Let us talk about follow up.
Truth is: my favorite lesson on following up is already in my book, How to Sell to Nigerians.
Open to Chapter 2 and you’ll find a lot of follow-up gold, from lessons to instances, analogies, examples, tips, etc.
It’s a goldmine for follow-up lessons. Go read it now.
And if you don’t have the book, find it here: http://howtoselltonigerians.ng/
However, for the sake of continuity, I have to talk about how to follow up on the leads you get from your classified ads. (If you missed my email on how to write powerful classified ads that sell, then go back to my last email to read that before continuing this.)
If you remember clearly, in my last mail, despite teaching you how to write classified ads that sell your products and services, I advised that you shouldn’t sell directly with classified ads; you should use it as an opportunity to generate leads instead.
Why?
Selling might require some convincing sometimes. Not necessarily to make them desire your product, but to make them choose it as the solution they’ve been looking for, or to make them choose it as the best option over others.
A classified ad, or its online equivalents today: banner ads, Google ads, etc. wouldn’t give you that space you need to do your convincing.
So you want to first attract them into your world so that you can present your case and do all the necessary convincing once they are in your world.
Trying to sell to them directly on the classified ads would only make you miss more sales opportunities down the line. It’s like a man asking a girl for marriage at their first meeting. What are his chances of getting a yes?
In that Chapter 2 I recommended earlier, you’ll see an analogy that compares the chances of success between a man who asks 100 girls (strangers) for sex at a party versus another who instead offers them a drink and does some courting before asking for sex down the line.
Go read it; there’s no essence reproducing it here.
So…once you place the kind of ad I advised in my last email and people respond to your free offer…let’s say by sending you an email, as I told them to in my own example (check last email)…what do you do next?
You follow up instantly using an autoresponder.
An autoresponder is simply a function most email providers have that automatically sends a prewritten and preset message as a reply to anyone who sends you an email.
In the online world though, you can simply send them to a form where they enter their contact details and an autoresponder is activated once they click the submit button.
The autoresponder then sends them a link to get the info they are looking for – the one you promised.
It can be a disguised sales letter, a report, or whatever you used to entice them.
Whatever it is, let it be valuable.
The trick here is to give them enough valuable information to whet their appetite and leave them wanting more. That “more” is what they pay for.
Let me give examples:
For someone who sends an email hoping to get free information on Canadian relocation, you can tell them what it is, the benefits of relocation, the requirements for eligibility, etc.
But you’ll reserve the main process of application, tricks, and tips for a faster process and eventual success, and every other thing that’ll give them an advantage over other applicants as the paid part of the information.
Or if it’s the service you want to sell, you can also give them the application process and let it look as hard and cumbersome as it usually is on the official website.
Then tell them to apply to work with you if they don’t want to go through all that stress, want to get it done faster, and increase their chances of success based on your years of experience and track record.
That’s how to make this process work for you.
For better results in your campaign, make sure you don’t just follow up once and leave them alone.
Let them get at least three emails till they buy – some studies claim that on average, humans need 7 touch points (seeing your promotions) before they decide to buy.
It’s easier to do with online tools, like the GetResponse I mentioned last week.
You can command the tool to send them a few emails, and even spread them over a few days instead of every day.
One of my mentees in skincare sends about 15 follow-up emails spread over 47 days. And it works crazily well for him.
He has sold thousands and thousands of products and he never advertised his product directly. He generates leads by attracting prospects with a free report and then sells through follow-ups, just as I’ve taught you here.
I know it might look scary sometimes that you’re spending money on giving people something for free, but if you do it the right way, especially make the right offers with powerful sales copy/letters, it will work for you and you’ll make even more money down the line than selling directly.
Imagine Black Friday comes and you send the thousands of people on your list who haven’t bought from you an email that you’re doing 50% off your product. Imagine the number of sales you’ll make.
Lucky you, crafting great offers, writing great ads, creating great sales letters and every other thing you need to grow your business are things I’ve already addressed in my emails and in my books.
