Email automation Mail Chimp heart suit Agencies link graphic ISSUE 04 Freelancer Paul Jarvis teaches people how to use Mail Chimp. Among other things, Paul also resides on an island, has a lot of tattoos (self declared more than you ), wears beer toques and meditation beads. For this issue and the next, Paul will discuss Mail Chimp's automation features, and how he uses them to do better business. On its surface automation brings forth images of robotic arms in widget factories or lifeless emails (selling those robotic arm fabricated widgets) blasting out mindlessly for eternity. When you look closer though automation is really just about taking repetitive tasks off your plate and setting up processes that are on brand and highly targeted. Two of the best processes to automate in your agency or freelance business are how you onboard and vet potential clients, and then, how you stay in touch with previous clients. Automating parts of your business doesn’t have to mean removing the human touch or what’s unique about your brand it just means you can scale that voice and tone you’ve developed and spend more time doing awesome projects and less time vetting potential leads and staying in touch. Automating parts of your business doesn’t have to mean removing the human touch or what’s unique about your brand. Onboarding Let’s dive right into an example of how this onboarding sequence could work for your agency or freelance business: 1. A potential lead sees your website, loves your work and wants to learn more. 2. They enter their name and email address into a interest form which triggers a link simple automation link sequence in Mail Chimp. 3. The first email link goes out immediately to let that lead know who you are, what you do and what niche you serve. You can also let them know the type of projects you do (or don’t do) and share a short success story slash testimonial or two via a simple email, a PDF attachment or even a linked video. It’s your brand, so it’s your call. 4. At the end, you can use a simple survey to ask if they’re interested in working together. For example: link star SURVEY:Heck ya I would star or star Nah, I’m not interested star dot 5. If they clicked the interested option, you can link segment another automation email which would contain a link to a page on your site with contact info or a booking calendar like Acuity Scheduling to book a quick call with you to discuss the project. 6. Based on goal activity (i dot e. them reaching that booking page on your website), you can link segment link that automation sequence further and send a follow up a few days later if that goal of visiting your booking page did not happen. That’s it! Finished projects Repeat clients are the best clients you already have a relationship with them, you’ve already (hopefully) trained them on how to be a great client and they know how you work. Think about it. Your clients (or customers) are people who like your work so much that they paid for it. And, since you’re good at what you do, they were happy with what you produced. So why lose touch with these people? When phrased this way, it almost seems rude not to re connect. There are two ways to get repeatedly hired by the same clients. Obviously, you need to do great work for them. That’s a no brainer. But the second way is to follow up after projects or contracts are complete. Too many agencies and freelancers miss these opportunities of easy additional work because they finish one project and quickly move onto another client and another project. But with automation, you can easily create automatic follow ups for previous clients to stay in touch and more importantly to stay on their radar. Stay in touch Here's what a previous client outreach automation sequence could look like: 1. When you finish a project for a client, add their email address in Mail Chimp to a group, e dot g. link Leads : Follow up dot 2. Create an automation sequence that starts when link List Activity: Joins List Group and select the group with the link follow up group name dot 3. Create an email in plain text (since it’s better if it looks like an email from you) and in your own voice that checks in with a previous client it can be short and sweet too. For example: Hey star FNAME star , hope all is well. Just wanted to check in to see if there was anything else I could help your business with? 4. Set that email to go out 4–8 weeks after you’ve finished the project. 5. Create (by replicating) several more emails that go out every 3–4 months (or whatever makes sense for your business and the type of work you do). Change the wording up slightly from email to email, but keep the gist the same: short, to the point, and asking if there’s anything else you can do for them. 6. Bonus: in the required footer of these emails, you can allow subscribers to opt out of an automation sequence without opting fully off your list by using this merge tag: star AUTOMATION:WORKFLOWREMOVEURL star So your footer could have a link to unsubscribe (since it’s the law) plus a link to stop receiving follow ups like this that links to: star AUTOMATION:WORKFLOWREMOVEURL star That way previous clients can stay on your list (if you send them regular campaigns too) but not be sent these check in emails anymore. Defeating feast or famine Using automation sequences like those mentioned above allow you to inject your own style, brand and personality into repetitive tasks that you no longer need to worry about. It gets specific people on your list (potential leads or past clients) the information they need, when they need it, and frees you up to continue doing awesome work for your current clients. This process can help smooth out the feast or famine in client work, as well as keep your agency or freelance business top of mind well into the future. Leave the robots to make widgets in widget factories and use automation in your own business to have some human touch without spending your time and attention on it. Unlabeled graphic To get missing image descriptions, open the context menu. UP NEXT 05 Paul Jarvis is still on deck! In Issue 05, Paul will demonstrate a practical approach to lead generation using Mail Chimp's automation features. Thanks for reading! 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