Autoresponders are an effective email marketing tool that can help you more successfully connect with your target audience. An effective autoresponders series can build hype for your latest product offer, alert your subscriber to your latest sale, inform and entertain your audience; or all of the above. In essence, autoresponders are one of the most powerful tools in the online marketer’s toolbox; and nothing is more useful for urging your customers further along through your sales funnel. To maximize their reach and the connection they build with your prospective consumers, you should follow the advice of email marketing experts. The following tips have been compiled from email marketing gurus across the web. Heed their advice for an autoresponders series that always hits its marketing goals.
Relevant Subject Lines
Even the most effective autoresponders will remain unopened if your email recipients don’t connect with your subject line. Choose a subject line that tells your recipients what they can expect inside. Make sure the subject coincides with their interest level and urges quick action.
For example, if you are trying to get your autoresponder subscribers to download your latest whitepaper, you might choose, ‘Download our complimentary whitepaper – Download now at no cost’
If possible, mention what the whitepaper is about. If your subscriber list is in the market for construction safety equipment, your subject line might read, ‘Download our complementary Construction Safety whitepaper – Download now at no cost!”
It should be noted that many marketers feel the urge to put their brand name in the subject line. This is a waste of prime subject line real-estate, as most email clients will list your company or sender name right alongside the subject line. Putting your brand name twice would just be redundant.
Stay Away From Spam Words
When writing your subject line for your effective autoresponders series, ensure that you refrain from using words that could trigger the recipients SPAM filter. This includes Free, Make Money, Free Money and other terms that are supposed to attract the desperate and impulsive.
Instead, treat your recipients like colleagues. Be straight with them and tell them what they can expect inside the email without embellishment and without bait terms like ‘Get Rich Tomorrow!”
Personalization
This autoresponders tip not only pertains to the subject line of the email, but the actual body as well. Use the recipient’s name if at all possible. Most email marketing software platforms allow you to insert the subscriber’s name in the subject line and the salutation.
So a subject line targeting a new restaurant’s customers might read, ‘Bob, we just introduced all new menu items! View them right now in this email.”
Then you can include a salutation, such as, “Hello Bob,” for an extra one-on-one experience.
Preview Pane
Many email platforms today allow the viewer to read a preview snippet of the email before they actually open the full contents. Write just a couple of paragraphs further building excitement about what’s inside. Build hype, but don’t be spammy. If you can toe that line, you’ll have the preview pane process down pat.
Permission Has Been Granted
Remind your recipients that they opted-in to receive your emails. Do this very early on so that they don’t think you’re a spammer, just in the off-chance that they don’t recognize your brand name.
Use Your Personality
Don’t be afraid to let your quirky sense of humor come out when your goal is an effective autoresponders series. Make your recipients smile, laugh and think and you’ll get much further in your goal pursuits.
More Meat, Less Fluff
Try to include value with every one of your autoresponders. Give your recipients a reason to open each one. You might end each communication with a unique tip, or you might find that you’re an excellent storyteller and that your subscribers just like to read your musings. Find your strengths, work on those strengths and always give your email subscribers what they want and crave.
Call-To-Action
It is recommended that you keep your sales pitch and affiliate links at bay for at least a little while, until you’re able to build a sense of trust with your audience. Then, send out a link, but pose it as a suggestion. Let your recipients know that you vouch for that link, that the landing page beyond the link contains value and that it’s ok to click-through. Then, tell them to click the link or otherwise take action because autoresponders recipients sometimes need to be told what to do.
Write A Series
It is recommended that you write your autoresponders well ahead of time and check them over before you plug them into your email marketing service platform. A good idea is to create a mini education course that uses each subsequent autoresponder email as the next training module. This gives your subscribers an excuse to anxiously watch their inboxes and it can further position you as the go-to expert in your field.
Salutation And Post Script
When you say goodbye to your subscribers, let them know that there will in fact be a next time. Let them know exactly when that next time will be and get them excited about that email’s contents. Then, use a post script that reiterates the link you want your subscribers to click or further enhances your marketing message.
Testing Makes Perfect
When you want to know if your subject lines are hitting their mark or if the bodies of your emails are using the right tone of voice, get out your lab coat and start testing those elements until you’re sure they’re perfect. Many experts write at least three subject lines per email and then send them to various email segments to determine their effectiveness. Some use dynamic content where the content changes according to the recipient’s interest level and marketing activity. Find what works for you and keep testing until you are satisfied with your autoresponders open rates and conversions.
