Follow-Up Fit For a King

Early in the war for Scottish independence, King Robert I and his people spent most of their time on the run from the much more powerful English army. The exhausted king fled to a cave for protection in one particularly dire situation.

According to legend, Robert fled to an island off the West Coast of Scotland to hide out for the winter. It was there that he had a life-changing vision.

He saw a spider dangling from a silken thread, repeatedly trying to weave its web. And each time it fell, it pulled itself up to try again. Robert vowed that he, too, wouldn't give up until the battle was won.

And he didn’t. After fighting for 14 years, the Scottish people – led by their king – won their independence.

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” – Ben Franklin.

Frequency: The Value of Follow Up

The most indisputable fact of successful outbound marketing programs is that frequency improves results.

“If you promote something twice to one hundred people, it will lead to more sales than if you promote it once to two hundred people. Frequency galvanizes attention and improves trust.” – Seth Godin.?

It is estimated that 44% of salespeople give up after just one attempted follow-up.

By the 4th follow-up, 92% have given up, but we also know that 60% of customers say no four times before saying yes. We have a problem here.

I don’t bring this up to pick on my friends in sales – they have an enormous set of responsibilities. I bring it up to emphasize how critical it is for us to build scalable engagement opportunities with prospects and customers.

We need to create systems that pull individuals in our target market into our sales funnels as revenue-focused teams. Once they are on our lists, it is essential that we quickly build a relationship between them and our brand. Researchers say 50% of buyers choose the vendor that responds first.

Building a Relationship

In his book “Business Made Simple” Donald Miller gives us a marketing tip disguised as relationship advice received from his wife while they were still dating. She told him, “You’re a quality time guy, but I’m a quantity time girl.”

She wanted to see him in many different situations to assess his worthiness in marrying her. We need to give our customers a very similar opportunity.

The goal is to build a relationship that takes our target customers from ‘I’ve never heard of this company’ to ‘What is this company I keep hearing about?’ to ‘I think I’ve heard of that company’ to ‘Yes, I’ve heard of that company’ to ‘Yes, I do business with that company.’

There are potential downsides to frequency…if you’re not careful, you can quickly wear out your welcome with your prospects, but this can be overcome with sublime, valuable content creation.

The Open-Ended Drama Series I Use

I struggled to figure out ways to build a bond with people after they joined my lists for a long time, but then I learned about a concept called soap opera sequences from Russell Brunson.

It turns out that Russell borrowed the idea from Andre Chaperon. It is a sequence of emails that act like episodes in a soap opera.

These shows pull you in with dramatic scenes and sometimes even exciting characters; then, they end in an open-ended way requiring that you come back tomorrow for more.

We will see be best results when we pattern our drip email series this way.

Here is a sample sequence:

Day 1. Set the stage: “Welcome to our list; you will receive (value). How would you like to save $x and have more time to spend with your kids? Our customer Ted was the same way, he was just like you, but now he’s way better. Stick with us for the next few days, and you’ll have everything you need to (value).”

Once you lay out this message, the next step is to hook the reader into reading email #2.

Example: “P.S. The email I’ll be sending you tomorrow is called My $40,000 Failure. Make sure that you open it up as soon as you get it.”

Day 2. Drama, Story, Hurdle: There Ted was, a field of totally worthless crops with no recourse. Six months before Ted had…he had some issues, and now…he has run into this hurdle he can’t overcome. Come back tomorrow to learn how he’ll do it.?

Day 3. The aha moment that solved everything: Ted couldn’t figure out how he would move forward, but then he found…and life couldn’t be better. Man, is he glad to have that in the rearview mirror – and you could too with this fantastic offer we have for you.

Day 4. Layer Additional Benefits: On top of solving that problem we told you about before, there are even more benefits that you could realize when you use (our product).

Day 5. Employ scarcity with a strong CTA: This is why you need to sign up right now and get started today.

You have a fantastic product and an excellent service that will improve the lives of your target customers. Take a page out of King Robert 1 and follow up with tenacity. Your customers will thank you later.

Make something different. Make people care. Make fans, not followers.

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