Your autoresponder is one of the greatest communication and marketing tools you have available to you. That’s because it lets you build relationships and close sales automatically. It works around the clock for 365 days a year so that you don’t have to.
But as you’ve probably guessed, a lot of people don’t have a very effective autoresponder series. They spend a lot of time getting it up and running, and then they’re disappointed by dismal results.
Let’s be sure that doesn’t happen to you. And if it’s already happening, then you can use this troubleshooting guide to start getting better results. Ask yourself these questions…
Does your autoresponder series solve a problem?
Sometimes list owners make the mistake of creating content just to fill space in an autoresponder series. And so their series ends up being a bit random, and not all that useful.
Before you write a single word, you need to define your goals. Specifically:
- What is the overall goal of your series?
- What is the overall goal of each individual email? That is, what one thing do you want prospects to do when they’re finished reading it?
- What problem do you want to help your prospects solve?
- What type of content will best serve your purpose?
Next…
Are your emails connected to each other?
When you create an autoresponder series, each email should build on the previous email, and share a related piece of information. In other words, this should not be a random set of emails. They should be connected.
So, to that end, design your series around a theme and purpose. For example, if you’re creating a five-part series on the topic of weight loss, your five parts might look like this:
- Five Proven Steps To Getting Rid of Belly Fat
- Five Fat-Busting Foods Every Dieter Ought To Eat
- Five Tricks For Losing Those Stubborn Final 10 Pounds
So what do you put in these emails? That’s next…
Do your emails include both useful content and a promo?
Sometimes new email marketers don’t promote anything in their initial emails, because they want to build a relationship first. But guess what? Building a relationship and promoting a product aren’t mutually exclusive activities.
In fact, you may be doing a disservice to your readers if you don’t promote a product. Think about it this way: if the BEST solution for your prospects is inside of a paid product, why would you ever withhold that information from them? That’s cruel to make people suffer while you sit on the solution.
So the point is, every email you send should be useful yet incomplete. It should share good content (such as a tip or step). And then it should present a paid product to help them solve the rest of their problem.
Do your emails have compelling subject lines?
If your subject lines aren’t attention getting or even curiosity arousing, no one is going to bother open your emails. They might send them straight to the trash. That’s why you’ll want to spend time brainstorming and crafting good subject lines.
For example:
- Who else wants [to get some benefit]?
- Here’s the quick and easy way to [get some benefit]…
- The #1 [type of] trick…
- Get rid of [bad thing]…
- The secret of [getting a good result]…
Conclusion
So there you have a quick troubleshooting guide you can use to help polish up an existing autoresponder series, or you can even use it as a checklist to make sure you get a new series off to a good start.