Maximising webinar results has become a crucial goal in today's digital landscape, where effective follow up strategies can turn leads into valuable customers.

Hi... Jason Buckner here, from Automation Made Easy - your go-to-team for business automation.

Join us as we delve into the remarkable success story of Allison Garrison. Allison came to us for help maximising webinar results. And in this video we show how four simple follow up emails led her to a remarkable $13,991 in sales.

Watch this short, content-only video to see exactly how we helped Allison to harness the power of targeted action-based emails to generate these sales:

The Three Follow Up Phases:

There are three specific phases in the follow up. There's action, there's trust, and then there's conversion. Okay?

We want to reward people for taking action. We want to then build trust with them. And then we want to convert them when the time is right and sell to them… get them to become a customer.

PHASE 1 – ACTION:

Now, action. We literally reward people for taking action. Give them what they've signed up for and ask them to take the next step.

So if they're one of those webinar action points that maybe missed the webinar or registered or early exit or things like that, we ask them to take the next step.

Meet Allison:

Now I want you to meet Allison Garrison. Allison had a problem. Her webinar was below average, but luckily, she was super scared of failure. So she came to me to see if there's a plan we could input in place to follow up.

Now the solution… $13,991 in sales. All of those sales are just because we put the action based follow up in place. Just four emails worth $14,000.

The Four Action Points:

There are four action points around an automated webinar:

1. when someone registers
2. when someone misses
3. when someone early exits
4. and when someone stays until the end.

Basically we want them to register.

We don't want them to miss, we want them to attend, and then we want them to stay until the end. And then we want them to book or buy… book in this case. Okay?

So four action points. Four emails worth $14,000.

In the first one, we reward them for registering for the webinar. We set some expectations about what we're going to do next. See that crossover of action and trust straight away?

And then we ask them to take some action. So we get some engagement from them straight away. That's the register part.

And then we go through the rest. We remind them of the pain. We get them to register for the next session, another action-based email when someone misses. And then when someone comes along and they early exit another email, we ask them for their opinion. Why did you leave early? Was it not for you?“

And then we get them to watch the next session. I know it says replay now on that button, but now we actually get them to watch the next session rather than a replay in automated webinars.

Then if someone stays until the end and doesn't book, in this case, we ask them for their opinion again.

We want to prompt some replies and then we get them to book.

Now for these four emails, Allison, personalised our templates, put them in place, and these four emails were worth $13,991 in sales. All four of them from the action-based follow up.

These are the only sales she made in the test period. She wouldn't have made any of them without just the action-based follow up in place.

Let's Look At Each Of Those Sales And The Follow Up That Took Place:

This person came along to the webinar, watched till the end, didn't book, got an email 24 hours later, booked in for a session, and became a customer.

This one here registered for the webinar. They missed the webinar, got the follow up email 24 hours later, got the email and registered for the next session. Then they stayed until the end, booked in for a session, and became a customer.

Now this one was annoying. Look at this one… so much follow up needed for this one. They registered for the session, came along, left early, and got the email about leaving early. This got them to book in for the next session. They stayed until the end, but didn't book in for an appointment. 24 hours later they got the email to book in for an appointment. Then they clicked on it, booked in for an appointment, and became a customer.

And this is another missed one. So all four of these sales wouldn't have happened if we hadn't have put the action based follow up in place. $13,991 in sales. One hundred percent of these wouldn't have happened without the action based follow up.

Allison is definitely on the path to double her sales by putting just the action based follow up in place. She did more than double her sales. She actually made some sales because there was some follow up in there, which is definitely something we need to be mindful of in our ad campaigns.

Want to know more about how the Follow Up Formula can help with maximising webinar results for YOU in your business? Great! 

We'd love to offer you a free consultation. Simply book a free, no obligation call with us today.

Are you using the most effective strategies to follow up to get customers? If you’re not, you’re effectively saying, “I don’t want any more customers”. Ouch!

It’s Jason Buckner here, from Automation Made Easy… your go-to-team for business automation.

Today, I want to dive deep into a topic that often gets overlooked or underestimated in the world of business growth: effective follow up strategies.

