Mapping out the sequence of the email is essential to making sure there are no missing pieces or leaks in your funnel. You’ll turn off your readers if you jump into selling a high-ticket item after they bought your eBook and they might unsubscribe if they feel your offer was too pricey. Looking at a visual map with these details will show you in one glimpse if your offers make sense or if they should be switched around.

In this episode, we map out a simple hands-off money-making email sequence.

Welcome to another episode of Systems Sunday. The theme this month is Profitable Vacation Campaign Funnels. A vacation campaign is any automated email sequence you can turn off and on while you’re busy doing other things, like scuba diving or window shopping. Turn it on before you get to the airport and turn it off when you get back home.

I am Lisa Wells, your Virtual Assistant Trainer.

Last week’s episode was How to Pick the Perfect Profit-Producing Offers to Promote While You’re Away. In today’s episode, we are going to map out a simple hands-off money-making email sequence.

Mapping out the sequence of the email is essential to making sure there are no missing pieces or leaks in your funnel. You’ll turn off your readers if you jump into selling a high-ticket item after they bought your eBook and they might unsubscribe if they feel your offer was too pricey. Looking at a visual map with these details will show you in one glimpse if your offers make sense or if they should be switched around.

Check with your email service provider if they provide any diagrams or maps of your email funnel. Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, is an Email Service Provider that shows detailed diagrams of each email sequence that’s created, including the number of days in between messages and the titles/offers in each message. They also allow you to automate much of your individual client follow-up, as shown in this image.

Keap uses a tagging system to identify how each subscriber came into your funnel. You create unique tags based on your product names or the type of opt-in they received, and the tags serve as a way to segment your list into different categories.

Even if your ESP doesn’t provide visual flow charts, you can create the same effect using sticky notes, a whiteboard, or a mind-mapping program.

Think methodically from beginning to end of your funnel or sequence.

Understanding where your subscribers are coming from is just as important as knowing where they’ll end up.

1. Where does the customer “enter” the funnel? Are they a paid customer or did they opt-in for a freebie? What did they buy or subscribe to? Give them a tag to identify what made them take action to get onto your list.
2. Decide who gets access to this funnel/sequence. Again, this is where tagging comes in handy. Do you want these offers emailed to your entire list, just to subscribers who joined after a certain date, or subscribers who’ve purchased a related product or service? ALL of these options can make you money, so there’s no right or wrong answer. This is where your first step of planning out the products you want to promote is so important.
3. Choose the number of emails you need to write. Most email funnels contain between 4-16 emails. The longer you’re gone, the more emails you’ll want in your funnel.
4. Choose your email frequency. When will emails go out? Every day? Every other day? Spread this out over the course of your vacation. Many people wonder about the “right” frequency but there truly is no easy answer. In large part, how often people want to see your emails depends on the market you’re in and how well you’ve stayed in touch with your subscribers. If you have forgotten about your list and all of a sudden start emailing every day, expect some unsubscribes. But if you email regularly and your subscribers are still responsive, stay with that frequency or maybe email a bit more frequently while you’re away.
5. Create strong calls to action (CTAs). You may have the best-written emails and subject lines ever, but if you forget your CTA, you’re missing sales. Don’t be passive or wishy-washy in your email copy. TELL your readers what they should do next. Tell them WHY they should listen to you and HOW they will benefit if they follow your lead. Take an active role in marketing yourself as opposed to a passive, wait-and-see-if-they-come-to-you approach.
6. Don’t be afraid to send multiple emails on “cart close” day. Most subscribers need and welcome last-minute reminders for limited-time offers or when the doors to a product or program will close. You know how life gets; you have the best of intentions to make a purchase with that first or second email but then you get busy and the offer slips your mind. Or you remember there was something you wanted but can’t remember the details. Appeal to those people with multiple, last-minute emails to salvage some sales.

Keep thinking ahead when it comes to your funnel and you will naturally see the path your readers should take. Populate that path with multiple offers in their price range that will solve their biggest problems in life and soon you’ll have fans raving about you and recommending you to their friends.

If you enjoyed this episode and want more tips and strategies for building a profitable vacation campaign, check out Vacation Campaigns Business Building Action Kit. In this kit, I show you how to set up a vacation-specific autoresponder series that gets delivered to your email subscribers while you’re away. All my action kits contain a full done-for-you action plan to give you guidance, resources, and keep you on track with a done-for-you calendar, checklist, and worksheets. You can find a link to the product below or visit my VA Business Builder Boutique by clicking on Shop in the menu bar.

Join me next week for “How to Write Irresistible, Profit-Producing Emails for Your Vacation Campaign Funnel.”

See you then!

Catch up on other Profitable Vacation Campaign Funnels episodes + resources mentioned in the video:

• [Video] How to Pick the Perfect Profit-Producing Offers to Promote While You’re Away
• [Video] How to Write Irresistible, Profit-Producing Emails for Your Vacation Campaign Funnel
• [Video] Best Ways to Monetize Your Vacation Campaign Funnel
• Keap –  an e-mail marketing and sales platform for small businesses, including products to manage customers, customer relationship management, marketing, and e-commerce. If you are interested in Keap, I am a Keap Certified Partner and Reseller. Schedule a call to go over current pricing.
• Vacation Campaigns Business-Building Action Kit

Did you enjoy this episode and want to put it into action? Grab this Business-Building Action Kit!