How to slow sell...

Are you training them to click links along the way? Link to useful, free information. Track your open rates and clicks.

You'll want to make an offer at some point in your funnel before the open and click through rates begin an inevitable (usually) decline.

In some ways, your approach reminds me of Frank Kern's method. He keeps readers opening with very entertaining and informative content. The emails create curiosity in an interesting way, but they must click to get the most important information--usually in the form of a video.

Greg

great idea, I will turn some of my emails into videos and then direct them to that click early on.

A very effective model Kern labeled
"The Triangle of Trust"...

Send a short, catchy email with outbound link to:
==> Your own blog with details/video & link to:
==> The offer your email and blog post are promoting...

The short email is just enough to capture attention
and get the intended action - a click through.

The blog post/video fills in the details and does the job
of preselling/positioning the offer you're promoting.

BONUS: Comments on the blog can help turbocharge the
interest in the offer by providing social proof and additional
details about the offer.

Think of the blog as an EXTENSION of your autoresponder,
not necessarily a "blog" per se. It can be one you set up
specifically for the purposes of driving A/R traffic there so
you can "fill in the blanks", so to speak.

Over time, you will condition those on your list to click on
damn near anything you link to.

They'll understand that they'll get all the details on the blog.

You'll also get the added benefit of folks adding your blog
to their RSS feedreaders and reach them outside of their
email that way.

All good and no extra work, really.

The potential downside is that there's an intermediary step
involved - the blog. Any time you insert an extra step in
the marketing process you stand to lose people. IME, the
added juice you get from the method makes it more of a
qualifying action than an "extra step".

Your mileage may vary. See instructions for details.

Talk to your doctor before engaging in advanced email marketing...

; )

Good luck,
Brian

Have a look at these 26 free videos of Chris Farrell. He talks about setting up auto-responders and other neat tricks. ChrisFarrellMembership.com

Frank Kern is certainly the master at giving great information without charging for it. I love his soft sell. I also get a kick out of his image as a surfer but his life as a work a holic.

I really like the comment about teaching your email readers to click on links to get the information. Trained to click by the best.

Thanks