Tag Archives: email automation

How to Write an Autoresponder Series

How to Write an Autoresponder Series

An email autoresponder is one of the best ways to connect with your audience and build a relationship with them. Essentially a series of emails sent to subscribers in a pre-determined order and frequency. The strategy is very efficient and very cost-effective.

The question is – how do you create a winning email autoresponder series? Here are 6 steps that experts at Opt-In Monster, Crazy Egg, and QuickSprout recommend.

Step #1: Establish Goals for your Autoresponder Series

There are 3 common purposes of email autoresponder campaigns.

  1. Send new subscribers a “welcome” sequence.
  2. Make sales on autopilot.
  3. Promote up-sells and cross-sells.

Whatever your reason is, remember to follow the SMART goals mantra.

Step #2: Segment Your Email List

Segmentation is breaking down your email list into smaller groups of contacts who share certain characteristics. For instance, you can categorize your contacts based on demographics, interests, personas, or stage in the sales cycle. According to one study by MailChimp, email list segmentation results in a 14.4% increase in open rates, a 62.83% increase in click-through rates, and an 8.54% reduction in unsubscribe rates.

Step#3: Select the Right Email Marketing Provider

Fortunately, there are several quality options to pick from. These include MailChimp, AWeber, ActiveCampaign, and InfusionSoft. If you’re new to email marketing software and don’t know much about these services, just pick either MailChimp or AWeber.

They are the two most popular options used by nearly 90% of beginners thanks to their reliability, support, and a wide range of features.

Step #4: Map Out the Autoresponder Sequence

How long do you want the campaign to last? How many days, weeks, or months? Also, how many emails do you intend to send over that period? There are no universal rules in both cases. But a good rule of thumb is that your autoresponder series should last as long as your sales cycle. The important thing is to send enough emails to accomplish your goals.

Next, decide on a sending frequency. After how long will you be sending the next email? Again, there are no universal rules here so choose what works. With that covered, sit down and decide the message you want to convey in each of the emails.

Step #5: Write the Actual Emails

This can be the hardest part of the process. Consider hiring a professional copywriter to write the emails on your behalf.

  1. The emails must focus on the subscribers’ needs, not yours.
  2. Every email must be personalized to make it relevant and valuable to the recipient.
  3. Subject lines are critical to high open and click-through rates.

Reread the emails to make sure these requirements are met and, if possible, test the series with close friends or workers to gauge their effectiveness.

Step #6: Monitor and Improve

Perfection comes with practice. After you roll out the autoresponder campaign, don’t just sit and wait. Instead, track the performance of your emails and see where you need to improve. Keep a close eye on open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates.

If you can follow all these six steps, rest assured you’ll have an email autoresponder campaign that’s guaranteed to consistently earn your leads and help you close sales.  An autoresponder is a key part of the digital marketing funnel sequence so important to your business marketing today.

How to Use Confirmation Emails to Make More Money

How to Use Confirmation Emails to Make More Money If you’re already using email marketing to generate leads, convert sales, and delight customers; you’re doing a great job! Aside from boasting a phenomenal ROI, email marketing is also the most effective way to reach customers and prospects.

To help boost your ROI even further, today, we want to give you a few tips on how to use confirmation emails to drive lead generation and sales.

You probably already know about confirmation emails – the emails you usually send to customers who’ve just made a purchase, thanking them for buying from your store and asking them to come back.

But, did you know you can use these emails to more than just thank customers? Did you know that you can use the emails to pitch your brand and products? In fact, you can even use confirmation emails for remarketing! Click To Tweet

Use them to up-sell and cross-sell

Up-selling and cross-selling are two of the most effective marketing strategies. According to one Nielsen study, consumers actually love it when sellers offer new product options. It shows them that the seller cares.

Consumers prefer to buy products from brands they are already familiar with. Put these two factors together, and you have up-sells and cross-sells contributing to between 10% and 30% of e-commerce revenues.

With this in mind, when sending the purchase confirmation email, use the opportunity to suggest a complementary product. For instance, if one buys a shaving razor, ask if they’d be interested in shave cream. If they’ve just purchased a phone, ask if they need a phone cover, and so on.

Use the emails to recover abandoned shopping carts

Shopping cart abandonment is a huge challenge in the e-commerce industry. Last year alone, more than 70% of shopping carts were abandoned midway through transactions, costing merchants $4.6 billion in the process.

Use emails to reach out to consumers and convince them to go back and complete the purchase. For instance, you can send an email asking about the difficulties the shopper experienced on your site and offer to provide help.

Send a confirmation email alerting consumers about discounts on the items in the abandoned shopping carts. This works particularly well if the consumer was window shopping. A discount offer can make them change their mind and return to complete the purchase.

Use confirmation emails to promote your brand & expand your reach

There are a couple of ways to do this. For instance, use emails to ask consumers to share the experience on social media. In the email, ask them to “share” the message, providing buttons to your preferred social media networks to make the sharing easy.

Another option is to ask them to sign up for your newsletters, read your blog, or subscribe to your YouTube channel. A consumer who thoroughly enjoyed the shopping experience will not hesitate to do so.

Finally, ask consumers to rate your business and leave reviews on popular review platforms. These ratings and reviews will convince other shoppers to consider your brand.

The best part, email campaign so the emails are sent exactly when they need to be sent, further increasing your conversion chances.

Segment your Email List for More Conversions

Segment your Email List for More Conversions Have you heard, the money is in the list? The email list, in this case.

Did you know you may be leaving money on the table if you mail the same message to your entire list? Send the most relevant messages to their inboxes, not just any message. This in an efficient and scalable solution with segmentation.

What is Email Segmentation?

Email segmentation divides your email list based on custom factors. You can split up your list with some of the most common methods being by geographic location, age, income and job title.

The specific factors you choose depends on your type of business. Add a behavioral tag to categorize a user. Have they ordered from your store recently, did they buy something last year, or are they a new purchaser? Nurture each list segment with the offers and content that they need to increase your conversion rate and lifetime value of the customer.

If you provide services, look at where the subscriber is in your marketing funnel, any actions they’ve taken on your website and whether they’ve been in contact with your team.

The sky’s the limit on the segmentation you choose for your subscriber. So there’s no reason to take one-size fits all approach to your list.

How to Segment Your List

Most email marketing and marketing automation services allow you to sort readers into different groups based on the information they provide. You can automatically do this by sorting users on the subscription form.

For example, if you offer several products segment your list by the product purchased. Progressive profiling allows you to capture more information every time a person goes through one of your forms. You might ask for an email and name on the first interaction. Then expand to their company size, income and questions about their pain points in the next.

The second way to segment is by links clicked.  Start with a general list. Send out an email with 3 key, unique links to different areas of service your company offers. You can segment your audiences by those who clicked service link 1, the second list for service link 2 that was clicked, and the same for the service link 3.  Furthermore, you ow have three lists with people who were interested enough to click a specific area.  You can then send each follow-up emails specifically related to the area of service they clicked on in the first email! That’s segmentation.

Get the most out of your email list by providing a custom experience that’s valuable to your readers. You’ll see more leads, conversions, and revenue for your efforts.