How to launch an online course: a 6-week plan
A week-by-week launch plan for video courses: waitlist, free content, opening and closing the cart, Gmail sender rules and when to switch to evergreen.
A launch is a short period when you open enrolment for a course, talk about it intensively and then close. It works because it concentrates your audience's attention and gives undecided people a reason to decide now.
This guide sets out a six-week plan for creators who already have a community: a newsletter, a channel, a following. If the course isn't finished yet, that's fine. Many creators launch while recording, as we explain in how to create and sell an online course.
What do you need before launching?
Three things: an audience that knows you, a list of contacts you can reach directly and a clear offer. Social followers alone are not enough, because you don't control who sees your posts. The email list (or an equivalent direct channel) is the main launch tool.
Check the numbers before you start. With the course profit calculator, estimate how many sales you need to cover costs and compare that with your list. If you need 50 sales and the list has 300 people, the launch should wait, or the price or format should change.
How do you run a six-week launch?
Split it into three phases: build anticipation, open the cart, close and onboard. Each week has a different goal and a different number to check.
| Free content | Sales emails | |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1: waitlist opens | Yes | No |
| Week 2: value content (lead magnet or lesson) | Yes | No |
| Week 3: stories, cases, curriculum preview | Yes | A few |
| Week 4: live event or masterclass | Yes | A few |
| Week 5: cart open (5-7 days) | A few | Yes |
| Week 6: close, onboarding, review | No | No |
Our editorial framework. You can compress the weeks with a warm audience, but keep the order.
Weeks 1-2: the waitlist
Open a simple page where people sign up to hear when the course opens. Promote it with something useful rather than an announcement: a preview of your method, a free guide, a lesson. We cover what to give away in lead magnet ideas for creators.
The number to watch is waitlist sign-ups. These are your warmest people: they have already raised their hand.
Weeks 3-4: the warm-up
Publish content that answers objections before they come up: "I don't have time", "I'm not good enough", "I can learn this free on YouTube". Share stories of people you've helped, show part of the curriculum, explain the method.
A live event in this phase is powerful: a free 45-60 minute masterclass gives real value and leads naturally into the cart opening. See how to use a webinar to sell an online course.
What happens when the cart opens?
You open with an email to the waitlist (often a few hours before everyone else), then talk about the course every day from a different angle until close. A 5-7 day window is the most common: long enough for people who check email weekly, short enough to keep the deadline believable.
The typical sequence: open, answers to common questions, a student story, a curriculum deep-dive, last day, final hours. We write it email by email in the email sequence to sell an online course.
Closing day usually brings a large share of sales, because many people only decide when faced with a deadline. That's exactly why the deadline must be real: reopen the next day and nobody will believe the next close.
An example with numbers
Suppose you have a list of 1,500 subscribers and a $149 course with $1,500 in costs. If 150 people join the waitlist and a third of them buy at cart open, that's 50 sales; however, a third is an optimistic assumption, so run the cautious numbers too. With 10% of the waitlist (15 sales) and 1% of the rest of the list (about 13 sales from 1,350 people), you reach 28 sales: at a margin of $141.25 per sale that's about $3,955, or about $2,455 in profit after costs. In other words, the launch holds up even in the cautious scenario. If instead the cautious numbers don't cover your costs, you have two options: grow the waitlist in the first weeks, or rethink price and format before opening. The rates used here are our own assumptions, not market averages: replace them with yours.
What should you check so emails actually arrive?
During a launch you send far more email than usual, and inbox providers notice. Google applies specific rules to anyone sending about 5,000 or more messages a day to personal Gmail accounts: SPF, DKIM and DMARC authentication, one-click unsubscribe on marketing messages, and a spam complaint rate in Postmaster Tools kept below 0.10% and never reaching 0.30%. Once you cross the threshold, bulk sender status doesn't expire.
Even if your list is smaller, these rules are a good benchmark. Your newsletter platform usually handles most of the technical side, but you configure your own sending domain. Since November 2025, Google has been ramping up enforcement, with temporary and permanent rejections for non-compliant mail.
