Autoresponders are the single most valuable strategy you can use in your email marketing system.
They can be used to introduce who you are, build your authority, and nurture your leads.
Email marketing has the highest conversion rate of any online channel.
For every $1 you spend on email marketing you receive $40 in return.
It has the highest ROI.
Email marketing is one of the best ways to nurture your leads.
Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost.
Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.
Companies that use an Autoresponder as part of their email marketing system will see a huge impact on their business.
What Is An Autoresponder?
Autoresponders are a series of emails you send after someone subscribes to your email list.
They are different than regular broadcast emails.
Broadcast emails are only sent once to your list.
There are a lot of different types of autoresponders.
However, all will follow the same 7 basic strategies that I have outlined below.
1 – State Goal
Before any goals are written down for your autoresponder you have to first make sure your emails get delivered.
If your emails are not being delivered, then this will defeat any goal you have your campaign.
More than 20% of emails never get delivered.
It’s important that the email service provider you are using sends emails that get delivered.
Some best practices on getting your emails delivered include:
- Removing unresponsive emails from your list.
- Removing your bounce back emails.
- Sending emails to only those given permission.
If you want to get your email marketing auditing on delivering rate check out Fulcrum.
Once you’ve made sure that your emails get delivered, the next step is to have your emails opened.
The most important factors in getting your emails opened are who the email is from and the subject line:
A common mistake that a lot of companies make is not personalizing their sender name.
For example, an email from sender “info” or “sales” will much less likely open be opened than from a personal name.
Always make sure to personalize the sender email.
An email from a person is much more powerful than an email from a department head.
Adding the personal touch is important when sending emails.
The email open rate benchmark has surprisingly increased throughout all industries:
The next step after getting the email delivered and the sender name personalized is to have your email opened. The subject line is extremely important in getting your emails opened.
The best two types of subject lines are curiosity headlines and benefit-driven subject lines.
If you want to learn more about writing email subject lines that get opened check out the posts below:
- Best Practices for Email Subject Lines
- Email Marketing Subject Lines Best Practices
- 19 Quick Tips To Improve Your Email Marketing Subject Lines
Now, finally, we can start to determine what your goals are.
Each business has different goals.
Some goals can include:
- Sell more products.
- Create buzz.
- Sell your service.
- Establish a long-term relationship.
- Become an industry leader.
- Launch a new product.
You have to first clearly define what your goals before any email marketing campaign.
Once you know what your goals are, you can start to build a strategy that will help you achieve these goals.
2 – Map Out Your Strategy
Your strategy will depend on what your goals are.
Each business will require different levels of communication.
For example, if you sell information products a subscriber might require a lot more information than a dentist.
All autoresponder should have an indoctrination email that serves to answer the following questions:
- Who are you?
- What do you stand for?
- Why are you different?
- What should they expect from you?
- How often?
- What should they do next?
Once you’ve written this intro email, you can map out your strategy.
All businesses are different but your emails should include the following persuasion triggers.
3 – Provide Credibility
Your emails should provide credibility.
This can come in the form of testimonials and stories on how you helped people in their situation.
One that I have used before is to send them a case study.
If you want to make a convincing case study check out how Marketing Sherpa writes case studies.
Every week they highlight a company that used an online strategy to make an impact in their business.
They don’t even use their own services but use other people’s experiences to tell a story.
4 – Build Trust
Before anybody does business with you, they have to trust you first.
A great way to build trust is to showcase a story of how you helped a client in a similar situation.
You can use different examples one is from that Pat Flynn uses is the student teacher email.
Here’s the content you can use for this email:
- This email will highlight one of your clients and how your program helped them overcome their problems.
- You can do this in a form of a video or a case study.
- This email will continue to build trust and credibility and will also position you as an expert.
Another way to build trust is to use an email that Jeremy Reeves uses in his own copy-writing business:
“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 led them to believe something that wasn’t true to charge them a higher price for their service. Look, I don’t want to see that happen to you. I think that kind of behavior is sickening…”
You can then transition into one of your stories.
5 – Set Expectations On the Number of Emails
Each business will require a different amount of emails.
Depending on what you are selling, a sequence of 5 emails might be enough.
But other businesses might require 30 emails.
Set expectations early on the number of emails and you’ll train your subscribers into learning to open your emails.
6 – Give Value
This strategy is obvious.
If you are not providing value, then your autoresponder will fall flat.
Give them something they can’t read from your blog.
