I like Perry Marshall. I think he’s a smart guy. And I think the recent class he gave on autoresponders (sequences of email messages that fire off in a specified order) was probably worth the $4,000 he charged for it.
But since he’s not giving the class at the moment, and if you don’t happen to have $4,000, I thought I’d expand on a few good points he made in this article. Yes, the article was written to encourage you to buy the course. But the points are still valid.
Complex systems can make you a lean, mean competitive machine
King Crankypants Dan Kennedy is a big proponent of this. He advocates making your marketing sequences and processes so complicated that your competitors wouldn’t steal them if you sat down with a whiteboard and a pot of coffee and drew out a map for them.
(Being Dan Kennedy, he then goes on to call those competitors lazy, stupid, disgusting and weak.)
When you look at an entire mature marketing system, the thing seems completely overwhelming. Even if a competitor is hungry enough to attack it, a good marketing sequence generally has too many pieces to easily steal the whole thing.
The cool part is, these processes are actually easier to create than they are to understand. Complex isn’t the same thing as difficult. You make each little piece one at a time, then string them together. It’s the WATTS Towers marketing technique.
Add to the system over time, tweaking it here and adjusting it there. And you automate the delivery, so it never gets overwhelming.
There’s complex, and there’s complex
Some of the more advanced shopping cart systems have complicated systems you can rig up to pitch upsells and cross-sells and subfunnels (oh my). These systems are expensive if you’re just starting out, and the learning curve isn’t trivial.
And then, to be able to upsell or cross-sell, you have to have a bunch of products. It’s great for a mature business, but intimidating when you’re still trying to get things off the ground. Or if you’re a consultant, and you have essentially one product: an hour of your time.
An email autoresponder is a pretty simple animal, in comparison. Just a sequence of communication that moves customers in a nice, neat conveyer belt. Invite a prospect into the system by asking her to opt in to get something free and good. Then move her smoothly through different stages until the finished product—a happy customer—pops out the other end.
An autoresponder can be as short or as long as you like. You can have a three-day sequence or a three-year one. And you can put together as many sequences as you want to.
You can absolutely do this
It’s just not that hard to set up a 10-step (or 30, or 300) sequence in an autoresponder and let that do the selling for you. Yes, it helps to have a few “no-selling” sales techniques under your belt. But you don’t have to be a marketing genius or a code monkey to make it happen.
That’s why Perry Marshall’s $4,000 course was actually a fair deal. If you have a good product and you know how to find (or buy) traffic, a halfway decent autoresponder sequence will be worth a lot more to you than $4,000.
He marketed that course to businesses who have those pieces in place and want to quickly start using this nifty tool to do a lot more business. He never intended it for solo entrepreneurs (unless they’re doing very nicely) or struggling consultants or nonprofits.
Get ready, I’m going to pitch you something
If you like the sound of the autoresponder thing but $4,000 seems like a scary amount of money to pay for a class on how to write an email newsletter, you might start small.
If you’re newish here, I’ve got a free class on how to write an email newsletter and/or autoresponder. It has 10 lessons (I imagine I’ll probably add more as I think of new ideas) and comes with free bonus pictures of monkeys, flowers, cute children and lemonade stands.
It looks a lot like this blog, in other words. You can sign up for it here.
If your project feels stalled because marketing and creating content seem overwhelming, or you never know what to say on your blog, or you’re overwhelmed and hyperventilating thinking of how to get started, I can definitely help you with that.
OK, the pitch is over, you can open your eyes now
I’ll keep posting as much Remarkable content as I can: toddler-inspired advice, rants about general evil, and pictures of monkeys.
You know, the usual good stuff.
(P.P.S. Don’t miss out on all the remarkable goodness! Subscribe for free in a reader or email!)
Nice post. Should be on Copyblogger.
I think I may have to buy this blog and retire it. 🙂
Brian Clarks last blog post..How to Grow a Blog Post in 7 Easy Steps
Heh, instead, he just bought every minute of my day. 😉 (Not that I’m complaining …)
Wicked writeup and I like your gusto.
I’m a fan of lean, mean systems, as long as their adaptable vs. being overly adapted (and tough to flex for your ever evolving needs.)
I like the fact you helped bridge the gap from nothing to the kitchen sink.
J.D. Meiers last blog post..Use Stress to Be Your Best
Sonia,
Brill. I fell through the links like Alice in Wonderland. Going back in for more later. 😉
Janice Cartiers last blog post..David Bates, Diebenkorn, and My Window
A very nice post about the use of autoresponders. In fact autoresponders are very often a overseen tool in marketing efforts of small or new business. But an autoresponder not just helps saving time in caring about the daily routine job, it also helps in growing the own business as well as the own opt-in list.
Piedro Molineros last blog post..Generating Leads With Autoresponders
Could be a smart move Brian. I unsubscribed Copyblogger last week for this one in my no more than 10 RSS feeds.
Of course, I keep Copyblogger bookmarked to reference all the great material there.
Chers,
Gary
Sonia, yay!!! Congratulations on being named one of the Top 10 Blogs for writers! I’ll come back to comment on this post, but did not want to miss out on congratulating you before my meeting!
Karen Swims last blog post..I’m Still Standing! I’m Still Strong!
Woo hooo made the finals!!! Go Sonia !
Janice Cartiers last blog post..David Bates, Diebenkorn, and My Window
How cool is that! I’ll get a post up & shake those pompoms.
Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and support!
Sonia –
“Coffee is for CLOSERS!” (Sorry, had to add to the Crankypants action.)
