How to Setup an Effective Email Autoresponder Series

Craig -

Are you looking for a foolproof way to convert more of your prospects into customers?

Setting up an effective email autoresponder series can be the ultimate lead magnet for every marketer. Autoresponders are emails you set up and schedule to be sent out at specific times to your subscribed prospects and customers. In most cases, an autoresponder series is triggered by a particular action, like subscribing to an eNewsletter, downloading an eBook, or opening a specific link in an email. Setting up an autoresponder series is time-consuming but can be extremely beneficial to your organization.

Worldwide, there were 3.7 billion email users in 2017 – and this number is expected to increase to a whopping 4.1 billion users by 2021! With these mind-blowing stats, if you aren’t really a fan of email marketing, it’s time you become one. Recognizing the value, it can bring to your marketing campaigns can be used to your full advantage.

Why You Need an Effective Email Autoresponder Series

While email marketing is perhaps the most profitable channel of marketing today, it can be time-consuming without a plan in place. Setting up a series of autoresponders provides you with a means to automate your email marketing, so that you may focus on other crucial aspects of your business and not miss out on the opportunity of boosting sales.

An email autoresponder series allows you to engage with your email list consistently, build a connection, and turn leads into customers. With that being said, the best thing about automated emails is that you only need to create them once. You curate the content in advance for specific segments of people on your email list – and emails will be sent automatically to them triggered by particular events, such as signing up as a subscriber, browsing behavior, shopping cart abandonment, or purchase of a product.

We can’t stress enough that every business needs an email autoresponder series for promoting their services and making sales.

But the question is, how can you create an effective autoresponder series that is bound to work in your favor?

Step-by-step Guide to Creating an Effective Email Autoresponder Series

Whether you’re an amateur or a professional marketer, we are sure you’ll find the following tips valuable.

1.    Choose a Clear, Specific Goal

When there’s no goal, you are bound to lose focus and go off-track. When it comes to creating a promising email autoresponder, the key is to identify and understand your goal. From the launch of a new product or service to strengthening the relationship with subscribers, there is a wide range of goals that a marketer may have.

Below are some of the common goals that successful marketers start their email marketing journey with.

  • To welcome new subscribers
  • To offer free mini-courses or lead magnets
  • To promote add-ons and up-sells
  • To automate their sales funnel

So, what’s your end goal?

Define it and get ready to create a kick-ass email autoresponder series!

2.     Make Segments

Once you know your ultimate purpose behind sending away those emails, it’s time to break down your email list into small, specific segments.

Why is it important?

Well, segmenting your email list allows you to enjoy open rates as high as 14% and unsubscribe rates as low as 8.54%. Not only this, but you also get to experience a considerably higher ROI on your email marketing campaigns.

Dividing your prospects into groups based on demographics, interests, or buyer personas ensures that you provide your content only to subscribers who really want it. Skipping this step will most likely lead to high unsubscribe rates.

3.    Choose a Reputable Email Service Provider

To make sure you schedule and send out your auto-responders in a professional way, you will need an email service provider, like Pinpointe, that aligns with your business needs.

An ideal way to relieve yourself of the hassle of finding and managing software is by hiring an email marketing agency that is knowledgeable in advanced email marketing techniques and features. They can help you segment your list, automate emails, and keep score of your leads. What else does a marketer need?

4.    Map Out the Sequence

The next step is to map out the sequence of your autoresponders based on the specific goals and needs of your business. One crucial thing to decide is the number of ‘content’ emails that you will send out before taking a leap to start promoting your business through ‘sales’ emails.

To make things easier for you, we are listing down the most common and popular sequences.

Welcome email – content – content – content – promotion – content – content – content – promotion

This is the most commonly used sequence across a wide range of businesses.

Welcome email – content – content – content – content – content – content – promotion

As evident, this sequence tends to work great with businesses who are more content-based.

Welcome email – content – promotion – promotion – promotion

This aggressive sequence may be ideal if you are running an e-commerce business and want to target your ‘super users.’

5.    Write Good Content

This step – writing good content –  is the most important and perhaps the trickiest one of all. Keep the following tips in mind while you are working on the content of your email autoresponders.

  • Keep your focus on the reader
  • Consider the sender of the email
  • Add a personal touch
  • Offer value
  • Come up with an attention-grabbing subject line
  • Make sure it is easily understandable
  • Don’t forget to add a killer CTA
  • Proofread, proofread, proofread

6.    Test, Monitor, and Modify

Since creating email autoresponders is a one-time thing, many marketers set and forget about it. However, you wouldn’t want to make this mistake if you want your email marketing campaign to be unbeatable.

After you have put your email autoresponder sequence to a run, make sure you monitor and optimize it. The easiest way to go about this is by pondering over the following questions:

  • Is the sequence still relevant to your email list?
  • Can you re-segment your list in a better way?
  • Are you conducting A/B testing for your subject lines?
  • Have your subscribers’ goals evolved?
  • How can you address the latest concern or issue of your subscribers?

Furthermore, to evaluate the effectiveness of your autoresponder sequence, you should consider looking through the open rates, click through rates, and unsubscribe rates.

The bottom line is that an email autoresponder series is a powerful tool that you can use to make sales. If you don’t want to do the guesswork of how to create and schedule effective email autoresponders, you should consider hiring an email marketing agency.