Why Email Marketing Is An Underrated Growth Channel For Training Companies
In the training world, spending the time to refine your methods and collect the evidence that will help you shape programmes that genuinely help people are integral parts of becoming a trusted training provider. But you probably aren’t struggling to get leads and clients because your programmes lack depth or impact.
Perhaps you’re struggling because of the difficulty in getting busy decision-makers to understand that depth and impact. And to feel confident that your approach is the right fit for their organisation. Social platforms move too fast. Events come and go. Even referrals can dry up once the market shifts.
Email marketing gives you space. It lets you speak directly to decision-makers in a way that feels personal rather than promotional. It’s the one channel where conversations can grow at a steady pace instead of being squeezed into character limits or manipulated by social media algorithms.
This article looks at why email marketing, when done with intention and clarity, solves some of the hardest commercial challenges for training providers. You’ll also see frameworks that will help you turn email into a reliable channel for qualified leads and clients.
The commercial challenges that training providers face (and why email solves them)
Long, multi-stakeholder sales cycles
Selling training usually involves a chain of people like HR and L&D department heads, who need to be convinced that your programme is a good fit. By their nature, corporate training programmes are created to address complex problems, and the average buying group for complex B2B solutions consists of 8.2 stakeholders.
Social media can be useful for grabbing the attention of these people if the algorithm deigns to show it to them. And even then, you can’t necessarily nurture these different departments all at once.
Email gives you a place to build a single, coherent channel that different stakeholders can revisit and discuss internally. You aren’t scattering your message across fast-moving channels with different algorithm requirements. Email provides a steady flow of communication that multiple decision-makers can follow at their own pace.
Highly sceptical decision-makers
In some cases, there is a high trust barrier for companies who fail to see the relevance of training programmes. Perhaps they’ve been burned by generic workshops in the past. Or they can’t see the ROI. Inspirational pictures of you delivering a workshop might get you likes on LinkedIn, but it won’t give potential clients what they need to feel confident in you i.e. delivering specific, measurable results.
Email lets you slow things down. You can explain your reasoning and take your time with case studies that prove results. Scepticism softens when buyers have time and context.
Crowded markets with identical messaging
Training providers often sound the same because algorithms tend to push content towards whatever is currently performing. In a recent survey of B2B decision-makers, some of which are tied to L&D initiatives, 68% said that B2B brands all sound the same.
In a social media context, this means nuances get sanded down and originality disappears. Everyone is ‘transformational’ and ‘unlocks potential.’ You’re competing in an endless echo chamber.
Email frees you of the pressure to write ‘what works for the feed.’ You own your email list and can write what is true to you. You can stand out in a saturated market with a unique worldview and methodology.
Buyers who want to ‘test drive’ your thinking
Generally, decision-makers almost never buy training without first examining the mind behind it. They want to see how you diagnose problems and help people shift behaviours. Short-form, surface-level content isn’t going to cut it when buyers are getting increasingly used to seeing generic ChatGPT and Claude written content.
Email offers a channel for sharing original ideas and frameworks that let buyers try you on for size. It’s one of the closest ways to give them a sample of a workshop without actually running one.
The need for relationship-based sales
Building on my last point, training isn’t an impulse purchase. It requires building real trust that can’t be engineered. Email offers the chance to build that relationship over time through meaningful and consistent communication.
Rather than trying to win a sale, you become a familiar voice, and buyers may return to you when they feel the moment and budget is right.
Common mistakes training providers make with email
You’ve decided you want to use email marketing as a lead generation channel for your training programme. Great. It’s better to avoid these common mistakes so you don’t end up wasting good time and money.
Making a corporate newsletter no one asked for
A default for all newsletters, regardless of industry, is the ‘internal update email’ because it feels safe. Updates on new hires, new certifications, new partnerships, new services that haven’t been tested etc.
Buyers aren’t waiting for your internal news. They want something that helps to solve their problems or makes them think differently about their problems in a way that moves them forward.
Writing academically and not conversationally
Years of working in a corporate environment can lead to many training experts writing like they’re submitting a paper to an accreditation board. It’s soulless, jargony, passive and robotic. It’s the kind of style that creates distance.
It’s a cliche that people buy from people, but cliches are often the simplest truths to understand. Write. Like. A. Human. Seriously.
Selling too early
Another common mistake is for a training provider to sell on the first email. More often than not, this kills trust immediately. Remember that email is a nurturing channel first and a sales channel second. Teach first. Sell second.
Lack of consistency, then resurfacing only to promote something
The frequency of sending emails vs the quality of emails is never an and/or situation. It’s down to understanding your buyers and their behaviours, and quality and quantity are both important.
The mistake I’m referring to here is to stop sending emails for months or years. Then, suddenly starting again with a sales promotion without warming up your list first with a re-engagement campaign.
