Archives > February 1, 2010

The Money IS In The Follow-up - 7 Keys to Creating a Successful Email Autoresponder Series

By James Martell

How are your sales going? Do you use an opt in offer? It might be time to try an autoresponder campaign to increase sales overall.

Many affiliates new and experienced, neglect to spend the time and effort needed to get their list in place and have follow up emails going out in a steady organized stream. Most have heard that “money is in the List”. It is true, well almost.

The money is in the follow up of the List.

Have you thought about outsourcing this task to get your autoresponder going? Don’t be afraid to outsource this highly important activity to bring your online business the downstream revenue you know is out there. Auto responding emails take a creative edge to hold a reader’s attention long enough to click through. You, like me may have had good intentions to sit down and write out a series of emails for an autoresponder series. You, like me both know that the real money in this business is in the follow up.

I decided to post this project at Elance – it has truly been one of the best business moves I have made lately. It was time to increase my initial 18 emails that I had crafted earlier, to 58 emails since now my website is jam packed with great content worth promoting to my List.

Here are 7 keys that will get you on your way to a successful email campaign:

1. Do It Now - If you don’t have an opt in offer at your website or if you are not satisfied with your conversion rate, STOP everything you are doing and focus all your efforts to fix this serious problem quickly.

2. Post a Project - If you are not sure how to develop a solid opt in offer, immediately post a project at Elance and hire someone with experience in this area to assist you. It is worth spending whatever time it takes on this because of the revenue it will generate by improving your conversion rate from “0” to GREAT!

3. Plan Killer Content - If you are finding it difficult coming up with ideas for your email series, it is probably because your site might be lacking in quality information that you could be referring your subscribers to. The solution? Develop for example; 8 top notch articles on topics that visitors are clearly interested in and provide them with solutions to major problems that they might be experiencing in their online business ventures.

4. Write the Emails - Write an email for each one of those articles that entices the reader to want to click through to the article, learn more and find the solution. This may be a product or service of your own or a product that you are representing as an affiliate for a particular merchant.

5. Outsource - Outsource all of the writing and hire a writer to assist you in the development of the articles and each of the corresponding emails so that there is continuity between the email, the article and the overall series. Pay particular attention to the development of a killer subject line for the email, and headline for the article, and both the email and the article should include a strong call to action.

6. Add Content - Once you receive the articles from the writer, carefully add and format each one on a page of its own on your website. Be sure to add appropriate images and links to the products or services you are marketing.

7. Add Emails - Carefully add and format each email to your autoresponder and test everything to ensure it is working correctly. Sign up yourself and go through each email as it comes in. If you are looking for a good autoresponder – aWeber, iContact or FeedBlitz are all good. You can’t go wrong with any of them.

I encourage you to get started right now and don’t let anything such as “I have never outsourced before” or “I am not sure how to do all of this” stop you from getting this done. Just go ahead and post the project at Elance and you will get all the assistance you need and more. Important tools of this business are at your fingertips, be smart, take time to post a project and ask for assistance to make it happen. You’ll be glad you did.

All the best,

PS: If you are in a listening mood, my recent Coffee Talk with one of the best marketers in the business, Ken McCarthy is cued up and only a click away.

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