Have you ever heard email described as, the killer Internet Application Do you understand why email is the killer app for your business on the Internet, or how to make it that way if it isnt now
In my spare time, I teach WingTsun(TM) Kung Fu. I learned Internet marketing by marketing my martial arts schools and classes online. Much of what Ive learned about Internet marketing - and Life - has been strongly influenced by Kung Fu.
Good Kung Fu is concept-driven. Good Internet marketing should be, too. Have you ever heard the concept, The best defense is a good offense
My students and I are nice people. But if youve ever had to defend yourself or your family, you know you cant be too nice. Your survival, or the survival of your loved ones, depends on you winning. You cannot stop, you must win.
So let me ask you: If you were in a situation where you had to defend yourself and your family - life or death! - would you only hit once Of course not. Youd keep hitting until you and your family were safe, wouldnt you
But is that how you market your business on the Internet Are you relentless Do you win Or do you just get one hit per visitor Do you really think people are going to wait around to see what happens Or come back later for another hit
It sounds funny, but this is what the vast majority of businesses do on the Internet! Ive done it too, and I KNOW better! Any marketer will tell you its a known fact that it normally takes multiple exposures to your marketing before someone actually makes a purchase. Its so easy to focus on getting a hit on your web site. But whats the chance youre going to win with just one hit
Do you know what it costs you to get a visitor to your web site Maybe you can measure it because youre doing pay-per-click, popup, or banner advertising. Or maybe you just know you spent umpteen hours hunched over your keyboard sweating blood trying to optimize your pages for the search engines. Any way you count it, Im betting its costing you a lot of time or money for each visitor. Do you really want them to just surf in and surf out, never to be seen again, and never to generate any revenue
Are you going to crawl back in every Monday morning to a job you hate Your family would be a lot safer if they didnt have to depend on the good will of an anonymous corporation, wouldnt they
Are you going to win
Are you an Internet Warrior
Then you have to get their email address, and permission to email them. Then we start our Kung Fu.
Im going to teach you the concept of the WingTsun chain punch. The chain punch is like a machine gun - its a continuous chain of punches, each one linking to the next in a continuous unbroken chain. They just keep coming! Believe it or not, with a little practice anyone can punch 7 or 8 times a second for 100 punches or more. In fact, 10 punches per second is not that difficult and 12 punches per second is not unheard of! And every one of those punches is automatic, its reflex. Its all on autopilot.
Thats what your email newsletter can do for you. Its your kung fu chain punches. They just keep coming until you win!
Now I want to be sure to specify here that were not talking spam - were talking permission marketing. Were talking about emailing to people whove subscribed to your newsletter from your web site.
Good self-defense is simple. Theres no time to try to do complex, memorized sequences of dozens of movements! You just need a couple simple things that really work when the chips are down and that are pretty hard to screw up.
In the WingTsun Kung Fu that I teach, chain punching fills the bill. You learn it pretty much day one, then you do about a thousand a day for the next 40 or 60 years! Of course it will work, you know it as well as you know how to walk!
Were going to do the same thing with email. Here are the concepts and simple steps of Kung Fu Email Marketing:
1. The primary job of your web site is to get a visitor to give you their email address and permission to email them. You need to prominently feature your subscription mechanism. The mechanism can be as simple as an email link, a form they can submit, a popup/popunder/popover, or whatever. Just get the email address. And be sure to tell them what you will do with it - you will send them your newsletter, ezine, occasional special offers, or whatever. It doesnt hurt to tell them in plain English that youre not going to sell their email address to a bunch of spammers either. And be sure to keep that promise! Since people are getting pretty protective of their email addresses, it may also be a great idea to give them a good reason to subscribe. Maybe you can give them a free ebook or report, or a free trial of your service.
2. You want your email newsletter to earn your subscribers trust and respect, turn subscribers into customers, and customers into repeat business. You need to send your newsletter regularly forever, earning trust and respect the old-fashioned way, and never letting your subscribers down. You can do this manually, but I recommend instead doing at least most of it with a sequential autoresponder. There are a number of good ones out there, and you can either go with one hosted on someone elses servers or you can run a script on yours.
Thats it, youve now taken your first lesson in Kung Fu Email Marketing! What, did you think it would be hard or something Cmon, this is just Internet marketing, not Kung Fu fighting!
Copyright 2005 Mike Adams
Mike Adams has been doing WingTsun Kung Fu since 1980. You can learn more about his WingTsun Kung Fu schools at: For more of Mikes Internet marketing tips, tools, news, articles, and resources, visit:
Before I do this, let me describe how autoresponders work. Think of autoresponders as the equivalent of fax-on-demand, but for email instead of fax. You simply set up a message and then whenever someone sends an email to your autoresponder email address they will immediately receive this as a response.
