The autoresponder is the single greatest software you’ve got for producing relationships with your customers and produce sales. The idea of being able to create a series of messages and have them go out at intervals you choose is simply awesome.
Yet, it’s very easy to do it wrong.
If you include the emails described here, you’ll see an increase in sales. More importantly, you’ll have an increased level of trust between you and your customer.
Increased trust = Increased sales.
You don’t necessarily have to include very single one of the email styles described below, but you should include as many as you can. If it makes sense, throw in one or two of the options below if you’re not already using them.
Introduction
The introduction email serves a dual purpose: you get to introduce yourself to your prospect and deliver on whatever you promised to get them to join your list.
If they bought a product, you tell them how to get it in this email.
If they opted into your list to get some free content, you deliver it in this email.
The structure for this email should start with the introduction and finish with the delivery.
Know that the reader is going to want to get to the point, so don’t go telling your entire life story before delivering what you’ve promised.
Keep it short and sweet.
Why do they want to listen to what you have to say? What makes you trustworthy?
Whatever you say that’s going to achieve those 2 things can’t be longer than 2 paragraphs. If you talk too much, they’re not going to read what you send.
“I’ve been ravenously studying _______ for 25 years and have figured out some things that are going to have you ________ in far less time with way less effort.
Make sure you watch out for the emails I’ll be sending. You’ll love how much easier it is to _______.”
Make sure you do this in the first email you send. You want to convince the reader to pay attention.
Consumption
Even if it’s completely free, you want to remind your reader that you’ve sent them something special. If it’s something they’ve purchased, it’s even more important that they use what they’ve bought from you.
I use 3 different strategies to get them to go through what I’ve sent:
The time stamp: With a video, you reference a specific moment and tell them when they can see it. For text, you can give a page number or position (half way down the post). The key with this is to be create curiosity: :At 2:32 I expose the ______(best way, shortcut, smart way) to do _______(thing you show) far _______ (faster, easier, simpler).”
The end benefit: Whatever you’ve sold or given away to them has benefits. Find the biggest one and send an email that talks about how amazing it is to have that benefit in place: “Think about how amazing it’s going to be to double your sales while spending less time _______ (thing you’re teaching).
The snippet: This one is by far the easiest. Just pull out a blurb of text from whatever you’ve given them. Example: On page 6 you’ll find this: “_______________” No matter what you put here, curiosity will have them wanting to see what comes before and after.
You can either throw all 3 of these into one message or spread it out between a few emails. How you deliver the consumption sequence is up to you, but this one is almost mandatory for any autoresponder sequence.
Connect With Me
This one is simple. If you want to connect with your customers (which will make you more money), you want as many “touch points” as possible. You can send them anywhere:
- Personal profile
- Fan Page
- Group
- etc…
Where you send them doesn’t matter. All that matters is that a percentage of the people that get this message will follow through on it. If they do, you now gain another way to reach them and get them to buy more of what you sell.
Case Study/Testimonial
One of the coolest things you can do for your customers or your prospects is to show them how someone else is effectively using your stuff.
Even if it’s a pretty obvious testimonial, you should always call it a case study. Outside of a sales message, people don’t read testimonials for fun or amusement.
The key with this is to focus on the benefit the viewer will get: “Come discover how Mike used our ________ (product) to ________ (benefit) ________ (faster, easier, more profitably, etc…).
When you send something like this, keep the email short and sweet. There is no need to write a page worth of text when you simply want them to click a link. A few sentences describing what they get is enough.
Curiosity
These are my favorite because they’re very under-used. These are super short emails where the only goal is to get someone to click.
Generally, these emails won’t work unless you have an existing relationship with a prospect.
Example:
Subject: “You won’t believe this, NAME…”
Body: “You know how tough it can be to ______ (thing they want to do)
This makes it so much easier (LINK)
NAME”
If you don’t over-use this, you’ll see click through rates 2 or 3 times what you normally get.
Story
Once Upon A Time…
Those words almost force you to stop and pay attention. They draw you in and suck you into a vortex eagerly anticipating the beginning, the climax, and the conclusion.
We’ve been trained to enjoy stories from a really young age starting with Disney movies and cartoons. We want to get away for a moment and follow the story to the end. It’s our nature.
As a marketer, we get to use this to our advantage by telling stories that lead prospects to buying our products and lead our customers to buying more.
Where your story comes from depends on you, your experiences, and the products you sell. If you don’t immediately have something come to mind, use someone else’s story.
If you’d like to tell a unique story of your own, but don’t know where to start, these tips will help.
If you’d like to swipe a story that’s already been told, this post will help you.
Pitch
Sometimes you just have to sell. There are dozens of different ways to do it.
My preference is to sell the click instead of the product in an email. In other words, let the sales copy on the sales page do it’s job. You need to get them to that page.
Many of the things we’ve already discussed will work at this point, but here’s an example of selling the click:
Subject:
sometimes you’ve just gotta…
Body:
Every now and then, you have to get a little freaky.
Before you go running away, I’m not talking about anything naughty.
How far outside of the box are you willing to step?
What would you do to ______? (What the product does)
To what extreme would you be willing to go to do it twice as fast with half the effort?
That’s what this does (LINK)
Thank me later.
NAME
Throw in a little curiosity and you’d be amazed at the kind of results you can produce with a single email.
For a true promotion, you’ll want to mail at least 3 times over a period of a few days. If there is scarcity involved (a price increase, limited amount of products, etc…), you may want to mail more than once a day.
Test it all and keep doing what works best.
Hacks
What you want here are quick and simple things that your prospect can implement to produce whatever result they are seeking.
Generally, you want to provide a simple solution to an aspect of the big problem they’re facing.
Example:
Subject: Cloth Diaper Hack
Body: In the video I’m sharing with you today, you’ll see a very unique way to fold cloth diapers that almost forces them to stick to your little one’s behind like super glue.
No matter how much they wiggle, they won’t be able to sneak their way out of it.
Wherever you send the reader, be sure to have a solid call to action at the end. Tell them where to go to get more of what you just gave them.
Reply Request
This may be my favorite email to send because I almost always make money from it.
We’re reaching a point online where if it can be said, it has. If it’s all already been said, the easiest way to stand out is to make yourself accessible to your customers.
The dream is to have a business that runs on autopilot, but the reality is that most of us want to interact with people. We want to know that there’s a human being on the other side of the interwebs.
Send a simple email asking “How can I help you?”
In the body of your email, remind your reader that you’re a person and you genuinely care about their well-being. Ask if you’ve helped them with the emails you send or the products they bought.
Most importantly, ask if there is any question you could answer for them or any other way you can lend them a hand.
This is the single fastest way to creating raving, fanatic customers that will buy anything you suggest they buy.
FAQ
If someone is asking the same question over and over again, it means it’s a major objection. The more objections you counter, the more sales you’ll get.
When it comes to a product being sold, you’ll want to do some looking around to see if there is any public conversation around a product name. My favorite way to do that is via SocialMention. It’s free to use, so try putting a product name through their search to see what you come up with.
If you don’t find anything there, look around for competing products and see what people’s questions are. See what they complain about (and if your product addresses the complaint).
Put together a list of questions and answer them. Format it like this to make it easy to read and understand:
Question: How does _______ do ________
Answer: Insert answer here.
Keep it simple and address every objection you can come up with. This specific email is best at the end of a sequence.
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