Optimum emails in an autoresponder series

Arfasaira,

I use autoresponders extensively in my own marketing funnel. They go on either for one month (average of 15 messages) or two months (28-30 messages). Then I periodically "reawaken" the lists when I have an upcoming program to promote.

I do not get that many unsubscribes. More than 80% stay on the lists.

These are promoting high-priced courses ($797 - $1000) that people tend to have a long-term interest in. (Sometimes it takes people two years to decide to go ahead and buy.) Maybe the unsubscribe rate would be a lot higher if the topic were a more casual one.

But in general your feeling that "11 was a bit much" doesn't mean anything. This is something experienced marketers learn to ignore. You're simply imagining yourself in the place of the customers without any basis!

Marcia Yudkin

Arfa,

I have been studying Autoresponder emails for several months and have Jay White's course.

He recommends 7 emails in a series and a soft sell mention of the product in every email and and harder sell later in the series.

In the last week I was reading some research that gave the actual buy rate of each email of a seven emails series. The top percentage was on email #5.

I will look back at what I have accumulated and send you a PM.

M E

Hi Arfa

I wouldn't classify myself as an experienced warrior, but you might want to check out Glenn Allsopp's Cloud Blueprint course (it's free!) It's about email blogging and how you can set up a sales funnel around a niche. Very briefly, he advocates a longer series of emails for promoting digital products, which is:

5 emails with helpful tips, not selling anything.
Launch email for a $7 product.
Follow-up email, with a case study of someone using the product.
8 emails with helpful tips, not selling anything.
Launch email for a $27/$37 product.
Follow-up email, with testimonials.
11 emails with tips, no selling at all.
Launch email for a $67 product or $37 membership site
Follow-up email, with a scarcity warning.

The theory behind this method is that you've got more time to build up trust with your audience, and they're much more likely to buy from you, if they've received valuable content in the past.

I appreciate that this might not be exactly what you're looking for, but it could give you some ideas and the only cost will be your time.

Lizzie

Arfa, my thinking on optimum emails to a list is daily.

Here's a whole list of people doing it...

Early To Rise
Matt Furey
Eban Pagan
Ken McCarthy
Ben Settle
Alex over at Vin Di Carlo
Glazer Kennedy

What happens to the marketer is that they put to much pressure
on themselves by thinking they have to make the sale from one sales letter,
x number of emails.

Often this pressure shows in the content and copy going out.

Results in the reader seeing through it and won't buy.

There are two sides of business and we all make the choice...

#1 Deal in transactions

#2 Build long term business relationships.

Back to your situation, with the clients you love to work with,
see if you can set up an affiliate payment system and then email daily for them.

Since joining up with product owners has been talked about recently,
here's your ideal chance to trial it.

I know one writer of daily emails gets a percentage of all the sales
from his writing.

I've been offered them too.

It seems a win win situation.

The product owner gets a dedicated person on her team
who is continually testing and tweaking new approaches
to emails as well as all sales methods.

Just like Clayton talks about in the article you shared with us.

You agree to never write for your client/partners competitor.

Once you get a few of these set up,
you'll never have to go looking for clients again.

You can start with these smaller ones and
work your way up to the big health mailers you wanted to go after.

Still writing emails for them.

Subscribing to Ben Settle, Vin Di Carlo and Anita Ashland
will have you seeing how they turn out engaging emails while
sending the reader to an offer page every time.

They all slip in an offer at the end of the email everyday,
right from beginning sign up.

Just don't make it a jolt in the transition.

Best,
Ewen

Here's a direct quote from my course: "Secrets of Writing Winning
Autoresponder Series."

The Macro Structure of the AR Series

When I am faced with a new AR series the question that I’m
immediately confronted with is what do I say in the first email,
then the second, then the third? … You get the idea. You can
quickly run out of ideas if you don’t have a ‘macro structure’ in
mind.

My favorite macro structure is based on the idea behind
collection letter series.

Collection companies have the enviable job of collecting on
accounts that are past due. The first letter you receive, if you
are in that unfortunate position, is a kind letter with a ‘by the
way’ reminder that you have 30 days to pay your delinquent bill
or send in a legitimate explanation why you think you don’t owe
the bill.

The following letters then become tougher with the very last
throwing the kitchen sink at you before they finally give up and
write off your account—if you live in the US—and report your
account to a credit reporting bureau.

As the copywriter for the AR series I see myself as collecting on
the sale and I follow a similar soft-sell to hard-sell
progression through the email series. The AR series would
consist of 7-10 emails and follow this general CONTENT pattern:

Letter 1 – Thank you for sending for the report /more
information, here’s the link.

Letter 2 – Hope you got the report; here are some reasons why
you’ll want my product.

Letter 3 – Here are some questions people are ASKING about my
product. (FAQ)

Letter 4 – Here are what people are SAYING about my product.
(Testimonials.)

Letter 5 – Here are some of the strongest BENEFITS to getting my
product. (Limited Offer)

Letter 6 – Time is running out on the special BONUS. How I beat
the competition.

Letter 7 – What’s keeping you back from ordering? Knock down
objections.

Letter 8 – Other people who ordered are already enjoying the
benefits, don’t lose out.

Letter 9 – Here’s a LIMITED offer—price reduction, sneak preview,
secret link etc.

Letter 10 – Frankly I’m puzzled that you haven’t ordered yet.
Final hard sell.

Hope this helps,

Ray Edwards

I cannot remember where I heard this (I think it was Dan Kennedy) but worrying too much about how many emails to send your list can prevent real profits. You can look at it this way...there is no set limit for any amount of emails.

You keep emailing people until they...

A. buy your product or take an action you want them to take
B. unsubscribe from your list.

Other than those two things, anybody on your list is useless. And I don't mean that in a derogatory way towards your list, but there is no point in having somebody on your list if they aren't doing anything. So keep emailing.

Now, finding the right amount of time between emails may be trickier, but as I have read here...some people email their lists every day.

I tend to see it too much from the customer / lead point of view and worry about too many emails pissing them off, BUT...

If you are giving good content along with a pitch at some point, and they have obviously opted in to your list, then there shouldnt be a problem. If people don't like the amount of emails or the frequency, they will unsubscribe.

I think it comes down to treating the list properly as far as content, but amount of contact is overblown. I could be wrong, but this theory has changed how I do my email marketing and it seems to work fine.