An autoresponder series can be a great way to build a relationship and credibility with your prospects and to create a flurry of sales for your product or service. Of course, the copy you use is important.
But all too often, I see entrepreneurs and marketers shoot themselves in the foot with the same five non-copy mistakes…
1. Using just a first name or generic address on the “From” line. Studies show this is the first thing people look at before deciding whether to open an email now. If you’re a solopreneur, the best option is usually to use your name, first and last (it looks more personal) rather than a company name (obvious promotion).
2. Kicking off your email with a big graphic at the top. People are increasingly reading emails in the preview pane these days–and since images aren’t usually downloaded, all they see is an empty box or red x. So they end up seeing nothing in their preview pane…which isn’t exactly going to entice them to read more.
3. Trying to do too many things in one email…it’s best to stick with one main idea with one call to action and direct all the links toward that. The more extraneous things you add–especially when you add links with them–the more you slash your chances that they’ll go where you really want them to go.
4. Sending people to a home page instead of the exact sign-up, sales, or download page they need. You have to make it as easy as possible for them or they’ll wander off before they get there. So don’t make them wade through your site–link directly to where they need to go.
It’s also good to use a mix of hypertext links–such as www.compellingcomm.com–and text links–such as Copywriting & Marketing for Small Businesses.
5. Focusing too much on one tracking statistic. It goes without saying you should be tracking the performance of your emails. But total open rates alone aren’t going to tell you much, especially since the numbers aren’t very accurate due to the way opens are tracked.
Instead, you want to be sure to look at these three measures before deciding if an email is working or not:
- Unique open rate–to weed out those who open the message several times
- Click-through rates–since the email’s goal is usually to get the reader to click your links
- Unsubscribe rates–a high open rate may be useless if the email prompted many people to unsubscribe
So if your autoresponder series isn’t getting the results you’d hoped, check to see if you’re making any of these five mistakes. A few tweaks may be all it takes to boost your results.
