Welcome back to another article in this series on email marketing.
So far we’ve covered…
1) Email Marketing: What’s Working Today
2) Which Email Marketing Service Is Right For You?
3) The Cold Hard Truth About Email Frequency
In the last article, we discussed the different between autoresponders and broadcast emails.
In today’s article, we’ll dig deeper into autoresponders.
Specifically, I’ll show you how to craft the “perfect” autoresponder sequence in the next few minutes.
It all begins with…
What Is The Purpose Of An Autoresponder?
Let me start by saying that the purpose is going to be different for every person reading this.
- Some might be trying to make product sales.
- Some might be trying to sell a service.
- Others may simply be trying to build a long-term relationship to sell a product or service down the road.
In any case, we can chop this down into a single, coherent sentence.
The purpose of any autoresponder is to move each prospect deeper into your funnel.
You are not trying to make friends. You are not trying to simply be top of mind. You are not trying to build your brand. Those may be byproducts, but they’re not the #1 focus.
The only purpose of an autoresponder is to move that prospect deeper into your funnel.
YES, it may include those things I just mentioned, like being top of mind and building a brand. But each email in your sequence must have a specific reason for being there. And it must do something to move that prospect deeper into your funnel. Maybe that’s building trust so they buy a product… or establish a bond so they trust you enough to hire you for a service. Whatever it is, that’s your goal.
And that’s where we begin.
Step #1: Determine Your Goal
Before you write a single word, you MUST understand your end goal. If you want to sell products, you need to have that goal clearly cemented in your mind. If you want to sell a service, you’ll be taking a different approach and need to know what that is.
Figuring out your goal is fairly simple.
- Do you want to sell products?
- Do you want to establish a long-term relationship?
- Do you want to create buzz about your business?
- Do you want to launch a new product?
- Do you want to become the dominant industry leader?
All 5 of these will require different strategy.
Without knowing your end-goal, it’s impossible to know what strategy will work best for you.
Step #2: Determine Your Strategy
Your strategy is going to differ based on the goal you’re trying to reach.
Someone like a realtor is going to require less communication, as compared to someone selling an information product.
A provider of cleaning services to business owners is going to require a different tone than someone selling kids’ birthday parties to parents.
In all cases though, there are 5 crucial hot buttons you MUST include for maximum effectiveness.
#1: Proof And Credibility – People don’t want to deal with amateurs. If you want an effective autoresponder, you MUST have proof in nearly every single communication. There are many different ways to show proof, such as using testimonials… stories… media appearances… and dozens more.
Here’s one I love using.
The subject line for this email would be something along the lines of… “Help Me Congratulation Charlie!”
The email would then go like this…
Hey <firstname>,
Just wanted to write you quick and help me congratulate Charlie. He just purchased <your product name>, spent about an hour going through the material and started to implement. Specifically he implemented a technique in module 2 that shows you how to <insert benefit your target audience wants to achieve) without <some type of pain point>.
His results?
Just one week later he <insert benefit your target audience wants to achieve>.
And then after this, you transition into how that prospect can do the same.
#2: Trust – The world is becoming a much less trustworthy place. Stories are a fantastic way to show that you’re trustworthy. In my own emails, I show potential clients I’m trustworthy by being non-pushy… citing examples of other copywriters who mistreat their clients… and many other ways.
Here’s one example I love to use. Feel free to fit it to your own needs.
I just got off the phone with a customer/client. They were complaining to me about the lack of integrity in our industry. I agreed! I won’t name names, but they told me how they caught one of my competitors in a flat-out lie. Apparently my competitor <insert whatever your competitor lied about>.
Look, I don’t want to see that happen to you. I think that kind of behavior is sickening…
And then you transition into why you are trustworthy, citing a specific example.
#3: Consistency – You’ll want to create consistency, because consistency mentally creates trust.
Think about the people you see most often. Do you trust them more or less than those you don’t see as much?
However, consistency doesn’t mean you have to send an email every single day. It can be once per day… once per week… or once per month. (In virtually every case, the more frequent the better). Just be consistent about it.
