One of the best tools in an online marketing arsenal is email marketing.
Email may seem old fashioned, but the truth is that nearly every web user has an email address.
Not only is that the case, but nearly every web user checks their email regularly.
Social media might be the king of the online world right now, but email has been around for a long time and it will be in the future. Even those social media sites require an email address for access.
And email is better for marketers to because when someone gives you permission to enter their inbox you’re getting access to a communication channel that is free of many barriers.
You control your email channel. It’s different that social media where the social networks control the the platforms. You can’t control how Facebook changes. You can’t control what Twitter does.
But you do control your own email marketing program.
An email tool that can take a new website visitor to a new customer is the auto-responder series.
Auto-Responder Emails
You may know about auto-responder emails. Maybe you’ve even tried your own or have been on the receiving end of a series. Auto-responder email is a series of emails that you create and automate to send to new subscribers.
Let’s say you sign up for a free guide on social media. The first email you get instantly after signing up has your free guide. But that’s usually not the last email you get. Two days later you probably received an email with a bonus guide or another piece of content that offered more good information and help.
A week after that maybe you got an email from the sender telling you a little bit about them. They told you about the company and the people that work there. It’s another phase in the introduction.
From there maybe they send one last email a few days later introducing the service they provide and how it could help you with what you’re doing.
That’s how auto-responders work. They take some effort to create, but if you have a business blog then you already have all the content you need to create a great auto-responder series.
Using Blog Posts To Create An Email Series
First, consider the typical conversation you have with someone that first finds out about your business. At this point they may or may not find a potential interest in what you’re doing. You either realize that what you do doesn’t relate to them and you talk about something different or you start talking a little more about what you do.
From that discovery stage in the conversation all the way through to the point where the person makes a purchase is how you can setup your auto-responder.
Only you know what your sales process is like, but I’ll give you an example.
A plumbing company has been putting together blog posts for some time. They have blog posts that cover a variety of topics for their potential customers. These posts touch on all different topics.
The plumbing company finds that a lot of potential customers are interested in the best bathroom fixtures. So the plumbing company looks in its archives and finds that they did a post on this very topic.
They make this post the enticing offer for their auto-responder series. They promote it on their website as a free guide to the best bathroom fixtures – everything you need to know. They can promote this guide on social media and anywhere else they market online.
People can signup and get the guide and then they’re in the email auto-responder series.
The second item in the series is a post on common bathroom problems and preventative maintenance.
The third post the plumbing company uses in the guide is a post on designing a bathroom to be more efficient.
A fourth post talks about the plumbing company and the services they offer. You see by this point the person that signed up for the email series feels a great deal of goodwill toward the brand. They’ve been getting all this great content.
Finally, a fifth email offers the call to action. The plumbing company asks the person if they’re interested in a free consultation about a bathroom renovation.
It’s the sales process in action, but done via email and done with blog posts that already exist.
Conclusion
Email auto-responder series do take some effort to setup. You have to understand your customer and your sales process. You have to provide useful information and answers to common questions just as you would if you were talking to a potential customer in person.
But you do this already with your blog posts. Take a few of those blog posts and turn them into an auto-responder.
You’ll setup a virtual salesperson that will always be working for your company for anyone that visits your website.
From there you’ll just have to increase your email signups.