Lesson Two B: Email Campaigns

by CherylCurrie

In Lesson Two – Email Campaigns, we’re going to cover where those leads go and how to keep emails going out to them to help build that relationship we talked about earlier.

There are several places I can recommend for capturing your leads and sending out emails. One is part of the GVO package. But if all you want right now is an excellent “autoresponder” to handle your leads list and send out mail, and make those opt-in forms … then you want AWeber.

Get Started Today For Only $1! – AWeber Communications

The sequence for setting up your newsletter/emails

A. Name your campaign mailing list. Find “follow up messages” or similar title in your autoresponder service. Click on it and follow the instructions. This step should take you through naming your “campaign” which simply means that you will name a list of emails/newsletters so that you can associate THAT list with a particular opt-in form. For example, you might name the list FacebookFriends. Watch the AWeber video, pausing when necessary, so you hear everything. An unsubscriber will see what he’s subscribing to and unsubscribing from so do NOT name your list “hotleads” or even worse, “suckerlist.”

AWeber Walk-Through Autoresponder Video

B. Write your first email. If you have a code for an entire list of emails from someone in your group, see E and F. Otherwise, do the following. Find the selection “compose message” for that campaign. Let’s suppose you named the campaign “Free Report.” To write the email/newsletter, make sure you see “Free Report” as the campaign then click on “compose message” and a writing window should pop up. Most autoresponders will have an HTML and Text window for creating your message/newsletter. I do not recommend using a “template” because they don’t all look the same depending on the recipient’s email service. However, if you have a logo, you can insert it as a picture using the html window. You can add pictures and make your email very professional. The text should say it all, though, as some people have disallowed images on their emails.

The first email should be a “Welcome” email that congratulates or thanks the new lead for requesting whatever your offer was, gives them instructions on how to get started, supplies them with your contact information so they can reach you if they need to, and lets them know there will be more mail coming so they should remember to add you to their contact list. It should be warm and welcoming and make them feel that they have done the right thing. It should also remind them who you are and why they opted in.

C. Once you have written the first email/newsletter, be sure to save it and test it. Remember, you cannot advertise anything until you know your customer/lead will get a response so ensure you have at least four or five emails written for that campaign and test them all before you create an opt-in form for that campaign.

D. Space out the first few emails by one day and then increase the space from two days to weekly. A lead can be a hot lead for the first few days but after that they are getting cold. Don’t keep sending them daily emails if they are not responding. They will get annoyed and report you as spam or simply unsubscribe. Autoresponders let you decide how much time should pass between emails. From about the fourth email, you should have at least two days between them. If you have a long list of emails, you may want to make it every four days or even weekly.

E. If someone in your group gave you a code for an entire group of emails, here is what you do. There will be a “share campaign” selection. Read it carefully as to where to put the code. Whenever you use this option, BE SURE YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT CAMPAIGN. Simply put the code in the slot, save it, and the entire list of emails will appear under your campaign name. BUT, you are NOT done!

F. When a campaign is shared, it needs to be edited to be YOUR personal message. If you added a list of emails/newsletters using a code, you now have to go through each and every one of them. They will not have YOUR name or address, YOUR signature or anything else that is just yours. The wording will most likely not be the way you talk.

For example, I once downloaded an entire campaign and the person had “personalized” it by putting in what is called “global” keys. This is brilliant technology and the instructions were easy enough to follow. It saved me a lot of work.

But I should have known it was TOO easy! No one suggested that I go through the emails and personalize them. After almost 200 people had been receiving the emails, I read what I had sent them. My jaw dropped. To me, the emails were almost insulting. They spoke to the potential customers in a way that I would NEVER speak. Yet 200 people had already received them. None of them signed up and I had learned a great lesson.

There are tips on how to write emails and newsletters and full copyrighting courses available.

Here are some training tips from AWeber:

While all that information is great, FOCUS ON THE BASICS. For now, we are just covering elementary material. If you want to know how to write an email to your lead, think of your warm market – any one of your friends or family – and imagine them as the one who requested more information. Write it in that friendly or informal manner and you’ll do fine.

Basic tips on writing good copy:

The subject line should never give away what’s in the email. Use a mystery that will make the person want to open it like “A Mistake Like This Can Cost You Thousands…” or “A Gift For You, Hope You Like It!” Don’t capitalize your subject. You can even write it in small letters: “A mistake like this can cost you your business…”
Don’t overuse the “personalize” option. Don’t put the person’s name in the subject line every time, don’t use their name more than twice in an email and preferably only once. Most people don’t talk like that and the ones that do remind me of the unethical salesmen.
Don’t use overly enthusiastic terms or a bunch of capital letters. Terms like “WOW, WOW, WOW, YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE AMAZED!” should be stricken from your world as an internet marketer.
Don’t tell them what to feel or think but DO use a call to action. Notice the difference between “You are going to LOVE this” and “Click here for the $1 trial.” How about this one: “If you don’t see the value in this by now, I don’t know what to tell you.” ICK! Compare that to “I notice that you haven’t taken advantage of our offer yet. If you have a question or concern, please call me at 555-555-5555. We are running a special, by the way, and you may have been very clever holding off until now. Click SPECIAL OFFER to take advantage.”
Study successful millionaires’ emails to see how they are written. One of my favorite tricks is to “steal” copy. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean copy or plagiarize. I opt-in for free information from a well-known and highly successful internet marketer. Then I read every email and figure out what I like and don’t like about it. It’s free, educational and personal.

Now you need your first opt-in form. The autoresponder system supplies you with “web forms.” You need to find that section where you make them, watch any tutorial videos supplied and read any instructions. Opt-in forms are the ones where the person puts in their name and email address. Do not be afraid to mess it up. You want to be very familiar with all aspects of your autoresponder and there is always “delete” so you can start over.
Start with a simple form and ensure you see the right campaign name has been selected. Once you’ve chosen or designed a simple opt-in form, copy the html and copy it to notepad or whatever text program you have. Save it as “(campaign name) form 1” so you never lose it and don’t have to keep going back to your autoresponder to get the html.

Use one that requires the person’s name and email address only. The more you ask for (such as the phone number or mailing address) the less people will opt in to your offer. There is time to get more information later. They will fill it out to receive something valuable for free (free report, free information, free software, free samples or the like). The form automatically adds their name to your mailing list and the autoresponder sends out the free information or redirects them to the web page they need.

What is a Capture Page?

A capture page is ANY page that invites people to fill out a form and give their name and email. It “captures” the information you need and puts them on your mailing list. It is NOT a “squeeze page.” Some internet marketers would not agree with me on that. They use terms like “squeeze page” and “splash page” and “pop up” and “overlays” and on and on. Don’t get lost in the terminology. Just concentrate on CAPTURING the name and email of those showing interest in your offer.

Putting the opt-in form on your page depends on what type of page you are putting it on. Let’s say you want to put an opt-in form at the bottom of each blog or article that you post to your blog. Simply switch the tab from “visual” to “html” or select “insert html” at the top and paste in your form’s html code.

For a wordpress site, you can choose “widget” and insert the code into the widget directly.

For a capture page, it depends on where and how you designed it. I’m going to show you how to design a capture page using your domain name, Paint, Microsoft Word and/or your WordPress site. But if you use software supplied by someone else, you’ll have to check the directions that came with that software.

Always test an opt-in form. Once you have made a form and put it on your capture page, blog or website, test it out by filling it in with your own name and email address. DO NOT LEAVE THIS TESTING STEP OUT.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: It is time for you to go through again now, doing each step until you have made your form. Ads and capture pages are what you will learn next. So at least get steps one through five done.