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Digg it UP - How to Structure Your Follow-Up Sequence for Maximum Profit
Ellen was a clerk working for a large insurance company. One day, she spotted a glaring discrepancy in a form she was typing. Through a simple error, two figures had been transposed in a store owner's policy. In consequence, his store was insured for $165,000 against vandalism but only for $5 000 against fire. Her first instinct was to reach for the phone to inform her supervisor of the error, for the sake of the unfortunate store owner. "But wait a minute," she then thought to herself. "I'm not supposed to read these forms. I'm just supposed to check one column against another...If they're gonna give me a robot's job to do, I'm gonna do it like a robot." Author Barbara Garson describes this incident in a book called All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work. The kind of phenomenon illustrated by this stor
Follow-Up #2: Reinforce Benefits to Persuade Prospects
In most situations this message will be sent 3-5 days after the original request, so you want to elaborate on your previous offer by reinforcing the many benefits of your product. The entire email will stress the benefits they get from buying your product or doing business with you.
Benefits are what make your prospects desire your product. No-one ever purchases a product because of what it does (a feature), they do so for what it can do for them (a benefit). You can also incorporate benefits into bulleted lists.
Follow-Up #3: Pile On the Bonuses to Get Them Excited
Spend this message getting your prospects excited about what they'll get when they purchase from you. Even if this means they buy your product just for the bonuses, that shouldn't bother you.
You may also want to remind th
If you're about to start a business (or approach a financial institution for funding to expand your existing business), then you must have a business plan. Your plan allows you to set your goals, assess your strengths and address your weaknesses.You wouldn't set out on a journey not knowing where you were going, yet many people establish a business with no real concept of what they want to achieve or how they'll achieve it.The outline below shows what you need to include in your business plan; use it to gather the appropriate information so that you get your business off to the best start.EXECUTIVE SUMMARYQuote (about your vision for the business)What already existsThe niche -- as you see it and benefits your business will bringType of business proposed -- benefits you will bring to the market nicheOverall financial goa
Autoresponders can also be triggered from a form on your web site, where the visitor will enter his email address (and his name too if requested) and receive the autoresponse straight away.
Many autoresponders on the market today are "sequential autoresponders", and save contact information in a database so it can send further messages to your prospects at intervals you specify (such as two days, five days and seven days later).
Here is an example of a message sent by a modern autoresponder:
Dear John Doe,
Thank you for requesting more information
on our products earlier.
I have attached to this email a document containing our
price listings for August's catalogue of products. Please
read through it in your own time John.
I will get back to you the same time on Wednesday with our
special offers. Feel free to send me an email or call me
on 000-000-0000 if you would to discuss your needs.
Thanks again,
Max Weber
ShareHobby.com
Here is a typical sequence for following up prospects who have requested more info:
1st Message Sent Immediately
2nd Message Sent 2 Days Later
3rd Message Sent 5 Days Later
4th Message Sent 8 Days Later
5th Message Sent 12 Days Later
6th Message Sent 16 Days Later
7th Message Sent 20 Days Later
When setting up your own follow-up sequence, remember that there are golden rules and that the only factors that affect your sequence is your product and your market.
Imagine you target Internet business owners. You may send your messages to these prospects within a shorter time frame than you would if you were targeting a more generalized market (who aren't so likely to check their email on a daily basis).
How about if you were selling a report on how to create response-generating mini-sites for $19.97? Would your follow-up sequence need to spend as much time selling your product as it would if you sold copywriting services to large web business developers, for example, who want to boost the response of their web sites.
Below, I will summarize a sample sequence suitable for following up prospects who have requested information on a particular product of yours.
Autoresponse: Thank Prospect for Requesting Information
The aim of this autoresponse is to thank your prospect for requesting information and introduce your web site or product to them. It is important in this message you outline the major benefits of your product and tell them what's in it for them.
Remember at all times, that your prospects wants to know what your product can do for them, so don't spend the majority of your message introducing your company, instead focus on what you and your product can do for them.
