Email Autoresponders

Email Autoresponders

by | Oct 1, 2021 | Content Marketing, Marketing Automation, Services

Intelligent autoresponder email marketing campaigns can save you lots of time, while creating a solid engagement process for prospective customers just as they begin engaging with you. Your autoresponder emails are crucial for converting strangers into customers.

Your weekly email newsletter is time-sensitive, and trapped in the present moment. Your autoresponder campaigns are eternal, and progress at the pace of your prospect’s knowledge of you, and is not limited by what you happen to be saying, writing, and sending right now.

Autoresponder Example

Out of Office Autoresponder Message

You’ve surely received an autoresponder like this before. You email someone, and you instantly receive a reply, telling you about the details of their vacation and when they expect to be back.

They don’t take the time to send you this email as soon as you hit their inbox. The entire purpose is that the autoresponder communicates what you need to know, in your timeframe, with total disregard of the sender’s timeframe.

For converting strangers into customers on your website, an autoresponder email sequence is typically used in concert with the stages of your sales funnel.

Consider how someone is feeling and thinking, just after they have subscribed to your list, and write your email to the customer avatar as they exist in that specific moment.

Typical Autoresponder Email Sequence

  • Thank you for subscribing! Here is your lead magnet. Follow me on social media.
  • Did you like the lead magnet? Here’s a story of someone who had a transformation because of it.
  • Here’s another story, of someone who faced my customer avatar’s main problems, and how they were transformed.
  • Brief mention of services.
  • Educational email about the industry or current environment.
  • People with this big problem seek a solution. I have a solution, and I will tell you next time.
  • Hard sell of services.
  • Educational email.
  • Survey request.

The better ESPs (Email Service Providers) will allow you to segment your lists based on their activities. If someone subscribes to your list after becoming your customer, for example, you don’t want to send them the ‘hard sell’ email – they should be left out of that step in the autoresponder sequence.

Autoresponder Email Marketing Platforms

  • ConvertKit
  • Aweber
  • Mailchimp
  • Constant Contact
  • InfusionSoft

There are plenty of others available to choose from, but these are the ones that we typically work with and recommend to our clients.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing

by | Apr 16, 2018 | Articles, Marketing Automation

Social media marketing can be done well, or done badly. No matter how good you’re doing, it could be really easy for you, or really hard. The easiest way to make sure your social media marketing is both easy and good is to follow the advice of people who have mastered the mediums.

6 Small Business Social Media Marketing Tips

#1 – Say something valuable.

Seth Godin talks about ‘the trap of social media noise.’ Just because we can say things in so many places, to so many people, it doesn’t mean we should.

“Prune your message and your list and build a reputation that’s worth owning and an audience that cares.”

– Seth Godin

#2 – Don’t spread too thin.

Every account you set up will cost you, in time, energy, and mental overhead. Ask yourself which accounts are really necessary, and if you should skip one, then do it.

Ashley Kemper wrote a comprehensive overview at Marketing Land comparing each social media platform, with specific guidelines on when these different platforms make sense. Her recommendations are very detailed, so read her article if you have any questions about a specific platform. Her guidelines were:

  • Use Facebook if you want to reach a massive audience with a diverse array of content types.
  • Use Twitter if you have frequent updates or content with a “timeliness” factor.
  • Use YouTube if your business could benefit from product demos, testimonials, or putting a human face to your brand.
  • Use Google+ if you have a physical location and want to appear in local search results.
  • Use LinkedIn if you are in a B2B space, or you want to speak to a more professionally-oriented audience.
  • Use Pinterest if you want to target a female audience and have great visual content.
  • Use Instagram if you can create interesting visual content on a regular basis.
  • Use Foursquare if you have a brick-and-mortar location.

Read her article for more depth on each platform, if you’re not sure whether or not one of them is a good match for you.

#3 – Variety is the spice of social media.

Posting the same thing, all the time, isn’t giong to keep your audience engaged or interested. On the 8Days blog, Jimdo recommends a 70-20-10 formula.

“Don’t be overly promotional: Nobody likes someone who just talks about themselves all the time. 70% of your content should add value for your followers (such as sharing blog posts, coupons, etc.), 20% should be sharing other people’s content (posts from other businesses or highlighting customers), and only 10% should be directly promoting your business (such as “come by our store we have a new shipment of handbags!”).”

Social Media Marketing Formula:

  • 70% adding value
  • 20% sharing other people’s content
  • 10% direct promotion

For every promotional tweet you write, prepare to publish 10x that much content that is for connection and relationship-building.

#4 – Show Them The Wizard Behind the Curtain

Social media marketing is your opportunity to be seen by your audience, really seen. They don’t want to see your products; they want to see you, working at your craft. Share the stories of what it’s like to do what you do.

Ramsay at Blog Tyrant recommends being open on social media to create customer loyalty:

“Social media is a fantastic way to break down the barriers of facelessness. By showing your potential customers the people behind the business you are giving yourself a chance to be different from all the other competition. They will become loyal to you.”

– Ramsay

#5 – Get Popular To Get Seen

Popularity snowballs. The more that people like you, the more they like you, and it’s not just momentum; it’s math.

On the Buffer blog, Alfred Lua gives 10 social media tips, and describes the importance of popularity:

“Social media platform algorithms, such as those on Facebook and Instagram, are prioritizing posts with higher engagement on their feeds due to the belief that users will be more interested in seeing highly engaging content.”

– Alfred Lua

Collect likes, retweets, and shares, and you will rank higher ion the algorithm of social media platforms, and get seen more often.

#6 – Stay Authentic

Most people can sniff a sell-out, and it stinks. A genuine, long-term relationship can be completely derailed by staying in sales mode all the time.

Everybody needs to sell. It is, most often, why we get on a soapbox in the first place. But the only way to keep authenticity is by staying authentic, regularly.

As Timothy Skyes says in 8 Tips On How To Grow Your Social Media on Enterepreneur.com:

“You need to find that balance between popularity and business. You need to have a little bit of both and mix the more fun side that wants popularity with the serious and informative side that boosts the reputation of your business.”

– Timothy Sykes

 

Social Media Setup – Done For You, or DIY

If you need to get your new brand up and running on social media, you can hire Stellar Platforms to do it for you, or you can buy our DIY kit for a tenth of the price, and do it yourself.