How to Use Email Autoresponders to Grow Your Revenue

Want to convert email subscribers into paying customers on autopilot? That’s what an Email Autoresponder does. It’s a sequence of automated emails that are sent to your new subscribers when they join. These emails, when done right, increase your sales and keep your subscribers engaged.

In this article, I will show you how you can create an email autoresponder that converts your email subscribers into revenue.

What Is an Email Autoresponder?

An email Autoresponder is a sequence of automated emails sent to your new email subscribers. The goal of these emails is to convert your subscribers into paying customers. When done right, it can increase your revenue tenfold and automate your online sales process.

Let me give you an example of what it looks like in action…

This is the first email DigitalMarketer sends you when you sign up for their email list:

This welcome email explains what DigitalMarketer is all about. It also tells you what type of emails you will receive in the future. This email is the first of many emails you receive from DigitalMarketer after you sign up.

The goal of your email series is to teach your customer how they can solve their problems (that are related to your product, of course) and win their trust. Once you get them on your side, you go for the sale and pitch them your product or service that will help them achieve their goals in less time and with less hassle. First, you wow them with amazing content. Then, you pitch them your products.

Although email Autoresponders work great for any business that has an email list, they work best for businesses that invest in content marketing (or blogging). Email Autoresponders are perfect for anyone who sells courses, ebooks, consulting services, software, or online services. An Email Autoresponder works even if you don’t have a product of your own. You can use it to promote affiliate products and automate the whole process.

Why Use Email Autoresponders?

Convincing someone to buy what you are selling can be really difficult. You can ask any salesperson you meet! It is especially hard if you are selling expensive products.

This is where email marketing comes in. It helps you eradicate all doubts and hesitations your prospects might have about buying your products. You get to connect with your audience and win their trust.

The difference between having an email autoresponder series or not can be thousands or even millions in the long run.

Here are some reasons why an email autoresponder is a necessity for any online business:

Automatically Convert Your Subscribers Into Customers

A good email autoresponder series will automatically convert some of your new subscribers into paying customers. If your autoresponder has a conversion rate of only 10%, then every 10th subscriber you add to your email list will probably become a paying customer. This can drive thousands of dollars in monthly revenue for your business automatically as more people sign up for your email list.

No Gatekeeper Fees

Every time you want to reach out to your customers on Facebook, you have to pay them to display ads. But once someone is on your list, you can promote your content and your products to them any time you want without running ads on Google or Facebook.

Automatic, Predictable Monthly Revenue

An email Autoresponder automates your sales process. Having a good Autoresponder in place means you will add new revenue to your business every time someone subscribes to your email list.

A lot of online businesses focus only on acquiring new email subscribers. Their email funnels have become so powerful after months of testing that every new subscriber they add automatically results in new revenue.

After a couple of months of running an autoresponder, you will be able to calculate how much money you are making each month and how much you can expect to make the next month.

Automate The Whole Buyer Journey

The best part about email Autoresponders is that you don’t have to stop after the welcome series. You can automate the whole process and create what’s known as a funnel. This way, your subscribers receive your best content automatically that keeps them engaged, and they automatically get pitched your other products they haven’t yet bought. You can create different funnels based on different buyer behaviors that cross-sell and up-sell automatically.

How To Add Thousands of New Subscribers Every Month

Once you have got yourself an Email Autoresponder series set up, the more email subscribers you add to your email list every month, the more money you will make.

This is where MailOptin shines! It can turn your website into a lead-generation machine that adds thousands of subscribers every month. You can also create an email autoresponder that automatically emails your leads or subscribers immediately after they signup to your email list.

It lets you create high-converting lead-generation forms that grab your reader’s attention such as this one:

The best part about MailOptin is that it comes with dozens of templates that you can choose from for many types of forms such as popups, embeds, notification bars, and slide-ins. All these templates are designed by professionals and are optimized for conversions.

It even lets you lock your content with an email-optin paywall that only allows visitors to read your content if they subscribe to your email list.

Your 5-Day Autoresponder Series

Let’s create a simple autoresponder email series where you first win over your new subscriber by introducing them to your best content. And then after the “value emails”, you go for the sale.

Email 1 – Welcome Email – The star of the show

The first email of your autoresponder is the most important of all. This is where you either turn your new subscriber into your latest fan or turn them off. The goal of this email is to connect with your subscribers and to make them want to open your future emails.

Here’s a great welcome email from DigitalMarketer:

What makes this email great is that it first introduces you to Ryan Deiss, the CEO of DigitalMarketer.

This email is written by Ryan Deiss and he welcomes you into his community. A personal touch like this goes a long way. Remember, you’re trying to build a relationship with your subscribers.

Then, he tells you why you should read his emails and what goal he can help you achieve:

He is trying to convince you that his next couple of emails will be worth your time. A bold claim like the one Ryan makes in this email is important. Your audience has been lied to again and again. They are looking for someone who can finally help them solve their problem once and for all. They are looking for a signal amidst all the noise.

