How To Know When Subscribers Unsubscribe From Your Autoresponder Email Sequences

Lead generation on the internet, like all direct marketing, is a constant interplay between you (the marketer) and your prospects and clients. By understanding how suspects and prospects and clients are responding to your marketing message, you can tweak and optimise your approach accordingly - and the faster you tweak, the faster your results improve.

A client in the B2B consulting area recently asked me what a “typical” unsubscribe rate is for an email or autoresponder list. Here’s how I replied (paraphrased of course — I don’t actually speak in numbered points).

1. Unsubscribe rates can vary enormously. The main factor that influences your unsubscribe rate is the VALUE you offer your list on an ongoing basis. There is a delicate balance between education, value and selling - and the general rule is it’s much more effective to demonstrate value first before selling.

2. You’ll notice I didn’t actually answer the question above ;). If I had to give a figure, I would say that typical unsubscribe rates for “Special Report/White Paper + followup” sequences are in the 5% to 30% range.

3. Your unsubscribe rate is cumulative — it will tend to climb over time so in order to maintain a robust list size, you have to add new members faster than they unsubscribe.

4. Some messages in your autoresponder series will trigger many more unsubscribes than others. If you know which message(s) are the main culprits, you can edit accordingly. Take a look at the Followup Status - Unsubscribed report from within the Aweber autoresponder system (highly recommended, by the way):

As you can see, message 7 is the main offender — responsible for a massive proportion of unsubscribes!

A quick check of message 7 confirmed that the subject matter switched from good information and education to a “buy now” pitch, with some fairly clear-cut “disqualification” criteria. In other words, “buy now or go away”. Many subscribers obviously “took the hint” and hit the “unsubscribe” button.

Should you really care if list subscribers unsubscribe?

Making your unsubcribe rate as low as possible is NOT optimal in most circumstances. If your unsubscribe rate is very low, that MAY indicate your offers are too weak or you are not qualifying clients and/or setting appropriate buying criteria.

Autoresponder series are not only a powerful education tool but also a powerful QUALIFCICATION tool. Let me give you an example:

One of our clients is involved in property development project management in Brisbane. Their marketing had been quite effective at generating enquires, but of a very low quality. The result was that the sales team was forced to pick through the pile of low-quality leads to get to the hot prospects.

They solved this problem by publishing a targeted Special Report on their website, backed up by a series of autoresponders, educating prospective property investors about new property development options and how to put a deal together. One of the main purposes of the sequence is to DIS-qualify “non-buyers” BEFORE they call and start consuming salespeoples’ time like hyper-absorbant sponges.

So in this case, a certain number of unsubscribes from the list are a good thing.

Although not all unsubscribe patterns are as pronounced as the one in the image above, if you at least know how users are responding to each stage of your lead generation process, you can test new approaches to get improved results within only a few iterations.

Here’s to YOUR success!

Will Autoresponder Enthusiast P.S. I highly endorse the Aweber Autoresponder system because of it’s very reasonable cost and raft of useful features, including the ability to SPLIT TEST multiple emails to the same list and track the results — that’s instant leverage.

Internal Tags: autoresponders, aweber, email analytics and unsubscribes

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Alternatives to “Submit” and (UGH!) “Reset” Buttons In Online Forms

Something that really raises my hackles is the use of the default buttons “Submit” and “Reset” on web forms.

For starters, the “Reset” button should be banned altogether. Why on earth would you want a perfectly good prospect or client to reset an entire form? Although this seems self-evident, I’m amazed the the number of companies (even big, reputable companies) that still feature “reset” buttons on their forms. (In one case, tweaking form design including removing the dreaded “Reset” button doubled conversion for that page.)

Then there’s the trusty “Submit” button. Remembering that EVERY element of a form can potentially influence response and that the button is the last thing the user sees before taking the desired action, wording is critical.

Some good alternatives to “Submit” are…

• “Free Instant Access” (very good for opt-ins and digital information)
• “Yes! Count Me In!” (good for event and seminar registrations
• “Yes! Reserve My Place”
• “Yes, Fast-track My Application”
• “Contact a Website Conversion Expert Now”

You get the idea.

You won’t always significantly boost response with a custom button name, but it is one of the many conversion levers you have at your disposal, so why not use it?

