How to Structure an Email Follow Up Series – Email-Marketing
How to Structure an Email Follow Up Series
Marketers the world over use follow up autoresponders toincrease sales. But, many struggle to write a compellingmessage series. Don't let that keep you from your share ofthe profits! Print and follow these instructions; you'llsoon be following up with finesse.(Examples in this article use the fictional product "GreenGarden Lawn Fertilizer". Any similarity to actual productsis unintended and coincidental.)Message 1 - Big Benefits:Many of the sales resulting from your follow up series willcome after the very first message. Keep this message short.Just take 500 or so words to flesh out a handful of yourbiggest benefits. For example, part of the Green Garden LawnFertilizer company's first message might read:"A Lush Lawn: Green Garden Fertilizer will give you alush lawn in just 2 weeks! Density will increase up to 50%...""No More Brown: Watch your lawn become 3-5 shadesgreener with regular treatments"Message 2 - Establish a Need:Use your second message to explain why your product is necessary.First, lay out the situation leading to a need for your product.Then, show that your product will meet that need. For instance:"Lawns across the country are looking dull. Homeowners waterand mow to no avail. But, not those who use Green GardenFertilizer! They've created lush, beautiful lawns"Message 3 - Tool Talk:In your third message, show the lead how he will go aboutactually using your product. Detail any tools or supportingmaterial that you offer. In the case of our fictional GreenGarden Fertilizer, part of this message might read:"This treatment is a cinch: Simply attach the includeddiffuser to the end of your garden hose, creating asprinkler. Run the sprinkler for 15 minutes each week.You will see an improvement after just one treatment!"Message 4 - The Wildcard:Customize message four for your unique product. Try oneof these ideas:Have a customer case study? This is a great placefor it.Selling complimentary products? Detail one ofthem here.Selling a real-world product? Explain shipping/ tracking now.Have a bricks and mortar office? Invite theprospect to visit. Include directions.Are you personally a visible part of your brand?Include your bio here.Message 5 - Questions? Comments?:Your lead may be waiting to purchase until you explain oneparticular thing. By asking outright, you can speed thesales cycle to a close.Start the fifth message by asking your prospect if he hasany questions. Give him several ways to reach you, andinclude your hours of operation and time zone.Take the rest of the fifth message to answer some of thequestions your prospects ask most often. For instance:"Are you excited about the lush lawn you'll have with GreenGarden Fertilizer? I hope so! Let me go over some questionsour customers have asked in the past"Message 6 - Testimonials:With your sixth message, show off your satisfied customers.Choose several of your best testimonials, and list them here.Look for quotes from customers who are obviously excited aboutyour product, but that still sound believable. For instance,choose:"I'm thrilled with my Green Garden Fertilizer! Just two weeks,and my lawn looks better than it has in years."Instead of:"Green Garden Fertilizer is miraculous! It turned my back lotinto a rolling meadow in days - and that lot is PAVED!"(The testimonials in this article are made up examples. All ofyour testimonials, however, must be real. Fabricatingtestimonials is illegal.)Message 7 - Last Chance:Your final message serves as one last reminder of your product.Briefly reiterate its most impressive features. Then, throw in a fewtestimonials or a very short case study. Round out this messagewith your contact information. Our example product's finalmessage might read:"Over the past several weeks, you've heard about how GreenGarden Fertilizer can turn your lawn around. Customer DustyDan tried it, and he says, 'My lawn has never looked better...'"Follow Up With FinesseAutomation means that good follow up doesn't haveto be time consuming. Now, creating a message series is justas easy!Beka Ruse is the Business Development Manager at AWeber Communications. Experience the acclaimed customer support and reliability of AWeber autoresponders. http://www.aweber.com/lfs.htm
Screenwriting ? The Value of Structure
Screenwriting ? The Value of Structure
Structure in the form of frameworks, work processes and goals enhances creative output:a) Short term goals (incremental productivity) produce more output than a "do your best" approach. Writing four pages a day completes a words-on-paper first draft screenplay in one month. A "do your best" or "waiting for inspiration" approach can take months or years. Witness the untold number of people with unfinished manuscripts under their beds.b) Work processes such as separating creative from critical thinking and other techniques help to a) unblock the mind, b) tap into tacit knowledge, c) trigger the mind into working at various cognitive levels and d) apply a) and b) and c) to the areas of problem identification and idea generation and evaluation.c) Frameworks reduce complex problems into their component intellectual parts. For example, story structure can be reduced to three or four acts or The Hero With A Thousand Faces (Campbell, 1973). Frameworks increase output by reducing complex problems into smaller, more manageable problem solving exercises. Frameworks tell the screenwriter where to start, where to finish, what to write and what should be happening at a particular stage of the story.Additionally, a structured approach improves performance in a number of ways, including:a) Structure triggers prolific production and simply being prolific improves performance and quality. The single best creative product tends to appear at that point in the career when creator is being most prolific. Experience refines knowledge and methodology towards optimal levels.b) Structure triggers engagement and simply engaging in the tasks results in problem identification and stimulates the mind into working on those problems at various cognitive levels, resulting in inspiration. Screenwriters often find that their best ideas come to them when they are in the middle of writing a screenplay.c) Structure triggers problem identification which in turn triggers incubation. Problems incubate until answers become apparent. Increasing the incidence and frequency of problem identification increases the incidence and frequency of insight.d) Increased problem identification (coupled with motivation) increases the incidence of solution seeking, through active search for stimuli and intellectual cross pollination through networks and collaboration.e) Radical shifts (originality) occur through sustained incremental change. By incrementally modifying output, the distance between the original and final versions increases. Radical shifts sometimes result from dramatic events or conditions but the vast number of gains accrue from continuous incremental improvement.f) Quality gains, measured on many levels, are result of sustained incremental changes.The Hero's Journey and various story structure templates can be found at http://www.managing-creativity.com.You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.Kal Bishop, MBA**********************************You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com.
