You’ve got a list, but how do you stay connected to those people who may have signed up to your list months or even years ago.
Typically, people get on your list because they:
- Have met you and liked what you had to say
- Signed up for your freebie (lead magnet)
- Been on one of your events
- Are in a network with permission to add contacts to your list
So how do you ensure that they don’t forget you altogether?
The question is what is the point of having a list? Realistically, your list is part of your marketing collateral. Hopefully, the people on it have signed up because they’re interested in what you do and, potentially, are future clients.
That means your job is to keep them engaged, give them content that keeps them interested and ready for more. When they’re ready to buy they won’t have far to look!
This is where an autoresponder is worth its weight in gold. Instead of trying to respond individually to everyone who signs up and communicate appropriately with them, you just set up a series of messages that are automatically delivered starting from the date they sign up – for as long as you want.
You’ll need an account with one of the email marketing platforms like AWeber.com (they’ve just launched a free account for up to 500 contacts), MailChimp.com (paid version only), ConstantContact.com, SendFox.com, GetResponse.com, etc. Then you’ll need to write your messages to upload (or have someone write them for you).
Say I sign up to your list today – L-Day! Your autoresponder would be set up to send me a welcome message that would refer to how I got on the list and give me a thumbnail of the kind of content I can expect to get in future.
L-Day + 5 Then you might send me another message after a few days asking if I’ve read your free download, maybe offering a tip or more information around that subject.
L-Day + 14 A week or so later you might then invite me to like your Facebook or LinkedIn company Page and ask if I’ll write what I thought of the free download.
L-Day + 25 Time to send me an invitation to join your LinkedIn or Facebook group.
L-Day + 35 Case study – told in a conversational style e.g. ‘Have you ever had this problem? One of my clients (or better still, give them a name, not their real one i.e. ‘Jane was totally frustrated as she kept …) suffered …’ etc. etc. Tell the story, explain how you worked together to solve the problem – don’t forget to outline the results and how the client felt. Then the call to action … who do you know who is going through this right now?
Then ‘rinse and repeat’.
These can all be scheduled so, regardless of the date a person lands on your list, they get the messages in the same order and at the same timeframe.
Do it once and it will carry on as long as you want it to.
