List Builders: Why you need to promote more and why January was my best month yet

With the start of February upon us, I'm proud to say that January has been my best month so far in earnings in comparison to all of my previous months because I decided to change a few things.

My previous autoresponder series went something like this:

Day 0: Thank you and Free Gift
Day 2: Advice/Freebie
Day 4: Advice/Freebie
Day 6: Offer
Day 8: Advice/Freebie
Day 10: Advice/Freebie
Day 12: Offer

...and so on with almost one year of messages going out.

For most of 2012, this model has worked for me and I've been able to make a living off it. BUT, I noticed something in my reports:

ALL of my offer emails would get the most opens and clicks and all of my advice/freebie emails would get even less opens/clicks than half of my offer emails.

At the beginning of January, I set up another list and changed it to this:

Day 0: Thank you and Free Gift
Day 2: Product Overview/Advice/Offer/Freebie
Day 4: Product Overview/Advice/Offer/
Day 6: Product Overview/Advice/Offer/
Day 8: Product Overview/Advice/Offer//Freebie
Day 10: Product Overview/Advice/Offer/
Day 12: Product Overview/Advice/Offer/

Because I started selling in every email, along with giving a product overview of what I was selling, some small advice, and sometimes a freebie, my open and click rates shot up DRAMATICALLY and I've made more sales in January 2013 than most months in 2012.

The trick was to COMBINE the advice/freebie/offer method, along with adding a product overview of what I was selling, making EVERY email full of value.

Here's some incredibly useful advice:

- Your subscribers don't want to wait to get their fix. If you've been getting good and targeted traffic, then you'll have plenty of buyers with large wallets who are willing to spend money. Remember, to them, YOU'RE the guru who knows which products work the best. You need to condition your list at the very beginning on what to expect from you. If you give out too many freebies and wait too long to sell, you'll only build a list of freebie seekers. If you give out great advice on which products work, then you can build a list of BUYERS.

- I've started reducing the amount of freebies I give out and have replaced them with actual advice and tips within the email along with my offer. Most of your subscribers probably have thousands of gigs of ebooks lying around and they're sick of getting another one that they won't read. If you want to give out a freebie, make sure it compliments the offer.

- The trick to promoting in every email is not to hard sell, but give a product overview, personal advice on how you would use the product, the benefits, and then a link to the offer.

The short "omg! this product made me $1921092010.12 in 2 days - CLICK HERE" method can be easily sniffed from a mile away. By writing longer and more detailed emails giving value, you will taken much more seriously as an authority and not as a spammy salesman.

I've started writing much longer emails that promote, educate, and sell rather than 2 overhyped sentences that lead to a sales page. I know alot of people think that subscribers don't want to read longer emails, but my click rates have shot through the roof by writing longer emails and showing that I was an authority on the subject.

The product sales page alone only has one chance of turning a visitor into a buyer. By establishing yourself as an authority, your chances of getting a visitor to read over the salespage and make a purchase increases exponentially.

- Promote in your signature at the end of your email. This is a HIGHLY missed opportunity to promote more products that your subscribers may have passed on! Also make use of writing P.S. messages at the end too!

- ALWAYS answer any email you get from your list. They want to know that a real person is behind the computer and not some kind of bot. I've had several repeat customers because I took the time to talk to them.

As for intervals on when to send emails out, it's up to you. I personally send my messages out every 2 days, but some people here have had success doing it every day or once a week. You need to experiment on what works best for you. Run your list like you're a member of it yourself.

Also, as for single or double opt-in, I'm single opt-in right now.

I hope this clears up any doubts people have of "selling too much". Give value first and then sell.

Best of luck to everyone this year!

- Ryan