How to Structure Your Follow-Up Sequence for Maximum Profit – Email-Marketing
How to Structure Your Follow-Up Sequence for Maximum Profit
Before I do this, let me describe how autoresponders work. Think of autoresponders as the equivalent of fax-on-demand, but for email instead of fax. You simply set up a message and then whenever someone sends an email to your autoresponder email address they will immediately receive this as a response.Autoresponders can also be triggered from a form on your web site, where the visitor will enter his email address (and his name too if requested) and receive the autoresponse straight away.Many autoresponders on the market today are "sequential autoresponders", and save contact information in a database so it can send further messages to your prospects at intervals you specify (such as two days, five days and seven days later).Here is an example of a message sent by a modern autoresponder:Dear John Doe,Thank you for requesting more information
on our products earlier.I have attached to this email a document containing our
price listings for August's catalogue of products. Please
read through it in your own time John.I will get back to you the same time on Wednesday with our
special offers. Feel free to send me an email or call me
on 000-000-0000 if you would to discuss your needs.Thanks again,Max Weber
ShareHobby.comHere is a typical sequence for following up prospects who have requested more info:1st Message Sent Immediately
2nd Message Sent 2 Days Later
3rd Message Sent 5 Days Later
4th Message Sent 8 Days Later
5th Message Sent 12 Days Later
6th Message Sent 16 Days Later
7th Message Sent 20 Days LaterWhen setting up your own follow-up sequence, remember that there are golden rules and that the only factors that affect your sequence is your product and your market.Imagine you target Internet business owners. You may send your messages to these prospects within a shorter time frame than you would if you were targeting a more generalized market (who aren't so likely to check their email on a daily basis).How about if you were selling a report on how to create response-generating mini-sites for $19.97? Would your follow-up sequence need to spend as much time selling your product as it would if you sold copywriting services to large web business developers, for example, who want to boost the response of their web sites.Below, I will summarize a sample sequence suitable for following up prospects who have requested information on a particular product of yours.Autoresponse: Thank Prospect for Requesting InformationThe aim of this autoresponse is to thank your prospect for requesting information and introduce your web site or product to them. It is important in this message you outline the major benefits of your product and tell them what's in it for them.Remember at all times, that your prospects wants to know what your product can do for them, so don't spend the majority of your message introducing your company, instead focus on what you and your product can do for them.Follow-Up #1: Introduce a Deadline or Time-Limited OfferAfter a day or two, your prospect can easily forget about you and your products. So your aim here is to not just remind them of your offer but also to make them feel, "Hmm, I better get this before it's too late".This can be achieved by using a form of scarcity, such as offering a special discount for a limited time only. Perhaps there are only a 17 seats left at a seminar you are promoting, or maybe there are only 200 copies of your book printed. Again, within this message remind them what your product will do for them.Follow-Up #2: Reinforce Benefits to Persuade ProspectsIn most situations this message will be sent 3-5 days after the original request, so you want to elaborate on your previous offer by reinforcing the many benefits of your product. The entire email will stress the benefits they get from buying your product or doing business with you.Benefits are what make your prospects desire your product. No-one ever purchases a product because of what it does (a feature), they do so for what it can do for them (a benefit). You can also incorporate benefits into bulleted lists.Follow-Up #3: Pile On the Bonuses to Get Them ExcitedSpend this message getting your prospects excited about what they'll get when they purchase from you. Even if this means they buy your product just for the bonuses, that shouldn't bother you.You may also want to remind them that these bonuses can only be guaranteed for a certain number of days. Again, using scarcity in this way will make them want to act fast if they wish to get the bonuses.Follow-Up #4: Build Value by Comparing Your ProductA common rule of thumb is that while your prospects will base their decisions on emotions, they will justify it with logic. What this means, is that even though they might like your product, they may not want to buy it purely on impulse.An easy way to convince your prospect your product is great value is to compare apples to oranges. Let's say you were selling the report on how to create response-generating web sites. You can compare purchasing your report to paying an experienced (and rather costly) web designer to design one web site for you. By doing so, you immediately prove the value of your product.Follow-Up #5: Boost Desire with Glowing TestimonialsIt's a known fact that your prospects will trust you far more if you give examples of what other people have said about your company and product. Your prospects might think you could lie to them because it's your own product, but they won't think the other person is lying, because he or she has nothing to gain by doing so.If you don't have any testimonials for your product, ask your customers! Be straight and tell your customers that you need some honest comments and reviews of your product. There's nothing more to it.Also consider adding a link to the customer's web site or email address to add the final bond of trust that will secure your credibility and convince your prospects that you're "the real thing".Follow-Up #6: Demand Action and Remind of DeadlineThis final step of your sequence is what makes or breaks the sale. Since nobody likes to make a decision, especially when money is involved, you must help them by making it crystal clear what you're offering and how it'll benefit the prospect.Once you've reminded them of what they'll miss out on if they don't take action, make it absolutely clear what to do next, even if it's just a "Click here to order over our secure server before its too late" line of copy.Remember that even when the follow-up sequence is complete your prospects are still very valuable to you, whether they purchase your product or not, and should be contacted (using your autoresponder's "broadcast" feature) on a regular basis to let them know of web site updates, new products, etc.Learn more about email marketing, internet marketing and search engine marketing. Go to internet marketing and website promotion