Since I don’t know what you’re selling I can’t produce a specific template here, but I’ll give you a broad overview.

[BLATANT PLUG: If you'd like me to create a custom autoresponder sequence for your product or service, use the Contact Nick form on this site giving me as much information as possible and I'll let you know if I have space in my schedule and my fee.]

Message 1 (Instant) – Send them a download link to the product, thank them for their purchase or signup and give them a way to contact you for help, support or questions.  This can be simply saying “reply to this e-mail for assistance” or a link to a support desk.

Message 2 (3 Days After First Message) – Ask them if they were able to download the product okay and let them know that you are available for any questions they may have and let them know how to get in contact with you again.

Message 3 – (10 Days After First Message) – Point to a great benefit/feature of the product that they just got from you and tell them specifically how to enjoy that benefit.  If it’s an electronic or physical book, tell them the page number and where to read the information they can use.  If it’s a physical product, describe how to do something specifically that helps them.

Message 4 – (20 Days After First Message) – This message is meant to cover common questions that someone might have about your product.  If you don’t have any questions or if your product is still new, you will want to go through your product and think what a customer may ask and write these down.

Another option is to check out the websites of competing products and see if they have an common questions listed that you can use to mold your own.  On the other hand, if you have questions that people have sent you regarding your product that you have answers, simply gather the questions and answers and arrange them into a message.

This message is meant to address any blocks that the customer may be having regarding the use or consumption of the product that they just haven’t had the time to ask.

Message 5 – (30 Days After First Message) – This message should contain a bonus.  Now, whatever you are selling, whether it be a digital or physical product, I always recommend the bonus be digital.  Why?  You can offer some information that enriches the use of their product and helps them get more out of it while delivering it in a way that costs nothing to product or deliver.

The best part is that they get this instantly.  I also recommend that you setup a sales page that shows that you are really selling the bonus so that they get the feeling of “getting something paid for free” rather than just getting something that someone specifically created to be a freebie.

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This month long sequence of messages is what I like to call “nurturing the customer”.  In the first month you don’t try to sell them anything.  You help them by making sure that they got their product, helping them consume it or use it and also answer any questions or concerns that they may have.  You cap it all off with a bonus that further increases the value that they received out of your and makes them an even more satisfied customer.

So what’s the next step? It’s to get them to buy an additional product, service or offer.

Once you’ve gone through the process of helping your customer get every bit of value out of the product or service that they purchased through you, it’s time to move them further down the sales highway.

How do you do this?

Simple, offer products and services to them every two weeks.  And the most important point that you need to understand here is that you will not be just sending them canned ads that try to cram a new product down their throats every two weeks.

Here are the two main points that I use when crafting messages that I send out after the initial month of taking care of my customer.

1. The advertisement must not actually be an advertisement but an honest “review” of the product or service being recommended.  You want to make sure that you don’t come across as a “slimy salesman” that will say anything for the sale.Keep the hype down to a minimum and focus on benefit rich features of the product or service that you are recommending with a big emphasis on the “benefits” that come with owning or using the product or service.
2. Find a product that is at least 50% more expensive than the last product you sold them.  So for example, if you sold them a widget for £67, you are going to want to find something that is around £100 for the next offer.  Why?They have already shown trust by making the purchase of the £67 product so it’s only natural to move them up to a product that costs more and offers more value.  You want to make sure that you show them the extra value that they get for the extra money that they are spending as mentioned in tip 1.

So using those two points to create your messages and select products that move your customer up in the price range of product, create reviews.

A Note On Reviews

There are many different ways to structure product recommendations that allow you to present your sales message without seeming “salesy”.  This is actually pretty easy.  You just have to name them right and structure your review right.

Here’s what I mean…

1. Review – This is your standard review.  You want to explain the product and why it’s worth buying from the perspective of a “buyer” who found this product and enjoyed it.Talk about how it helped you and why you think that it will help them.  Let them know that you have tried it and personally recommend it to them.  It’s all about seeming personal yet professional.
2. Case Study – The case study is a pretty cool way to structure a review type of e-mail message.  They way that you do this is find someone that has used the product that you want to promote and create a case study around their experience and story.This can be as easy as going to the salesletter for the website, finding a testimonial that has some good product specifics in it and using that information along with visiting their website (if they have one listed) to create a case study.  A case study is a third party (you) analyzing the results that an average person got from using the product that you want to promote.

   Of course, if you want to go all out, you could hunt the person down that you want to do the case study on and ask them questions and do a real case study based on your questions.

3. Researcher – This is a great way (probably the best) to appear like you are not selling anything or at least not hard selling.  What you do is write up a review but instead of just your standard review, you find information on the product your promoting on sites like YouTube, Squidoo, Google Groups, etc.You want to find information, videos and content that is based on user opinions on your product.  If you can add this to your review and also point to YouTube videos and other unbiased links that help your message and recommendation, this will make you look like the “honest reviewer” rather than the “compensated affiliate”.

This strategy is also great for keeping people interested an on your mailing list for as long as possible because they think that you are the “consumer advocate” for products that are related to their interests so they definitely want to hear what it is that you have to say.

