At Thinkific we are constantly trying to make your online courses better, and today we are very excited to share our newest feature with you. Drip Release Content is here!
What is Drip?
Drip Release Content gives you the ability to pre-schedule the delivery of your course content over time.
Why would I want to drip release my content?
- Getting all the course content at once can be overwhelming for students – drip release allows you to delay the release of content so students can learn at the pace you intended. You can even give them assignments to complete while they wait for the next piece of content to be released.
- If you charge a monthly subscription – drip release content gives students a reason to return to your course over and over to access new content. This means they’ll keep their subscription to your courses for longer, and you can create new content over time rather than having to have it all ready at the beginning.
- Drip content is also a great way to market other products or services. You can slowly release valuable content to your clients over time – building student’s perception of your brand and their trust in you, as you build long-term relationships with your students. Students are more likely to take courses and make purchases in the future from people they know and trust.
- Improved course success: I’ve been using drip content to increase the sales of my own online course and I’ve seen my sales more than double due to drip content.
How does drip release work?
Drip is extremely simple to use. Simply:
- Create your course
- Add your lessons
- Set a schedule for your content
That’s it!
I’m ready to get Drip Release Content!
- If you’re a member with one of our paid monthly plans, you already have access! Head to your dashboard to try it out.
- If you are not yet a Thinkific customer or if you’re on our Free plan, get Drip Release (and all our other awesome premium plan features!) by upgrading to one of our monthly or yearly subscription plans.
Very impressed with this new feature! Can’t wait to use it in my next course!
Great job!
Thanks Chris! We love building things you can use to make your online courses better.
This is fantastic! I’m just about ready to switch my students over to your platform for my online course, and was needing the drip content feature. So, I am thrilled! The bonus discount is nice too. I will be getting everything situated before the end of this week! Thank you!
Wonderful to hear Rebecca! We’re glad you like it and we’d be happy to help you get setup! Let us know when you get started, we’ll be here! Oh and when you are moving your content over – check out the “Quick Builder” button in the course creator – you… Read more »
Can we charge a monthly subscription with Thinkific?
Hi Sarah,
Yes, you can charge monthly subscriptions to access your courses. It’s a great way to earn recurring revenues. Let us know if you have any questions about setting this up.
**Catherine reached out via email**
A very popular drip format is:
Open next content when current content is clicked as “completed.”
This protocol makes sense with self-directed, asynchronous learning that likely comprises 95% of online learning. Do you think this is something Thinkific is looking at implementing anytime soon?
I am looking for a feature that will also remind students about “overdue” content. Is Drip Content that feature?
Hi Dylan! By default weekly reminder emails go out to your students for your site, so that might be what you’re looking for. Drip content is about releasing content, but we do also have a student emailer function on our upgraded plans that you can use to email segmented groups… Read more »
Hi,
Is it possible to for example:
Drip day one
Drip day two
Drip day three
Drip day four
Drip day five
Close access to previous 5 days of content then
Drip day six etc….?
Thank you
Question! If I have drip release content for a class, can I have an e-mail sent to the student with a link to the lesson whenever there is a release? Or even every 7 daily releases to remind them to check out the new content?
Thanks,
Sandra
We are launching a version of our year-long course where content is dripped out by the week. Clients will pay monthly. Is there a way to automatically stop the drip if credit cards are declined?
Hi Kirk! If a student’s credit card is declined, their subscription will end so they won’t be able to access the course anymore. One way you can help manage this type of thing is to use our Stunning integration (if you’re using Stripe to accept payments). It warns students that… Read more »
Hi ya.
Is it possible to pause a students subscription?
&
Can students be inserted anywhere in the subscription content or do they all need to start at the beginning?
Thanks
Hi @disqus_8AsCdM1Qnm:disqus! Subscriptions can technically be paused, you would just have to remove the credit card on file and then re-add it when they are ready to begin again. They won’t have access to the material during that time. It depends how you set up your schedule—students will see whatever… Read more »
Thanks for getting back to me.
I’d like to add people at different stages of the course based on thier experience. So Beginners would start at the beginning but more advanced students could start at a point further along…
Thanks
Matt
Ah, interesting Matt! I wonder if you could instead break the “course” into multiple courses within Thinkific, and then sign them up to each of those depending on their level? E.g. Course 1 – Beginner (includes only beginner material) Course 2 – Intermediate (includes both beginner and intermediate material) Course… Read more »
Do I have to use the drip feature in order to take pre-orders? Like say my course is coming out in the future, but i want people to be able to purchase it, but not access it yet (or at least not the whole thing). Is the only way to… Read more »
There are a few different ways to pre-sell your course on Thinkific! You can indeed do this through drip schedules where the course content starts to drip after a specific date you set (don’t worry, you change the date if you’re running behind 😉 ). Or, you can accomplish this… Read more »
My challenge is finding something where I can drip the content, but it doesn’t open the next class until the first class is finished or at least opened. So if they wait 3 days before doing class 2, then class 3 and up remain locked until they open class 2.… Read more »
Hey Deb! Not directly through the drip scheduler. However, you can structure your lessons in a way to give an incentive to your student’s success. Why not collect assignments and promise to give feedback on each one prior to releasing the next lesson? Or, you can split up your course… Read more »
Just to clarify… the best that can happen is schedule 1 class per day and each one will automatically open the next day if it is scheduled that way, correct? Regardless of if they watch it or not, the next day’s class will still open up and be available to… Read more »
Hey Deb! That’s correct. E-learning experts recommend that students learn at their own pace, encouraged by the program and the instructor to keep up with course content, instead of being forced down a learning path. We designed our Drip Schedule feature to support that method of instruction. Ultimately, it needs… Read more »
Hi there, We have a drip release course set up and have had users unsubscribe and re-subscribe again at a later date. In this scenario is it possible to enable these users to rejoin the course at the same place that they left, without the content being drip released for… Read more »