Picture this: you've poured your heart and soul into developing an incredible product or service that has the potential to change lives. You're ready to make a splash in the market and attract a steady stream of customers. But here's the harsh truth - without effective follow-up, all your hard work could be in vain.

Now, I know what you might be thinking. You might believe that follow-up isn't your strong suit.

Perhaps you’re worried about coming across as pushy.

Or maybe you think you’re already following up, when you’re unknowingly taking the ineffective, lazy option (that doesn’t work!).

But here's the thing: by shying away from the follow-up process, you're unintentionally sabotaging your chances of getting valuable customers.

You see, my friend, the truth is that effective follow-up is an art that requires careful orchestration. It's not just about sporadic broadcasts and newsletters; it's about building trust, rewarding actions, and strategically converting leads into loyal customers.

And let me tell you, there's a proven formula that can skyrocket your sales and take your business to new heights.

In this blog post, we'll explore the most effective way to follow up to get customers. Let's dive in… watch the video below, implement the follow up strategies, and make your sales soar!

Do you not want any more customers?

So some people think, “I don't know how follow up will work with me.”

Others think, “Oh yeah, but that might work for them. It's not going to work for me.”

Or they might think, “I don't want to send all those emails and all of those SMSs and harass my leads.”

What they're actually saying is:

“I don't want to get any customers.”

If that's you, if you are thinking, “Oh, that's too many emails for me to send. That's gonna p*$$ off my people”… you don't want to get any customers.

Now, if someone buys and they're halfway through that process, we stop the rest of that prospect follow up process, and they become a customer. Okay? That’s super important in there. But if you are saying “I don't want to send all those emails”, you're saying you don't want to get any customers. It's as simple as that.

Or… “I'm already following up now. I'm sending one email, so I'm already doing some follow up. And then I send a couple of broadcasts, I do some new newsletters, and that's what I'm doing. I'm getting the follow up in there, so I should be getting these conversions already.”

Now, it doesn't work like that. That is not following up. That's being lazy.

Most people do it and then they think, “Oh, this is not working well.”

They try and rely on their broadcasts and newsletters to bring in all the sales and then do so many wrong things with those as well.

Let me tell you a quick story.

So there's this fellow, Brett McFall. You might know Brett, in actual fact. And Brett McFall had this program called Fast Client Formula. And that's using automated webinars to drive traffic to book an appointment with him so that he could find suitable customers for his program teaching them how to do this.

So he was using the program to teach them how to do this in their business. It was for coaches and consultants, et cetera, et cetera.

Now, he came to me and said, “Jason, I need you to help me get more sales. I need to put some emails in place because 75% of people that register for an automated webinar don't actually make it to the end of the automated webinar. So you can't actually even ask them to book yet.”

And so we worked out a little bit of a system and this is where the follow up formula came from. I took some of the stuff that I learned over the years but hadn't quite identified yet and started using it for Brett.

I'd actually been doing it for years with all the customers I've been helping on one-on-one basis, but didn't realise I didn't put it into a formula until this time with Brett.

So I put it in place with Brett. We did the ACTION, we did the TRUST, and we did the CONVERSION. And Brett got 20% more sales.

Then he asked me if I could teach his students. And so I said, yes, of course. But for me, 20% wasn't enough. Just 20% literally wasn't enough. I knew there was more in there that we could do. And so I tested what we did with Brett with a slightly different formula.

The Follow Up Formula

I tested the minimum amount of the maximum amount, and we bounced it back and forward until we worked out the minimum amount of effort for the maximum amount of return. And that's where the Follow Up Formula was born.

And we got 50%… 100%… 200%... 300% more sales just by following the formula, which is super cool.

There are three specific phases in the follow up. There's ACTION, there's TRUST, and then there's CONVERSION.

We want to reward people for taking action. We want to then build trust with them, and then we want to convert them when the time is right and sell to them, to get them to become a customer.

Want to know more about the Follow Up Formula and how it can work for you in your business? Great! 

We'd love to offer you a free consultation. Simply book a free, no obligation call with us today.

Today I want to share with you a story of not only how I was able to turn failure into business success, but how this turnaround can bring you success, too. The system I used has since been refined and is now used to double – or even triple – the results for my clients’ businesses.