This is probably the single best way to keep people listening to you although, through testing, I have found that the more direct review approach will close more sales initially which will mean more upfront profit for you.  I do believe that over time, you could make more money from people through the “Researcher” approach though.

These are a few simple ways that you can send people advertisements without them actually appearing as advertisements.  The truth is, most people who see a “pitch” for a product will delete the message immediately so if you can get under their “radar”, you have the power to present your message in a less direct, although just as direct approach.

In the next article, I’ll talk in detail about how you can automate this entire procedure so all you (or a staff member) has to do is set it up once, forget about it and watch the additional sales come in.

See you then!

Of course, what business owner wouldn’t (including me!) so I’m going to talk about one of the biggest mistakes business owners make resulting in them leaving a shocking amount of money on the table.

I’m talking about following up with a customer after a sale.

Let me explain this in the form of a case study.

There was a woman named Cathy who ran a website that sold supplies for exotic birds.  She was investing tons of money in advertising and paying hundreds of pounds every month in Google AdWords as well.

While she wasn’t losing money on the products, she was only just breaking even.

She didn’t understand why she was doing all of the right things by buying advertising and offering competitive prices and still not becoming successful and highly profitable.

Now, let’s pause for a second…

The above situation accurately describes nearly every failed business attempt in the world.  At first glance you may think “she needs to raise her prices” but that isn’t the solution.  If she raises her prices less people will make a purchase which may mean that she makes even less money with the higher prices that have higher per sale profits.

So what could she do to keep her prices competitive and also generate more profit?

There are only 3 ways to grow a business.

1. Get more customers

2. Increase your profit per unit sold (which could mean increase your prices or find a cheaper supplier)

and 3. (which almost no-one does) Increase the times your customer purchases from you.

Follow up with past customers.

It really is that easy.

This is the secret that all businesses that fail don’t understand.

Cathy is already advertising and bringing customers into the store so why not follow up with them at a later date and ask them to come in and make another purchase?

I’ve purposely used an example that deals with an offline business to show you how this system can be applied to any business on the Internet or in the real world.

So how does Cathy follow up with her customers?

The first step is that she needs to get their contact information.  I recommend that you get first name, last name and e-mail address.  Some people say to get the phone number and address but that’s something that requires a lot of time (making calls) and money (buying stationery and stamps).

How does she get this information?  It’s as simple as printing off some simple sheets of paper that ask for basic information and telling the customer that you will e-mail them coupons, priority notification of big sales and special events.

Here’s what one of these might look like…

As you can see, this is a very basic format.  Obviously you could spice it up, put your logo on the top of the form and print it on thick card stock to make it look professional. Once you have the card printed up you just hand it to each of your customers and tell them that they will get discount coupons and advance notice of sale events for their name and e-mail address.

Will all of them want to be on the list? No, they won’t.

But will a good portion of them want to? Yes!

Don’t be discouraged if only a quarter of your customers signup to be on the list.  You need to remember the fact that if they didn’t want to be on your mailing list that they probably wouldn’t have cared if you sent them e-mail so it’s better to not have them.

Be polite and courteous regardless of their decision.

So now Cathy has printed up some cards to allow people to be on her coupon and sale notification club and is asking people that come through the store if they would like to signup.  At the end of each day she is entering them into her e-mail autoresponder system (we’ll talk about autoresponders later.)

The customer automatically gets an e-mail that thanks them for their purchase and patronage and welcomes them back into the store giving them the address, hours of operation and Cathy’s name and contact information in case they have any questions.

Now Cathy has build a relationship with this customer and the customer feels like Cathy truly cares about them.

So what happens when Cathy wants to generate some additional profits?

She simply goes into her e-mail database and sends out a broadcast e-mail that goes to all of her subscribers and informs them of a special discount day only available for Priority Coupon & Discount members.  She is offering either a free bag of basic bird feed for their birds with any purchase over £15 PLUS a 10% discount on any purchase over £50.

This gives the people on the e-mail list of the exclusive feeling of being in a club of people that the public aren’t a part of and will definitely bring some of them into the store.

So why is this so much more profitable than the initial purchases these customers made?

Because Cathy was paying for advertising to generate those customers and now she is bringing those same customers back into the store at no cost by keeping in contact with them.

What that means is that she doesn’t have to factor in the cost of advertising with these customers because she already did that.  That means that there is much more profit in these customers.

And the best part is that Cathy can follow-up with them for as long as they remain on the mailing list which will bring in quick surges of customers and sales for many years to come.

As long as she keeps building her list with those little cards, she will eventually get to a point where she no longer has to advertise and can rely solely on her repeat customers.

I realise I haven’t gone into minute detail about each aspect of the process because I just wanted to give a broad overview of the idea and to give you an inside look at why businesses fail and how following up with past customers can literally take a business that is struggling to survive and make it a thriving and profitable venture.

It’s incredibly important that you realise the importance of following-up in your business.

Following up is an intrinsic part of any business and if you don’t use it and use it properly, your business will ultimately fail.

In the next article, I’ll over some exact sequences and ideas that you can use in setting up your follow up sequence for maximum effectiveness and maximum profit.

See you then!