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New Video: Introduction To Exponential Lead Generation On The Internet

2008 has been a big year so far — can you believe it’s more than 1/3 over?

I’ve been flat out team building and working on some exciting internet consulting and lead generation projects for clients as well as a few “side projects” including information marketing, and as a result content production and blog posts have suffered.

I’ve recently started creating more content on generating, nurturing and converting more leads online — here’s a brief introductory video on Exponential Internet Lead Generation strategies for product and service businesses. This is the first in a series of three - the other 2 will be posted here shortly.

Here’s a brief summary of the topics I cover in the video:

1. Your Selling Philosophy
2. Your Lead Definition
3. Your Lead Generation Map
4. Testing and Tracking
5. Optimization Strategies, and
6. Integrating Lead Generation and Sales Functions

Episode 1: Introduction To Exponential Lead Generation On The Internet

Press “Play” to listen.

Download a FULL TRANSCRIPT of the video in PDF format here

More profit-boosting resources:

• If you’re a Small Business Owner: Discover how to multiply your website profits with the Marketing Results Gold Internet Consulting Program.
• If you’re looking for an Enterprise-level solution for improving web profits: Read more about the Marketing Results Platinum Internet Consulting Program.

Internal Tags: lead generation, lead nurturing and testing and tracking

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FaceBook/Off - Some Holiday Chuckles

Rob Kingston sent me this rather amusing “movie trailer” - you’ll find it funny (or annoyingly accurate) if you’re obsessed with FaceBook or you know someone who is:

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15 Ideas For Using Surveys In Your Online Marketing

I’m sure you’ve seen or at least heard of online survey tools that allow you to capture and collate large volumes of information from prospects or clients.

Finding the technology is simple (two popular providers are Zoomerang.com and SurveyMonkey.com) but it’s how you USE surveys to create value and enhance your marketing that really counts.

One Marketing Results client created a comprehensive Business Audit, structured as a survey, that they went on to sell for $297 a pop. Another colleague conducted a survey of IT professionals that was picked up by influential media in the space as “latest research”.

Here are 15 ideas on ways to use surveys in your online business to create more value:

15 Ways To Leverage Surveys In Your Online Business

1. Conduct quarterly “client satisfaction” surveys.

2. Add relevant polls / surveys to your website or newsletters to learn more about your market and start a 2-way conversation.

3. Set up a survey for clients to pass on THEIR clients i.e. leverage.

4. Use surveys to pre-qualify or pre-frame potential clients.

5. Include a survey in an autoresponder series to automatically capture testimonials.

6. Survey customers and clients on where THEY think you add value (their perspective might be different from yours).

7. Use internal surveys to capture ideas to improve productivity or team satisfaction.

8. Include feedback surveys with product literature - use them as testimonial capture device AND to improve future versions of the product.

9. Ask clients or prospects to tell you their biggest frustration or problem relating to your area of expertise. Use this info to develop a white paper based on the most common problems.

10. Use surveys to capture ideas and strategies from a large number of people to collate into a “master” document.

11. Create a short 1 minute feedback survey and include the link in your email signature.

12. Send an email to past clients and ask for testimonials and feedback. Structure the survey so respondents provide information on the topics you want.

13. Structure a product / service as a survey and give it away as a “value add” or better yet, sell it.

14. Use surveys in your front-end marketing to identify customer “hot buttons” so you can craft your sales message in the right way for maximum impact.

15. Survey your market and use the results as the basis of a press release and/or pre-eminence building tool.

Leave a comment to submit your additional survey ideas.

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Google Adwords Ad Preview Tool

I try to keep on top of new features and tools surrounding the Google Adwords and Google Analytics products because I use them a lot in my day to day work.

Here’s one that I didn’t know about until recently - this Ad Preview Tool that lets you see how your ads are being displayed in other regions besides your own.

The tool also returns natural search rankings as well, so you can see how your site ranks on Google.[country].

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Marketing Results is hiring! Full time web developer in Brisbane

Marketing-Results.com.au is expanding and I’m currently looking for a Brisbane-based web developer with sound HTML/CSS knowledge.

If you’re currently looking for a role in this area or you know someone who might be interested, please point them to this post.

Thanks for your help!

Will

Web Developer Brisbane HTML/CSS

Description: Marketing-Results.com.au is looking for a web developer to join our boutique Internet consulting team ASAP.