The one idea to one person principle
Now that you understand how email can solve your biggest challenges and the common mistakes to avoid, the most effective emails come from a simple principle. It remains among the best copywriting advice I’ve ever received, and it’s called the ‘one idea to one person’ principle.
This means that for every email you create, write as if you’re speaking to one person. This sounds simple in theory, yet putting it into action is another story when people start shoving multiple ideas into one email and confusing the message they want to send.
Here’s an example of this principle conveyed in a 4-step welcome email sequence for a training provider bringing new subscribers into their newsletter:
Email 1: First Welcome
One idea: Provide a warm welcome for your new subscribers.
One person: Speak as if you’re greeting a new friend, not an email list.
Thesis: The purpose of this email is to make someone feel seen. Share your story briefly, set expectations for what they’ll receive and make the reader feel safe in your world.
Email 2: Trust Builder
One idea: Show understanding.
One person: Address their struggles directly and empathetically.
Thesis: The second email is about resonance, not solutions. Share a common challenge clients face and let the reader feel you “get” them. This deepens connection without overwhelming them.
Email 3: Offer Value
One idea: Deliver a small win.
One person: Give them a practical tip or an exercise as if you wrote it just for their situation.
Thesis: The goal here is to prove your value early with a tool they can use today. When one reader feels helped, they’re more likely to stay engaged with everything else you send.
Email 4: Inviting Next Steps
One idea: Present a gentle path forward.
One person: Frame your offer as a personal invitation, not a broadcast promotion.
Thesis: Guide them toward booking a call or exploring your services. Because every previous email felt personal, this step feels like a natural continuation of the conversation.
How to choose the right email platform for your training business
Once you’ve taken the time to think about the themes of your newsletter and the style of how you want to write emails, the other big consideration is your platform. Here’s a checklist of questions to ask yourself, which will help to determine your choice:
Strategic fit and business goals
What role do I want email to play in my training business over the next 1 - 3 years?
How will this platform support the kind of learner journey I want to create?
What types of campaigns do I plan to run? (Evergreen funnels, retention sequences), and how well does the platform support them?
How important is scalability if my student base grows significantly?
Content and course delivery
How easily can I create and manage email sequences tied to course materials or learner progression?
How well does the platform integrate with my LMS, course platform or booking system?
What kind of automation do I need to support onboarding, progression reminders or certification follow-ups?
How much control do I need over segmentation and personalisation over different learner types?
User experience (internal team)
What level of technical skill do I and my team have, and how much complexity can we realistically manage?
How intuitive does the platform feel when building templates and automations?
How much time do I want to spend each week managing email operations?
Learner experience (external)
What kind of experience do I want learners to have when they receive my emails?
How important is deliverability for the types of emails I send (e.g. transactional vs reminders)?
How easily can learners update preferences or unsubscribe without friction?
Cost and value
How does pricing scale as my list grows, and is it sustainable to my business model?
What features are must-haves vs nice-to-haves, and how does each platform’s pricing map to that?
How much revenue or time savings do I expect the platform to help generate?
Compliance and security
How easily can I stay compliant with GDPR, accessibility standards and data protection policies?
What level of control do I need over data storage and consent tracking?
Email platforms to consider
Alongside your checklist, here are the pros and cons of some of the most popular email marketing plaforms:
Mailchimp
Pros:
Simple email creation and design tools.
Free plan to try out.
An all-in-one marketing platform for website and landing page creation.
Basic email automation sequences.
Good data analytics for tracking email success.
Cons:
Can become expensive to scale.
LinkedIn newsletters
Pros:
Easy to set up and gain subscribers quickly because you can invite all your existing connections.
Email content appears in two places i.e. the LinkedIn feed and subscriber inboxes based on the email they used to create their LinkedIn profile e.g. Gmail or Hotmail.
Cons:
Limited analytics.
Kit (Formerly Convertkit)
Pros:
Good data analytics and segmentation.
Free trial opportunity.
All-in-one marketing platform for selling courses.
Cons:
Can become expensive to scale.
Email automation feature only available through a paid subscription.
Substack
Pros:
Easy to use with multi-featured video and audio creation tools.
Deep analytics, free set up and monetisation opportunities.
Built-in recommendations feature to increase organic subscribers through the Substack network.
Cons:
Lack of automation and segmentation.
Hefty 13% cut of profits i.e. Substack will take 10% and Stripe will take 3% if you monetise.
Explore effective email marketing with Spotlight Training Co
Effective email marketing doesn’t happen overnight. It requires consistency and an appetite for constant testing to understand what works best for your audience. When done this way, it can create genuine connections and prove the merit of training programmes and L&D initiatives.
If you’re interested in exploring how email marketing can help your training business, book a free ideas call with Spotlight Training Co. We’ll figure out what the best approach to take is for your circumstances and business size.