Sometimes when you experience a failure in your business – or your business model seems to fail entirely – it may be easy to just give up. Sadly, this is often the way of new entrepreneurs. And I completely understand. I’ve been there myself and it wasn’t a nice feeling.

My first attempt at my own business failed… and the second attempt seemed doomed too. But not only was I able to save my business, the lesson I learnt actually lead to my discovering the key to a successful business.

I'm Jason Buckner, the founder of Automation Made Easy, and I've experienced firsthand the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. My early story is one that many can relate to—a journey that included initial gut-wrenching failure. But failure can be the gateway to greatness.

The lesson I learnt early on in my business lead to the very formula I use today, within my own business and also for my clients.

Watch the video below now to discover how I was able to turn failure into business success… and how it applies to you, too:

In the beginning there was World Internet Summit:

In about 2006, I started working for World Internet Summit. Now, World Internet Summit was the largest internet business training seminar in the world. And we used to do events in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the UK, Asia and Canada every single year.

We'd rotate around the world running these events in initially teaching people how to make money online. But then from there, teaching people how to use the internet as a tool to run their businesses.

All of these experts – there were 12, 13, 14 experts at every single 4-day event. So at every single event there were all of these experts teaching all of these things.

I took it all in, but I didn't do anything about it. And by year two or year three, I was feeling a bit guilty because I had all of this at my fingertips and I actually wasn't doing anything with it.

My first attempt:

So then what I decided to do was actually get involved. And so I decided to get involved with one speaker. I'm not going to tell you who that was because it was a failure. It wasn't a failure because of that speaker, but it was a failure because of what I did. Or what I didn't do inside there.

But I'm going to tell you about it anyway, because it makes a lot of sense. So I chose this one speaker. It was it was based on affiliate marketing. And I did everything I needed to in the setup.

There was about two days of things. I had to sign up for this account, I had to do this, and I had to do that and put my words in here and do this there. And then I sent it all off and this whole affiliate marketing site was made for me.

The result?

I didn't make a single sale. I didn't even get any traffic in there. And so then I was a bit despondent.

Everything they did was perfect. Everything they did was good.

But the difference with this was I didn't own it. Well, I did own it financially, but I didn't own it mentally. Does that make sense?

So everything that was set up was good, but I didn't drive it.

I didn't drive traffic to it.

And I didn't make sure that it was search engine optimised.

I didn't do all of the things that I needed to do in my business to make sure this would work.

Basically, I thought it was going to be like, I'm going to pay for this. I'm going to get a click and I'm going to start making money.

Well, it doesn't work like that, does it?

We've got to own this business and drive it.

Take 2:

So anyway, I was a bit despondent because I chose one. It didn't work.

I've got no results, and I was pretty despondent.

And I went for another couple of years coming along to these events, actually sitting at the back of the room feeling even worse about myself.

You know, I was there, I was running this event and I was helping Brett McFall and Tom Hua make millions. But I'm sitting at the back of the room and I can't even make a single dollar for myself. And there was a bit of shame in that.

But then, I had previously run a chain of retail stores in Sydney. My old boss, Pat Jacobs, came along and said to me one day:

“Jason, retail is dying. I need to do something better with my life and something better with my business, and I want to do something online. I want to do it with you because we work really well together.”

I'm the technical person, she's the ideas kind of person. And we did work very well together. So we decided on working with a fellow called Mark Ling.

The training we followed... kind of:

Now, Mark Ling was also an affiliate marketing teacher. And the structure he taught was basically to set up an affiliate site that was search engine optimised, a little like the original one that I did. 

He taught you how to research the sites and the niches first, and then to set up the site so it's search engine optimised. So you're getting hits on Google, people are coming through and then you have all of these affiliate products on the site.

So you get traffic and then people buy, okay? And so we did half of what he said. We thought, like most people do, we think:

“I'm just going to do this bit here and I'm going to do this bit there. I'm not going to do this ‘cos it looks like a whole load of work. Or I'm not ready to engage in that yet, so I'm just going to put that on the back burner for now.”

What happened the second time?

And so what happened was we did half of what he said. We did the websites, they was search engine optimised. We were on the front page of Google. You'd think being on the front page of Google, having these sites with all of these affiliate products on there, you would make a cent, wouldn't you? You would think that… mm-hmm.