Provide exclusive valuable content.
This will set you apart from other businesses.
This also sets the proper expectation of the relationship.
Learn to give first and then ask for a sale afterward.
7 – Be You
One of the biggest mistakes in email marketing is not being yourself.
One of the most important copy-writing lessons is to write like you talk.
Your emails should do the same – Don’t change who you are.
If you change your writing style you’ll form a disconnect with your prospects.
Strategies in Action
A strategy you can use is for your autoresponder is to introduce people to your content.
Pat Flynn uses an email autoresponder that introduces people to his content but also builds his expertise.
Below are the steps to the email autoresponder:
- The Quick Win.
- The Free Resource.
- The Hard Lesson Learned.
- The Student Teacher.
- The Tip of the Iceberg.
I’ll break it down further below:
The Quick Win
- Is an email that produces a quick result for your subscriber that should take less than 10 minutes.
- This email builds trust quickly and will position you in a positive way.
The Free Resource
- This email will provide a link to a free resource or tool that you know your prospect will find valuable.
- Make sure the resource is 100% free.
- It can be something you created or someone else created.
- This can be as simple as a workout template you’ve used in the past.
The Hard Lesson Learned
- This email will provide a more in-depth look at you personally.
- It involves a problem or struggle that you had to overcome.
The Student Teacher
- This email will highlight one of your clients and how your program helped them overcome their problems.
- You can do this in a form of a video or a case study.
- This email will continue to build trust and credibility and will also position you as an expert.
The Tip of The Iceberg
- You can use this email to link to a long blog post you wrote or a seminar you gave.
- This email will continue to build trust and authority.
- It will also serve as a reminder of people that might have missed an earlier piece of content from you.
You can send this sequence every day or every other day.
It depends on your business.
Sales Funnel
You can also use an automated sales funnel as part your autoresponder.
If you sell a product continuously you can create an autoresponder that looks like this:
Another example of a sales funnel strategy from the fitness world comes from Bedros Keuillian:
- Email one: Give them what they opted in for.
- Email two (Testimonial): Showcase a client success story. This will provide social proof and will make you look like an expert.
- Email three (Valuable content): Give them 7 fitness and fat loss tips they can benefit from.
- Email four (Reminder email): Send them to (or back to) your low barrier offer.
- Email five (Last chance): Remind them that the low barrier offer (front end offer) you just offered the day before is almost full, this creates a sense of urgency.
Lead Magnet Course
Another strategy you can use is to create an email lead magnet course.
An email course can be a great way to introduce yourself and your business.
A lot of the value depends on how good your course is and what you are offering.
A good example is below from Wistia:
An email course can also train your new subscribers to open your emails.
Your emails don’t have any value unless they are opened.
3 – Email Tools
Almost every email service provider allows you to create an autoresponder series.
The level of automation depends on which email service provider you use.
Some email service providers that work well include:
- Aweber.
- Constant Contact.
- Get Response.
- Mailchimp.
More sophisticated choices include:
- ActiveCampaign.
- Infusionsoft.
- ConverKit.
- Hubspot.
- Marketo.
- Pardot.
I usually recommend ActiveCampaign as it does 90% of what Infusionsoft does.
You don’t need a sophisticated tool like Active Campaign to create an autoresponder.
But if you are taking email marketing seriously you should consider segmenting your list.
Marketing has changed – Users are demanding specialization.
If your message does not speak directly to your audience then you risk being ignored.
How Long Should Your Autoresponder Be?
There is no right answer for this as every business is different.
A lot of it also depends on the type of autoresponder you are delivering.
If you are creating an email course, nothing more than 7 days is usually recommended.
However, I have seen sequences with more than 21 emails that work really well.
Make sure you have at least one persuasion trigger in each email.
A persuasion trigger can be a testimonial, a short story with a client, and results you have gotten.
Should You Write Your Emails?
A lot of it depends on how well you write.
A copywriter might be a better option.
Hire a copywriter that truly understands your business and your market.
Your autoresponder will be more effective.
To get started a 6 part email sequence can usually cover all the bases for an autoresponder.
6 emails should be enough to tell your story, highlight your expertise, and make people take action.
If you feel that your autoresponder should be longer, a copywriter might not be the best option.
A lot of it comes down to ROI.
Conclusion
Using an effective autoresponder can be an invaluable marketing tool for your business.
An autoresponder can be used to nurture your leads and introduce people to who you are.
But most importantly, it can help you make more sales.
