How to send automated course reminder emails to students

One of the best ways to increase course completion rates is to automatically remind students who haven’t started yet or who stopped progressing. On systeme.io you can set up smart, fully automated course reminder emails directly from the course settings.

Here is the complete step-by-step guide.

1. Open the course settings

Log in to your systeme.io account.

Go to Assets → Courses.

Click the three dots next to the course you want to configure and select Settings.

2. Enable email reminders

Scroll down to the Email reminders section.

Check the box Enable email reminders.

This unlocks the Reminder settings button. Click it to open the configuration popup.

3. Configure when, who and frequency

In the Reminder settings popup you can define three important things:

When to send the reminder

• Days after course enrollment
• Days after last login / last activity

You can also choose the exact time of day the email should be sent.

Who should receive the reminder

• Students who haven’t started the course yet
• Students who made partial progress (you can set a minimum completion percentage)

You can activate both options at the same time.

Frequency

• Send once
• Repeat every X days

Configure these options according to your strategy (for example: 3 days after enrollment if they haven’t started, or 7 days after last activity if they are stuck at less than 50%).

4. Customize the reminder email

After configuring the rules, you can fully edit the content of the reminder email using the visual editor (same as newsletters and campaigns).

Useful personalization tags include:

• {first_name}
• {course_link} – automatically inserts a direct link to the course so students can jump back in with one click

Write a friendly, encouraging message that motivates students to continue.

Once everything is ready, click Save to activate the automated reminders.

Best practices

• Start with gentle reminders (3–7 days of inactivity)
• Use a warm and helpful tone rather than a pushy one
• Always include the {course_link} so students can return easily
• Test different timings and segments for better results

This feature works perfectly with drip content and with the other automation triggers (course completed, module completed, lecture completed). You can learn more in How to trigger automations when a course, module or lecture is completed.

For more student engagement tools, see also How to provide your students with a certificate of completion.

Conclusion

Automated course reminder emails on systeme.io are a powerful and easy way to re-engage inactive students and significantly improve completion rates.

In just a few minutes you can set smart rules based on enrollment date or last activity, target the right students, and send fully customized reminder emails with a direct link to the course.

Enable this feature on your most important courses today and help more students finish what they started on systeme.io.

Related articles

• How to trigger automations when a course, module or lecture is completed
• How to provide your students with a certificate of completion
• How are the different course access types different?
• How to create a course using systeme.io
• How to sell an online course