How to Write the Perfect Autoresponder Sequence

In this article I’m going to reveal how to create the perfect email autoresponder sequence, to get the best possible results from your list building and online lead generation efforts.

I’m also going to give you a free mindmap so you know exactly what to write.

Why?

Because…

Email autoresponders are massively underused by most small business owners, which is a shame because they can help generate more sales and enquiries on complete autopilot.

Before we get into it, I just want to just very quickly explain exactly what an autoresponder is because although you probably know, I’m guessing there will be people watching this who don’t

What is an autoresponder?

An autoresponder is basically a sequence of one or more emails that can be automatically delivered to anyone who signs up to a form on your website to join your company newsletter, make an enquiry about your product or service, or quite commonly to gain access to valuable free information.

You could argue that you don’t need an autoresponder, because in theory yes you can just manually email a reply to anyone who fills out a form on your website.

While that’s true with just a handful of subscribers, it would be far too time-consuming, and also totally unmanageable as soon as you got more than a dozen people signing up to your website.

Also one of the best times to send an email to someone is while they’re actually online, and if they’ve just filled out a form on your website then you know they’re online at that very moment.

Once you start doing all the things I talk about on this website (and also on my YouTube channel) and your email database grows into the hundreds and then thousands of subscribers, a good autoresponder sequence will automatically welcome every one of those subscribers to your ‘tribe’.

Then over the subsequent weeks and months it can automatically build trust and loyalty and even sell them your products and services.

Again, totally on autopilot.

So now we’ve defined what an autoresponder is and why you need to use them to grow your business online, let’s now look at…

How to plan, write and launch your perfect email marketing autoresponder.

Before you start writing your autoresponder, you need to decide how often the emails will be sent to your subscribers.

Step 1: Choose Your Frequency

How often you need to send your sales leads emails varies from industry to industry.

One of my other companies sells products that start at £250,000, and they have a long time from initial enquiry (lead generation) to sale. So understandably we don’t bombard those sales leads with automated emails on a daily basis!

However in the internet marketing world it’s quite common for emails to be automatically sent out every day.

However, there are no rules.

Just be wary that if you send emails too often you may be accused of spamming.

And if you don’t send emails out often enough then your subscribers may forget who you are or be lured away by more proactive competitors!

In my opinion a good rule of thumb is to send an email once or twice a week, but in the first week or two of someone subscribing to my email list I like to send them emails once a day with super useful information to make them realise they’ve found a highly valuable resource.

The key is that as long as your email autoresponders provide genuine value then the majority of your subscribers will gladly receive them.

If you’re unsure, create a temporary email and sign up to your competitors and see what their autoresponders are like, how often they send them, and how long they last for.

Also one other very useful tip: Add some text under the email sign up forms on your website to set expectations on how often you send emails.

Step Two: Choose Send Times

You also need to decide what time of day you’ll send your autoresponder, because good email marketing software like ConvertKit will let you choose…

Again depending on what industry you’re in, you may choose to only send emails on certain days of the week and at certain times of the day.

You could for example create a sequence of seven emails that go out one a day, for a full week.

Or, you could create a sequence that only sends one email a week, on Tuesdays at 11am.

For B2B, sending emails mid-morning or mid-afternoon on weekdays are usually good times.

Step Three: Choose Your Duration

Your email autoresponder sequence can contain five pre-written emails messages, or five hundred pre-written messages.

Again, there aren’t any rules!

You’ll almost certainly benefit from stacking up more than one message in your sequence.

Some internet marketers have more than a full year of pre-written emails in their autoresponder.

That’s probably overkill for most businesses.

To my mind, the perfect length for an autoresponder sequence is one which fulfils it’s objectives without causing everyone who signs up to unsubscribe in anger!

If you want to create an autoresponder sequence that sells something expensive, then it may need to be longer. It could in theory contain a lot more emails than a sequence that’s just designed to introduce you and your company to a prospect before they get a phone call from one of your sale team.

However long your email autoresponder sequence is, it should at the very least welcome new subscribers to your list, provide genuine value, and wherever possible increase their trust in you and your company.

Which brings us onto the next step, and this is where the rubber meets the road…

Step 4: Plan Your Content

You’re ready to plan your email sequence, and I’ve created what I think will be a fantastic resource for you to do this.

Here’s a free mind-map that contains more than 60 great ideas for autoresponder emails (just click to download)

If you schedule just one autoresponder a week, then using each idea in this mind map just once, you can create an autoresponder that lasts more than a year.

Most of the ideas in the mind map are self-explanatory, but if you want a detailed explanation then watch the video at the top of this article for a full explanation and walkthrough of every idea.

Whatever email marketing software you use should come with help and support on how to actually set up your email autoresponder.

I use the fabulous ConvertKit email marketing software for mine.

I write my emails in a plain text editor and then just copy and paste them into my ConvertKit autoresponder sequence.

Of course once you’ve created a sequence, you’re then ready to move onto the next step…

Step 5: Add a form to your website

One of the best ways to grow the list of people who receive your email autoresponder is to add a lead generation form to your website.

This can be as simple as a box somewhere on all your web pages asking people to sign up and join your newsletter.

Again your email marketing software will almost certainly have a facility to create a form for you.

Usually all you need to do is add a small piece of code to your website.

If you’re not technical enough to do this yourself then simply ask your web designer to do it for you, or pay someone on UpWork or Fivver to quickly do it for you.

Anyway I hope this has been helpful?

If you’ve never used email autoresponders before then I hope you now know enough to put these to work in your business, but leave a comment below if you have any questions and I’ll try and help.

Also, if you’re not already a subscriber then use the form below to…