How to Construct an Effective Email Sequence
Do you want email sequences that generate large sales and create new buyers?
Do you also want email sequences that are “evergreen” and to use over and over again?
Today, competition is fierce. Your competitors are bidding up the cost of advertising for new leads making cold traffic tough to convert.
Adding to the difficulty, most leads won’t convert so you will have to have a strategy in place to follow-up. Since roughly 85% of all sales is made during follow-up to convert mildly-interested customers until they become activated buyers.
So, the question is how do you accomplish that without having a sales team actively calling and following up? The answer is that you automate it with email marketing.
Email marketing company, Constant Contact, reports that for every dollar you spend on building a list of prospects returns an average of $38.
Knowing that should make an impression on you as to why you should be collecting emails as a core part of your marketing. It also means that you need to have a strategy to move those leads from cold to hot since they’re going to offer you the “biggest bang for your buck” in your marketing wheelhouse.[
To help, you need a framework to create a series of automated emails to maximize sales opportunities.
Email Sequences
Email marketing is tailoring your message to match the market that your product/service is designed to serve.
But, here’s the thing, the consumers your targeting are diverse. They have different stages of awareness, beliefs, and buying criteria before they’re going to commit.
The goal is to create a promotion that gets your message in front of the fast-action takers at the beginning of the sequence and then changes its tone to match more closely with those consumers that need more information.
The goal of every email is to get a “click through” to a sales page where the case for purchasing can be made. Preferably, a sales page that has been proven to convert leads from visitors to clients.
Email 1 & 2
These emails need to be more emotional and dynamic.
This email needs to express energetic messaging to draw the client into a story. It focuses on how they can get the results that are part of your marketing message.
“Get that promotion…lose weight quickly and easily…look younger…make more money…”
These are all themes of your messaging that need to be addressed and the inherent promise of reaching that end-goal needs to be made.
You want to stay focused on the solution that your offer makes and that they want but don’t give it a name yet. Keeping an air of mystery about it makes it more compelling and more likely that they’ll click through to get more information.
Once it’s made, you want to have 2 to 3 hyperlinks in the email’s body copy so the client can click and taken to the offer itself.
Email 3 & 4
Some people need more time to think about the offer. It’s not that they won’t buy, but that they need more information which is foundation for this weekly email sequence.
In this phase of the email sequence, you need to talk a little bit about the offer, even mentioning it by name. If you have bonuses or special terms, then this the time to start introducing it and begin building up the value.
Also, use testimonials and case studies. This adds social proof helping to persuade them that you have the solution to their problem.
A compelling case study also adds a story if presented well. This can draw the reader further into your message putting them into the story by seeing themselves receive benefits of your offer.
It’s also important that you don’t over-promise in this phase of the sequence. Building expectations beyond what the reader can expect will create problems for your brand or even get you in trouble with authorities.
FAQ’s and Urgent Clickers
In emails 3 and 4, it mentioned that the clients need more information about your offer to take action.
It’s at this point that you might want to start emailing them twice a day using two more customized emails.
FAQ’s
The FAQ email stands for “frequently asked questions”.
It’s typically longer than your other emails and it’s focus is to address the common questions and/or objections your clients have.
Now, this assumes that you’ve been promoting your product/service for awhile and know your core audience well enough. If you haven’t, then you might want to skip this email or create a list of what you think they’re concerns might be and address them upfront.
These can be in any order – doubts, questions, fears, objections – and then lay them out in 1,2,3 fashion.
Begin the email with something like “I know you probably have some questions or doubts about _________ which is completely understandable. Most of our clients had the same questions and doubts that you do so we felt that could address them for you right now.” And then, just lay it all out.
You want to address these points now because if they are on your client’s mind then they will fester in their mind till they are resolved or addressed. If not, then it will create confusion for them and a confused mind never buys.
End the email with “If you have any doubts/questions/fears/objections that I didn’t address here then hit reply and ask me directly. I’ll get you an answer ASAP so that you can make the best decision for what’s best for you.”
If someone replies, then you’ve hit gold.
Even if they don’t buy, you can start collecting a list of doubts/questions/fears/objections that you can use in your marketing, going forward.
Urgent Clicker
By now, if your customer hasn’t bought then now is your chance to reengage their emotions.
This email is usually sent in the evening of Day 4 and will stress that time is running out.
You want to reengage the reader with a compelling vision from moving from the pain where they are now to the pleasure of achieving the benefit of your offer.
You also want to stress that time is running out and lead the way for the closing out of the promotional email sequence and stressing to take action now.
Email 5 & 6
This is it. It’s now or never.
And that is what you want to stress to the reader.
Send email 5 on Friday morning and send email 6 on Friday evening.
Email 5 lets the reader know that the promotion is ending. If they want to get that bonus, rate discount, special price/offer or whatever incentive tied with this promotion, then they need to act now.
Email 6 is to remind them that the offer is ending in a few hours. Reemphasize the benefits and the transformational power of your offer on the positive side of the emotional spectrum. On the other side of the emotional spectrum, you want to emphasize loss opportunity and regret in the form of price, value, and/or achieving their primary end-goal.
Use FOMO (fear of missing out) is a powerful incentive to get people off the fence and take action. Emphasize that once this offer is gone then so is the chance to make the change and/or achieve the results of your offer.
I like to remind them that if they are reading this far into the sequence then there is some part of them that this message resonates within them. If that it is true, then they owe it to themselves to take action and direct them to “click here now”.
Front-loading Attention
It’s worth noting that if you can “front-load” your marketing with content and/or studies about the benefits of your product/service prior to this promotion then it can increase your sales.
Studies have shown that by sending your list useful information geared towards helping your email list with any problem, not just tied to your promotional offer, you can greatly increase conversion.
Using this method and putting it in line with offering value by helping your customers you can lay the groundwork for greater sales and customer retention.
