If you remember, the majority of people (as much as 98%) need to see your sales message more than once before they even think about going ahead and buying. This is applicable to practically every single market. With most autoresponders you can follow up with your prospect, not just once but also as many times as it is necessary!

Frequency and consistency are crucial!

Does following up really get results?

Absolutely!

While most people understand the concept that using an autoresponder saves a lot of time by putting one's business on autopilot, they might not understand how autoresponders can make a significant improvement in sales.

In less than 6 months I've made $8,350.82 in sales to my tiny list of just 1600 subscribers. Now maybe that doesnt sound like much to some of you but lets do some math to clarify the effectiveness of email marketing.

If we break that down you'll find that the value of my opt-in list is approximately $0.87 per subscriber per month. Now lets look at something else. I'm currently building my list at a rate of about 178 subscribers per month. Assuming I keep the same opt-in conversion rate and the same subscriber value lets look at what the future could
hold

In 2 years 5,867 subscribers
In 3 years 8,003 subscribers
In 5 years 12,275 subscribers (or $10,697.25 per month)

Obviously, you cannot absolutely compute the value or the size of your list on past performance. You should, however, base your future marketing campaigns on past campaigns and make adjustments. You should always strive for improvement and should never stop testing.

After a prospect asks for more information on your offer via your autoresponder, it can automatically deliver your series of pre-written follow-up email messages in preset intervals. By creating a sense of urgency (such as by making your offer time-sensitive), or a sense of scarcity your follow-up email messages can help emphasize that urgency or scarcity in subsequent mailings and add significant influence to your offer! Your follow-ups can push (or gently nudge) your prospects into action.

Plus, by adding an extra incentive with each mailing, your offer becomes more valuable and more difficult to ignore. These additional bonuses can simply be comprised of special reports, articles, ebooks, freeware, reviews or even courses delivered incrementally via your autoresponder.

"IMPORTANT" - don't forget to remove them from the system once they become clients. Most autoresponder services and software allow you to do that automatically.

How to Write Effective, Sales-Generating Emails

Writing an effective, response-generating email ad, whether it's a small, six-line ad or a full-length "solo" ad, is not as hard as it seems. One easy way to create a good newsletter ad that pulls is through the tried-and-true AIDA method. AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action and is a smart blueprint for creating a winning
ad. Here is how it works:

Attention:                                                                                                                                                 

THE FIRST THING YOU HAVE TO DO IS GRAB THEIR ATTENTION!

Only if you are able to do that quickly will you be able to get possible customers interested in what you have to sell. Conversely, if you fail to grab their attention they will never see what it is you are offering because of the headlines, stories and full-page ads you are competing against. So you must first grab their attention.

Here are some examples:

1. "Amazing Techniques Relieve Back Pain Immediately!"

2. "Make Your Computer As Easy To Use As A Telephone!"

3. "Save 50 Percent On Office Supplies  Today Only!"

4. "The Lazy Man's Guide to Riches!"

When writing your attention-grabbing headline, remember that the benefits most likely to get attention are saving money, saving time, making money and better health.

Interest and Desire:

Once you have gotten the reader's attention, you use the body of the ad to sell them. You do so by making a compelling offer that describes as many benefits as possible in simple and interesting terms. Explain how what you are offering solves a problem the customer has. The body of your ad needs to be well written and clearly explain the benefits of the product while keeping the reader's attention.

Action:

Finally, you need a call to action  you must ask for the order. Give customers reasons to buy now, and make it easy for them to do so. It might be a coupon, a toll-free number, an e-mail address, an on-line order form, a fax order line or some other method that makes it easy and simple to order. You can take the fear out of the purchase by offering guarantees, testimonials and otherwise showing the customer that he is going to lose if he doesn't order NOW!

If you follow the AIDA formula, your ad will work.

