As you work through your launch following Jeff’s Product Launch Formula, one of the most valuable assets you’ll be building is the product launch email list of targeted prospects and customers you will create during the process.

So even if you make a bunch of sales during your launch, the email list you build is going to generate many more sales for you over the weeks and months ahead, as long as you treat your subscribers well.

So what is the best way for you to not only nurture the relationship you have with your readers, but maximise your sales at the same time?

Turns out there are quite a few ways to use even a simple autoresponder such as Aweber to grow your sales significantly after your launch, and in this post you’ll discover 17 of these proven methods.

Let’s get started with…

1. Systematically Follow Up Using Your Product Launch Email List

Whenever you get a new customer, you should immediately remove them from your ‘prospect’ list and add this person to your customer mailing list (you can automate this with Aweber). Then over time you can then send a series of follow up emails promoting a wide range of related offers (both your own products and as an affiliate).

For example, if you’re launching a product about using video marketing to generate more leads, then you might follow up with a series of emails that are designed to sell an in-depth Facebook marketing course.

The fact is that whenever somebody buys a product or service, there are lots of other related products and services they would be interested in that complement or enhance their purchase. You can be the person who helps them buy these related items, and you can get paid for taking the time to offer that help.

2. Teach People How to Use The Product They Just Purchased

Another great way to use your autoresponder is by sending out a sequence of coaching or training emails that help people make the most of the product or service they have just purchased from you.

For example, let’s suppose you’ve launched a meal-planning and fitness-tracking program to people who want to lose weight and gain strength. They could really benefit from a series of emails which teach them how to make the most out of the major features of your program, such as:

• How to use the app you’ve included to count calories
• How to best use the diet plans to balance their macronutrient levels
• How to accurately calculate how many calories they’re burning each day with the exercise program you have designed for them

And so on. Each message should teach a different aspect of the program, give them simple steps to follow, and then encourage them to take action to achieve their goals.

Doing this is so powerful because when people take action and end up getting great results, they are usually much happier with their purchase. And happy customers produce three powerful benefits for you:

• It significantly reduces product refunds because people understand how to get the most out of your products or services
• It makes the likelihood of the customer buying something else from you much higher, either immediately or in the future
• It increases the likelihood of the customer telling his or her friends about you and your business, and in many cases, of them becoming an affiliate and promoting you as well

Next up…

3. Distribute Regular Freemiums That Lead To Offers

The idea here is to surprise and delight your subscribers with unannounced bonuses that will keep them opening your emails with anticipation. They’ll never know what they’re going to get from you next, so you can bet they’ll open all of your emails to see what you’ve sent them this time.

Now this is critical…

This strategy is not just about delivering a bunch of freebies to people and hoping for the best. What you’re doing is systematically offering high-quality products that naturally lead to paid offers.

For example:

• You might offer the cut-down “lite” version of a product or app for free. If your subscribers like it and find it helpful, some people will upgrade to the premium version (through the links you’ve conveniently included in the “lite” version 🙂 )
• You might offer one or two video modules from your training program for free. Again, if people like it, some of them will purchase the entire set of training videos.

Here’s another idea…

4. Send Your Subscribers To Content On Your Blog

What you’re doing here is directing your subscribers to read your most popular archived, evergreen articles.

The reason is that if you can get people more engaged on your blog, you’ll have the opportunity to put various links and calls to action in front of them. This may include:

• Links and calls to action for various offers embedded in the articles themselves
• “Featured product” links and banner ads in your sidebar
• A Super Signature containing a range of product ads at the end of posts and articles (see an example of a Super Signature at the end of this post – hat tip to Dean Jackson for this idea)

Next idea…

5. Use Your Product Launch Email List For Joint Venture Ad Swaps

The technique here is to do ad swaps in your respective newsletters with your marketing partners.

Here are a few ideas:

• You could simply promote each other’s lists. In other words, you invite and encourage your subscribers to join your partner’s list because of the benefits they will receive, and your partner does the same for you
• You might encourage your subscribers to follow your Joint Venture partner on their various social media accounts (and your partner does the same thing for you)
• Or you could simply promote your partner’s product or service directly (either with or without an affiliate link), and they return the favor for you

Next idea for making the most of your product launch list with an autoresponder is…

6. Survey Your Audience

One of the most profitable things you can do is to survey your audience and learn more about who they are and what they really want. You can ask them questions to help uncover valuable information such as:

• What are the biggest problems and challenges they are facing right now?
• What sort of experience level do they have? (so you can sort them into segments or ‘buckets’ for more targeted follow up)
• What sort of solutions have they tried, and what are the shortcomings of these solutions?
• What would be a ‘dream come true’ outcome for them?

The answers to these questions will help you create content and offers that your subscribers really want, which will in turn will increase your conversions and sales.

7. Build Long-Term Relationships

If you just hammer your subscribers with one cut-and-paste promotion after another, with no regard for the people receiving those messages, your conversion rate is going to collapse pretty quickly.

That’s because your subscribers HATE getting pitched (just like most of us), and if they don’t unsubscribe, they are just going to stop paying attention.

