I was reading through a forum just earlier tonight, when a poster asked the question:
“If my website’s main goal is to get their name and email, then how should I use a sequenced email campaign to bring them on as customers?”
After spending quite some time preparing an answer, I decided it might be worthwhile posting that answer on here for anyone seeking some tips on setting up a successful email autoresponder sequence. Enjoy.
Hi Dan,
Hmmm…. always a good question… How to get the email sequence right.
Well, you know I have had a change of heart on this matter in the last few months, compared to how I felt for years previously.
Firstly, just getting their name & email address is always going to be a challenge because of 1 reason above all else:
TRUST (or lack thereof)
In other words, they’ve landed on your page and (probably) don’t know you from a bar of soap, and here you are, asking them to give up their name & email address to a total stranger…
What sorts of questions must be running through their mind at this stage?
1) is this going to get my details onto a spammer’s database?
2) is this person legit or a crook?
3) WHY should I give you my personal details when I don’t even know you yet?
etc etc etc… I think you get the picture.
So, wereas before, my attitude was hard core – “you want my goodies, you gotta give something up” (ie name & email) and be damned to those who weren’t willing to trust me enough to do this. They just miss out & probably weren’t a hot prospect anyway, etc.
After watching myself put in fake names & email addresses into these squeeze pages for YEARS, to try and stop my name getting onto someone’s list (yeh, I have ALL the time in the world to read ALL the emails I get… NOT!), the light suddenly came on recently!
BUILD TRUST FIRST (by giving, without any conditions) and THEN offer more in exchange for their valuable details.
Some of the hottest Product Launches of the last 6-12 months have more than adequately demonstrated the power of this approach to me and I have MORE THAN WILLINGLY given up my legit details to get more info, because they had something special to offer and had already built trust with me beforehand.
Oh, by the way, just a tip. If the free trust-building content can be in audio (or preferrably) video format, rather than just text, it almost ALWAYS boosts the trust factor, because they can see you are a real human being, rather than some unknown person writing content on a web site.
Just remember, keep building trust at all times!
NOW, to answer your questions 
1) Decide what it is that you want them to ultimately do (buy, subscribe, refer, whatever).
2) Break down the steps required to get there. By this, I mean what sort of education & trust building is required to lead a cold prospect to the point of taking that action.
To give you an example, I work in the Search Engine Marketing business, specialising in Google AdWords management, and in many cases, it’s difficult to sell an Adwords consulting gig to a stranger because they don’t actually understand all the IMPORTANT BENEFITS of using it, and using me to set up & manage it.
Sooooo…. firstly, what I need to do is determine what key benefits do I need to communicate to a potential client BEFORE they can make an INFORMED decision.
Then, I prepare a series of “lessons” covering off on each aspect. Let’s say that I have 6 key issues I need a possible client to understand before he or she is going to actually understand the intracies of what I am really offering them, to be able to make a decision with the facts, rather than hype or hearsay.
I think it was my favorite Adwords “guru” (Perry Marshall) who first said what this is: Educating your client to buy from you & only you.
There are plenty of adwords consultants out there on the market, but I bring my own unique perspectives (as do each of us as individuals) to that market that very few others do, so why not educate my future clients about the key benefits involved in using adwords via me.
By this, I don’t mean telling my potential client that I am a “nice guy who likes rock music, iced coffee & travel”. I mean, what do I bring to the table that will genuinely benefit the client when they hire me, compared to other folks in this market.
So, as an example, I can explain that due to my extensive background in the SEO field, I can take the results I get from AdWords campaigns I run for them and prepare an SEO program that benefits from using the RIGHT keywords in the right places, etc.
That means their rankings in the Search Engines will be focussed around those keywords that brought them the most sales (for example), rather than just the keywords that are searched for the most. Which means they’ll ultimately get more traffic for their “money” keywords, which means more sales, which are free when they come from the organic search results instead of the paid side of things, etc.
Another benefit I could offer them is that my background in audio & video means I can create sales audios &/or videos for their site, which improves conversion and brings in more sales. LOTS of Adwords consultants don’t have that background, so its a benefit I can sell (more sales due to better converting landing pages, etc).
There’s plenty more examples, but hopefully these will give you a taste of what I am talking about.
Once you have determined your ‘x’ number of key benefits to educate a client on, then you create an autoresponder email around that benefit. Just target 1 key concept in the email – don’t overload them – and preferrably do it by telling a story.
Stories sell!
Each email should lead into the next email, as you introduce each part of the sequence. One lesson leads nicely into the next lesson and so on, all the way to the end. Tell them about what they’re going to learn in the next email at the end of the current one. Tease them a bit, without giving up all the details straight away.
You can certainly make an offer in each email, towards the end of the lesson, but I tend to keep it low key – not too pushy. Try 2 sets of email sequences (split test them). One with an offer in each email and the other without. See what works best for YOUR market.
When you get to the last email in the sequence, you should have really completed the jigsaw puzzle they needed to see, in order to buy from you, and then its time to make your offer really seriously.
You could try several different strategies to get them over the line at this stage:
1) Limit the availability of your offer by time and/or quantity (scarcity works!) and STICK to whatever you say. Nothing worse than being seen to be a liar cos you went back on your word just to get a sale.
2) Offer bonuses, but keep them related to the main offer. Only make them available for a limited time period or in limited quantity.
3) Offer them a free short consultation – this gives you a chance to actually speak to them & determine what their REAL concern is. If you can find this out AND address it to their satisfaction, most times you’ll get the order.
4) Increase the price significantly after a certain timeframe, so that they have to make a decision soon to get the reduced rate. You can tie this one into point #1 above.
In my opinion, some of the very best email sequences I have read (and brought from) were written by Perry Marshall & Bryan Todd (his colleague or brother, I am not sure which). Go sign up for them & check them out – they’re very well done.
Check out Bryan Todd here:
http://www.thelanguageexpert.com/
Check out Perry Marshall here:
http://www.perrymarshall.com/google/index.htm
Sign up for their email course’s and see quality in action. Duplicate their processes and you’re on your way to a successful email sequence.
One way to judge whether you have started to build a relationship with them is to ask them to hit the reply button in their email program and write back to you with a question – any question – that they have regarding what you’ve been talking about. Those that actually follow your instructions and do this are much warmer than those who don’t – if they aren’t interested, they certainly won’t email you, let alone keep reading your emails.
Testimonials can be used in various ways. 1 way to use a testimonial is to tell the story of HOW that client brought from you & what benefit they got, as part of the teaching/education process. Keep it story-telling, not pushy pushy sales-tell.
You should also add the testimonials to your sales page, where they get a link to go visit, when you feel its the right time.
Well good readers, hopefully that post answered some questions you might have about email marketing, but if I missed anything out, or you want clarification of anything I said, feel free to post another question here (using the Comment link below) & I will do my best to answer it soon.
