If you’re like most folks trying to build their business online, you probably want to build an email list. And in doing so, you have gone through the technical steps to put an opt in box up on your website.
You have also decided on which freebie to give away. Now it’s time to write autoresponder emails to go along with it.
Email is such a personal and private thing for so many people. So err on the side of caution and ensure that your emails don’t sound spammy. I’m sure you agree that there are more than enough spammy emails already.
Getting Started
I want to share with you something that I didn’t realize when I started out. You don’t have to spend hours upon hours trying to write autoresponder emails perfectly ahead of time.
I try to write mine as naturally as possible. When I think of a topic that I not only want my current subscribers to know about, but all future subscribers to know, I write up an email and put it in queue.
Tip: Since you don’t want your subscribers to get the same thing twice, you’ll probably decide to add evergreen topics to your email autoresponder series and keep date sensitive emails for campaigns.
Need for Passion
I presume that you are passionate about the niche that you have chosen. The following method will only work if my presumption is correct. If you chose the “X niche” because it’s profitable, but you aren’t passionate about the niche, this method probably won’t work for you.
If you are passionate about your niche, then maintain a list of topics that resonate strongly with you. The topics can come from various sources: forum posts, social media posts or even marketing emails.
Response
When you choose to focus on a particular subject from a post or email, it doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree with the other author. You can create an email autoresponder either way.
Over time, you’re going to have your subscribers replying to certain emails you send more than others. You’ll get to see which ones make an impact on your list. And on the other hand you’ll discover which ones get little response.
Subject Line
Let’s talk about how to write the email.
I did mention using posts or emails above as your starting point. But you can even choose a book or book review and make it the focus of an email.
A lot of emails go straight to the recycle bin without being opened. So you want a title that will get your subscribers to open your email. This is understandably very important.
Don’t choose a subject line that tries to trick folks to open your email. That will back fire and you will have folks unsubscribe from your list.
Method
- Start the email off with a question that makes the reader think about herself.
- Share some of your personal experiences with your readers.
- Bring the focus back to your reader by asking her another question.
- Teach your readers something or share a different way of looking at things.
- And end with a motivational statement or quote.
This is a process that will more than likely stir up some passion. One of the steps is bound to get your mind racing and/or make an opinion of yours surface.
Other Considerations
You will probably choose to sell to your list at some point. So although you definitely want to write from the heart you will benefit if you think about strategy ahead of time.
For instance, you probably don’t want to have multiple sales email in a row for different products. That could be a little overwhelming for your readers.
Another strategy is evergreen vs.dated content. I mentioned the word “evergreen” earlier. Creating evergreen content for your autoresponder helps prevent you from having outdated emails.
For non-evergreen then you will have to go back through them and update them at some point in time. This could be very time consuming if you have hundreds of email in your sequence and you haven’t come up a specific strategy to do so.
For example, if you write an email talking about your latest product release, and it’s 2 years post release and that product is no longer available, then you are wasting your email communication with your subscriber.
And on top of that, once your reader clicks to the sales page, she may feel you are not respectful of her time. She may even think that you don’t pay attention to important details or you aren’t organized.
So think of how to avoid out of date emails as you create and add emails to your autoresponder series.
If you want to get traffic to your website, you can direct people to your blog. Do this by writing a shorter email and finish up the post on your blog where your subscriber can then comment and share your blog post if she chooses.
Some folks provide all the content within the email so the reader doesn’t have to go through multiple steps to get the information. It’s really up to you and what you think your target audience would prefer.
There are various ways to communicate with your target audience. The key is to find what works for you and your audience.
And know that what may have worked before may not work now. That’s ok. Keep working on it and providing value to your readers.
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