3 Steps to Creating an Effective Email Autoresponder Sequence

January 30, 2016

An Email Autoresponder Sequence is nothing but a series of emails that your subscribers receive on your behalf automatically when they subscribe to your emails. Such emails have certain fixed content and can be scheduled to be sent out daily, once in two days or on a weekly basis on the basis of some set parameters.


An autoresponder can save you countless hours of effort and essentially automate the sales and relationship building process.


To help you achieve better results, here are 3 Steps to creating an autoresponder sequence that will make your readers love your emails:


Step 1: Creating the Content

So visitors have stopped by your website from Facebook, an affiliate partner or basic SEO campaign. They’ve responded to your call to action and subscribed. What happens next? Creating the right content is the most important part of the autoresponder process. What you write and how you structure it will have a defining impact on the success of your autoresponder emails.


Follow these guidelines to ace at autoresponder creation:



  • Define the purpose: An autoresponder sequence should have a well-defined purpose. Do you want to increase open rates for your emails? Are you trying to introduce your business offerings to new contacts you have met in a conference or online? Are you trying to get people to sign up to your email list? This should be the ‘guiding light’ of your emails.
  • Type of content: To make your readers open your emails, your Autoresponder Sequence needs to reward them with information nuggets that really treasure. Some of the content marketing examples which readers may value are:

    • Free e-courses with a new lesson every day.
    • How-to guides which teach people something new and useful.
    • Special offers and promotions – especially if you are trying to build your brand name.
    • Mixed Content which shares some information about your product or service and then a promotional discount on it.

Step 2: Structuring the Content

In an autoresponder email sequence, it is very important to structure your content properly. Regardless of your marketing goals, you want your readers to take some action after they’ve read your emails.


To do this, it’s important to create a sense of ‘flow’ in all your emails. Readers should have a reason to anticipate your future mail.


Some ways to do this are:



  • Include good stories and anecdotes.
  • End your emails with cliffhangers which make your readers want to know – what happens next.
  • Build up anticipation for the best piece of content you have for your readers. For example, you can tell readers that you’re going to reveal a big industry secret in your opening email. In your future emails, you can tease them with some small reveals, stats or data.

Do not write your emails separately. They are in a sequence for a reason. Build on your previous emails and make your readers WANT to read the next email. Think like a storyteller, not a marketer and you’ll see great results from your autoresponders.


Step 3: Reviewing and Refining

No autoresponder sequence is perfect, no matter how much time and effort you take in crafting it.


This is why the third step is crucial to your email marketing success. Once your autoresponder goes live, analyze your readers’ response to it. Find out where they drop off, where they pick up, and what emails have the highest engagement. Besides hard data (your email marketing software should be able to give you that), you also need to ask some qualitative questions to your readers. Ask them what they liked about each email, what they didn’t, and how you can improve.


With constant improvement and optimization, you can turn your autoresponder sequence into a powerful source of leads and sales.


Conclusion


Email autoresponders are tricky to master, but they’re also among the most powerful marketing tools at your disposal. Master the art and science of creating effective email autoresponder sequences and you’ll solidify your internet marketing strategy, skyrocket your sales and save countless hours in manual work each month.

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