Follow-Up #1: Introduce a Deadline or Time-Limited Offer
After a day or two, your prospect can easily forget about you and your products. So your aim here is to not just remind them of your offer but also to make them feel, "Hmm, I better get this before it's too late".
This can be achieved by using a form of scarcity, such as offering a special discount for a limited time only. Perhaps there are only a 17 seats left at a seminar you are promoting, or maybe there are only 200 copies of your book printed. Again, within this message remind them what your product will do for them.
Follow-Up #2: Reinforce Benefits to Persuade Prospects
In most situations this message will be sent 3-5 days after the original request, so you want to elaborate on your previous offer by reinforcing the many benefits of your product. The entire email will stress the benefits they get from buying your product or doing business with you.
Benefits are what make your prospects desire your product. No-one ever purchases a product because of what it does (a feature), they do so for what it can do for them (a benefit). You can also incorporate benefits into bulleted lists.
Follow-Up #3: Pile On the Bonuses to Get Them Excited
Spend this message getting your prospects excited about what they'll get when they purchase from you. Even if this means they buy your product just for the bonuses, that shouldn't bother you.
You may also want to remind the
Do you have a mission statement? What do you do with it? It is painted in your lobby, saved as a screen saver on your computer, tattooed on your arm? There are lots of opinions about the value mission statements offer to a company’s success. In Denise O’Berry’s posting “Do I Need a Mission Statement for My Small Business?” she says:“The Sun Online Agency was commissioned to conduct a survey studying Fortune 1000 companies looking for trends over a 1 and 5 year period. The study was conducted through extensive online research along with a number of company interviews. Although 90% of the highest growth companies for 2006 had published mission statements, the most surprising difference was noted while looking at long-term growth over a 5-year period, where 98% of the 50 most profitable Fortune 1000 companies have mission statements in place.” http://www.allbusiness
I have attached to this email a document containing our
price listings for August's catalogue of products. Please
read through it in your own time John.
I will get back to you the same time on Wednesday with our
special offers. Feel free to send me an email or call me
on 000-000-0000 if you would to discuss your needs.
Thanks again,
Max Weber
ShareHobby.com
Here is a typical sequence for following up prospects who have requested more info:
1st Message Sent Immediately
2nd Message Sent 2 Days Later
3rd Message Sent 5 Days Later
4th Message Sent 8 Days Later
5th Message Sent 12 Days Later
6th Message Sent 16 Days Later
7th Message Sent 20 Days Later
When setting up your own follow-up sequence, remember that there are golden rules and that the only factors that affect your sequence is your product and your market.
Imagine you target Internet business owners. You may send your messages to these prospects within a shorter time frame than you would if you were targeting a more generalized market (who aren't so likely to check their email on a daily basis).
How about if you were selling a report on how to create response-generating mini-sites for $19.97? Would your follow-up sequence need to spend as much time selling your product as it would if you sold copywriting services to large web business developers, for example, who want to boost the response of their web sites.
Below, I will summarize a sample sequence suitable for following up prospects who have requested information on a particular product of yours.
Autoresponse: Thank Prospect for Requesting Information
The aim of this autoresponse is to thank your prospect for requesting information and introduce your web site or product to them. It is important in this message you outline the major benefits of your product and tell them what's in it for them.
Remember at all times, that your prospects wants to know what your product can do for them, so don't spend the majority of your message introducing your company, instead focus on what you and your product can do for them.
Follow-Up #1: Introduce a Deadline or Time-Limited Offer
After a day or two, your prospect can easily forget about you and your products. So your aim here is to not just remind them of your offer but also to make them feel, "Hmm, I better get this before it's too late".
This can be achieved by using a form of scarcity, such as offering a special discount for a limited time only. Perhaps there are only a 17 seats left at a seminar you are promoting, or maybe there are only 200 copies of your book printed. Again, within this message remind them what your product will do for them.
Follow-Up #2: Reinforce Benefits to Persuade Prospects
In most situations this message will be sent 3-5 days after the original request, so you want to elaborate on your previous offer by reinforcing the many benefits of your product. The entire email will stress the benefits they get from buying your product or doing business with you.