Not a single sale came through! 

We got a lot of traffic to the site. But not a single sale because we didn't follow the entire formula.

We just did what we thought was right.

How many times have we done that in our business and just take a little piece and think, “I'll do it like that. I'll do this, but I'm going to do this my way.”

So what did we do next?

We were almost going to throw it all away. Okay, second failure.

But then we thought, you know what… the reason why we didn't do this follow up was because it was a year's worth of emails to put into a system. But we thought, you know what, we haven't given this a good go. And now we're responsible to each other. We're not just responsible to ourselves. We're responsible to each other.

How we were able to turn failure into business success:

So what we did was we sat down, and it took us about two and a half to three weeks to go through for one site and follow Mark Ling’s formula. And that formula was to do this email, this email, this one goes to content, this one goes to content, this one you sell something.

There was this formula of all these different permutations of content… content… sell. Content… content… content… sell… and all these different things.

Literally three emails per week, every week for 52 weeks.

You do the math there. It's A LOT of writing. It's a lot of content creation… a lot of work to do that. But we did it in two and a half to three weeks. We put it in place. And I still remember the day where we had our first person opt-In.

We put an opt-in on the page and it was a pop-up, an exit pop up, and in line and all of those things you do.

The formula worked!

I remember the day. It was about four days after we set it all live. We had our first opt-in and we were both so excited. We hadn't even made a single cent yet, but we were both so excited that someone wanted what we had… someone wanted the information.

It was literally less than seven days later that someone bought something. That original opt-in bought something.

Then it just started to grow. It literally grew and it grew and it grew to a point where it was paying for itself.

So that was on the first site. We just did one site to start with, and then we repeated the formula.

We literally followed the entire formula again across the second site and the third site so that we could start getting some results there. And we did. We literally exactly followed the formula and got the results now.

So then what we thought was, this is really good. Okay, let's get some more traffic into there. Then we put some more traffic in. And basically what happened was we, once we started making some money, we got a bit lazy with it. We shouldn't have; we should have been pushing it forward. But when we got lazy, it still paid for itself.

It paid for the course that we bought from Mark Ling. It paid for all of the website costs. And it paid for all of our marketing costs, and it broke even. But what happened as a result of this was such a huge learning.

The lessons… and the formula:

Number one, you've got to commit to something. If a formula's put in front of you, you've got to commit to it.

But number two, the other thing that I learned in this was all about the follow up. This is where it all sprung from. And I didn't realise this until much, much later in my business.

You know, we got in there and I'm very competitive and so I saw this working. I thought, “Well, how can we make this work better?”

So I went through what emails were working, what emails weren't, what formula of content before selling worked, and assessed this and changed it a little and we got some more sales out of it as well. It became more efficient. And this is where the Follow Up Formula started growing inside my brain.

If you'd like to understand more about the Follow Up Formula and how it can work in your business, we'd love to offer you a free consultation. Simply book a free, no obligation call with us today.

Are you looking for a way to boost your sales from your ad campaigns? Well, you're in luck because in this blog post, we're going to show you how to DOUBLE your sales from your ad campaigns using some simple automation strategies.

It’s Jason Buckner here, from Automation Made Easy. Running ad campaigns can be a great way to get more leads and customers, but it can also be time-consuming and expensive if not done correctly. So in this brand new video training below, I’ll show you how you can double your sales from your ad campaigns… without increasing your ad spend!

Whether you're a small business owner or a marketer, these strategies will help you improve your ad campaigns and get better results. So, let's dive in. Watch this video now and learn how to double your sales from your ad campaigns.

How to double the sales from your ad campaigns:

Now, it does not matter if it is a webinar.

It does not matter if it is a lead generation campaign.

It does not matter if you're getting people to book appointments.

And it does not matter what the campaign is.

Every single time we use the follow up formula in a campaign, we get more conversions, literally up to double and even more sometimes.

So what I want to do, I'm just going to go off the slides just for a moment and I want to draw you a bit of a diagram.

What we're going to do now is have a look at the formula. I'm just going to dive straight in to show you what it is. And there's three very simple parts to the formula.

