Every few years someone announces the death of email, and yet email continues to be a powerful marketing tool. The 50% increase in the headline (measured by effects on traffic AND sales in some cases, as well as list activity, I’ve done this with many, many businesses so results are measured in varying ways) is the result of my testing over 13 years with automated email follow ups after someone registers for email or a social media site, or purchases a product. (Infographic is here at the bottom of the post.)
Many people think emailing less is better, and you should always test. What is outlined in this video and infographic is a system that allows you to automate those initial contacts so people remember, and trust, you!
The Email Business Model
The first 1-2 weeks are crucial to cementing a relationship with your audience, and giving is the key; you need to give them value, establish the value of your brand AND your email, and trickle this out.
I would suggest everyone, at a minimum, do 3 emails in the first week to remember you; most of my sequences are 10-15 emails over 45 days. This example is based on work I did for Silver Investor, and you can sign up there if you want to see the sequence in action, with their own tweaks to the process.
(Thanks to David Morgan for letting me share this; he has seen increases in traffic, subscribers, and sales by integrating this model into his business. While I’m not taking credit for all he has done, the model is replicatable and reliable, and tested!)
Here’s the basic model, outlined on the infographic at the bottom:
- First you can set up an email autoresponder on many services like Aweber, MailChimp, iContact, etc. The key is thinking about the introductory series of messages that will get people to notice you, remember you, visit your site, and take action.
- Send 1 email immediately with the complete download details of your gift, and get people excited for what you are about to send. Connect your emails as a series, like a curriculum, or a “how to” of your product, so that you trickle your message out over 7-30 days.
- Recommended: Email 1, 3, and 7 days after first contact; the first week is crucial to keeping in touch with people, and 3 days is the time they forget.
- Emails should be 600 pixels wide to fit into mobile phones and all email readers; include a top banner graphic with your brand AND the brand of the info you are sharing via email, that’s what they are expecting.
- Try to limit other graphics to 2-3 at most, and keep them small.
- Put a blue link on the top and bottom of every email, that’s where they click most.
- Send messages every 3 days after the first week if you can, that way the day it arrives differs. DO NOT send every day, in tests this has proven to burn people out and get them to remove you…after all, you want to gently nudge them, not try to make it an every day experience!
Here’s the info graphic outline a process; while I’ve used Silver Investor as the model, they may change/adapt this structure to their own needs, as should you.
Let me know your questions about using email this way…if you have sophisticated systems you can even set up triggers so that one email sequence leads to another, but for most this simple model will help you in getting people to remember what you offer.
Let me know what questions you have about this model, or email in general…glad to share some insights.
