How do you create a good autoresponder sequence that balances out content and sales?

In my eyes, 2 days is too soon. My closest autoresponder sequence is 7 days, and I hardly get any unsubscribers.

I pretty much do 7, 7, 14 on repeat, with a broadcast every now and again, seems to work well on my current blog.

Edited: I once read from Zig Ziglar and really believe it and hold it to heart so if you practice his quote I think you will be okay.
"you can get everything you want if you just help
enough other people get what they want;"

I intergrate the links with valuable content. If I send something free I may just say something like.
I found this gold nugget and thought you might want it at no cost or whatever.
Otherwise if its a newsletter I give something valuable and then go into something else i found that helps me out and link to to.

I'm talking about 3 quarters value content to maybe two lines of great stuff click here.

I was on a webinar the other week and the person said that they email there list with a sale everyday. I thought that would be to much but I guess for someone that is already established that is good.

I would do more relationship building and also a sale like WillR said in the beginning because they are hot at that moment. After that build on content then hit them with another sale maybe in a couple of more days.

Hope that helps,
Malik

I integrate my links within each and every email. But not in a blatant sales pitch kind of way. Very soft. And usually towards the end. I relate it to the value I'm giving them in the email. My focus is on "infotainment" style and it seems to work well, at least for my main niche.

If you email your bunch everyday - 1 time a day.... true learners will remain on your list - assuming your info is good. Consider getting more leads and monitoring your cost per lead and cost per sale... or just lead directly to your sales page and build up a list of buying customers. What's the price of the product you're selling?

Thanks guys!

Hmm I'm still wondering how to increase conversions though. Right now I feel my AR is very hit-or-miss.

What do you guys think I should work on first if I want to improve conversions?

I don't send any direct product offers via email. All it does it put your readers on the defensive.

I only email quality, free content that people will want to read. They get the first 2-3 paragraphs in the email, then a link to visit my site to read the rest. The sales offers are all on my website.

This also offers the added benefit of keeping your emails out of the recipient's spams folder and "Promotions" tab (if they are using Gmail), since the ISP's won't be as quick to look down on your emails.

Are you lists segmented? Besides your sales funnel being seamless you should segment your lists so you spend the most time and effort only on the best sales prospects. For example, customers who previously bought something should be sent a different sequence of upsell emails than customers who didn't buy, etc..

First ... email EVERY DAY. I am not kidding. Put some content into your autoresponder and send an email every single day.

Second, I have found the best sales come from what I call a 3/4 mix. In other words, I send 3 content messages, then 1 sales message. HOWEVER, to be honest a lot of times my 3 sales messages (which do NOT contain links to any kind of product to buy) are in many ways "priming the pump" for the sales message coming up.

In other words, if I have a sales message coming up that is going to sell chia seeds (picking a random example, I don't sell chia seeds) then the three previous messages will be about them and their benefits, how to best include them in your diet, that kind of thing.

One more thing ... if you're smart, you'll load up A LOT of messages back to back in your autoresponder.

Now, tease each subsequent message. Make people anxious to get the message. I will often tease a sales message across the entire "sequence"

Want to convert even more of your readers?

Okay, 3/4 is the rule ... but who said each set has to go to a different product.

3 messages about one aspect of an upcoming product.
1 sales message that focuses on that aspect of a larger product

3 messages about a different aspect of the product.
1 message that focuses on that aspect of the larger product.

There are times where I will have 9 content messages and 3 sales messages for a single product.

AND ... here's the thing ... Webinars "bend the rule"

In other words I count a webinar that may sell a product at the end as a content piece. So an email getting people into a webinar I consider to be a content email.

Hope this helps.

Andre Chaperon has one of the most in-depth courses on how to build out your follow-up sequences and even how to write broadcasts. People like Ryan Deiss, Frank Kern, and bunch of other "gurus" use this method for e-mail marketing.

In fact, Ryan Deiss even re-designed all of his follow-up campaigns for his other niche sites to model after what Andre teaches. It's really solid information.

If you get a chance you should check it out. I bought it a couple of years ago and it added some nice income to my bottom line.

I'd also subscribe to Ben Settle's list and or Jim Yaghi... these guys are masters are mixing up promo and content and have super responsive lists because of it.

Yes mail them every day, yes sale them something every day. Why not do it three times a day if every day works good three times a day will work better.

Ever heard of burning your list out. I have did it. Hope you have many optins coming in per day so you can continue to burn out your list.

I break my list down to days of the week. See on Thursdays my list can expect to find something they can buy while on say mondays, tuesday's I give away information or content or other free offers.

Again like it all it all comes down to testing and knowing what your list likes...

Don't over do it!
I get emails from one guy up to 7 times a day, every one trying to sell me something.
He tells me every offer is better than the one before.
I let them keep coming for entertainment - I'm interested to know if he'll ever run out of steam.

Will I buy from him? Are you kidding -

In the offline world, when someone calls you every day to try and sell you the same advertising or a cheaper phone line, the result is usually the same.
In the end they really piss you off - not a good sales tactic.

To build a list that generates good results in the long term, I think you need to build trust by supplying useful information.
If you can supply new, interesting info everyday, great. I can't come up with that much content.