In our earlier post, we learned about the importance of list building. Now we are going to discuss about setting up your very own autoresponder series. It is really quite easy.
How To Install
It’s smart to use a third-party autoresponder provider. The set-up process and on-going management is made much easier but just as importantly, you can be sure that the emails you send will actually reach your subscribers. This is because of the relationship that email management providers have built with the major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which allow your emails to get through without them being flagged as spam by mistake.
You can have a look at a few providers, but I recommend AWeber. It’s especially good for beginners because it has a ‘wizard’ which walks you through. The result is eye-catching and will allow your visitors to register the name and email address.
A great hook can convince people to join your list.
The Hook
There has to be a convincing reason to make your visitors want to subscribe to you autoresponder. You need to offer an incentive such as a gift or ‘white paper’ (an educational report or guide) which they get if they enter their email address. This hits two core elements of marketing influence.
The first is ‘authority’. If you are the author of a well written report, you are instantly branded with the ‘expert’ tag. There is a Halo Effect in operation here, where the positive effect of the report will influence the quality of the products and services you have to offer. There is also the fact of ‘reciprocity.’ The idea that you have given away something of value for free will come into play when the customer is asked for a sale. You have given him something, and he will feel obliged to do something for you in return.
Robert Cialdini in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion goes into this in more detail. I wanted to mention this here to help you understand the power an autoresponder series can have if used correctly.
You need to give some thought as what an appropriate gift could be. In most cases, a free report is the ideal choice, as people are always interested in learning more about the niche they have searched. If you are a dentist, perhaps you could publish a booklet on the best ways to maintain your oral health.
If you sell a product, rather than offer a service, you might need to do a bit of lateral thinking. If you are a florist, you could write a report on: Seven Styles of Flower Arranging.
Emails
The core purpose of the autoresponder series is to deliver a series of emails that you have written in advance.
What style of email works best? You might discover through split testing that a bright and breezy conversational tone gets you a click through rate of 10%. But what happened to the remaining 90%?
You want to mix the tone and style up to catch the interest of the majority of your readers. A variety of attention grabbing subject lines will intrigue your readers. People learn in different ways: some prefer to listen and others prefer to watch, so provide links to videos and audios to satisfy both types. Quizzes and games might appeal to kinesthetic visitors. Some emails should be short, others long and packed with interesting information. You can track all of these different approaches using AWeber’s tracking tools to work pout which types of email had the biggest impact.
The ‘from’ field is the most important part of your email, as people won’t even bother opening an email from someone they don’t already know and trust. So it is important to spend time building your brand and the customer’s recognition and trust in your name and the business you represent. This will take time but it is time well spent. Some people use their own name in the ‘from’ of the email, others use their business name, which is a smart choice. You’re wasting your time if you use something generic like ’Webmaster’.
You are ‘wooing’ your customer with the use of your autoresponder series. You are providing them with the opportunity to get to know you better and to appreciate the expertise that you bring to your business. You have not gotten them to make a purchase yet, but you are bringing them closer to that point, and providing them with interesting snippets and information about what you offer as you go along.
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