The 3 Part Formula:

So there's number one part number two part inside here, and number three part inside here. Now I don’t have an arts degree, okay? I have an accounting degree, but I don't have an arts degree, so excuse me for my drawing, if that's okay. So the first part is ACTION.

Second part is TRUST, and third part is CONVERSION.

Write that down.

These are the three components we use in every single campaign. Action, trust, conversion. Every single campaign has action, trust, and conversion.

Part 1 – Action:

There are many action points in many campaigns. One is when someone opts in, that's an action that somebody has taken, yeah?

Maybe when someone registers for a webinar, that's an action. We send them an action based email around that.

Maybe someone misses a webinar. We send an action based email of we want them to take the next step in the action. Okay?

Maybe someone attends. What we want to do here is we want to reward or reset, to get them to take the next action if it's one of these miss or attend or early exit or something like that.

Now, this doesn't just have to be for a webinar. You know, they could register for an appointment with you. They could miss the appointment, they could attend at the appointment, they could early exit the appointment… all sorts of things in there.

It’s a similar sort of thing. We reward if they've taken the right action. If not, we're going to get them to reset and then take the action we want them to take. Okay? That's what we're doing there.

Part 2 – Trust:

Then in the trust, all we want do in this phase is simply build trust. It’s super important.

We want people to know, like, and trust us, okay?

Every campaign has a trust phase.

Every campaign has an action phase, and then the conversion phase over here, this is where we get to sell, okay?

Now, so many people, so many marketers just go sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. And they might make a couple of sales up front, but they lose the quality of their list. They lose the quality of their database very, very quickly because they're taking this process

So, in here for the action, we're going to send emails, we're going to send SMSs and we're going to send Bonjoro. Bonjoro is a message and it's a personal message we can send to start developing a relationship, okay? It's a super cool thing that that has done some amazing results.

We're going to set expectations inside the action inside here. Say if someone registers or they opt in, and we're going to set some expectations, okay?

In actual fact, in this section here, there's a little bit of overlap between action and trust. In these emails, we can set some expectations and then we can over-deliver on those expectations in the future. It's a bit where we're sending an action email, but we're starting to build some trust in there as well. A bit of overlap… there's overlap in all of these.

When we're building trust, we're going to send these by email. And we're going to send them by SMS. Email and SMS are the most important ones inside here.

Part 3 – Conversion:

And then conversion over here, we're definitely going to send by email, potentially Bonjoro and potentially SMS. It all depends on the campaign and how many SMSs we've sent. Sending SMS is very cool. We get a 98% open rate and 90% of those are open in the first 30 seconds.

So it's very cool sending SMS, but we need to be very careful with it, especially from a marketing sense. When we're sending people stuff that they've bought or stuff they've opted in for or information that's very cool to use and to develop a relationship.

But to use it in a marketing sense, we can very easily, very quickly destroy that relationship with people in SMS and affect our database very, very quickly. So we've got to be careful with that.

When someone takes some action, people are 60% more likely to take the next step when they're happy with what they've received. So when we're sending an action email after they've opted in or after they've bought something or something like that people are 60% more likely to take the next step.

So we might put some conversion into some of the action process there as well, because that's when they're most likely to do it, okay? And then there's this sweet spot in here where we're doing all three of them at once. That happens rarely, but we've got to maximize on that as well.

What this looks like in a campaign format:

What I'm going to do now is just dive in and show you that in a sort of diagram kind of format or campaign kind of format. So you can have a look at how this relates back as well.

There is three phases to a campaign. The first phase is action. Second phase is trust. Third phase is conversion.

Most people do this… most people have an opt-in page and people go to a thank you page, and that's all they do. They might send one email just like this, opt-in, thank you, page one email.

And so many people do this and they think this is all I have to do. I just have everything in my ebook or I have everything in my report and it tells everything inside there. There's a link inside there, and that's going to do the conversions for me.

I'm sorry to tell you, that's very 20 years ago. Literally 15-20 years ago that worked.

Now we have to do better than that in every single campaign. It doesn't matter if it's an ebook or a free series or whatever it is, or even a webinar or anything like that. We have to do better.

The ‘better’ campaign model:

So what I'm going to do now is just show you what that picture looks like of doing better in a campaign.

