A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating an Autoresponder That Subscribers Can’t Wait to Open

Email autoresponders are the holy grail of marketing. You set up a sequence of emails once and you’re done. Thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of people will get exactly the same emails from you, in the same order. This allows you to create an unbelievably consistent level of service.

Perhaps the most underrated benefit of autoresponders is that they exist within email marketing, the most profitable channel of marketing.

Capterra found that every one dollar spent on email marketing resulted in $44.25 of revenue. So, not only can autoresponders save you a lot of time, but they can also be extremely effective in driving profit for your business.

Of course, there are two sides to everything and autoresponders are no exception: they have some limitations. If you don’t understand these limitations and take appropriate action, you will end up with autoresponders that suck. Remember that an autoresponder is just a tool. It’s how you use it that counts.

One marketer can achieve amazing long-term success with an autoresponder, while another will never make a sale. I want you to be in that first group.

If you follow the five steps in this post, you’ll be well on your way to efficient and effective communication with your email subscribers. 

How Does an Autoresponder Fit Into Your Business

As you might know, there are two main types of emails you can send with any email marketing platform:

• broadcasts
• autoresponders

Broadcast emails are written to your list and sent once at a particular time.

Autoresponders, on the other hand, are all automated. You create a sequence of emails to send to your subscribers after they sign up for a list.

The downside of using broadcasts to email your list is obvious: it takes time to create emails on a regular basis. Sometimes you should use broadcasts—typically for one-time, time-sensitive events and news. However, a few situations are perfect for autoresponders, and that’s what I’m going to focus on in this post.

Situation #1 – Introduce new subscribers to your content: In a distant past, any new subscriber you got already knew your content and loved it. They had to; otherwise, they would have never filled out a plain opt-in form.

But now, with the use of tactics like content upgrades, blog owners can double, triple, or even quadruple their opt-in rates. You offer an attractive free bonus in exchange for a reader’s email address. As a result, you get way more opt-ins.

This is great!

However, there’s a downside to this. A large portion of your subscribers have only read one or two pieces of content on your site. So while they might like you, they mainly signed up because of the free bonus. In other words, you don’t really have much of a relationship with them.

To fix this, you want to show them the absolute best content you’ve written over the years. Blow them away so they recognize the value you have to offer and let you start building a relationship.

Obviously, you don’t want to have to send each new subscriber an email of your best posts manually. And since you want to deliver it soon after they sign up, an autoresponder is perfect.

A great example of this is the email you receive from James Clear after you join his email list. He sends an email early on dedicated to his best articles:

Not only does he show his subscribers his best content, but he also organizes it by category so that the subscriber has the best chance of finding content they are most interested in.

Situation #2 – Create an automated sales funnel: Selling a product through an email sales funnel is a delicate process.

You need to consider the types of emails you send as well as their timing. With some launches, you have no choice but to send emails manually. If you open and close a course at specific times, you have to stick to broadcasts. However, if you’re selling a product or service continuously, you can build it right into your autoresponder (which is what I do at NeilPatel.com).

Situation #3 – Use it as a lead magnet course: In general, the more valuable the free bonus you offer to your new subscribers, the more likely they are to opt in.

The most valuable thing most bloggers could offer would be coaching or consulting help. But giving that away just isn’t viable. Not only would it take a ton of time, you’d sacrifice a lot of profit as well. However, with an autoresponder, you can provide a fairly good level of coaching or training and automate it.

Email courses are highly valued in many different niches. Assuming your course is actually good, you get one more benefit: you’ll “train” your subscribers to anticipate and open your emails.

Step 1: Understand the Four Factors That Affect Open Rate Over Time

Before even thinking about making any sales through email marketing and using autoresponders, you need to get your emails opened. There are many reasons subscribers might want to open your emails. Your name is an obvious one, but it is often messed up, even today.

If you write all the content on your site under your name, your subscribers expect (and want) to get emails from you. They don’t want to get emails from “support”, “customer service”, or someone else they don’t know.

People mainly open emails because of relationships, so always send your emails using a name they know. Beyond that, four other factors influence long-term open rates (which is what you should be aiming for).

Factor #1 – Enticing subject lines: In a typical email box, a user will see the subject line of an email and the sender.

In certain emails, they will also see the first line of the message, but it’s not as prominent. Obviously, the subject line matters a lot. Somewhere around 35% of email users will open emails based on the subject line alone.

So, how do you create a good email subject line?

First, make is short. Subject lines with 6 to 10 words get the highest open rate. This is mostly because most email inboxes only show about 10 words at the max before cutting off the rest of the subject line.

The second important part of a good subject line is that it induces some curiosity—it’s interesting. Here’s where many email marketers mess up.

They see that they can use certain tricks to get great open rates. For example, if you send an email with “(No subject)” as the subject line, it will get opened by nearly everyone. But that’s the wrong kind of curiosity.

With tricks like these, the reader opens your emails just to see what they are. Unless you have the most interesting, compelling content inside, the reader will feel tricked. Tricked readers are not happy ones and won’t be opening your emails much in the future. If you’re going to use tricks like these, use them very sparingly.

The alternative, and better, option is to send your readers valuable content they are interested in. If you’re on any of my email lists, you know I don’t get cute with subject lines. I simply put the name of the post or topic I’m writing about in the email:

Why?

For two main reasons. First, I know you’re already interested in the topics I’m writing about if you’re on my email list. As long as it’s clear that I’m writing about a relevant topic, emails will get opened.

Secondly, I’ve already spent a good amount of time crafting a powerful headline. Because of that, I know that the message will be clear, and there will be some sort of a curiosity gap built-in.

Getting emails opened is not about tricks.

Factor #2 – Your topic matters: Although you may want to send all your most popular posts at once, you can also spread them out over time. As we’ve discussed, sending information on interesting topics is the best way to build a relationship with your readers and get your emails opened now and in the future.

The best place to get the email ideas is from your most popular posts. Go to Google Analytics and navigate to “Behavior > Site Content > All Pages.

You’ll see a list of all your posts sorted by pageviews. Make sure you set the time period to at least the last year.

Use these top posts as your email content, or just give these links to your subscribers. You can be reasonably confident that they will enjoy them just as much as your past visitors did.

Factor #3 – Deliver on your promise: I’ve mentioned that you need to be building a relationship with your subscribers over time.

You need to prove that you can be trusted on an ongoing basis. As soon as you betray that trust by tricking your subscribers or not living up to your word, you destroy that trust and the relationship.

Source:http://www.searchenginejournal.com/step-step-guide-creating-autoresponder-subscribers-cant-wait-open/142976/