How To Use Autoresponders and Drip Content to Make Your Readers Love You

Avoid the Obvious. Your automatic response is going to be sure to annoy if it tells the recipient something they already know or could easily assume. - A. Dachis

Concision is your friend when writing emails, and this couldn’t be more true with auto-responders.

Use Humor. Nothing erases a bad feeling like a little humor. When you’re feeling upset, frustrated, or any kind of negative, a good laugh or even a smile can cheer you up. That’s why crafting an auto-response with a little humor can deter the hate it automatically inspires.

Just telling stories. Including anecdotes in your emails will keep your readers engaged. Everyone loves a good story. - D.G. Masters

When it comes to writing for the web, it’s best to aim at the shorter end of this spectrum. Forty five characters per line is ideal.

Alternatively, you can share your content on a blog or website, and include an enticing introduction to the content, and a link to the content, in your emails.

Foreshadowing. Don’t write each email in isolation. Instead, create links between your emails. If you know the Day Four email in your sequence will rock the world of your readers, let them know on Day One.

Cliffhangers. You must deliver value in every email. But that doesn’t mean you have to give away everything at once. Instead, drip-feed information to your readers.

Look out for blips in performance, as these are signs that you need to tweak things. Once you’ve pinpointed where things are going wrong, you can adjust your content as needed.

The copy of each of the emails must be crafted carefully because it can be really easy to sound like you’re just leading up to a product, in which case the emails can be a real turn-off and you’ll find a lot of your subscribers will unsubscribe from your list. - P. Flynn

If you blatantly tell subscribers that they will get promotional emails from you, then those who sign up will expect it – no harm, no foul.

By “engage” I mean actually trying to get a response from my subscribers in a few of the emails. This makes people feel like they are involved with the content on my blog (which they are, because I’m in fact using a lot of the responses as inspiration for the content on my blog), and it helps them connect with me on a more personal level too.

Before you embark on your autoresponder campaign I encourage you to create a publishing schedule. My recommendation is to keep the first few emails close together. Once we get through that first three or four email sequence, I recommend dropping back to once a week or once every 10 days. - P. Sansevieri

Tips, wisdom, insight: deliver your brilliance via an autoresponder...

Interviews with experts: your consumers might love these interviews, they can be print or video, in which case you’d point them to your YouTube channel...

These days, it’s all about content. High quality, helpful advice and great content. Make sure that your autoresponder is 99% helpful or entertaining content and only 1% marketing.

Email marketing is ONE way. Auto-responders are limited; marketing automation provides limitless personalization. - R. Ray

While auto-responders are a step to personalization, marketing automation provides more dimensions and a wider feature set enabling you to “micro-target” and “micro-personalize” your marketing communications.

Regardless of the choices you make, be very deliberate about being kind to the eyes. Break up your copy into short paragraphs and feature ample white space. - C. Hexton

Use headers, bulleted lists where appropriate, captions, and any other tactics to help go easy on the eyes and communicate effectively with the skimmer.

This is the formula, simply stated: Repeated touches and visits = familiarity = trust = sales. – Pay attention to the hashtags being used in your niche. Dig into question sites such as Quora and Yahoo Answers.

You might get ideas for your autoresponder series simply by assessing the interest in your existing content. Which posts have performed best? Look at the shares, comments, and your analytics.

If your site includes a search tool, you can look at what visitors have searched for.

Why not resurrect old posts? Consider scouring your blog for posts that remain valuable.

While it’s possible you’ll get more unsubscribes with a longer series, it might effectively work to separate those who actually are interested in your services or product from those who aren’t.

Another option is to present a portion of your content (for instance, the first few paragraphs), and then include a link to the original post or eBook. You also can write a summary of your piece, and include a link.

When the email has the look and feel as if it comes from a person, response rates go up. - S. Efti

Sometimes people are surprised about this, but think about your offline mail behavior. If you receive a personal, handwritten letter, you’ll be much more likely to actually read it than a mass-printed company mail.

Rather than making it something like newsletter@yourcompany.com or service@yourcompany.com, make it yourname@yourcompany.com

At the end of the email, add “Sent via iPhone” after your signature – just like it would be the case if you actually sent the email from your iPhone. Not everybody is comfortable doing this, but we’ve seen this work successfully for some startups.

If a user signed up and has just been inactive, send them an email to remind and reactivate them.

Offer your users an extension before the trial ends.

Write your messages in the style of your books. If you pen whimsical middle grade fantasy novels, you shouldn’t use a cut and dry sales letter approach. - M. Dawson

Keep things simple with all of your autoresponder messages. The first one should do little more than welcome the reader to your list and thank them for joining. You can also post a download link to some free material like a prequel novella or the first 10 chapters of your series-starting book.

If a reader has taken the time to download your free work, they may be more interested in learning your story.

Create a second email list for your advance readers. Use the fourth email in your sequence to talk about reviews and send interested readers to a new signup page. You can send those who sign up a free copy of your newest books.

One tip from Author Marketing Institute founder Jim Kukral is to use an autoresponder to get in touch with your readers one year after they subscribe. It’s easy to fall out of touch with friends and relatives. It may be even easier to do so with the authors who readers love.

Write a specific headline stating the subject of the email: In this context, specific works best. - V. Robisch

Let your subscriber know who you are and what this email is about. Because it will solve a problem, it will automatically be interesting to your reader. –

The easiest way to do this for email subscribers is with multiple subscription boxes in conspicuous locations. You can have a developer design and code these for your website, or buy a premium WordPress theme that’s already built around the importance of email marketing.

In your final email, thank your reader for subscribing to your series. You will have invited feedback every step of the way. Now, invite them to be a key part in creating your next offering. Simply ask them what they would like to see next.

Offer a Premium Product. Having this model allows the most interested students to take their training up a notch while the others can use the free information guilt free.

I only ask people to buy from me who have previously expressed interest in my product. - B. Harris

More free course students = More paid course students Mission: Get more free students!

Introduce new readers to your best material: Blogs, unlike books, are not linear.

Followup Purchases: The easiest and cheapest customer to acquire is someone that has already purchased from you in the past.

Ask for the sale! This is the missing piece of most email marketing drip campaigns… if you don’t have a direct call to action in your emails that tells people about your products or services, they won’t know they’re available! - N. Lussier

I used Mailchimp first (just because it was free up to 2000 subscribers) but then when I wanted to professionalize my blog and everything, Mailchimp really couldn’t serve the purpose. - J. Sheeba