Benefits are what make your prospects desire your product. No-one ever purchases a product because of what it does (a feature), they do so for what it can do for them (a benefit). You can also incorporate benefits into bulleted lists.
Follow-Up #3: Pile On the Bonuses to Get Them Excited
Spend this message getting your prospects excited about what they'll get when they purchase from you. Even if this means they buy your product just for the bonuses, that shouldn't bother you.
You may also want to remind th
Introduction:I was just studing a E-course about the amazing concept of Affiliate Marketing and decided I needed to get this info out to as many people as possible.We will take a short look at these three topics, the Who – What – Why, of Affiliate Marketing in reverse order.The Why of Affiliate Marketing:Whether it is extra income or full time income, one of the main reasons why, of course, is to make money. A second reason would be to try out different niche markets and some marketing ideas you may have for those niche markets.The What of Affiliate Marketing:For some of you affiliate marketing is a mystery or at least a not completely understood concept. Let me explain it to you with a story. Mr. Jones is a business owner and has a great product or service that you have ideally used yourself, or at least know someone who has, an
Imagine you target Internet business owners. You may send your messages to these prospects within a shorter time frame than you would if you were targeting a more generalized market (who aren't so likely to check their email on a daily basis).
How about if you were selling a report on how to create response-generating mini-sites for $19.97? Would your follow-up sequence need to spend as much time selling your product as it would if you sold copywriting services to large web business developers, for example, who want to boost the response of their web sites.
Below, I will summarize a sample sequence suitable for following up prospects who have requested information on a particular product of yours.
Autoresponse: Thank Prospect for Requesting Information
The aim of this autoresponse is to thank your prospect for requesting information and introduce your web site or product to them. It is important in this message you outline the major benefits of your product and tell them what's in it for them.
Remember at all times, that your prospects wants to know what your product can do for them, so don't spend the majority of your message introducing your company, instead focus on what you and your product can do for them.
Follow-Up #1: Introduce a Deadline or Time-Limited Offer
After a day or two, your prospect can easily forget about you and your products. So your aim here is to not just remind them of your offer but also to make them feel, "Hmm, I better get this before it's too late".
This can be achieved by using a form of scarcity, such as offering a special discount for a limited time only. Perhaps there are only a 17 seats left at a seminar you are promoting, or maybe there are only 200 copies of your book printed. Again, within this message remind them what your product will do for them.
Follow-Up #2: Reinforce Benefits to Persuade Prospects
In most situations this message will be sent 3-5 days after the original request, so you want to elaborate on your previous offer by reinforcing the many benefits of your product. The entire email will stress the benefits they get from buying your product or doing business with you.
Benefits are what make your prospects desire your product. No-one ever purchases a product because of what it does (a feature), they do so for what it can do for them (a benefit). You can also incorporate benefits into bulleted lists.
Follow-Up #3: Pile On the Bonuses to Get Them Excited
Spend this message getting your prospects excited about what they'll get when they purchase from you. Even if this means they buy your product just for the bonuses, that shouldn't bother you.
You may also want to remind th
“Networking” has become one the sales bywords in recent years. Many will tell you that the key to building your sales is to “network” effectively. There is no question that building a strong network can be incredibly helpful to your sales efforts. Nevertheless, many people in sales face the same difficulties in networking that they face in cold-calling. It sounds great, yet for some reason they just don’t seem to be able to do it effectively. Let’s look at some of the factors and see if we can debunk some of this.Exactly what is “networking?” The first thing comes to mind for many salespeople is that networking about finding customers without having to make cold calls! A common perception is that networking means going to a lot of events, meeting as many people as you can (also called “working the room”), handing out your business cards to “qualified” prospects
Remember at all times, that your prospects wants to know what your product can do for them, so don't spend the majority of your message introducing your company, instead focus on what you and your product can do for them.
Follow-Up #1: Introduce a Deadline or Time-Limited Offer
After a day or two, your prospect can easily forget about you and your products. So your aim here is to not just remind them of your offer but also to make them feel, "Hmm, I better get this before it's too late".
