Email Marketing Gurus - How long is your follow up series?

11 replies
I've seen some expereinced IMers having like 60 follow up emails set up in advance, whereas other people say 7 follow ups is enough, then create the rest on the fly and mix them with promotions as you go along.

What approach did you find works best for you and why?

thank you
#email #follow #gurus #long #marketing #series
  • Profile picture of the author Romeo90
    I send my various lists about 4-5 a month on average - the most I have sent is 7 in one month actually. I don't exactly kill it, but there again, hardly anyone unsubscribes, and people trust me and I find they trust me a lot more than the shotgun approach I used to take (email every few days=unsubscribers!)

    Nothing worse than receiving mail after mail of affiliate links. I sign up to lists on here and am on lists from all the WSOs I purchase. First week, if I recieve too many, I'm straight to that 'unsubscribe' button.

    I also have a small system in place where I only 'hard sell' towards the end of a month, and at the beginning of a month - typically, that is when people receive their wage from any jobs they have.

    Between the 10th - 24th of each month, I only send valuable free resources, or emails that are not selling anything.

    Different approaches work for different marketers I guess. I prefer to keep a subscriber when I get them, that means not bombarding them.
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    • Profile picture of the author iknowhow
      Originally Posted by Romeo90 View Post

      I also have a small system in place where I only 'hard sell' towards the end of a month, and at the beginning of a month - typically, that is when people receive their wage from any jobs they have.
      That's a smart thing to do, I heard in US it also tends to be the end of the week, either friday or thursday.

      I totally agree with you on not overloading list with too much promo. The less is more here. Once a week seems just about the right speed for me.

      But I was asking about pre-made follow-ups - do you create & use them at all and if you do, how many?
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      • Profile picture of the author ShaneBoyd
        I only have mine set up for one week. There are two hard sells in that week and the rest is free stuff. I don't really like to build it out for a month or more really. I don't like sending two emails a day and that's what would happen if I was promoting a product.

        Once I had a sequence of around 45 days. It was unsuccessful. So I stopped that and only send out emails that are recent. My sales days are Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays and Fridays are free information days.

        Seems to work for me. But then again, I've conditioned my list to expect that.

        Best of luck.
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        • Profile picture of the author iknowhow
          Originally Posted by ShaneBoyd View Post

          I only have mine set up for one week. There are two hard sells in that week and the rest is free stuff.
          During that 1st week do you send them daily?

          I don't really like to build it out for a month or more really. I don't like sending two emails a day and that's what would happen if I was promoting a product.

          Originally Posted by ShaneBoyd View Post

          My sales days are Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays and Fridays are free information days.
          That's interesting, taking note of that
          I also heard that Thursdays tend to be high traffic days on forums, so maybe there is trend here...
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  • Profile picture of the author Yadira Barbosa
    I have at least 10 follow ups and I also use broadcast one a week.
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    • Profile picture of the author iknowhow
      Originally Posted by Yadira Barbosa View Post

      I have at least 10 follow ups and I also use broadcast one a week.
      10 follow ups spread over how many days?
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  • Profile picture of the author MaxPowers
    I stagger my follow-ups. The first set goes out as a series of articles on a general topic, generally every 3-4 days for the first month. After that, the focus drops off slightly, the marketing drops sharply, and the frequency scales way back. This can go on pre-programmed for a year on some lists. Just enough to keep them listening, not enough to chase them away.

    Occasionally, I send 'current events' broadcasts to the list when big news happens in the list community. This helps add 'freshness' from time to time.
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  • Profile picture of the author kevkos30
    I do an initial 10 follow up emails, spread out only 1-2 days each. Any more than 2 days and people will forget your stuff. Then I have 7 more emails going out with great content, usually spread out 2-3 days each. Other than that, I do a weekly newsletter, and and an occasional additional random email.

    It works very well for me. Most of my open rates are around 40-60% on the initial 10 emails, and for the newsletters, around 23-30%, with a high number of click thrus (can't remember off the top of my head the %).

    Most people under-email their lists rather than over-email. I've found that it's best to have the "buy or die" mentality when it comes to email marketing. No sense in having a big list if most people aren't buying.
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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    The answer depends on the PURPOSE of your autoresponder
    series. What some people call an autoresponder series is what
    I call a newsletter. Some people just load up some email
    without any connection and structure between each email.

    Series I write for my clients are attached to a landing page
    and leads to a main sales letter to try to sell a product
    or service. These series are 7-10 emails long and follow
    a certain pattern in the email themselves and among the
    emails as well.

    -Ray Edwards
    Signature
    The most powerful and concentrated copywriting training online today bar none! Autoresponder Writing Email SECRETS
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  • Profile picture of the author ExpertSEOServices
    I follow up with mine every 3-5 days with valuable content, reviews, interviews, secrets, videos, and also affiliate links every now and then but I do not bombard my list with them. I send out broadcasts every now and then to let them know about my products, discounts, and special offers I may be running
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  • Profile picture of the author paul nicholls
    what you have to remember is that sales funnels are generally developed over time

    and this goes the same for follow up emails

    if your building a new list then i always have at least 5 - 10 created and then i just add more as time goes on

    also another thing to remember is that things in some niches change very quickly so its not always a good move to have too many follow ups in place because you may have to make changes to them on a regular basis

    but...if your niche has certain solid methods that won`t ever change and you can include information which will still be current in 12 months then by all means create a good few months worth of follow up emails

    all of my buyers lists, i tend to deliver free info after every product over say a week to 2 weeks and then after that i just use broadcasts

    paul
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