#4: Leadership – People are silently begging to be led. Being the leader in your industry creates authority, which makes people trust you. As you can tell, this is all about trust. An easy way to become a leader in the minds of your prospects is to show examples of proof (see how this all ties together?)… followed by telling them specifically what to do. They’ll do it.
#5: Personality – Nobody likes a boring, slow-talking, drag of a person. You develop deeper relationships with people who have personality and charisma. The way to do this in emails is to look closely at your own personality and exaggerate the traits which stand out the most. For example if you have a strange fetish for foot rubs… talk about them! It may sound strange, but it works.
Step #3: Map Your Sequence
Once you solidify your strategy, the next step is to map your autoresponder sequence.
One of the questions you’ll want to answer first is…
“How long should my autoresponder sequence be?”
If you’re writing the sequence yourself, it’s easy to make it long. I personally have well over 100 in my sequence.
But if you need to hire a copywriter to do it, you need to estimate the ROI you’ll get. For example it may make sense to do 10-20… but after 20 the ROI begins to drop and you could spend your money better elsewhere.
Only you can know the answer to that.
Let’s pretend you’re going to create 24 over the span of 6 months… or roughly 1 message per week.
What you’ll do next is write down at least one persuasion trigger (i.e. results you’ve gotten, a client testimonial, trust-building, etc.) and mark it next to that week. Do this for each week.
If possible, try to find a story which incorporates that week’s trigger. They work wonders.
Here’s a quick example.
- Week #1: Integrity
- Week #2: Results
- Week #3: Implied credibility
- … etc. etc.
Step #4: Write Your Emails
This is pretty self-explanatory. By now you have your goal… your strategy… and your sequence all created.
Now it’s time to start churning out those emails!
If this is your first time, you’ll want to be fully focused. Grab a cup of coffee, go find a quite place, and write.
YOU WILL GET DISTRACTED.
Don’t worry about that. It’s normal. As a writer I can write for roughly 30-40 minutes straight before my mind begins to wander. But that’s after years of practice. Take breaks often, but do not interrupt a good flow state if you fall into one.
I highly recommend downloading a lot of classical music and listening to it while you write. Having ambient music in the background helps keep you focused so you can write faster and more clearly. (Classical music works because it has no words that can distract you from the words you’re writing.)
The easiest way to overcome writers block is to realize that writers block doesn’t exist. It’s an excuse for people who don’t want to work. If you find your mind “blocked,” just write blah blah blah until more ideas start pouring out. That may sound strange, but trust me, it works.
Step #5: Test And Tweak
The final step is loading your emails into your autoresponder sequence and putting people into the funnel.
Let this run for awhile (weeks for some, months for others – depending on the amount of leads you get), and then begin looking at it closely.
Here’s what you should look for.
- Low Open Rates – If your average open rate is 25% yet one email has a 10% open rate… test a new subject line.
- Low Clickthrough Rates – Same as above. Find an average for all of your emails, then look for emails with CTR’s that are lower than average. Then come up with new ways to increase that CTR, such as shortening the email, making the links more noticeable, adding more links or even putting arrows pointing to the links, and test your idea.
- High Unsubscribe Rates – This depends on your style. Some people like to practice “repulsion marketing” (Howard Stern, for example) and attract ONLY very specific people. In this case, if you have a purposely offensive email and it gets a lot of unsubscribes, what you’re doing is repelling the people who won’t buy anyway, and attracting those who will. However if this is something you aren’t comfortable doing (it works like gangbusters but it’s not for everyone), look for emails with high unsubscribe rates and find out why that is.
At this point, you should see your sales increasing. If you have a service business, your business will be more automated than ever. And getting better results.
So test it out. And let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
About the Author: Jeremy Reeves is known as the world’s #1 most trusted sales funnel authority. He builds advanced marketing funnels, adding over over $10 million in revenue to his clients bottom lines in the past few years alone. To learn more about Jeremy, visit www.JeremyReeves.com or grab his free special report: How To Construct A Million Dollar Sales Funnel.