The point is that if you take the long-term view, and give your readers a chance to get to know you, you’re going to build a much more sustainable, more profitable business.

You do this by:

• Sharing true, personal stories that let your readers see the real you. It’s best if these are niche-relevant stories, but you may just drop in occasional notes about what’s going on in your life, such as holiday snaps with your family, or the news that your daughter is having a baby
• Teaching through case studies showing what happened when you used a particular product or strategy. You’ll want to share lots of facts and data, but also share the personal side of the story, such as how you felt, what problems came up (and how you dealt with them) and anything else that could help your readers achieve similar results
• Allow real access to you personally. This means asking your audience for feedback, and then answering your subscribers when they give it to you. You can also send your readers to your blog, Facebook, Youtube channel, Twitter or Instagram and ask them to interact with you

Next idea…

8. Train, Coach And Motivate Your Affiliates

This is a great way to use your autoresponder to both stay in touch with the people who helped you during your product launch, and invite them to promote for you on a regular basis.

It really is quite powerful, but unfortunately it’s something that a lot of vendors overlook. I know Jeff Walker stays in touch with affiliates with updates and ideas for promoting his Product Launch Formula program, and it’s always great to hear his insights.

Here are 3 ideas for what to send in your affiliate followup series:

• Send your affiliates a series of training emails that tell them exactly what to do to make money with your affiliate program step by step. For example, Step 1: Post your affiliate link in an article you write for your blog. Step 2: Put a Banner ad in the sidebar of your blog. Step 3: Send an email promotion to your newsletter subscribers, etc.
• Showcase other successful affiliates using case studies (with their permission and without giving away their proprietary strategies) to motivate inactive or inexperienced affiliates to take action
• Send them motivational articles, videos and other material to get inactive affiliates excited about promoting your products

Next up…

9. Offer Themed Emails

This is a great way to train your readers to open your emails, as well as building your relationship with your audience. The idea is to send them themed emails on a weekly basis that your subscribers can look forward to.

For example:

• You might answer the Question Of The Week
• You could share How I _____ (e.g., “How I Became A Profitable Consultant And Quit My Job”)
• Share the Case Study of The Week showing how a student successfully used your product
• Share the productivity boosting Resource of the Week

Now here’s the next idea…

10. Boost Sales By Segmenting Your Subscribers

The idea here is to come up with a very targeted lead magnet with the goal of segmenting your product launch email list. If your autoresponder allows you to apply tags to subscribers (most do), you can tag everyone who downloads a particular lead magnet and follow up with them based on what they told you interests them.

If the autoresponder you’re using doesn’t have this feature, you can create another optin page and send your subscribers there to register for the new lead magnet, and add them to a seperate list.

As an example, let’s suppose you have generic weight training list. You might create a lead magnet that’s targeted at those people on your list who compete in bodybuilding competitions. You can then send this segment of your list precisely targeted content and product offers that you know they are going to be very interested in.

Here’s another idea…

11. Use Your Product Launch Email List For Webinar Registrations

If you hold webinars (and you should), you can use your autoresponder to invite people to register for both your own and JV partner’s webinars. Be sure to add your registrants to a separate list (or tag them) so you can then follow up with them to:

• Remind them when the webinar starts, what they are going to learn, and give them links to log in
• Send some pre-training materials a day or two before the webinar, especially something that is a good pre-requisite for the webinar. For example, if the webinar is about Facebook marketing, you might give them a Facebook Ad Checklist that covers the basics to prepare your viewers
• Send follow up messages after the webinar to promote the product or service you mentioned within the webinar

Next…

12. Create a Multi-Part Email Series Promoting One Main Offer

People rarely buy anything the first time they hear about it. That’s why it’s a great idea create a sequence of three to seven emails for EACH product you promote. This is what Andre Chaperon calls a PLS (Product Launch Sequence) in his Autoresponder Madness program.

Each series will consist of related materials, all of which promote just one product. For example:

• Five Ways To Retire With $10,000 A Month In Passive Income
• The Three Secrets of Building Muscle Mass Quickly
• The Four Steps To Setting Up a Profitable Social Media Presence

Here’s another good idea…

13. Send Targeted Follow Up Messages To Your List Segments

Most of the popular autoresponder services allow you segment your subscribers according to whether they’ve performed a specific action, such as clicked on a link or opened an email message.

You can use this handy feature to send ultra-targeted follow up messages based on what your subscribers have told you they are interested in. For example:

• Send a follow up with a different subject line (something that approaches the topic from a different angle) to those who didn’t open your last email
• Send an objection-handling email to those who opened the email by didn’t purchase the product
• Send a special offer email to people who arrived at your shopping cart page but then abandoned the cart without purchasing (this technique alone could easily DOUBLE your sales)

Next…

14. Create An FTM Site

You don’t need an elaborate membership site to run an FTM (fixed-term membership) site, which is a membership site that automatically delivers content to your members for a pre-determined amount of time (such as three months, six months, etc.). All you need is an autoresponder such as Aweber.