We specialise in setting up and managing sophisticated online lead generation and conversion programs for entrepreneurial and corporate clients.

If you love all things Internet and thrive on seeing tangible results from your work, we’d love to hear from you.

Your skills and abilities:

• Sound knowledge of HTML and CSS (2+ years experience)
• Working knowledge of Dreamweaver and Photoshop
• Familiarity with blogs, autoresponders, web hosting and domain hosting
• Ability to work to deadlines and manage tasks with minimal supervision
• Ability to handle competing tasks and priorities
• Strong literacy and numeracy
• Excellent attention to detail
• Basic graphic design skills

Any of these are a bonus:

• Familiarity with SEO, Analytics, and Google Adwords
• PHP/SQL
• An appreciation of The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Arrested Development and/or The Office (UK).

If you or one of your contacts might be suited for this position, please direct a cover letter and resume to Nick Schoonens (nick ~~ A T ~~ marketing-results.com.au)

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Tony Robbins 101: 22 Minute Video

I’m a huge advocate of Tony Robbins and I strongly endorse his Unleash The Power Within and Date With Destiny seminars and other materials. People sometimes ask me to describe what Tony is about, but as the shortest seminar he does is 50 hours long, it’s pretty hard to provide a succinct answer

Below is a fantastic 22 minute presentation by Tony at the TED conference which explains some of his core principles…check it out, and look out for the interaction with Al Gore in the audience.

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Yaro Starak Launches “Blog Profits Blueprint”

Here’s an imporant announcement if you’ve ever wanted to make your blog more effective or profitable, OR you don’t yet have a blog and you’re interested in learning more about how blogs add value and make money.

My friend and colleague Yaro Starak has just released his Blog Profits Blueprint.

The Blueprint is a content-rich 55-page report that Yaro has put together to teach the core concepts and ideas that go into building a successful and profitable blog. It’s the culmination of what he has been through over the past two and a half years of blogging and reaching the point where he makes a full time income from blogging part time.

I read through the entire report yesterday - here are some of the highlights from my perspective as someone who is primarily interested in using a blog to enhance the reach and effectiveness of my exisiting business.

• What is a blog and why are they so popular? - pages 9 to 12
• How blogs make money - page 12
• Yaro’s “Pillar” strategy for creating blog posts that generate buzz, backlinks and pre-eminence - pages 18 - 23
• How to generate high-quality traffic for your blog faster and easier than you’re doing now.
• How to convert your blog traffic into value - either straight revenue from advertising and other sources, or pre-eminence for your business.

Bottom line: the Blog Profits Blueprint contains tonnes of usable information that you should at least be aware of, even if you’re not interested in direct revenue generation from blogging.

Yaro is also just about to launch a mentoring course called Blog Mastermind whereby a limited number of mentorees will be coached by Yaro in order to build their blogs up into serious cash-generating concerns. If you may be interested in this program (but even if you’re not), then the next step is to download the Blog Profits Blueprint.

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Your Wealth Profile, and, The Biggest Problem With Being Smart

I attended a very interesting presentation by Roger Hamilton last night on the recommendation of several people I respect [thanks Kris, Ray and Therese <– no website?! What are you like?]

Roger has developed a fascinating and instructive “Wealth Profiling System” that combines Jungian psychological models (think MBTI tests etc) and the I Ching as it relates to individuals’ wealth attraction styles. I have done my wealth profile here and discovered that I am predominantly a “Mechanic”.

Roger also shared a couple of seminal distinctions that resonated with me. Here they are:

On taking action: To know, and not to do, is not yet to know.

On traps for smart people: One of Roger’s mentors once told him, You think you’re smart. You try to do everything yourself. That’s why you’ll never be really wealthy. I know I’m stupid. That’s why I employ smart people like you to do everything for me.

Food for thought…

Two Types Of Leverage

I have recently been focussing on employing two types of leverage to increase my personal effectiveness and productivity.

Systematic Leverage: Using systems to do the heavy lifting for me. These include CRM automation, automatic billing systems, automated data backup systems and so on.

Personal Leverage: Engaging people who are much better qualified to do specific tasks than myself - designers, bookkeepers, technical people and so on.

So far the results are pleasing — I’ll report back with some more detailed results at a later date.

Internal Tags: personal leverage, roger hamilton and wealth dynamics

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