Autoresponders can also be triggered from a form on your web site, where the visitor will enter his email address (and his name too if requested) and receive the autoresponse straight away.
Many autoresponders on the market today are sequential autoresponders, and save contact information in a database so it can send further messages to your prospects at intervals you specify (such as two days, five days and seven days later).
Here is an example of a message sent by a modern autoresponder:
Dear John Doe,
Thank you for requesting more information
on our products earlier.
I have attached to this email a document containing our
price listings for Augusts catalogue of products. Please
read through it in your own time John.
I will get back to you the same time on Wednesday with our
special offers. Feel free to send me an email or call me
on 000-000-0000 if you would to discuss your needs.
Thanks again,
Max Weber
ShareHobby.com
Here is a typical sequence for following up prospects who have requested more info:
1st Message Sent Immediately
2nd Message Sent 2 Days Later
3rd Message Sent 5 Days Later
4th Message Sent 8 Days Later
5th Message Sent 12 Days Later
6th Message Sent 16 Days Later
7th Message Sent 20 Days Later
When setting up your own follow-up sequence, remember that there are golden rules and that the only factors that affect your sequence is your product and your market.
Imagine you target Internet business owners. You may send your messages to these prospects within a shorter time frame than you would if you were targeting a more generalized market (who arent so likely to check their email on a daily basis).
How about if you were selling a report on how to create response-generating mini-sites for $19.97 Would your follow-up sequence need to spend as much time selling your product as it would if you sold copywriting services to large web business developers, for example, who want to boost the response of their web sites.
Below, I will summarize a sample sequence suitable for following up prospects who have requested information on a particular product of yours.
Autoresponse: Thank Prospect for Requesting Information
The aim of this autoresponse is to thank your prospect for requesting information and introduce your web site or product to them. It is important in this message you outline the major benefits of your product and tell them whats in it for them.
Remember at all times, that your prospects wants to know what your product can do for them, so dont spend the majority of your message introducing your company, instead focus on what you and your product can do for them.
Follow-Up #1: Introduce a Deadline or Time-Limited Offer
After a day or two, your prospect can easily forget about you and your products. So your aim here is to not just remind them of your offer but also to make them feel, Hmm, I better get this before its too late.
This can be achieved by using a form of scarcity, such as offering a special discount for a limited time only. Perhaps there are only a 17 seats left at a seminar you are promoting, or maybe there are only 200 copies of your book printed. Again, within this message remind them what your product will do for them.
Follow-Up #2: Reinforce Benefits to Persuade Prospects
In most situations this message will be sent 3-5 days after the original request, so you want to elaborate on your previous offer by reinforcing the many benefits of your product. The entire email will stress the benefits they get from buying your product or doing business with you.
Benefits are what make your prospects desire your product. No-one ever purchases a product because of what it does (a feature), they do so for what it can do for them (a benefit). You can also incorporate benefits into bulleted lists.
Follow-Up #3: Pile On the Bonuses to Get Them Excited
Spend this message getting your prospects excited about what theyll get when they purchase from you. Even if this means they buy your product just for the bonuses, that shouldnt bother you.
You may also want to remind them that these bonuses can only be guaranteed for a certain number of days. Again, using scarcity in this way will make them want to act fast if they wish to get the bonuses.
Follow-Up #4: Build Value by Comparing Your Product
A common rule of thumb is that while your prospects will base their decisions on emotions, they will justify it with logic. What this means, is that even though they might like your product, they may not want to buy it purely on impulse.
An easy way to convince your prospect your product is great value is to compare apples to oranges. Lets say you were selling the report on how to create response-generating web sites. You can compare purchasing your report to paying an experienced (and rather costly) web designer to design one web site for you. By doing so, you immediately prove the value of your product.
Follow-Up #5: Boost Desire with Glowing Testimonials
Its a known fact that your prospects will trust you far more if you give examples of what other people have said about your company and product. Your prospects might think you could lie to them because its your own product, but they wont think the other person is lying, because he or she has nothing to gain by doing so.
If you dont have any testimonials for your product, ask your customers! Be straight and tell your customers that you need some honest comments and reviews of your product. Theres nothing more to it.
Also consider adding a link to the customers web site or email address to add the final bond of trust that will secure your credibility and convince your prospects that youre the real thing.
Follow-Up #6: Demand Action and Remind of Deadline
This final step of your sequence is what makes or breaks the sale. Since nobody likes to make a decision, especially when money is involved, you must help them by making it crystal clear what youre offering and how itll benefit the prospect.
Once youve reminded them of what theyll miss out on if they dont take action, make it absolutely clear what to do next, even if its just a Click here to order over our secure server before its too late line of copy.
Remember that even when the follow-up sequence is complete your prospects are still very valuable to you, whether they purchase your product or not, and should be contacted (using your autoresponders broadcast feature) on a regular basis to let them know of web site updates, new products, etc.
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