Tag: autoresponder advice

Four Things You Could Do When A Customer Buys From You

Patrick Griffin Leave a comment

Customer sales strategy

Customer sales strategy: Congratulations…your customers are buying your goods or services.

It is a nice feeling when a complete stranger decides that what you have to offer is worth paying hard cash for.

But don’t be too pleased with yourself just yet.

Maybe they want to buy some more and are waiting for you to tell them what else you have to offer.

Well your RocketResponder email series can do just that.

Here are four things you should consider informing your customers about when they have just bought something from you:

  1. An upsell – They have gone ahead and bought your basic service and that is good. But take the opportunity of informing them of all they are missing out on by not taking the next higher level and provide them with that opportunity to pay and upgrade right now.
  2. A bonus…just because you can – People love to get something for nothing. Maybe someone has bought a three month subscription from you…then say as a special bonus you will offer them four. Or offer them something else – maybe a month’s free access to a related product or service you provide.
  3. A discount on future purchases – The customer has just bought something so they are in the buying mode. Take advantage of this and suggest other things they could buy from you. Then offer a time sensitive discount to encourage them to do so – e.g. “If you buy “x,” “y,” or “z” within the next 48 hours you can take an additional “x” per cent off with this discount code.
  4. Ask for feedback – Customer feedback is invaluable as it can tell you what you are doing well and where you need to improve. Good feedback can also be used as testimonials to attract other customers.

 

 

Five Types of Autoresponder Email Series

Patrick Griffin Leave a comment

Autoresponder Email SeriesAutoresponder Email Series: One of the purposes of these blog posts is to encourage RocketResponder users to really think about how they use email communication.

We want you to think about how you use your email to communicate with your subscribers or customers.

For example we recently covered why you want to send emails when people join your list and went on to discuss the types of things you might say in an email series.

However did you realize that there are several different types of email series such as there are different breeds of cats or dogs?

Here are some that I have noticed:

  1. In your face – I have called this ‘In your face’ because it is pretty blunt and to the point. Here you promote a product and link to a sales page. You might do a short series of emails all promoting different aspects of the same product and link to a sales page each time. If you use this then be careful that you don’t just promote one affiliate product after another as people will think you have no focus at all and think you just want to get affiliate commissions at any cost. This is most effective if you are getting behind one product or service (especially if you use it yourself) and want to show others why you feel it is so beneficial.
  2. Reel ’em in slowly – This is a more ‘softly softly’ version of the previous method. You might still be promoting the same products or services but this time your approach is more subtle. So instead of even trying to sell from the start you might write two or three emails explaining your frustrations with a common problem people in your niche need to solve. Then the next email can tell how you use a certain product or service to solve that problem and only at that point do you link to the sales page.
  3. Show the real you – This would be a series that nobody else could copy. There is no real agenda here as each email is not leading up to anything in particular such as working towards a sale. You might give information about products or services, chat about your life, write about milestone events or talk about how you overcame problems. People will either love this or hate it. If they love it then the “know, like and trust” factor will be extremely strong with your subscribers and when you do recommend products or services they are likely to be extremely receptive indeed.
  4. Give and take – Just because you are sending out emails to a list, an autoresponder series need not be a one way street. Many people are content to just talk and talk to their subscribers but you can also ask for their thoughts, views and opinions as well. If you blog ask your subscribers what sort of content they would like to see, or whether they like video blogging or what they think of the products you promote or own.
  5. Mix and match – You don’t have to stick to one type of series. Mix and match from the ones above as seems appropriate. Remember there are no hard and fast rules. How you communicate with your list is entirely a matter for you.

Do you have a different approach? We would love to hear about what works for you so feel free to leave a comment below.

 

 

The Top Five Things To Tell Your New Subscribers

Patrick Griffin 4 Comments

new email subscribers

Dealing with new email subscribers: Imagine you invite someone into your home for the first time.

What might they think if you ushered them into your front room, invited them to sit down and then left them alone to twiddle their thumbs while you went to your office or study to work?

Well they would begin to feel:

  • uncomfortable
  • ill at ease
  • unwanted and
  • be left wondering why they ever accepted your invitation in the first place.

