Picking up from where I left off in my previous post: How To Build Your Business On Autopilot, I want to share with you the second step in Attraction Marketing: that is, to build a relationship with your list.
You have to understand that people will join you effortlessly when their needs match your offer and you don’t need to convince them that you have the best offer on the planet. It’s important that you show them that you care and you have their best interests at heart.
Are Your Follow-up Messages Making You Money?
Now, when you let people into your world with your follow-up and broadcast messages, your goal should be to provide a warm, unique, personal and professional environment. This is so key to keeping your list “happy” and interested in getting to know you more and in your offer(s).
Here are some strategies that you can implement in your email marketing campaigns:
1) Use the first 7 days after they opt-in to win your prospects over. Be sure to have “killer” follow-up messages.
2) Use attention-grabbing subject lines to get your subscribers to open and read your messages.
3) Learn copywriting skills and use words such as “important”, “exciting”, “amazing” and so on.
3) Allow people to “know” you and put your contact details including phone number and your picture in your signature link.
4) Involve your list: ask questions and make them feel that their answers and feedback are very important to you.
5) Just like blogging and article marketing, formatting (bold, italic, underline etc.) is very important in your messages – it makes easy reading.
6) Start with the punch line. Put your important points, call to action and links above the fold as some people never bother to scroll down. You can repeat the same information below the fold as well.
7) Use the right tone. Don’t talk down or be rude to your subscribers.
8 Avoid using big words. Your subscribers will not be interested in referring to a dictionary every time they receive your e-mails.
9) Don’t bore your subscribers with long e-mails. They also need to get on with their day, so get to the point! Short paragraphs and bullet points work well.
10) Use “P.S.“ at the end of your messages for the “juicy” information, reminders, offers and so forth. Let’s face it, it’s not like people read an entire e-mail word for word, unless it’s a very interesting story. They may read the subject line, first paragraph, bullet points and the P.S. So, take advantage of these areas to get your message across.
You now know how to write your messages – the big question now is, what do you write about?
Some companies do provide ready-made follow-up messages for their members and they don’t have to do a thing, except to upload the relevant code into their auto responder accounts.
I personally recommend creating your own messages to have full control over your list, brand yourself and make communicating with your list very personal. I know, it’s time consuming but worth it – it does increase your conversions.
Your goal should be to educate, empower, enlighten, entertain and inspire your list and you can achieve that with your own messages. You don’t want to bore people with the information about your company, products and comp plan all the time 
You also need to have a good email sequence.
Here’s what to write about and share with your list:
1) Marketing strategies and updates, insights and skills to help people in their businesses. Throw in affiliate links where relevant. Announce new products or strategies in the industry.
2) Blog posts - Aweber has a blog broadcast feature which allows you to automatically broadcast your newly published posts to your list, using an excerpt. Your subscribers will then be redirected to your original post, which means more traffic to your blog!
3) Value-based content - broadcast your press releases, articles and videos and always ask your list to leave you comments and share with their friends.
4) Business information - share your primary business and the benefits of working with you. Don’t try to convince or beg them. Refer them to the relevant business sites and let them make their own decisions without you overloading them with too much information.
5) Stories and pictures - people love stories and pictures. When you share these, you show your list that you are a real person and you allow them to get to know you better.
6) Results - show your list the success that you are creating in your business. Capture your top position on the leader board, your big cheque and the like and send the screenshots to your list.
7) Industry Events - invite your subscribers to meet you at the industry events. You show them that you value your relationship with them and you would really like to meet them in person and the events are the perfect opportunity to make that happen.
8 Mindset & Leadership Lessons – when you share these lessons, always show your list how they have personally helped you in your life and business; very powerful!
9) Webinars – invite your list to your own and company webinars so that they can get to know more about what you do, what your company is all about and ask any questions they may have.
10) Resend good messages over time to make sure that they get read and move people to do business with you.
Remember that it is the information that you send to your list that brings you sign-ups and sales, so it’s important to get it right if you want life-long profits.
You now have so much to share with you list, don’t you? However you may be wondering about how often you should write to your list – daily, once a week, twice a week…? Read more about that here: How Often Should You Email Your List?
If you have more email marketing strategies, please share them in the comment box below 
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Happy Email Marketing!
Professional Internet Marketer
Certified Marketing Consultant
Mavis Nong is the creator and author of this blog.
She is passionate about helping others create success online.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Mavis,
wow, what a wealth of information. I also made the experience that a nice PS usually catches the attention of the reader. And AWeber's blog post distribution is really awesome.
Thanks for sharing your ideas.
Take care
Oliver
First of all, thanks for the link, Mavis – you are my biggest fan!
I absolutely agree that it's MUCH BETTER to create your own autoresponder.