- Emails a day to Gmail: the bulk sender threshold
- 5,000
- Hours Google recommends to process unsubscribes
- 48
- % average open rate in education (Mailchimp, rounded)
- 36
For opens and clicks, Mailchimp reports a 35.64% average open rate, 3.02% click rate and 0.18% unsubscribe rate for education and training, on December 2023 data. Mailchimp itself warns that Apple Mail Privacy Protection distorts open rates, so focus on clicks and sales.
How do you close a launch?
Close on time, with a last email a few hours before the deadline and a clear message afterwards: enrolment is closed, here's when it reopens (if you know). Then move straight to onboarding: a welcome email, the first module to watch, a place to ask questions.
The final week is also for review. Write down three numbers: waitlist size, sales page visits and purchases. Send a one-line question to people who didn't buy: "what stopped you?" Their answers are the best material for your next launch.
Should you launch or sell evergreen?
For a first course, launching is usually better: you get data within days and you are forced to explain the offer clearly. Evergreen (always for sale) makes sense once you know which message works and you have a steady stream of new people from search, collaborations or ads.
| Launch | Evergreen | |
|---|---|---|
| A real deadline for undecided buyers | Yes | Partly |
| Fast data on the offer | Yes | No |
| Revenue spread over time | No | Yes |
| Needs a steady flow of new people | No | Yes |
| Workload concentrated in a few weeks | Yes | No |
Our editorial framework. Many creators run two or three launches a year plus an always-available smaller offer.
A popular hybrid: two or three launches a year for the flagship course and, in between, an automated welcome sequence that greets new subscribers and invites them to the next opening. If the course has live parts, a launch is almost unavoidable: see cohort-based vs self-paced courses.
Which mistakes should you avoid?
- Launching without a list. Social platforms alone reach a small slice of your audience.
- Opening cold. A single "my course is out" email with no warm-up sells little.
- Fake deadlines. A countdown that resets destroys trust and can be an unfair commercial practice.
- Changing everything mid-launch. If day one is slow, don't cut the price yet; wait for mid-week data.
- Forgetting buyers. Onboarding matters: happy students are your next launch's testimonials.
Key terms. A launch is a limited period when enrolment is open. The waitlist is the list of people who asked to be told when it opens. Evergreen means a course that is always for sale, sold through automated sequences.
How we checked. We read Google's email sender guidelines and FAQ and Mailchimp's benchmarks page (December 2023 data). The six-week plan and tables are our own frameworks, not study results: we found no independent data on conversion rates for video course launches. Contact: hi@heytea.app. Editorial note: we check every figure against the sources listed below and correct mistakes openly.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to launch an online course?
A launch to an audience that already follows you takes about six weeks to run: two for the waitlist and free content, two for warming up, one week with cart open and one to close, review the data and welcome students. If you are starting with no audience, you first need time to build an email list.
Should I run a launch or sell the course evergreen?
For a first course, a launch is usually better: it focuses attention, creates a real deadline and gives you data within days. Evergreen makes sense later, once you know which message converts and you have a steady flow of new people, for example from search or ads. Many creators combine periodic launches with an always-on offer.
How many days should the cart stay open?
A window of 5 to 7 days is the most common: long enough for people who check email once a week to notice, short enough to keep the deadline credible. When you close, really close. Reopening the next day teaches your audience that deadlines don't mean anything.
How many emails should I send during a launch?
During cart-open week it is normal to email daily or almost daily, as long as each email brings something new: an answer to an objection, a student story, a detail from the curriculum. Always let people opt out of launch emails without leaving your list, and keep an eye on spam complaints.
What if the launch doesn't sell?
Before you change the price, look at where people stopped. If they opened emails but didn't visit the page, the problem is the message; if they visited the page without buying, it is the page or the offer. Ask waitlist subscribers who didn't buy why: their answers are worth more than any benchmark.
Sources
- Google, "Email sender guidelines" (for senders to personal Gmail accounts). Accessed 18 October 2026. support.google.com
- Google, "Email sender guidelines FAQ": bulk sender definition, unsubscribe handling within 48 hours, enforcement from November 2025. Accessed 18 October 2026. support.google.com
- Mailchimp, "Email Marketing Benchmarks", data last updated December 2023, campaigns sent to at least 1,000 subscribers. Vendor source. Accessed 18 October 2026. mailchimp.com