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Auto Responder Question

by Allivad
7 replies
Hi guys,

first post here. I've been lurking and reading so many threads about IM here that my brain is starting to hurt. No worries though, I learnt so much from this forum - so I thank you.

At this point I want to make email list-building my top priority, and I think I'm going to go with article marketing later. I'm pretty sure I know where to start, but I'm a little bit confused when it comes to email autoresponder part - so here are a few noob questions from me:
  1. What does it actually mean when someone says (for example), '30-days autoresponder campaign / series'? And what's going to happen / what to do next when that campaign is over?
  2. Some warriors often say something about 'recycling' autoresponder series. Wouldn't this mean that the first subscribers from the list will be getting the exact same emails they have received before?
  3. When an IMer says that he / she is building trust and providing value to his / her subscribers through emails, does it mean 'through email autoresponder series exclusively'?

Hope these questions make sense. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
#auto #question #responder
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Allivad View Post

    What does it actually mean when someone says (for example), '30-days autoresponder campaign / series'?
    It means they have only 30 days'-worth of emails in their whole autoresponder series.

    Originally Posted by Allivad View Post

    And what's going to happen / what to do next when that campaign is over?
    The people who do email marketing like that possibly have no measurable open-rate after their first 30 days anyway, so it doesn't matter to them?

    Be careful by whom you choose to be guided.

    Originally Posted by Allivad View Post

    Some warriors often say something about 'recycling' autoresponder series. Wouldn't this mean that the first subscribers from the list will be getting the exact same emails they have received before?
    Probably. But if all they're sending out is spammy promotions in every email, what difference does it make?

    Originally Posted by Allivad View Post

    When an IMer says that he / she is building trust and providing value to his / her subscribers through emails, does it mean 'through email autoresponder series exclusively'?
    Do you mean "as opposed to a mixture of that and broadcasts", or what? You'd have to ask them, anyway.

    Originally Posted by Allivad View Post

    Any help would be much appreciated.
    Now you're talking.

    Here are six links which - between them - cover most of the fundamentals of "monetizing email marketing" and ought (at least) to get you oriented enough to be able to ask some more specific questions ...

    What are the essential things to know about list building?

    Lists: How Long to Presell - Averages

    Website or squeeze page

    Where to get reports to give away on opt in page?

    Autoresponders vs. Broadcasts

    Sick of Emails Not Being Opened?


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    • Profile picture of the author Allivad
      Hi Alexa,

      thank you so much for your advice! Reading through all the threads you mentioned, I definitely learnt so much about list building and email marketing.

      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      It means they have only 30 days'-worth of emails in their whole autoresponder series.

      The people who do email marketing like that possibly have no measurable open-rate after their first 30 days anyway, so it doesn't matter to them?

      Be careful by whom you choose to be guided.
      I know - that's why I have to ask these stupid questions. Glad you were the first to answer, I really look up to you. Already bookmarked so many of your valuable posts for future reference.

      As I understand it (from reading your older posts), you have at least 200 emails in your autoresponder series for one of your niche - does this mean you never 'recycle' your emails and your subscribers always receive fresh email contents from you? So whenever you write follow up emails for your subscribers, you just add these new emails to the existing autoresponder series, making them even bigger series (in terms of email counts) as you go? This would mean a new subscriber on your list won't receive your 188th email within weeks, or even months, from the day he/she subscribed, is this correct?

      Sorry for these confusing questions, and I hope they make sense to you. Sometimes it's really hard for me to get my message across (language barrier and all).

      Thanks again, really appreciate your taking time to share your wisdom!
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Allivad View Post

        that's why I have to ask these stupid questions.
        They're far from stupid.

        Originally Posted by Allivad View Post

        As I understand it (from reading your older posts), you have at least 200 emails in your autoresponder series for one of your niche - does this mean you never 'recycle' your emails and your subscribers always receive fresh email contents from you?
        Yes - this is a kind of "extreme and unusual case", though. A couple of my niches I've been involved with consistently for over 6 years, now. Being an article marketer, I continue to write a couple of new articles per month for each niche (because widespread syndication of articles is my main traffic-generation method). Since I have the articles anyway, it's not much more effort for me to create a couple more autoresponder emails out of each article, and that's another 4-5 articles per month already done. So it costs me nothing to add them on the end of the series, and I do benefit from them. But I'm not for a moment suggesting that this is a constituent part of "normal email marketing". It just happens to suit me. I imagine very few people do that.

        I do think it's better, though, generally, to "keep the autoresponder series going" if the open-rate justifies it. There's no downside and some income, if you have enough different things to promote.

