Everything that we have talked about with email marketing so far has hopefully led you to the inevitable conclusion that you need some great email autoresponder content. With all the great email campaigns you want to have an good email autoresponder series can engage and attract your subscribers to actually check out your information.
So what does that mean you have to know? You have to know what not to say with an email autoresponder system. Once you know what not to do it is a lot easier to get everything else right.
5 Email Autoresponder No-No’s
- Do not sell people immediately. The first thing you get when you sign up for my email is free stuff. Free Webinars, Free Ebooks, Free Podcasts. Give people something of value first, and when you finally do pitch something make sure that it is chocked full of value for your clients. Walk in their shoes to see what they would find valuable.
- Do not dis-respect people ever. You stupid, jerk why are you not buying from me does not exactly engender the long term relationship you would like to have with your readers.
- Do not flood their email with a constant stream of emails from you. As much as I realize you have so much desire to hear from me every hour on the hour in your inbox, I send an email autoresponder out once every 3-5 days. Long enough for people to forget about me, and short enough for them to remember who I am.
- Do not make things complicated. One of the biggest challenges in business is making things easy. We start to work on a concept and the idea grows into a monster that is so complex that it is just not feasible. 95% of the big businesses out there made their mark with one product or service before they ever stretched out their legs to test out new ideas. Microsoft=Windows Subway=35,000 franchises Intuit=Quicken RIM=Blackberry The list goes on and on. Make sure your emails stick with one topic or idea. I cover social networking, seo, and blogging. I rarely, if ever leave those subjects on this blog.
- Do not sned out something withnout checking to make sure that your spelling and grammar is correct. I am not a grammar maven, but I go by this simple rule. If your sentence does not make sense to you, then I can guarantee that it will not make sense to your reader. All else is irrelevant.
- Do not just leave them with what is expected. Give your subscriber’s extra when possible. Is this 6 out of 5, or 5 out 6?
Now, go out and write your new email marketing campaign to help your subscribers benefit from your services and build a long lasting relationship through your email autoresponder magic
Hi Andy,
great post and tips. Thank you.
Yes, I agree with you, keeping it simple is important and I agree with all the other points.
Your suggestion to leave enough time for people to ‘forget you’ in between email sounds good. I have a very good memory so that would mean one email per month ? LOL 🙂
Thanks for sharing this.
To your Success
Yorinda
Yorinda,
I am not sure if one email per month would work, because some people have a shorter time span than you! 🙂
Andy
Andy,
These are some golden rules to market by. So true about providing value first and you can never provide enough of it. It’s great to do this to enhance their lives and ask nothing in return so when you do propose something that should be of quality and will help them guess who they are more than likely to buy from?
Steve
Steve,
The value you provide is essential for how successful your business can be.
Andy
Andy,
Great tips on how to start with an autoresponder series. However, it is ment for a beginner.
When you start a funnel using an email campaign, I’d suggest (after you have a stable foundation) you email every day for at least 2 weeks. I’ve just finalized my campaign to make sure that people get the full benefit of what I have to offer.
I feel as if I didn’t stay in constant view for that amount of time, they could lose focus or interest in my message. It’s important to make sure that you remain in the focus after you have established the value you bring.
Just my thoughts tho… 😀
Great job!
-Dereck
Dereck,
I agree that this is for beginners. There were some other email posts that I made later on in the week about how to get the word out afterwards. One thing is that I do not want to be emailing my list every day, but every few days at a minimum is required.
Andy
Hi Andy,
Thanks for these guidelines on Email Responder No, No’s. I’m sure most marketers have experienced receiving emails of the sorts you are talking about. Our email boxes are filled daily with pitches, subscription, newsletters. In order for any of it to be read, it has to stand out, provide value, and treat it’s recipients with respect.
Raena Lynn
Raena,
Agreed! The emails that get read must stand out, provide value, and be respectful.
Andy
Andy,
In my opinion, one of the most important parts of autoresponders is frequency. Since they are so good at building and nurturing relationships they are set in place to automate this process for new subscribers. Finding the right frequency can be the difference between a loyal subscriber and an unsubscribe. Send them too far apart and subscribers will forget who you are and you miss an opportunity to build with them, and if you send them too close together you come across as spammy and alienate your subscribers.
It’s important to test this out and do some research to see what works best for your list.
Dewane,
I just had that debate about frequency with a partner about the email frequency.
Andy
Hello Andy,
First let me thang you for your greats tips.
I have a question so:
You said;
“Do not sell people immediately. The first thing you get when you sign up for my email is free stuff.”
and I totaly agree with this.
What do you think about strategies that offert a product or service with OTO directly after the opt in form?
Friendly,
Fred
Fred,
You can definitely test out a one time only offer. Part of the reason why people go on your opt-in is because they are not ready to buy. They do not fully trust you, but think you are interesting enough to follow. Once you prove that you are trustworthy you can sell to them. That takes time.
Andy