When it comes to getting your online marketing systems going on an almost automated basis, email funnels and auto-responders are key.
Pat Flynn and I have talked about the changes he’s made to his own funnels and auto-responders. Ultimately, some things need to be updated from time to time – that’s the bottom line. Being scrappy doesn’t always cut it. Sometimes you have to think more long-term and see yourself as a CEO.
Your job as CEO is to make sure that everyone who comes across your brand gets relevant content. To do that, you need an effective email marketing strategy that includes updated email funnels and auto-responders.
Your job as CEO is to make sure that everyone who comes across your brand gets relevant content. To do that, you need an effective email marketing strategy that includes updated email funnels and auto-responders. #Youpreneur Click To Tweet1. Have Your List Self-Select
Email marketing is still a very large part of content marketing and the online business game. Getting your email marketing funnels set up in an automated and updated way is a crucial step. Here’s a hot tip for the main opt-in forms you have on your site that put every subscriber into one big email list: the purpose of your first sequence should have them self-select into a segment. In the first email, tell your subscribers that choosing a segment is an important action they must take to get the targeted content they want. When your audience selects their segment, they should get taken off the main list and put into the email series for their segment. This is nothing new. It’s sales funnels 101.
2. Speak to Your Segment
When your audience does hit that link selecting their segment, you can take them to a personalized landing page sharing content that was made for exactly where they are in their journey: educational content and content that addresses their pain points. Here’s where you can surprise and delight by tailoring your welcome to each segment. Bonus points if you use their language for the copy on your page. For fun, you can put a social media plugin on this welcome page and ask your audience to introduce themselves. You’ll spark engagement immediately.
3. Start Segments Simple
Keep it simple. You could get ridiculously crazy zooming in on one specific audience. That’s certainly one way to do it, but when you’re just starting out, keep to only two different segments. Then you can work up to something a bit more complicated.
4. Use Their Language and Engage
Keep using your audience’s own language in your emails. This will become very valuable in motivating them to engage with you. In one of your first segmented emails, share content your audience can relate to in their own words and ask for a reply. This will get your email out of the spam folder and tell the email provider that you’re an important contact. Your audience will LOVE you for knowing them and interacting with them. Plus, it builds trust which is so important to the sales process and conversion rates.
5. Skip the Self-Select
While you’ll have your main forms where you have people self-select their segment, you’ll also want to create specific forms that automatically add your audience into a targeted segment. If you have an opt-in that’s specific for a particular part of your audience, have your email marketing system tag them into that segment instead of having them self-select. You’ll move forward that part of the process and get closer to the big yes. When you come out with new courses and products for certain segments of your audiences, you’ll already have your lists ready, and everything will work on autopilot.
6. Edit Old Content
To polish the beginning of your email marketing funnels, trim the weeds from your blog posts. When you publish a book, you never publish the first draft. Now, think of your blogs as the first draft. If you want your blogs to provide the best value, you have to take things out that don’t matter anymore. Create a spreadsheet of your posts and look at what’s no longer relevant to your business including your lead magnets. By pruning and editing your website, you can increase your rankings on the stuff that matters. As a rule of thumb, online entrepreneurs don’t edit. But it’s amazing what can happen if you do.
Chris founded Youpreneur® in 2015. He is a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author of the bestselling books “Virtual Freedom” and “Rise of the Youpreneur”. He hosts our podcast, live events and coaches our clients inside the Youpreneur Incubator. Chris is based in Cambridge, UK.
