Look after a new student automatically
A new student’s first week decides whether they finish. The welcome that tells them exactly where to start, the nudge past the bit everyone skips, the check-in that arrives just as motivation dips - you know these emails matter. You also know you’ll never reliably send them by hand at nine days in.
The prompt
“Set up the ‘look after a new student’ journey for [your course]. New students often [what they skip or get stuck on, e.g. rush past the warm-up exercises] - make sure the emails help with that.”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
That’s the new student journey: up to four emails, written once in your voice, sent on a schedule for every student who enrols from then on. It starts from a real event - an enrolment on your course - so there’s nothing to remember and nobody to forget.
Setting it up is a conversation, not a form. Bernard reads your course first and tells you what he found, then asks the few things only you know - the one that matters most is what do new students get wrong or skip? Your answer becomes the substance of the getting-started email. He then writes all the emails, shows you a plain summary of what will be sent and when, and waits. Approve it, and it’s on.
Two honest limits, so nothing surprises you: these emails go out a set time after enrolment and do not react to how far a student has got, so the later ones are worded as check-ins rather than progress reports; and a refund stops the journey for that student immediately, as does finishing the course. When you want emails that DO react
- “well done on Module 3” the day they finish it, a nudge when they pass every required quiz - that is a separate set for one course, up to 20 emails, each started by what the student does: Email my students when they reach each point in my course. Each email can greet the student by first name and name their course and level: Put each student’s name and course in my automatic emails. To pause one student for a while, see Pause the automatic emails for one student. bernard does record each student’s progress, and Bernard can report it to you every week: Tell me how my courses are doing without me asking. The wider rules - who can receive emails at all, and what stops them - are in How do automatic emails work? and Who actually receives my automatic emails?. Selling something rather than teaching it? The same idea exists for buyers: Thank people after they buy.
Questions people ask
- What does the new-student journey send?
- Up to four emails: a welcome with access details the moment they enrol, getting-started advice a couple of days in, an optional friendly check-in after a week or so, and an optional thank-you a few weeks later that can gently ask for a testimonial and point to what’s next. You choose which of the optional ones to include and when they go.
- How do I set it up?
- On the Automatic emails tab, press ‘Ask Bernard to set this up’ on the ‘Look after a new student’ row. Bernard reads your course first - name, price, lessons - so he only asks what he can’t know: what students get stuck on, and your timing choices. Then he writes the emails in your voice and shows you the full plan. Nothing sends until you approve it and switch it on.
- Does bernard know how far a student has actually got?
- bernard does. It records every lesson a student completes and every knowledge check they take, and Bernard can tell you who is moving and who has stalled. These four emails do not use that: they go out a set time after enrolment, so they are worded as friendly check-ins - never ‘you’re behind’. If you want emails that arrive when a student finishes a module or passes a quiz, that is a separate set of up to 20 emails for one course, which you approve before it starts: see ‘Email my students when they reach each point in my course’.
- What about people who enrolled before I switched it on?
- They’re untouched. The journey only applies to students who enrol after you approve and enable it.
- Can I change the emails afterwards?
- Yes - every step’s subject and words are editable on the Automatic emails tab at any time, and you can pause the whole journey with one switch.