The Proper Way to Send Autoresponder Followups
As an autoresponder email marketer, you need to realize that your readers' inboxes are pounded with offers and content every day, so you need to do something different to stand out from the crowd.
Send short follow-ups instead of long e-mails. If you rely on one single e-mail to pitch a product, you have to understand that many people will lose your e-mail in the clutter, or won't be bothered to actually read the e-mail.
For this reason, you need to break your messages into tiny pieces. I prefer 100 to 400 words for e-mails... anything more than a few pages is too much. Instead of one long e-mail explaining your entire offer, schedule one e-mail that warms up your list.
Schedule another to send out the next day explaining the offer in one page or less. The next message can hit on benefits you missed the first time. In the next message, hit on the technical details... and in the mailing after that, ask: Why have you still not bought? You can get really creative.
Finally, take a second to think about your email subject lines. These are your headlines. Try to come up with something creative and relevant, rather than something overly boring or hype-filled. What e-mail subject lines have grabbed your attention recently? What about headlines on a sales letter or text on a newspaper ad? Model your subject lines after those headlines.
Those are my main tips to properly market to people using an autoresponder: Sublist with each product, and send short, to the point e-mails with clever headlines. With just a little bit of creativity, you can have an awesome autoresponder that converts like crazy and performs better than 98% of the other marketers out there.
Filed in: List Building
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Robert,
I completely agree with you.
small modifications on emails I’ve sent have made a HUGE difference in open rates.
for example, in a headline:
Why you *MUST* incorporate from the very first day
vs.
Why you MUST incorporate from the very first day
has a HUGE difference in open rates.
can you guess which one had an almost 40% open rate?
I guess *MUST* gets higher open rates because of special characters draw the eye.
I find that adding a question mark at the end of my subject line gets me a lot of clicks on my links. Also, 2 links work better than 1 even if both links are the same.
Samuel,
Yep! the one with the *MUST* got a much higher open rate.
that’s a great tip I should remember (to put two links all the itme instead of one.)
It would be interesting to put a different link so I could track which of the two links in the email got clicked on…
Izzy
Robert, once again you have hit it square on. I might add; we need to be as attentive to our email subject line as we are our article headlines.
If we can communicate the biggest and best benefit tied to an emotional response and add a “what the heck?” you will have the best chance of getting that email opened.
Scott
Hey Robert, once again you are right on target.
It is important to give as much attention to email subject lines as article headlines.
We need to get the thing opened to share the benefit.
I like the formula; add the biggest and best benefit to a powerful response and sprinkle it with a “what the heck?” for an irresistable subject/head line.
Scott
Yes, I agree. It’s all about followup. The 2 big reasons why people unsubscribe is because, it’s either too much email, or it’s off topic. Sending a followup email to them about something you recently talked with them about increases that chance of a sale or more interest because they already know what your talking about. Good post.
Terrance Charles
http://www.thesimplecodemanuscript.com
Scott,
“What the heck?” is a great headline.. hmm….
😀
Thanks, Robert.
I get better open rates when I use the word “your” in the subject line. People feel the ownership and open it. 😉
But, I have to say the more I know who’s who in the internet marketing world, the more likely I am to open an email from the marketers I know who will give me great info, regardless of the subject line.
Peggy
Robert,
Thank you for the great advice!
I am glad to be on your list.
Some of this is just common sense but I just don’t think about it when I am just going through the motions.
Thanks for reminding me!
Thank you,
Ryan Bessling
http://twitterconferencing.com
If I get an email that says from “Robert Plank”, the headline can say “{FIRSTNAMEFIX,} INSERT SUBJECT HERE”
it’s being opened. that’s how good plank’s stuff is.
If using software that allows you to get the subscribers first name, use it.
You it at least twice. People like to see their names.
ie.. you can open with a simple , Hi Firstname
and close with. Thanks for reading, Firstname
or even better, closing with a P.S. using the firstname.
P.S. Robert, these tips are great for your readers.
Kelvin
http://www.Followup101.com
Yes I too look at the “from”, where the mail comes from.
I open any mail from people I’m subscribed to. I may not always read the whole story, but read it all when it interests me what they are talking about.
Without sounding too much like a broken record, the only way to really know is to test.
For example, myself and the majority of marketers that I speak to say long emails convert far better.
I’ve seen a lot of marketers lately using the negative spin… “Bad news….” in the subject line. Some guru somewhere said it gave the highest open rate ever. I wonder what their click through rates were like though when the readers found out the “bad news” was merely that the guru’s latest product was no longer going to be available…
Completely aside from that, I’ve seen slightly better open rates when I’ve used the recipients name in the subject.
I’ve found the timing of my follow up emails has had the most impact on conversions. I used to manage each list the same regardless of what I was promoting. Now I treat each market differently and have found that it works well. Obviously time sensitive offers get a message each day, sometimes I’ll do a morning and evening broadcast for these, where as what I call my “steady offers” I start with a couple each day and then go out to twice a week and a month later start the cycle again.
One thing I have really tried to keep up on is moving people to a sub-list of my list when they have purchased from me. This can be hard to keep track of as they don’t always use the same email address, but a very important aspect of relationship building. In a questionaire I sent out one of the most common complaints was that people hate getting pitching emails when they have already bought the product. I think it’s because it has taken the personalisation out of it, but that’s just my opinion.
Good tips, and great discussion. I love it when the comments add as much value as the article. I too have had good response with emphasizing a word through asterisks, etc., including one-to-one mail as well as mass-mail.
BTW, a while back, I did a four-part series called Write E-Mails that Get Opened in my monthly Frugal Marketing Tips: http://www.frugalmarketing.com/marketingtips.shtml#email
Shel Horowitz, author of Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World and seven other books