Just upload the first months worth of materials (a meaty, content rich PDF Report is often enough), and you can start taking orders. This is what we often refer to as the ‘Minimum Viable Product’ because you can get it done in a few hours and test the market quickly to see if there is enough demand.

If you run some test marketing and the thing flops, you can simply refund those people who did order and move on to something with more potential. But if it’s successful, you can then continue creating the content for future weekly modules, knowing you have a winner on your hands.

For example:

• Create a 12-month site for winning at Ninja Warrior events
• Create a four-month site that teaches people how to create prize winning pastries
• Set up a 6-month site that shows people how to become a successful Expense Reduction Consultant

Up next…

15. Send Special Emails Focused On One Topic

Here’s some examples of simple messages you could send from time to time to drive traffic and generate sales:

• Send a solo ad once a month to promote a particular product as a ‘Subscriber Only’ special offer
• Survey your customers and ask for their feedback about how to improve your products, as well as ask what other challenges you could help them with
• Ask your customers to beta test new (or new versions of) products or services (This gets your audience involved and helps develop even more loyalty)
• Invite your subscribers to connect with you via other platforms, such as your YouTube channel or through other social media

16. Test And Track Your Promotions

You can use your product launch email list as a platform for tracking and testing campaigns and promotions before launching them on a larger scale. This includes:

• Testing the product itself to see if it will generate enough interest to warrant rolling our a larger advertising campaign
• Testing various versions of the product name
• Testing the product offer including bonuses, guarantee and call to action
• Testing the email message itself to see if it generates click throughs (pay particular attention to testing the subject line, the opener, the benefits, the call to action, the P.S., the design of the email, and when you send it)

Once you know you have a good conversion rate, then you can roll out your marketing campaign on a larger scale.

TIP: Some autoresponders will let you set up a split test your messages, allowing you to send to a portion of your list, and then the autoresponder automatically sends out the winning email to the rest of your list.

And one more…

17. Warm Up (Or Reactivate) A Cold List

Because you’re still here with me, I’m going to reward you with one of the most powerful strategies you’ll ever use for generating new sales for your business…

It’s called Customer Reactivation, and it can literally be a gold mine for businesses that use it correctly.

The fact is that most businesses have a list of prospects or customers that has grown cold from a lack of activity.

It might mean that subscribers aren’t clicking on your links, or they might not be opening your emails. But sometimes, even though people are reading your messages, they just aren’t buying anything.

So here’s what you do – send out a special Customer Reactivation autoresponder sequence to the “cold” portion of your list.

The sequence should go like this:

• A message thanking them for their past business, with an offer for a big discount or additional bonuses (or BOTH) on one of your most popular products to bring people back into the fold
• A second message with the subject line “In case you missed this” restating the offer and letting readers know there’s a looming deadline after which the offer will no longer be available
• A “Last chance” email reminding them about the offer and the deadline to generate even more urgency. This final email will often generate even more sales the the first message

Using this type of Customer Reactivation sequence can generate thousands of dollars in sales from people who you may have written off, so it’s worthwhile using it for any former customers who may have fallen through the cracks in your business.

In conclusion…

So here’s the question for today: which of these 17 ways to use an autoresponder are you overlooking or not taking advantage of?

The good news is that now you have this list of ideas, you can start implementing any method you aren’t using yet. And that should lead to more traffic, more sales and more cash coming your way in as little as 24 hours from now.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, the list you build during your product launch is going to become your most valuable business asset, and will give you the perfect springboard for creating a profitable, long-term, sustainable business for yourself and your family. To learn more, check out Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Masterclass here.

Talk soon,

Rocky

P.S. Being able to create a Perfect Product is a great start, but you also need a way to generate sales in a consistent way. Running a Product launch is a proven way to not only build your list, but generate Social Proof and make a large number of sales quickly. To learn how to launch your product successfully, check out Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Masterclass here.

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

1. How To Build A Profitable Product Launch Email List.
Building an email list is critical if you plan on doing a launch for your product, service or business. List Warrior will show you a proven way to use free software to build a responsive list of prospects who are ready to buy from you during your launch. Click Here.

2. How To Create The Perfect Product 
Creating a product that is perfect for your audience does not need to be difficult. How To Create The Perfect Product shows you how to build high value products your audience will love one after the other. Click Here.

3. How To Attract Buyers To Join Your Launch List So They Can Purchase Your Perfect Product.
Once you have created your Product Launch List and your Perfect Product is ready to go, you need to attract people into your world so they can buy from you. One Minute Free Traffic gives you a proven way to attract buyers with ‘Automated Traffic Machines’ so you can send those people to your optin page, your sales page, your Facebook Group or anywhere else you choose.    To learn more Click Here.

And don’t forget to check this out 🙂

How to Earn $20 in 20 Minutes With Any Topic, Niche or Hobby

Disclaimer: If you purchase PLF through my affiliate link I may receive a referral fee from Jeff Walker, however you will pay no more to purchase the program through me than if you went directly to the Product Launch Formula website. If you would like my personal help as you create your first launch using the PLF process, check out my PLF Bonus offer here.