This is going to be one of the soft-core content on this site, and it’s ironic.
because what I’m about to show you took me the longest time to figure out.
In fact, I wasted years of my life working on a system that was outdated and unnecessarily complicated.
I am really happy that you are reading this blog right now because you don’t want to make the same mistakes I made.
Everything we share in this blog is supposed to be simple.
If you start to feel what we are doing is complicated, you are probably doing too much.
You will also hear me getting emotional in this blog because I almost gave up on email marketing
because of this one misunderstood concept.
Let me explain.
In the email marketing world, there are two words that are often confused with each other, so much that people use them interchangeably.
Automation and autoresponder.
Are they the same thing?
No, absolutely not.
One of them is a complete waste of your time.
Oh, OK.
Notice how I’m getting emotional anyways.
Let’s start from the beginning.
Since I’m currently using git response as my email service provider, I will use their interface as an example.
Your interface may look different than mine, but the idea is the same.
When you are at the home page, you will see a lot of features that your email service provider is giving you.
We will be using only one of those features because that’s the only one we need.
And which one is that?
This one?
Autoresponders.
We only care about autoresponders, but what about this feature automation dome press ID?
I mean, don’t use it.
There is no need.
Now, let’s officially define the difference between automation and autoresponders.
Automation, when used in the context of email marketing means automated workflows, autoresponders.
On the other hand, when using the context of email marketing means automated responses, both are automated, but one is a huge pain in the butt.
But let’s play the devil’s advocate and take a look at it.
You see, this is what an email workflow looks like.
When someone opts into your list, they get this email and if they open it, they get tagged the value.
If they don’t, they get tagged another value depending on the value.
You can choose from all the different actions you want to occur.
That’s what a workflow is.
And look at all the conditions that you can place in the workflow and all the actions you can place depending on that condition.
And we haven’t even talked about the filters yet.
And guess what?
What you are looking at is just the first day, the first email we are about to send.
Can you imagine building an email automation system that is at least five emails long?
Oh, my God.
It is way more complicated than it needs to be.
And to make matters worse, look, you see that if you want to start using the value that you place at each step of the way, you need to check to score and segment your list.
And guess what?
To use the scoring feature, you have to upgrade your service.
You have to pay more.
Are you kidding me?
And bear in mind, this is just setting up the automation system.
We haven’t even written our first email yet.
Is this something you want to do when you start email marketing for the first time?
I consider myself an experience.
I’m a marketer and even I ain’t got time for that.
Now you can see why email service providers push this feature, right.
They know it will take you weeks, if not months to build email automation and months, if not years to perfect it.
And you stay with their service longer.
Definitely pass the initial free trial period.
OK, let’s take a deep breath.
Now let’s take a look at the autoresponder feature.
An Autoresponder is just an automated response, an automated email.
This is what an auto responder looks like.
We said that we wanted to send out five emails.
Right?
Well, these are the five emails.
You can see the name of the email and if it’s running or not.
And also the day on which the email will be sent.
That means Day 0 is sent this email immediately.
Day one is sent this email one day after and day two is send this email two days after and so on.
If you don’t want the system to send, let’s say, the last email anymore, then you just turn it off.
Simple, right?
Whenever someone joins this list, this autoresponder system will automatically send these emails to your new subscriber in that order.
Now, want to know how simple it is to create an autoresponder?
Your interface will look something like this.
You give your autoresponder an email and then you set the day you want the system to send it.
Your pick, which lists this autoresponder applies to, and you write the email that would be sent.
That’s it.
Now you tell me, would you rather use email automation workflows or email autoresponder?
My point exactly, and I waste the years figuring all this out.
If you are an advanced marketer and have those systems before then you might enjoy building an automation workflow.
But if you have never built an email system before.
Stick with me and let’s build a simple autoresponder system.
That’s why in this blog when I use words like automation, automated autoresponder, and automatic in every situation.
whenever I use that auto word, I mean autoresponder, OK, I will never, ever be talking about automation workflows because we ain’t got time for that.
Conclusion
My goal is to get you up and running as soon as possible.
So that you can get results and build relationships and make money as soon as possible.
Sound fair.
All right.
I’m excited because we just save the years of our lives.
Don’t you feel younger already?
OK, big hugs on to the next episode.