This can be achieved by using a form of scarcity, such as offering a special discount for a limited time only. Perhaps there are only a 17 seats left at a seminar you are promoting, or maybe there are only 200 copies of your book printed. Again, within this message remind them what your product will do for them.
Follow-Up #2: Reinforce Benefits to Persuade Prospects
In most situations this message will be sent 3-5 days after the original request, so you want to elaborate on your previous offer by reinforcing the many benefits of your product. The entire email will stress the benefits they get from buying your product or doing business with you.
Benefits are what make your prospects desire your product. No-one ever purchases a product because of what it does (a feature), they do so for what it can do for them (a benefit). You can also incorporate benefits into bulleted lists.
Follow-Up #3: Pile On the Bonuses to Get Them Excited
Spend this message getting your prospects excited about what they'll get when they purchase from you. Even if this means they buy your product just for the bonuses, that shouldn't bother you.
You may also want to remind th
You have either started a new business, decided to get your financial information in order for your existing business or your tax preparer has announced that he/she won’t do your tax return anymore if you bring in one more year’s receipts in a shoebox or plastic bag. So on the recommendation of friends, business associates, accountant, or other professional in the know you have purchased QuickBooks. And if you are like most people you have installed it on your computer with great expectations. But you don’t have a clue about bookkeeping and so getting started is not so easy. What are items you ask. I am already part through my year – when and how do I start my beginning balances? Do I need inventory? So many questions and so little time.New owners of QuickBooks usually take one of several paths. The most common I have seen is to use only the checkbook and invoicing fe
Follow-Up #2: Reinforce Benefits to Persuade Prospects
In most situations this message will be sent 3-5 days after the original request, so you want to elaborate on your previous offer by reinforcing the many benefits of your product. The entire email will stress the benefits they get from buying your product or doing business with you.
Benefits are what make your prospects desire your product. No-one ever purchases a product because of what it does (a feature), they do so for what it can do for them (a benefit). You can also incorporate benefits into bulleted lists.
Follow-Up #3: Pile On the Bonuses to Get Them Excited
Spend this message getting your prospects excited about what they'll get when they purchase from you. Even if this means they buy your product just for the bonuses, that shouldn't bother you.
You may also want to remind them that these bonuses can only be guaranteed for a certain number of days. Again, using scarcity in this way will make them want to act fast if they wish to get the bonuses.
Follow-Up #4: Build Value by Comparing Your Product
A common rule of thumb is that while your prospects will base their decisions on emotions, they will justify it with logic. What this means, is that even though they might like your product, they may not want to buy it purely on impulse.
An easy way to convince your prospect your product is great value is to compare apples to oranges. Let's say you were selling the report on how to create response-generating web sites. You can compare purchasing your report to paying an experienced (and rather costly) web designer to design one web site for you. By doing so, you immediately prove the value of your product.
Follow-Up #5: Boost Desire with Glowing Testimonials
It's a known fact that your prospects will trust you far more if you give examples of what other people have said about your company and product. Your prospects might think you could lie to them because it's your own product, but they won't think the other person is lying, because he or she has nothing to gain by doing so.
If you don't have any testimonials for your product, ask your customers! Be straight and tell your customers that you need some honest comments and reviews of your product. There's nothing more to it.
Also consider adding a link to the customer's web site or email address to add the final bond of trust that will secure your credibility and convince your prospects that you're "the real thing".
Follow-Up #6: Demand Action and Remind of Deadline
This final step of your sequence is what makes or breaks the sale. Since nobody likes to make a decision, especially when money is involved, you must help them by making it crystal clear what you're offering and how it'll benefit the prospect.
Once you've reminded them of what they'll miss out on if they don't take action, make it absolutely clear what to do next, even if it's just a "Click here to order over our secure server before its too late" line of copy.
Remember that even when the follow-up sequence is complete your prospects are still very valuable to you, whether they purchase your product or not, and should be contacted (using your autoresponder's "broadcast" feature) on a regular basis to let them know of web site updates, new products, etc.
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