We've got our action phase here which is when someone opts in. We're going to send them an email first, then we're going to send them an SMS straight up. Now, every single campaign I run, I either have mobile number as optional, or the mobile number is compulsory. If it's a live event campaign, I have mobile number as compulsory, but if it's an opt-in, sometimes I make it optional.

I love to use it because we can develop a relationship very, very quickly with SMS. So I love to use it. I mostly make it compulsory.

So when someone opts in for a free report or an ebook or anything like that, they opt in, they get the first action email, which is the welcome or registered or confirmation email with the report in there.

Then they get an SMS, then they get a Bonjoro. Every single time, I record a personal message for every single person that opts in, every single person that that registers for an event, especially if they're registering a week out because we need to start building that relationship stuff straight away.

Those people that register on the day before or the final day, they're usually pretty good. Those people usually turn up, but we've got to build the relationship earlier.

This is the action phase right here. This is the minimum. What most people do is opt in and email. We're going to introduce SMS, we're going to introduce Bonjoro. That's the minimum you need to do to get the results we're talking about, and I'll show you some of that shortly.

Then we're going to go into this trust phase. So after someone opts in, we're going to wait a day, we're going to send an email, we're going to send someone to a content page.

So when we're building trust, someone goes through to a content page, we send an email, we send an SMS. Wait two days… then we send an email, we send an SMS and send them to another trust building content page, okay?

Another email, another SMS, another trust building content page. So that's the minimum we need to do for our trust building phase.

Then we go into conversion. In this conversion phase, what we do here is we wait and then we start sending sales emails. The earlier ones are trust building emails, getting people to click through and watch a video where you can teach them something they can be doing better. In the conversion phase though, we want people to click through and go to our sales page. Or click through and go to whatever the call to action is.

For this campaign, we have one call to action. That call to action is where we want people to go through to. In this case, I've done it as a sales page. It might be a booking page, it might be anything, might be a webinar registration page. We might want people, after they opt in for this ebook, to then register for the webinar. So that's what it would be in that case. But all paths lead to that call to action.

The Crossover:

Remember I said there's a bit of crossover? This is the action phase when someone has opted in, but because people are 67% more likely to take action when they've received what they like, so they've got their download on this page. What we're going to do is we're going to drive them across to the sales page on the thank you page there. That's number one.

And then what we're going to do, because people are 67% more likely to take the next step when they've received something good and they're happy about that, when we send them to these content, we're going to do the same thing. We're going to drive them across to whatever the final call to action is from each of those pages.

Now, we're not going to do it in the videos though, we just do it on the page. We do a soft sell to get people to come along, and that's the basis of the follow up formula.

So action phase, trust phase and conversion phase is the basis of. It doesn't matter if it's a live webinar. It doesn't matter if it's an automated webinar. And it doesn't matter if it's an ebook campaign. It doesn't matter if it's an appointment booking campaign. That is the basis. This is what we do to make things happen.

Want to know more about how we can help you with setting up your follow up system? Great! 

We'd love to offer you a free consultation. Simply book a free, no obligation call with us today.

Wondering what AI prompt examples are and why you’d want them? Well, as a busy business owner you probably struggle to find the time to write content for your website or social media channels, right?

Then when you find time, you sit and stare at a blank screen, trying to come up with ideas for your next blog post or email newsletter. Yeah, I hear you! I’ve been there too.

Here’s the good news…

Thanks to advances in AI technology, you can now leverage the power of machine learning to create high-quality, engaging content in a matter of minutes. Content that’s created specifically for your audience. And content written to achieve your business’ goals.

But here’s the thing… many people eagerly create an account with an AI tool (or multiple tools). However, they don’t know what to ask it to do. Either that, or they are disillusioned by the results they get.

Ask better questions:

By asking the right questions of your AI tools, you'll get better results for content creation. These questions are also referred to as prompts. Basically, they're instructions. And the more specific and detailed you can be, the better.

Now, first things first… if you’re not familiar with AI tools and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about, first read our recent post on The Pros And Cons Of Using AI Tools In Your Follow Up Campaigns.