Canned company messages tend to sound very “salesy” and do not brand you in any way.
Also, I did a little experiment on my blog: I created 2 lists. One of the lists has autoresponder messages sent out at certain intervals, whereas the other one was just broadcasts and no canned messages. My unsubscribe rate dropped down SIGNIFICANTLY, plus the open rate are much bigger with the second list.
Great post, Mavis; love your tips.
Ana Hoffman
Hi Ana,
I have a number of list and been thinking about scrubbing them. Not sure how to do it yet.
But your comment is making me think more about it.
Are the list names similar? Do your readers know they are coming from two different lists?
thank you,
Jeff Faldalen
Jeff Faldalen invites you to check..How to get free traffic to your blog in 4 simple step
Hey Mavis,
This is a list of information! I would package this up and use for list building.
Have a great weekend!
Josh
Excellent post Mavis.
P.S. Canned messages are being overused and many readers are tuning out, Canned messages is not branding yourself but branding someone else's system.
P.S. P.S. I just wanted to use a P.S.
Nice Mavis,
This is a very complete list of do's and don'ts.
Number 7 made me smile. ” Use the right tone. Don’t talk down or be rude to your subscribers.” Aw, come on.
Love this post, gave me a couple of ideas too!
Susanna
hi Mavis that's about as comprehensive as it gets!
Great post thanks
Kiaran
Hey Mavis,
Great list!! I try to follow this list each time I write a blog post. You're right about keeping them interested and involved in your post. You want them to keep coming back to your post as well as sharing it. Thanks for sharing!!
Sherman
My pleasure, Oliver. Yes, P.S. works well when used properly.
Thanks for the visit and for your comment.
All the best,
Mavis
You're welcome, Ana! Your content is awesome!
Yes, “salesy” messages turn people off.
Thanks for sharing your experiment results. Now, we know what subscribers like
I appreciate your visit and input.
All the best,
Mavis
Hi Josh,
I'm glad you found this useful.
Have a great one too!
All the best,
Mavis
Hi Peter,
Yes, canned company messages are not effective and people turn off to.
Thanks for the visit and comment.
All the best,
Mavis
P.S. Thanks for using P.S.
You'd be surprised, Susanna. Some people don't use the right tone in their e-mails.
Thanks for stopping and for your kind words.
All the best,
Mavis
My pleasure, Kiaran.
Thanks for stopping by and for your comment.
All the best,
Mavis
Hi Sherman,
I'm glad you found this useful.
Thanks for the visit and comment.
All the best,
Mavis
I don't know how many network marketers out there wouldn't want to know more about this.
I'm sure glad you shared this because recently I was talking to someone in how to effectively leverage email marketing.
One of the biggest ones was copywriting, and sure enough, you spoke about this as well.
Thanks Mavis…
Jerome Ratliff
Brilliant advice as always Mavis! Regarding the “Avoid using big words” tip…from this point forward I'm going to avoid using “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” in all my email messages!!! LOL
Hi Mavis, good advices, and I like your point about “copyrighting skills”. I think it is a big point when you create your own content. It could be a real disaster if you don't own that skill!!
Thanks
Dave B
Thanks for your kind words, Jerome.
I appreciate your visit.
All the best,
Mavis
LOL! Thanks for the visit and comment. It put a smile on my face
All the best,
Mavis
Hi Dave,
Welcome to my blog!
Yes, mastering copywriting is important in our industry. Your goal is to hit your prospects with the right words!
I appreciate your visit and comment.
All the best,
Mavis
definitely a good resource for advanced affiliate marketing! I’ve been practicing a lot on this method (given that it’s very vital), but what really bothers me most about this marketing strategy is the timing of automating the email messages sent to your subscribers, of course I don’t want to have my messages flagged as spam, knowing that I tend to mark so many e-marketing mails on my personal email, which makes it much harder to decide on what to do with it.
Regards,
Jason
Hey Jason,
The key is to put yourself in your subscribers’ shoes… Would you want to be bombarded with emails? You don’t want to overdo things and at the same time you don’t want to be a stranger, i.e. send them messages once in a while – they will forget all about you. You can also test different intervals to see what works best. Hope that helps
All the best,
Mavis
Is really newsletter worth the time and effort? It feels like we have learned to sort out “buy this” newsletters before we read the company’s name.
Newsletter marketing is effective, Henrik.
HI Mavis,
Great article about the importance of building a list.
I hope most people realize the list is your greatest asset and should be treated as such
I have found emailing on weekends and 5am EST Tues-Thurs I get the best response
Mavis thank you for your contribution,
Jeff
Jeff Faldalen invites you to check..How to build self-confidence like Real Steel
I couldn’t agree with you more, Jeff.
Thanks for sharing your strategies. I have been trying different times too.
All the best,
Mavis
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