Step #1: Add a lead form to your school

A Teachable lead form allows you to collect someone's email address. You can add a lead form to any front end page (like your homepage or a sales page). In this walkthrough, we'll add one to your school's homepage.

1. Open your Teachable dashboard.

2. Go to Site > Pages.

3. Click Edit next to your homepage.

4. In the sidebar, click Add New Block > Email Leads Form > Add.

5. Edit the heading and description if you'd like to.

6. Click Save or Publish in the top right of your screen.

This form will now appear on your homepage. It will collect leads and hold them in your Teachable school. But we also want to send those leads to an email marketing tool so that we can send them newsletter emails.

Step #2: Create a form in ConvertKit

ConvertKit is an email marketing tool that integrates with Teachable. It has paid plans but you can set up a newsletter using their free plan.

1. Sign up for a free ConvertKit account and follow their onboarding steps.

2. When you're in your account, go to Grow > Landing Pages & Forms.

3. Click Create New in the top right of the page.

4. Select the Form option.

5. Select Inline as the display format.

6. Choose the Clare template.

7. In the top left, rename the form as Newsletter Form.

8. Click Save in the top right of the page.

Note: Make a note of the number in the URL in your address bar. There will be a string of numbers like ".../forms/6145586/edit". This is your Form ID.

Step #3: Integrate ConvertKit + Teachable

When someone submits your Teachable lead form, we want to send their email address to ConvertKit. This will allow you to send newsletter emails to anyone who has subscribed.

1. Open your Teachable dashboard.

2. Go to Settings > App Hub.

3. Click on the ConvertKit app.

4. Enter your API Key from ConvertKit. Find it by going to main menu > Settings > Advanced > Your API Key.

5. Enter your API Secret from ConvertKit (underneath your API Key from the last step).

6. Enter your Form ID. This is the ID you found in the address bar in Step #2.

7. Click Save.

Now when someone submits the form on your homepage, Teachable will send the email address to ConvertKit automatically. You can test this with your own email address.

Step #4: Create a segment in ConvertKit

In ConvertKit, a "segment" lets you group subscribers together for broadcasts. We'll create a Newsletter segment so that it's easy to send a broadcast to them when you want to send a newsletter email.

1. Open your ConvertKit dashboard.

2. Go to Grow > Subscribers.

3. In the right sidebar, click Create a Segment.

4. Name the segment Newsletter Subscribers.

5. Click Add Filter.

6. Select Subscribed To from the dropdown.

7. Select the Newsletter Form in the final dropdown.

8. Click Add Filter > Save.

You should see your new segment appear in the sidebar. Whenever someone submits your lead form, they'll show up in this segment automatically.

Step #5: Schedule your first newsletter

Whenever you're ready, you can schedule a newsletter email in ConvertKit. You'll create each email as a Broadcast and it will go to anyone in your Newsletter Subscribers segment.

1. Open your ConvertKit dashboard.

2. Go to Send > Broadcasts.

3. Click New Broadcast and choose a Template or Starting Point.

4. Edit the Subject Line and Email Content.

5. Click Continue.

6. Select Send Email.

7. Click All Subscribers and change the dropdown to Subscribed To.

8. Select Newsletter Form in the final dropdown.

9. Click Add Filter.

10. Click the pencil icon next to Send now and choose a date/time.

11. Click Continue > Schedule Broadcast.

When your chosen date/time comes around, ConvertKit will send your email to anyone in the newsletter segment.