!

??Insights

An academy is more than just a resource for information that belongs in a knowledge base, and it's more than just product instructions. For SaaS companies, an academy is an excellent content marketing and lead generation tool, as well as an opportunity to stand out from the competition and grow business.

We hope this article inspired new ideas for using an academy to grow your business!?

Feel free to share them in the comments :)