He then talks about what to expect from his newsletter:

The goal of this section is to make your subscribers want to open your next email. Ryan talks about all the goodies you can expect to receive from his newsletter and why they are worth your time.

Finally, Ryan signs off after telling you to expect an email from him the next day:

This email is a perfect starting point for any online business. Steal it and make it your own!

Email 2 & 3 – Win Them Over

The goal of these two “value” emails is to show your subscribers that you can help them achieve their goals. If you sell a course on learning French in a month, then your emails might contain some case studies of methods from your course that helped your students achieve success.

If you don’t have any case studies, these emails could be helpful tips that are related to the problem your prospects/subscribers are trying to solve. If you are selling a book on weight loss, then you might talk about the biggest mistakes most beginners make and how they can be avoided. You could also talk about how it’s important to take small steps and what one step they can take right now.

If you want to win over your subscribers, you need to wow them with your best content. This is your shot! This is your chance to stand out and turn your new subscribers into fans who buy your courses, books, or anything else you might be selling.

Rather than create new content for your autoresponder, which is difficult and time-consuming, the best thing to do is to reuse your old content just to kick things off. You can always update your emails and improve them bit by bit with time!

To find your best content, ask yourself these questions:

What content does your blog audience like the most?

What page on your website is the most visited page?

What content have you received fan mails from your readers about?

Once you have picked out the two pieces of content you will use, you have two options:

• If your blog posts are short, you can just copy and paste their content into these emails.
• If your blog posts are long or include a lot of images, it’s best to write a short email about the subject of your blog post and link to it.

Once you have these two emails done, it’s time to pitch your product…

Email 4 – A soft pitch

This is where you pitch your product to your new subscribers for the first time. This will be a soft pitch where you talk about what your product or service is all about and how it can help your subscribers.

The best way to soft pitch is to wrap up your product announcement in a “value” email. This is exactly how Ramit Sethi does it for his course called Earnable:

In this email, Ramit doesn’t go on and on about his course. He announces the new course (as seen in the screenshot above) and then he talks about what’s included in it:

After a quick introduction to what he teaches in his course, he links to the landing page for it.

If you scroll past that, you will see some regular ol’ newsletter content:

This is the best way to do an initial soft pitch. Wrap it in content that your readers will enjoy.

Email 5 – The final pitch

This final email is also your final pitch for your product in this email series. The goal of this email is to convince your subscribers that your product can solve their problems and remove all doubts from their heads about buying your product.

Here’s the email Ramit Sethi sends about his course Earnable:

Ramit only allows people to enroll in his new courses for a limited time. He does it to create a sense of urgency. You don’t have to do it.

The reason why I am showing this email is that it’s a masterclass in writing email sales copy.

The first thing Ramit does is destroy all objections his subscribers might have about getting his course:

He even offers a 60-day money-back guarantee to get his subscribers who might be on the fence to trust him. He also talks about how he believes it’s possible for the reader because he’s helped thousands of others start their own business.

This is the goal of your pitch: Prove to your subscribers that you can help them solve their problems.

Next, he convinces his subscribers why now is the best time to take action:

If you don’t make your subscribers feel a sense of urgency, they will postpone purchasing your product indefinitely even if they love it. Remind them of the opportunity cost they are paying every day they aren’t using your product or service.

Ramit, then, nudges the reader towards taking action:

He talks about how this choice can mean the difference between living the same year again and again versus living the life of your dreams.

If you have a couple of positive testimonials from your customers, you should definitely add them to this email. They build trust and can double your conversion rate.

Finally, there’s a big blue Join button at the bottom of the email. Although there are lots of links throughout the email that lead you to the landing page for this course, Ramit added a big blue button at the end to make the action he wants his reader to take unmissable.

Upload Your Emails to Your Email Marketing Platform

The instructions for how to set this up with your email marketing platform will depend on what platform you use. Check out the documentation of your email marketing platform to learn more:

• ConvertKit
• MailChimp
• InfusionSoft
• GetResponse
• ActiveCampaign

FAQ

Do my emails need to look cool and have a great design like my competitors?

The best emails are plain text. I have unsubscribed from many newsletters that have great content just because their fancy emails were totally unreadable on my phone.

If you aren’t a web developer with years of experience, stay away from HTML emails. Stick to plain text emails. Most of your subscribers will read your emails on their phones anyway. Plain text emails are easy to read and feel more personal. That’s all you need when you are getting started.

How many emails should my Autoresponder have?

The goal is to deliver content that sweeps your subscribers off their feet before you pitch them your products. When it comes to Email Marketing, quality is much more important than quantity.

It is better to start with only a couple of emails that offer your best content. You can always improve your Autoresponder with time. Testing new things is how you improve the conversion rate of your email autoresponders.

Conclusion

Email autoresponders convert your subscribers into customers on autopilot. This can not only double your revenue but also makes it more predictable.

Why not create one for your business Today? Creating and setting up your first email autoresponder shouldn’t take you more than a couple of hours if you reuse your best content from your blog to save time.