Can You Create Your
Own Email Follow-Up System? (The first of a multi-part series) by Robert Jillie
http://GreenMountainMoney.com
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Are you using an email follow-up on your web sites? You should be!
I would like to show you how I write my follow-up letters.
Almost all Internet marketers know that they need to have a follow-up system in place, but many just don't know how to go about setting one up!
You first must be able to write follow-up letters that can sell.
If there is any one skill that is vital to the success of your Internet business...
It is your ability to write letters and follow-ups, which sell your products and/or services.
In the past I tried using a more aggressive follow-up system than the one I use now.
I was running a string of sales letters to my prospects and making very minor changes in each letter. I found that this style of sales letter does in fact increase response rates over using a web site by itself; but it is not the most successful selling system.
The formula that I now use is more about educating a potential customer than on selling to that customer.
The vast majority of people online today are not interested in "being sold." They are interested in being taught.
So I now try to write my follow-up letters to teach and sell at the same time.
Most regular follow-up letters tend to annoy your prospects
I want to show you the step-by-step system I have used to create my best follow-ups...
First though let's cover some basics on writing your follow-up letters.
Writing Email Follow-Up
Write like you're talking to a friend. This is the key. You do not need to make the writing process difficult. You do not need to use big words, complicated sentence structure, or intelligent sounding grammar. Never forget you are dealing with just one potential customer.
Even though you may have sent out thousands of follow-ups you are still dealing with just one potential customer at a time
One that will hopefully become a customer and friend for life.
You need to write your follow-up emails (and all of your web content for that matter) just as if you were writing an email or letter to one of your friends. I can't emphasize this enough.
There is no need to try and complicate this simple writing process.
It helps if you can have a specific friend in mind while writing your letters (especially one who would be a good potential customer for your product or service). Write everything just as if you were talking to them. Then, you might try mailing them the letter.
This may sound silly at first but it will help you judge their reaction to your letter.
There are several Key steps you need to hit on when writing good follow-ups
1. Personalize.
Email has to be personalized if you want it to be read. This is important so read it again! :-)
The vast majority of Internet users get way too much email in their inbox and if you want them to read your letters
You must personalize your subject line and the body of the letter itself.
Always insert their first name into the subject line of your emails. Then, start the greeting of the email with some thing like, "Hello Joe," This will grab your prospects attention immediately.
This now becomes a personal letter from a friend and not just another "form" letter.
2. Educate Your Buyer.
I never go for a hard sale right at the beginning. The purpose of your follow-up series is to take your prospect by the hand and lead them to a buying decision...
not to force one upon them.
You need to educate them about your industry. Let them know how you can help them, what benefits you can offer, and how you provide them with no risks.
3. Avoid using exclamation points and wild claims
Or anything else that will hurt your credibility with future buyers.
Remember that people buy based on emotions and you will need to use an emotional letter (a personal letter to a friend goes a long way toward developing emotion).
You will want to tell them everything they may want to know about your product by anticipating your prospects objections thereby give them enough information to make the right decision (buying your product or service).
4. Be Short and Concise in your writing.
These days an effective email can, and should, be shorter than they used to be. Most people are in too much of a hurry to read long emails that show up in their inbox.
I still find myself responding to long emails last out of everything I receive in my inbox. In other words, I read the shorter emails first and respond faster to them than I would to a long email.
If that's true of me, how likely is it to be true about your prospects?
If you find that you need to make a long selling presentation, it is better to do it from your web site...not from an email.
A web sites is a better overall selling medium You can break up the text, add pictures, put text in bold, etc. You should try to use your emails to drive traffic to your web site where you already have the total selling process is in place.
An example of this is my Profits On The Net newsletter. I used to publish long articles and a total of up to 8 pages of information in each issue.
I now have cut most of the articles down to 1000 words or less (most of the time:-)and I am trying for 3 pages or thereabouts of information.
And guess what...
I have found that people are responding much better to my shorter emails!
5. Answer Questions and Objections.
Confront objections that you have received in the past head on instead of ducking away from them. This is one of your most powerful selling opportunities in using follow-up email Create a "Frequently Asked Questions" email as part of your follow-up series to answer the questions and objections people have been sending to you about buying your products and services.
The real measure of a good web copywriter is their ability to anticipate objections and answer them before the prospects get carried away by them.
Your follow-up emails are a perfect place to cover any objections you may have missed in the writing of your sales letter.
6. Keep copies of Customer Inquiries You Have Answered in the past.
Check through your outgoing email box and find customer inquiries you have responded to and use these as the foundation of your follow-up system.
Take these letters and build them into your follow-up system, use them for every one of your visitors.
This will accomplish two goals at the same time...
Not only will you get to answer your prospects objections but you also have email follow-up letters that are tailor made and already written.
*Special Note*
You can also turn these letters into a web page FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) and submit them to the search engines, since many FAQs are unique to you and your product they will place well with many search engines.
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This is part 1 of a multiple part series
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To Your Success!
Robert Jillie
Subscribe to Profits On The Net mailto:ezine@greenmountainmoney.com?subject=SUBSCRIBE