How to Follow Up With Your Email Subscribers Without Creeping Them Out

Subscriber Sam recently ran a 24-hour product launch for his very first product—a video course with an accompanying workbook that helps students to improve their skills speaking English.

He writes:

So a little update. I made just over $350 in sales in the 24 hour promo – which I’m pretty happy with for my first time launching anything.

Since then, though. I haven’t sold a single thing.

My email course is still running & it has a three day 25% discount built within it, and I promoted it to my list in an email (to 850 people – I excluded the people who have purchased and the people who are going through the course), but no cigar.

So, I’m left scratching my head… It’s either:

– My product is bad – I actually don’t think this is the case.
– My offer is bad – maybe it’s not enticing enough
– My emails are bad
– My sales page is too long.

I know this is a big ask, but is there any way I could find out what’s stopping people? Should I email all the people who clicked what stopped them from buying?

Actually following up with people who clicked is a GREAT idea.

In several of my email courses I’ve added an automated step to send anyone who didn’t buy an email asking what might have changed their mind.

I’ve gotten some very valuable feedback that way, including a couple of ideas that we used directly to improve the products.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to do this.

The wrong way:

“Hey there, I noticed that you clicked on this link on Monday at 10:09 a.m., and then TWICE on Tuesday afternoon, and for some reason you STILL didn’t buy. What’s the deal, yo?”

People get real squirrelly about being tracked online.

So the right move here is to think of the actions that the subscriber has taken as TRIGGERS that you can cue off of…

But in the process you avoid “tipping your hand” and revealing that you’re taking cues from their action.

In the case of people who don’t buy, rather than calling attention to that fact, you’re better off to focus on the next step:

“Hey there, I’m looking to make some upgrades to Product X. What is missing from the product right now that you’d like to see in the future?”

Bottom line:

Use their actions to help you guide them to the next step rather than using the info you’re collecting as a bludgeon to compel compliance.

You’re more likely to get honest feedback—and less likely to find your mugshot tacked up on the wall at the Post Office.

More advice for Sam in my next email.

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