Welcome to Chapter 4!

This is where we'll be getting acquainted with all the technology to make the email course magic happen. If I had to ask myself where I've spent the most time doing "re-work", it would 100% be in the automations.

To date, I've completely rebuilt automations for Big Later three times. It was terribly time-consuming (sure, I got to listen to about 13 podcasts, but I still wish someone had told me how to avoid my missteps at the outset).

In this chapter we're going to cover everything that goes into building the gold-standard of email course automations in beehiiv.

• The Start sequence

• Design systems

• Self-pacing

• DNS settings

• And more… (btw all these are in the Videos section of the EBC builder)

This stuff is the bread and butter of email-based course automations. Okay, some of it is a little fancier than just bread and butter... it's more like a charcuterie board — bread, butter, cheese, pickles, sardines, olives, and a few dates. stomach grumbles

There’s going to be a lot more video

Yes, you signed up for an email-based course, but trust me, this is a lot easier. And another point on the board for the supporting role of video within an EBC!

Let's get into it with our first topic: the start sequence

• Set up a trigger to start the course (API, Zap, or subscribe rule)

• Create a Start sequence with a Poll action

• Connect the Start sequence to the first lesson in the course