Don’t leave your new subscribers hanging

Developing a relationship with new customers or newsletter subscribers is really important if you want to keep these people engaged with your business.

If you’ve got a great online marketing system set-up you’d no doubt have a lead magnet on your website, which is also known as a ‘freebie’ or an ‘opt-in offer’. This lead magnet is a valuable piece of content you provide to someone in exchange for their email address. You want their email so you can communicate with them further and that usually involves adding them to your e-newsletter list.

But that’s not all you can do with their email address.

To make the most of this new subscriber, who is a potential customer too, you need to nurture this relationship at the start and one way to do that is to employ an email autoresponder series.

If you wait to contact your subscribers until you’ve got a new blog post or your e-newsletter ready, your new prospect may have forgotten all about you.

The autoresponder is a series of email content that gets delivered each time a new subscriber joins your email list. It goes out in a specific sequence on certain pre-determined dates. This sequence is delivered over time with the aim of developing greater engagement with your subscribers.

There are many advantages to email marketing some of which are outlined in this article but the three main reasons  are that it’s low cost, fairly straight-forward and easy to track.

The series can take many forms but is designed to acknowledge the new subscriber after they’ve opted in for your freebie, share some more valuable content with them and share more about your products or services and maybe even make a special offer to them.

 

Here’s one example:

Email no. 1: Say ‘hi’, thank them for subscribing and share where they can learn more about you online whether that’s your website or social media

Email no. 2: Offer a big benefit for subscribing: it could be that there is content you only share on email or you may include a special promotion

Email no. 3: Share a customer success story – this is a great way for them to start to consider how you could help them too

Email no. 4: Outline some information related to your product or service

Email no. 5: Give your subscriber another benefit of using your product

Email no. 6: Make an offer – it could be a special price on a personal consultation

Email no. 7: Make the same offer again but in a different way

That autoresponder series is just one example of how you can communicate with new subscribers. The main thing to remember is to write your emails in a personalised way and always aim to add value before you ask for the sale.

One such company that uses an autoresponder to stay in touch with customers is cleaning company Electrodry. I had my carpets cleaned 12 months ago and since then I’ve received automated info on how to take care of the carpet but also friendly reminders about when I should next get a professional clean.

The goal of an effective email series is for the subscriber to get to know, like and trust you and therefore be open to offers from you and your business. Also, be sure to show your database how you can offer solutions either via products or services to their problems.

To prove that any business can use an autoresponder, I came across Kelso Lawyers who are using an email series. Kelso’s was keen to build its ‘know, like and trust’ factor because the firm specialises in representing victims of abuse. So it’s autoresponder aimed to educate subscribers on the work they do and what’s involved.

Autoresponders can be set up in nearly all email-marketing systems from low-cost services like MailChimp and Aweber to high-end facilities such as Infusionsoft.

Scott Evans is a small business owner with an interest in digital marketing and social media.