This is part three of my email marketing guide for bloggers. If you missed part one or two, you can read it here and here. In part three, I’m going to discuss the most important part of email marketing – the auto responder.
As the name implies, the auto responder sends out automatic replies to people who subscribe to your email list. Most bloggers make the mistake of not using any auto responders at all in their email marketing. Instead, they use their list to send out blog updates or additional “subscriber only” content. If that’s what you’re doing, then you’re missing out big time. The auto responder is how all the big email marketers make their money.
Setting Up The Auto Responder
When readers subscribe to my email list, they are sent a series of seven (soon to be nine) emails over the course of seven weeks. These emails are design to do three things.
- Build a relationship with the subscriber
- Promote my blog and brand
- Recommend products and services that help solve the reader’s problem
Setting up the auto responder is extremely easy (the hard part is writing the contents for it) and is no different than sending out a normal newsletter. If you’re using Aweber, all you have to do is click “Follow Up” in the Message tab. This will allow you to create a follow up message to be sent to your new subscriber at a later date. Aweber allows you to set up an unlimited number of auto responders.
If you check the screen shot above, you’ll see that my first auto responder email goes out the instant someone signs up to my list. The second follow up email out goes out four days after the first and the rest goes out in one week intervals until there are no more follow ups. If you want to see it in action, you can subscribe to my blog by entering your name and email.
Creating An Auto Responder Sales Funnel
For lack of a better description, an auto responder sales funnel is where you take subscribers on one end, split them out the other end and have them part with their money. I like to run my Auto Responder Sales Funnel as a series of progressive steps designed to solve the reader’s problem. The first email is designed to build trust and authority and doesn’t try to sell anything. Here’s a copy of the first email subscribers receive when they sign up to my blog.
Hello {!name}
I want to thank you for downloading my free eBook, Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com. I hope it helps you achieve your blogging goals. I started my blog back in December, 2005 and it was amazing watching the blog grow from making zero to making over $40,000 per month in just two short years.
How I achieved this is detailed in my eBook. However, if you have any questions, feel free to email me and I’ll try to help you in any way I can. You can also connect with me on the following social media sites.
Twitter: https://johnchow.com/twitter
Facebook: https://johnchow.com/facebook
FriendFeed: https://johnchow.com/friendfeed
Linkedin: https://johnchow.com/linkedin
YouTube: https://johnchow.com/youtube
Flickr: https://johnchow.com/flickrI hope to connect with you soon! Please visit https://johnchow.com for latest information on making money from blogging.
John Chow
PS – In case you haven’t download my free eBook yet, you can get it here:
https://johnchow.com/you need to subscribe to get it
Future emails carry the same type of tone are are designed to push the subscribes through the funnel so when they come out the other end, they have a solution their problem and I’ve been rewarded for helping them solved it. The auto responder sales funnel is the foundation of the blog’s backend sales system and is responsible for the majority of the blog’s income. The great thing about this is it’s fully automated and offers true passive income.
You should set up a series of five to ten emails to send to all new subscribers. Keep the three goals of building the relationship, promote your brand and recommend products that solve your reader’s problem in mind when writing the emails. Ideally, the recommended products and service should offer you an affiliate commission but that doesn’t always have to be the case. Recommending a product that you don’t make any money off can build more trust.
In order to maximum the income from your auto responder sales funnel, you have to test and keep testing. Little changes to the email copy can make a big difference. I review all my auto responder emails once a month to see if there’s anything I should add or subtract. The nice thing is, many subscribers reply to my auto responders and they provide valuable information on what I need to do to improve conversions.
If you have your email list set up with Aweber but haven’t created the auto responders yet, then you have your project for the next few days. If you don’t have a mailing list yet, then I recommend you head on over to Aweber and create one right now. Remember, the money is in the list!