Let's take a look at these steps in a little more detail. Here's an example of an ezine ad that I used about a year ago

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WHAT DO THEY KNOW THAT YOU DON'T? If you are making less than $10,000 a month online you have ONE problem ... the RIGHT information! Forget the free eBooks that make promises they can't keep. Learn what works and start building YOUR business today. Make this your best year ever!
http://www.milliondollarmarketingstrategies.com/
--------------------------------------------------

1. The Headline
WHAT DO THEY KNOW THAT YOU DON'T?

For starters, this ad has a headline that really peaks the curiosity of the reader and makes you want to read more. Human psychology is a strange and wonderful thing and the human ego is a powerful force. When you influence that ego in your favor then your ad is going to pull in readers.

The headline entices you with a powerful statement and makes you curious. In fact, an attention-grabbing headline is proven to result in as much as a 1,700% boost in response rate!

2. Interest and Desire

---------------------------------------------------------
If you are making less than $10,000 a month online you have ONE problem ... the RIGHT information! Forget the free eBooks that make promises they can't keep. Learn what works and start building YOUR business today.
---------------------------------------------------------

The body of the ad then builds even more curiosity. The targeted reader is saying to themselves I dont even make any where near that. What do they know that I dont?. And then it pushes a "hot button" by stating a problem and offering a solution...

3. Action

Make this your best year ever!

The problem is solved but only if the prospect takes your solution... And it may not be enough. So, the trick, here, is to increase desire by conveying more benefits of your offer.

Don't think youre being pushy be telling the prospect what step to take next. Tell them exactly what to do. It is, after all, the most vital step to follow. This can be as simple as telling the reader to visit your website right now
or to email an autoresponder address. Remember, if the reader of your email doesnt take the action you want them to then youve lost out.

Using Power Words in Your Ads and Emails

Words that help increase interest, curiosity and desire are those that help to paint dramatic pictures in the mind, and offer some kind of direct incentive or reward to the reader.

For example, some words are proven to "pull" more, such as: "discount," "guarantee" and "free." But obviously, no incentive can be more direct than one with the word "free" in it!

While I may offer a free version of my software, you may offer a free report, a free ebook or a free ezine, then use it in your email ad for your autoresponder.

Creating a Sense of Urgency

Another effective strategy to use in your email promotions is to create scarcity with your ad or add a sense of urgency. Make the offer time-sensitive or quantity-bound. The more you do, the more responses you will get. Just one thing keep your word. If you say the offer is going to end when 25 are sold then make sure your offer ends when 25 are sold.

Online marketers are savvy and will not fall for empty promises and marketing tricks to get them to take out their credit cards. Youll find that you will have more success and a better conversion rate when your subscribers find out you really mean it when you put a deadline or other restriction on your offer.

Urgency is Where It's At!

Let's say you've purchased space for a solo ad in an ezine and wanted to expand the above ad. The easiest way to do this would be to add more benefits and maybe a few testimonials.

But another effective way is to also add scarcity into your ad in order to give the reader one really big reason to respond NOW! For example, you might add the following note to the ad...

---------------------------------------------------------
Please note: this special price is only available for the readers of [ezine] until [future date]. After that date,
however, we will be raising it to the ordinary price and may never repeat this offer again! So, please act today.

Studies have actually shown that people will work harder to keep from losing $1000 than they will to make $10,000.00 Its crazy but its reality. Thats why the scarcity factor is such a powerful factor. Just make SURE you keep your word.

A final addition to your solo ad should definitely be a "P.S." at the end. A "P.S." is usually the second most read part of your letter (after the headline, of course).

Use one (or more) to not only highlight the main benefits or even a guarantee, but also to remind readers of a deadline or to reinforce the urgency  maybe with an added bonus.

Here's how you could use one if you were selling an ebook...

P.S.: As an added incentive, you get 30 extra days to review this information. If it's not everything you've
hoped for and more, I urge you to contact us right away and we'll refund you on the spot and let you keep the free gifts! However, this additional incentive is offered only for the first 500 visitors. So, you must hurry and act now!

Follow these four simple steps and you'll be able to create a powerful email ad to advertise your autoresponder in... One that will generate tons of visitors and sales every time!

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