How Do You Write a Good E-Mail Series?

Somebody asked me recently about how to write effective autoresponder copy. In case you don't know the term, autoresponders are emails that go out in a pre-defined sequence. You might send 10 each a day apart, or 3 days apart. They are different from newsletters because autoresponders are a set-and-forget thing (in theory) while publishing newsletters requires ongoing work to remain current and topical.

The basic question was "How do I write effective sequential emails for autoresponders?"

And my pithy answer was: "My opinion is there is no easy formula in today's marketplace. You have to understand the prospect's pain and aspirations and show you can help him end the pain and realize the aspirations.

Psychologically, it's complicated.

To grasp that you need to understand your prospect's vulnerabilities and desires is a simple thing. To take that simple understanding and turn it into material that brings in the orders is not.

Well, let's say it can be simple to understand what you want to achieve, but trickier to implement than you would hope.

Readership to emails generally falls off as they get 'em from you. That's expected. All the more reason to write stuff that's a lot more interesting than the other guys sending emails.

That's challenge #1 = be more interesting than the other marketers competing for your prospect's attention.

The longer people read your (interesting) communications the more they'll bond with you and want to trust you.

The catch of the situation is those "long tail" readers are a lot smaller in numbers than the "short tail" readers.

Neither group likes to be pressured to buy.

My opinion around this stuff is that people are either ready to buy "right now" - in the next 48 hours and will be making a decision and taking action... so you have to give these people a tangible reason to respond to your offer, right now.

They are a minority though.

The next group will probably make a decision in the next week. They are still in the information gathering stage but they are getting weary of it and want to move into group one. You need to support their needs for reassurance that your product should be on their short list.

The third group is the trickiest of all because they didn't subscribe because they were looking to buy at all. They may buy someday, but their interest was more general curiosity or maybe some shiny bauble (ie. video) in your window caught their eye.

This group will NOT buy anytime soon. But they WILL sometimes remain subscribed and if the stuff you send out is good you can sell them eventually. The main thing is to continuously ask them to re-engage with you - but you cannot be boring about it or appear to be highly repetitive.

The maddening thing is that while the biggest group is the third group by a long shot (unless you put barriers-to-list-entry in place: ie. requiring a purchase to receive emails from you) they are also the trickiest to sell.

Eventually, if you nurture a large list composed mostly of 3rd-groupers you'll have a valuable asset for affiliate marketing.

In the IM niche however, you'll notice the big launches focus on rapid list-building to capture people in phases 1 and 2. That's because this is where the fast cash is, but not the long-term loyal subscribers.