It is exactly the same situation if someone signs up to your RocketResponder list and you don’t immediately send them a welcome email.

They are in your front room so go ahead and talk to them to make them feel wanted, special and loved.

Your “welcome” email should be sent out immediately anyone joins your list and it should contain the following information:

  1. An introduction – say “hello” to the new subscriber by introducing yourself and briefly introducing your business. You want to give the main headlines here and not the whole company back story.
  2. Points of contact – tell your new subscriber how they can contact you. Phone, email, toll-free number, Twitter, Skype, FaceBook, support ticket are just some examples. You choose how accessible you want to be but seriously consider giving your customers multiple ways to connect with you.
  3. Set a schedule – If you are smart you will have an initial follow up email series set up so you can say something like: “Over the next few days/weeks/months you will be hearing from me every “x” days or so so look out for those emails. I have lined up some great free tips for you. You are going to love it.” Obviously you don’t have to say exactly that, just give them an idea of what is coming up.
  4. Anticipate problems – When people are new to something they get confused, make mistakes or just want some help quickly. So if you have a website with a FAQ page you could point them to that or give them your preferred method of contact to get their query answered quickly.
  5. Keep it short – Just say what you need to say and keep it at that. Remember you could have this subscriber for months or even years, so you have plenty of time to establish a dialogue with them. Don’t bombard them with information on the welcome email. Remember it is a welcome email so simply make them feel welcome and then stop writing.

 

 

Time To Become The Teacher

Patrick Griffin 2 Comments

Email marketing techniques

Email marketing techniques: Some people, far too many people, use their autoresponder as nothing more than a selling tool…but this is a huge mistake.

We all love buying stuff but we hate it when we are told over and over again: “Buy my stuff. Go on buy my stuff now. Buy it.”

Yes of course use RocketResponder to sell more items to your customers – that is a vital part of any business. Repeat custom should be one of your main goals but use your autoresponder to do much more than sell.

So what else can you do…well it is time to become the teacher and here’s how:

  • If you own your own program or programs – in theory you should know more about your own products than anybody else so why not compose a short series of, say six, emails giving some cool tips and tricks on getting the most out of your programs.
  • If you are an affiliate – make sure you know the program or programs you promote in depth and do the same email series as described above.
  • You have an offline business – an autoresponder can be a dream come true to you. You can use an email series to promote your hottest sellers or a new range you have just got in. Again don’t just go for the “buy my stuff” approach but educate, inform and excite your subscribers about the items you are describing.
  • Build up hype – whether you are online or offline you can build up hype and excitement for a new program you are launching or a hot new product that will be coming soon. Tell people how the product can transform some aspect of their lives, how it will benefit them and why they can’t miss out on getting their hands on it
  • Offer support – so you know that a certain program or product comes with a learning curve and that the same questions crop up time and time again? Answer these questions in a series of autoresponder messages for your customers and they will think you are reading their minds. Awesome.

Have fun with your autoresponder and use it to let your subscribers know that you care about them and don’t just want their money. That way everybody wins.

Oops I Think I Might Have Forgotten Something Important

Patrick Griffin 13 Comments

Marketing email mistakes

Marketing email mistakes: Recently I heard about a large internet-based company which sent out an email to its members with the subject line: “Insert Your Subject Here.”

Perhaps it was a deliberate marketing ploy – I heard, via social media sites, that this particular email received an impressive open rate.

However it is far more likely that it was one of those simple, old-fashioned mistakes that we tend to make from time to time.

It is similar to sending an email with an attachment you want people to open and then forgetting to attach the file before pressing send. (As a complete aside, to prevent this from happening I always make a point of uploading any attachments first and then writing my email.)

However it is easy to have some urgent or important news that you want to get out so quickly that you hurry to send out the email without checking it over first.

And that is when you can totally forget to add the subject line.

So take your time and get things right. Remember that with RocketResponder you have the opportunity to send any new email to yourself first before you send it to your list.

Take advantage of this feature. It is far better to have your mistake broadcast only to you rather than your entire list. Now simply edit out the mistake and send the amended email out to your subscribers.