I love how you’re building this blog. I’ve been using autoresponders for 5 years now, and you’re saying all the right things for those who are new to it.
(PS – thanks for sending me that book, too. Will get to it soon, promise!)
Super smooch to you, Rockin’ Dave.
See, I am a woman of my word! Great, smart advice and I love the pitch. When I first got started I researched and set up a shopping cart system, and wrote all the autoresponders. My real job was writing, I helped develop the content that was being sold, did the messaging and the shopping cart was supposed to be one of those 1-2-3 anyone can do it. It was a nightmare! So, your advice could literally save someone thousands of hours and dollars.
Karen Swims last blog post..I’m Still Standing! I’m Still Strong!
I finished your series on writing a newsletter/autoresponder pretty recently, Sonia, and loved it! I’m not at the stage of having anything where an autoresponder would be appropriate — yet — but it’s something I’d very much like to have a go at in future.
I was a bit dubious before I signed up for yours on quite what I’d get, or whether I’d just end up deleting the emails unread, but it’s a testament to your writing skill and the very useful information you impart that I read every single one. All the way through. I’ve even saved them so I can go back and read them again when I do get round to making my own autoresponder series…
Looking forward to see what you come up with for the paid content!
Does anyone have a strong preference for a particular autoresponder (AR?)? I’m not asking to start one of those pointless feature comparisons, but simply to answer the question: “If I signup for a service tomorrow, which one will satisfy my 1-2 year AR needs without causing serious buyer’s remorse six months from now?” Looks like Sonia is using AWeber, so I’m curious why you selected it.
Mail Chimp has some rocking features while AWeber is the big gorilla (sorry, couldn’t resist). Those are my only two candidates under consideration. We’ve officially vetoed 1ShoppingCart, GetResponse and just recently BigResponse after using all of them. The last one is an excellent product, but the billing and support issues have been a nightmare. And I don’t believe any free service is even worth considering.
I’m particularly interested in how subscribers can be automatically moved between lists. For instance, click on a lick and the user is removed from List A and added to List B. The idea is to minimize duplicate or unwanted content. Not sure how well either AWeber or Mail Chimp support that kind of interaction.
Perry has recommended AWeber in the past, but recently moved to InfusionSoft because of the complex things it allows. While InfusionSoft is a pretty great application, it’s also really expensive, has a cliff-like setup/learning curve and is completely unnecessary for almost all of us.
Might be worth a separate post, Sonia?
Chriss last blog post..Monthly deliveries committing perjury
@Chris — Thanks for your insight on this discussion. I’d like to chime in with respect to Infusionsoft and respond to your comments about our solution for entrepreneurs.
MailChimp, Constant Contact, iContact, Blue Sky Factory and AWeber are fantastic tools for someone who is only looking for basic email marketing or newsletter management. They do it well and they have many impressive features.
With respect to everything we offer — I admit it can be a bit overwhelming for most marketers. All the features we offer have been in response to exactly what our customers have requested. (Likewise, we’ve also declined a few, so it’s not too crazy.) Users can suggest new ideas on our new ideas portal at http://ideas.infusionsoft.com.
We have been chipping away at the learning curve cliff with a Cat-Loader with our Fusebox. Our Fusebox is a self-service interactive portal where users can watch video tutorials, step-by-step guides, community support and the ability to submit cases privately to our support team. We’ve seen a significant increase in resolutions and customer satisfaction with our implementation. You can check it out at http://help.infusionsoft.com/.
You’ve raised a good point of why our solution is great for people who need email marketing campaigns to intelligently turn off one campaign/follow-up sequence for another. We allow this so businesses could execute multi-threaded email follow-up sequences and minimize the issues around recipients being incorrectly placed in wrong sequences (e.g., customers being placed in prospective sequences).
In addition, we’ve been listening to what customers and prospective have been telling us. Not everyone needs every aspect of the software. We offer three primary editions — Basic, Deluxe and Professional — which relate the number of features, capabilities and price. So far, the response has been very positive and there is still more attractive offers to watch for. 😉
Having all that said, I would argue that our software is very affordable when you fully implement it. We put our money where our mouth is and offer a Double Your Sales Guarantee (http://www.infusionsoft.com/guarantee) for new users so they can be assured that our solution works with the solid advice that we provide.
I appreciate your comments and we’ll take this feedback and continue to grow and improve. Thanks for your insight, we appreciate it. 🙂
~Joseph
Community Manager for Infusionsoft
@JoeManna & @Infusionsoft
http://www.infusionblog.com/
I love to read and i am trying to finish this program in time
to be ready to finish my website with Jeff Crandel and Dale Morris my success coach but I lost my way. It refreshed the pressure at 4:o2 in the morning. by the way I love Opra. yours truly f.f.
I have not used autoresponders but I think you convinced me to try it out, or to try out the course you are offering. Hmmm. (good, very good)
.-= Issa | You Want To Be Rich´s last blog ..How to be Good in Sales =-.
Love your style. Smooth segue into the pitch too! Yep, I’m signing up to see what gives. Thanks.
Ok, I have a stupid question ….
maybe I wasn’t concentrating enough when reading this but I’m completely new to this stuff. I’m trying to figure out how to get started with my website idea which will have a blog component plus eventually products to sell of mine and by affiliates.
Anyway, I still don’t know what exactly an auto responder is?? Can someone please dumb it down for me?
Thanks for these great things you’ve been sharing in your site. I just bumped into this just an hour ago and I’m still here reading your posts. I signed up to your lessons too. I hope to get more from you.
God bless. 🙂