        I don't recycle "whole emails", but in some of my longer series, there's certainly some re-cycled information later on. I prefer to do that than "just stop sending emails". It doesn't make much sense to "just stop" if people are actually reading them.

        Originally Posted by Allivad View Post

        This would mean a new subscriber on your list won't receive your 188th email within weeks, or even months, from the day he/she subscribed, is this correct?
        It is; yes.

        Originally Posted by Allivad View Post

        Sorry for these confusing questions, and I hope they make sense to you.
        They do ... I hope one or two of my own "emailing habits" you've seen mentioned in other threads don't necessarily come across as "normal"/"essential", though. Mine suit my own traffic demographics.

        Originally Posted by Allivad View Post

        (language barrier and all).
        I hadn't realised: your English looks as good as anyone's?


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        • Profile picture of the author Allivad
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          They do ... I hope one or two of my own "emailing habits" you've seen mentioned in other threads don't necessarily come across as "normal"/"essential", though. Mine suit my own traffic demographics.
          Now I can't help but wonder... how does a "normal" marketer usually do his / her email (autoresponder) habits... really curious.

          Thank you again for your thorough explanation, Alexa. Now everything is crystal clear to me. Will start working on my niche ideas, set some goals and start taking action.

          Cheers,
          Allivad
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          • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
            Banned
            Originally Posted by Allivad View Post

            Now I can't help but wonder... how does a "normal" marketer usually do his / her email (autoresponder) habits... really curious.
            LOL ... I think "most people" probably send email a little more frequently than I do, and promote a little more often than I do. And for their traffic demographics, of course, they may be right to do so.

            I also strongly suspect that many people monitor the success of their opt-in processes according to subscriber numbers rather than according to money in the bank. About this, I feel pretty sure they are mistaken, because "the biggest list you can build from the traffic" and "the most income-producing list you can build from the traffic" are almost never going to be the same thing. There are reasons for that, and I think at least some of them are pretty much reliable, reproducible and valid across the board.

            It's not trivially easy to split-test a lot of these things, actually.

            My aim/target, in all my niches, is for 50% of my subscribers to buy one or more ClickBank products through my hoplinks at some point during the email series they receive from me (also not trivially easy to measure, as an affiliate - and I don't always quite achieve it, I'm sure, in every niche.)

            Good luck!

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            • Profile picture of the author Allivad
              Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

              LOL ... I think "most people" probably send email a little more frequently than I do, and promote a little more often than I do. And for their traffic demographics, of course, they may be right to do so.

              I also strongly suspect that many people monitor the success of their opt-in processes according to subscriber numbers rather than according to money in the bank. About this, I feel pretty sure they are mistaken, because "the biggest list you can build from the traffic" and "the most income-producing list you can build from the traffic" are almost never going to be the same thing. There are reasons for that, and I think at least some of them are pretty much reliable, reproducible and valid across the board.
              Haha..., at this point I just want to be a little bit more realistic and just be happy if I can get a few people subscribe to my list. I'm not even going to sell them anything (yet) until at least I have 200 of them on the list. Once I achieve that, I will start doing experiments and gather data.

              Originally Posted by discrat View Post

              After 30 ,you can go back and choose which ones were the best with Open rates, Conversions etc..etc..
              and then Recycle.

              As far as people remembering ? Well, if you send out 30 follow ups 3 times a week, the initial Subs will not get any dup. emails until 10 weeks down the road.

              Hell, I cannot even remember what some of the people I subscribe to sent me last week let alone 2.5 months
              ago. LOL

              It is a non issue.

              If you have quality follow ups with good content then a Sub seeing it a second time will only benefit from it and get their memories refreshed !!
              Hi Robert, thanks for taking the time to share your insight. Glad to hear another take on this. I guess it totally makes sense, and the 'email recycling' doesn't sound all that bad now - as long as we always provide good value / content for our subscribers.

              Cheers,
              Allivad
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  • Profile picture of the author discrat
    Originally Posted by Allivad View Post

    [*]Some warriors often say something about 'recycling' autoresponder series. Wouldn't this mean that the first subscribers from the list will be getting the exact same emails they have received before?
    You can construct a foundation of 30 super tight and high quality email follow ups.

    After 30 ,you can go back and choose which ones were the best with Open rates, Conversions etc..etc..
    and then Recycle.

    As far as people remembering ? Well, if you send out 30 follow ups 3 times a week, the initial Subs will not get any dup. emails until 10 weeks down the road.

    Hell, I cannot even remember what some of the people I subscribe to sent me last week let alone 2.5 months
    ago. LOL

    It is a non issue.

    If you have quality follow ups with good content then a Sub seeing it a second time will only benefit from it and get their memories refreshed !!


    - Robert Andrew
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