W07.03 Designing An Email Journey For Your Newly Found Followers…
You’ve seen them all over the web – email
sign up boxes (like the one on the right) offering a gift (an “ethical bribe”
some marketers call it) which leads you into a series of emails (auto-responders
is the technical term) ending in some kind of offer. Getting people to join
these lists is much harder these days, but that doesn’t diminish the necessity
for it. There’s a reason everyone wants you to accept their emails…
Email is actually quite intimate.
It gives you an entrance into a person’s email In Box. At first you are allowed in, but later – if you match their needs – you are welcomed in. It’s why you have to niche – you need to know who they are before you ask to come in. You are not a stranger to them, because they are not a stranger to you.
It gives you an entrance into a person’s email In Box. At first you are allowed in, but later – if you match their needs – you are welcomed in. It’s why you have to niche – you need to know who they are before you ask to come in. You are not a stranger to them, because they are not a stranger to you.
A
Story Tells A Thousand Ideas
As I have written previously, most of us
would not want anyone to have unfettered access to our email In Box. Private
stuff comes in there, so to be welcomed into a person’s In Box is one of the
holy grails of online marketing. Be careful how you use it. Be sparing, offer
good information, don’t sell much. Particularly in our business, we need to
develop a strong, trusting relationship. The primary purpose of your email auto-responder
series is to connect, not sell something. Forget about that – first get a
relationship established. The selling will then flow naturally.
Your relationship is based on your genuine
wish to offer them Alexander Technique – which you know (even if they don’t
yet) will eventually be greatly valued by them. So step one is to help them
understand your motivation – why you are even in the business you are in…
That’s why in my first welcome email –published
as yesterday’s blog – I use a story from my life to help make sense of my
whole “make more money” thing. People relate better to stories, so it is an
effective way to get across complex concepts. Use them a lot in your emails.
Get your points across by illustrating ideas discovered from events in your life,
or the lives of others around you.
Once
Your Know Your Niche, This Is What You Do…
You are ready to start this process once
you have your niche clear: my strong recommendation is that you choose a niche
that you already have a strong affinity with. Now, make a list of all the
problems these people have in their
minds. So this is not a list of what
you think are their problems, this is a list of what they think are their problems. This is a delicate, but
fundamental distinction.
Write them down. For example, a ballerina
might want to know which are the best muscles to use, how they can increase
their flexibility, how to turn faster: I don’t know. I’m just guessing, which
is why I would never choose ballet as my personal niche! (You don’t want to see
me in tights, I promise.) I have no affinity, therefore no ability to know what
ballerinas are thinking and wanting. I would need to spend time researching
this – which is what great advertising copywriters do for a living.
You don’t want to become a copywriter do
you? Well, providing you stay within a niche that you understand, you are
already a copywriter for that niche,
because you know how people in your niche are thinking.
Now sort your problems – listing them from
the biggest problem to the most minor. This is your list of auto-responders. One
problem = one email. For each of the “problems” you find a “story” about how
you personally overcame these problems. Your story will be imbedded with
Alexandrian ideas, but please no mention of inhibition, direction, primary
control, faulty sensory perception etc. Use the ordinary, everyday words they
are most likely to understand. By all means, use jargon terms known within the
niche – that is a good thing to do.
Making
Your Own Dumb Alexander Product (which is actually genius Alexander)
This is about designing your “dumb
Alexander” Service Product (which is actually “genius Alexander”) that I
have already written about. So starting with their idea of their problem will necessitate you abandoning your
current teaching forms (forget tables and chairs) and instead inventing forms
that relate directly to the niche you are in.
Alexander’s renowned “hands on back of
chair” is just a form – it may be special, but it is not that special. If he can do it – why not you? You need to invent
your own “hands on back of chair” exercises, but in the case of a ballerina, it
may simply be a variation on already well-known forms; for example a set of new
instructions of how to do a plié. Again, you connect to something they already
know a lot about, then offer a revolutionary plan for them to follow. I’ve done
this in class very successfully, but the memory of what I did has gone. Ooops.
(Well, it’s not my niche.)
Writing your auto-responder series is a
wonderful way to do the deep thinking that developing a new Service Product
requires: First, recognize the
problem from their perspective; Second, relate to their perception of
the problem convincingly through telling a story from your own experiences; Third, from your story artfully
identify the problem in an entirely new light - an explanation that is radical
to what they currently believe, while still affirming their right to know (i.e.
not saying they are wrong!); Fourth, (and
this is where your genius begins) present a “dumb Alexander” exercise that can
actually deliver them a new experience without
you actually using your hands.
This is an email, remember?
An
Email That Delivers An Experience!
You need to deliver something convincing in
words for them to be willing to risk their time, money and reputation to make
the trip out to see you. It may take you weeks, months to write a great
auto-responder series, but once you have, it will take over a lot of the heavy
lifting involved in convincing your niche to come to you. It happens
automatically – isn’t that a wonderful concept?
A great auto-responder series, once built,
“qualifies” the people who come to your studio. You don’t need to convince
them, they are already convinced. They are not worried, they are excited – they
are finally meeting you, a person they already feel they know.
Little do they realize what is about to
happen to them…
TOMORROW: Bells and Whistles that Add
Sizzle To Your Email Series
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