Autoresponders are seriously under-used. So many people miss opportunities to keep people who have already shown interest engaged and lose potential subscribers.
If you don’t know what an autoresponder is – it’s simply a series of emails that are triggered by an opt-in form and are sent out at the intervals you set, this could be daily or at irregular intervals as you wish.
There are so many ways to build loyal subscribers who love getting your communications and may even, eventually, buy. These are just a few ways you could use an autoresponder:
1: Post-training follow up
If you’ve run a training event, you want people to use what they’ve learned from you, but as you probably know, ‘life’ gets in the way and even the best-intentions fizzle out. You need them to take action as soon as possible to get the most benefit from what they’ve learned so ensure you give them reminders.
The day after the event thank them for attending and remind them to put their action list together, then a day later suggest they transfer time to take action into their diaries. You can remind them of key points over the next days and weeks to job their memories.
People who have put your teaching into action are much more likely to recommend others to attend the training.
2: Post webinar
If you have run an online webinar to promote something, some people will have signed up to buy whatever you’re promoting, but many won’t, it’s the law of averages.
Instead of letting those people slip through the net, add them to an autoresponder series that expands on the points you made during the webinar and gives them enough information to start taking action.
Clearly you won’t give away the in-depth stuff people will get when they pay for it, but most of us have plenty of basic level good practice advice that we can share.
A short ‘how to’ email every few days with the revised offer from your webinar will get a few more sign ups. Some people just need to think about things for a bit! Those that don’t buy will still be on your list and getting great quality information – some may become customers in a few months or even longer. Without the engagement they’d forget you!
3: Free short course
If you are often asked ‘how do you do that?’ by networking connections and social media friends, you could have a short course. Could you break down something you do into 5 or 7 bite-sized steps?
Create a course and use it to both grow your list and build great relationships with people who want more.
4: Tips
Create a series of tips – this could be a one-week series My 7 top tips on X or a weekly tip that goes out on the same day each week, or a month (30 days) of useful ideas relating to your area of expertise.
Clearly you will need to create the material – but this kind of email doesn’t have to be long, in fact, the shorter the better. People are more likely to read it.
5: eCourse
This may seem to be the same as #3, but this could be something in much more depth – and paid for. Get people to subscribe and set up your autoresponders to deliver the modules at specified points in their subscription.
For instance, someone might pay £10 a month and receive a module every two weeks.
You could offer the basic course and a version with feedback as a limited offer – a much higher cost (as you’ll need to invest time) and add rarity value by only have 5 places available for the coached version.
6: Promotion
If you’ve got a special offer, the launch of a new product or service or something seasonal you want to promote, set up a series of emails maybe to go out on day 1, day 4, day 10, day 18 and day 25. Then let the autoresponder do the work once you’ve hit the ‘go’ button.
7: Combinations
You could combine some of these. For instance, if you offer a free download on your website, you could funnel opt-ins to not only get the freebie, but also get your tips series as a bonus. You can also give them your free short course too.
Be creative, you can be making sales while you sleep!
