By : steve barrow

Often as money motivated marketers, we tend to put a lot of time and effort into creating jaw dropping initial offers to motivate people to join our list. This is because we have heard over and over that the money is in the list. You then think, “Wow! Now that person will see my offer and I will make a killing! However, if you expect that person to immediately buy your product, service or opportunity without a carefully planned email follow up campaign you may be disappointed.

In a previous post I mentioned that consumers like to purchase from people that they know, like or trust. Because an initial online offer (often times free information) may motivate someone out of curiosity to opt in to your list, this does not mean that they know, like or trust you enough to join or buy from you. In fact, because of the massive amount of information that a prospect is inundated with, it is not surprising to lose their interest almost immediately after they joined your list! As an example, a prospect could click on a myriad of competitors’ links and you could lose their attention before they even get to confirm their email. Remember, the prospect does not know you very well. Their interest is primarily solving a problem or seeking pleasure. If you do not give your prospect time to recognize you care about them and that you can honestly help them, then you are losing business. That is why an automated email follow up campaign is important.

Proof – Why Email Follow Up is More Important than Ever

To further prove the importance of an email follow up campaign, the National Sales Executive Association conducted a survey that showed that the number of sales a person made depended upon how many times the prospect was contacted. The statistic shows that most sales are made between the 5th and the 12th contact.

Here’s the data the NSEA compiled:

2% of sales are made on the 1st contact
3% of sales are made on the 2nd contact
5% of sales are made on the 3rd contact
10% of sales are made on the 4th contact!
80% of sales are made on the 5th – 12th follow up contact!!

This survey tells me that not only are a majority of the sales made after the 4th contact, but that only 10% of sales are made in the first 3 email follow up messages. This is why solid email follow up with a prospect can be a goldmine for marketers. If you create an automated funnel system that allows you to build a relationship with your prospects by giving massive value, you put the odds in your favor.

I tend to believe that in today’s society people are even more skeptical than before and that the email follow up process may take even longer. In either case, if you are just relying on traffic to your site or only 3-4 email follow up messages, you may end up frustrated. Author Resource:- It is important to understand I am talking here about email follow up campaigns using an autoresponder service like Aweber, Get Response or any of the other reputable autoresponder services. I do recognize that you can follow up via telephone, one on one, and personally emailing your contacts. However, due to the shear numbers of follow ups a thriving business should expect, unless you have a staff on hand, automated email services where you can personalize your messages are the top options I have seen. I like auto-responders because I can set up my email follow up campaign and have it ‘drip’ personal messages to my list on auto-pilot for however long I want. In many cases, serious prospects take the initiative to follow up with you over the phone, an ideal situation where you are the hunted instead of the hunter!