Writing autoresponder messages ...

I'm in three different niche marketers.

For the ones that change quickly I tend to 'react' to the market and see what new products and launches are coming out. And I don't plan my emails as carefully as I should.

Part of that is because I'm still trying to find a style that works best for me. Short and sharp or lead with a story and pre-sell better. I need bigger numbers to accurately determine what's best.

Long story short ... I probably plan the next 4 weeks emails and put them together in 2-3 hours. Admit that some are better written than others. Some suck and some just sell in a couple of sentences.

In a hobby niche I'm in ... that moves much slower and has less change and products to promote I'm going to dedicate a lot more time to pre-sell one single product daily for 7-10 days ... and then follow up with weekly emails for the next 51 weeks (and the occasional broadcast).

That will probably take me half the working day for the pre-sell emails (that go straight to the sales page -- I think this is where the most money will be) and the other 51 will depend on what information I can find out there to put on the blog they'll be sent to. Hopefully only the other half of the day.

Al (hoping someone else chimes in!)

all depend on the product you are selling....
if it's high priced and people make decision slowly... you need lots of them.

Alexa,

I love autoresponders, it's like having hard working robots converting your leads into sales - even while you sleep.

Fortunately for me, my primary opportunity provides autoresponders for newcomers getting started, so I don't spend too much time on them. That being said, I always include a couple of more personalised ones that I blast out to my lists about twice a week.

One thing I would say, though, is rather than write an autoresponder like an article (which is usually quite general and impersonal), I always write them as though i'm writing a letter to just one person. Using this approach, I have found that it builds a much stronger relationship with my leads and establishes a feeling in their minds that they already "know" me because my personality is clear through the personal style of writing.

This has really helped in increasing the conversion level of my leads into applicants and finally into sales.

I hope this helps

I spend approximately 6 hours initially to write and set up (Aweber) about 15 messages. Then I add to the follow-up series as something really interesting comes to my attention or I get a new testing result I want to pass along. And of course, every time I come out with a new info product or coaching program. I probably spend 3-4 hours per month total on a list after the initial 6 hours to set up the first 15 messages.

John

@Steven - Thanks for the recommendation. I've been looking for a good resource on this as well.

Writing autoresponder messages can be very time-consuming if you
want to do it right. There is sending "newsletter" articles AND sending
messages in a "persuasive sequence" meant to sell.

If you are just writing 'articles' then a 7 message series could take
under two hours (3-500 words each), but if you are selling in those
messages then without a 'template' or guide you can take up to
4-6 hours (at least from my earlier experience).

Now I can complete 7 letter series in under 90 minutes once I
have the main sales letter already written.

-Ray Edwards

What format are you writing your autoresponder messages in, are you using plain type of copy, or a HTML newsletter style?

And secondly, do you personalize your emails by including the persons first name?

Seems all the big guys like Frank Kern and Reese still do it very simple text only, but don't do the personalization anymore.

Just curious.

I found 180 pre-written auto responder messages promoting
Click bank products might be you want to give a look at his site
Click Bank Messages Set

Hope this reduces some of the writing emails frustration

@Raydal - Good Post above!

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I appreciate we can't all be the same, however for me It doesn't take me long to write up my autoresponder followups.

I tend to keep them fairly simple & not too long (use standard text), and talk to my list as individuals, not as If I'm speaking to everybody as a group.

I'll usually spend a couple of hours, 1-2 nights a week writing up new
followups to add to my autoresponder!

Didn't realise that this post was from last week! sorry lol

Hey Alexa

Most of the a/r messages I write these
days are for clients, but when I was
purely an affiliate, I spent an inordinate
amount of time writing them for myself.

Days and weeks on a single project,
constantly tweaking and trying to get
them "right".

Proportion-wise, I'd say probably 25-40%
of each week was spent writing my own
autoresponders.

Now, I can see it was a waste of time...

... or, at the very least, horribly inefficient.

Unless there's a big launch that's about to
drop a traffic atom bomb on your lead
capture page, good enough is good enough.

If I ever went back to that biz model full-time,
I'd outsource the a/r writing in a heartbeat,
and then tweak them if they needed it.

It would save a lot of time, and not impact
the bottom line very much at all.

Is that the kind of info you're looking for?

-David Raybould

Hi Alexa,

I can't respond to your specific question but I might be able to offer a little tid bit that might be helpful which I am eager to do as you have been so helpful to me! I read an article by Infusionsoft that noted the industry average is seven "touches" before the consumer decides to buy. I use 10 touches in my AR sequence can say that this 7 touch rule is pretty bang on for me.

If it's time you're trying to save, perhaps outsourcing the task might be an option. If you have some that you have already created the person can get a style of what you're looking for. This could allow you more time to do other things with your business.

Get straight to the point.

I personally don't like having to email my list 5-7-10
emails in a row, or even a sequence. Whenever I
have somehting of value I feel will benefit my list, I
share it via broadcast.

I'm not making money writing emails, I make money
getting them opened and read. Short is sweet, and
it's almost always better. My approach has grown to
be much different than normal, but it works for me.

I have to say - kudos to you for NOT outsourcing this particular aspect of marketing, especially if any of the niches you deal with are ones you're particularly involved in yourself. I never really liked the idea of outsourcing autoresponder messages - it just feels impersonal, almost like outsourcing your forum posts >.<

If I were you, I'd get a favorite drink (coffee, soda, whatever floats your boat - I think you know it should be nonalcoholic >), turn on some music and just get to work on it. You can probably knock out at least several autoresponder messages in one day if you set aside a few hours to do just that. Other than that, how long it takes is mostly irrelevant - these are your prospects, after all, you want to give them the best you've got no matter what it takes, right?

I know that probably sounds like I'm evading the question, but in all honesty, so long as you have the time you can devote to it, you should be able to set up a decent series in not much time at all so long as you buckle down and concentrate.

I agree it depends on the price and the product that you are selling and that sometimes it takes longer for a person to buy a higher priced rather than a low priced product.

2 hours a day, 3 days a week.

I've got a fair amount of lists, and they need plenty of work. The maintenance is outsourced... but the content is work that I am not prepared to outsource.

I prefer to write most of my own mailings...

It's essential that each of my messages follow on from the previous one, writing style included, so I always write my own. Which is why there is so much of my working week devoted to it.

The return on this investment of time is very good, in my business. Always has been. You can always make money with e-mail if you can get content and a pitch into it. Percentage wise, obviously. Not every mail has to have a pitch, but 1 in every 2 evens things out

Jay