At Automation Made Easy, we understand the value of your time and the importance of creating compelling content to promote your business. That's why we've put together a list of some handy prompts that you can use when asking AI tools like ChatGPT to write for you.

These AI prompt examples are designed to help you generate a wide range of content, including research, quickly and easily, from blog posts and social media updates to email newsletters and product descriptions.

By using these AI prompt examples, you can harness the power of AI to create engaging, informative content that resonates with your audience and drives results for your business.

 Let's dive in!

AI prompt examples for research:

• Pretend you are [TYPE OF PERSON – E.G. AN ELITE ATHLETE]. What are 10 ideas for how to do [TASK – E.G. STAY MOTIVATED, CHOOSE THE BEST WORKOUT CLOTHES].
• What are 10 ideas for how a [TYPE OF PERSON – E.G. BUSY, WORKING MUM] can [TASK – E.G. FIND TIME FOR SELF-CARE, CREATE NUTRITOUS FAMILY MEALS, FIND TIME FOR ROMANCE]?
• I’m in the [TOPIC] niche. What are the demographics of my target audience?
• Pretend you’re a [TYPE OF PERSON]. What are your 5 biggest problems when it comes to [TOPIC – E.G. HEALTH, WEIGHT MANAGEMENT, MONEY MANAGEMENT, TIME MANAGEMENT, RAISING CHILDREN]?
• I enjoy [SOME OF THE INTERESTS/HOBBIES OF YOUR IDEAL CLIENT]. Please suggest some other topics or activities I may find interesting.
• What websites do [TYPE OF PERSON] like to visit regularly for information or help?
• What are the features, benefits, and problem solved for this product: [URL FOR PRODUCT’S INFORMATION PAGE].
• Create an ideal customer avatar for someone who would buy [PRODUCT NAME].
• What keywords would [TYPE OF PERSON] use when searching online for this product?
  
• Write a SWOT analysis for [PRODUCT NAME].
  
• What other products are available for [TYPE OF PERSON], to solve [PROBLEM YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE SOLVES]? What are the pros and cons of each of these products?

Some AI prompt examples for marketing:

• Write a sales page for a [INSERT TYPE OF PERSON – YOUR IDEAL CLIENT] to encourage them to purchase [PRODUCT NAME AND/OR URL].
• Here’s the URL for [PRODUCT NAME] - [PRODUCT URL]. Based on this information, please write a script for a Facebook ad, following the Problem > Agitate > Solution framework.
• Here’s the URL for [PRODUCT 60 second YouTube video ad, following the Problem > Agitate > Solution framework.
• Draft 3 social media posts to announce the launch of our brand new product [OR SERVICE OR EVENT – INSERT INFORMATION OR URL FOR INFORMATION ON PRODUCT/SERVICE/EVENT].
  
• How would you suggest improving this landing page – [URL] – to get the best conversion rates from [TRAFFIC SOURCE – E.G. FACEBOOK ADS] traffic?
• Please suggest 5 blog post titles for [BLOG TOPIC] for [TYPE OF PERSON/IDEAL CLIENT].
• How would you suggest improving the copy on [URL] to increase the number of [TYPE OF PERSON – YOUR IDEAL CLIENT] who subscribe to the [OPT-IN OFFER NAME]?
• Please suggest 5 alternate blog post titles for [CURRENT BLOG POST TITLE]
  
• Write 5 possible email subject lines for [EMAIL TOPIC OR CONTENT] focusing on curiosity.
• Draft a follow up email for this opt-in page [URL FOR OPT-IN PAGE]. including the link to download the opt-in offer.
• Write the introduction to a blog post about [BLOG POST TOPIC].
• Please suggest 5 possible headlines for this page - [URL] – for split-testing purposes.
• Write a series of 3 marketing emails, to be sent 2 days apart, to [TYPE OF PERSON] offering a limited time offer of [OFFER DETAILS].
  
• I’m running paid ads for [PRODUCT NAME/URL]. Please suggest the best channels and sites I should target, and why.
  

AI prompt examples for social media:

• Based on the following page – [URL TO PRODUCT’S SALES OR INFORMATION PAGE] – write 5 Facebook posts that encourage [TYPE OF PERSON] to learn more about this product.
  
• Writing in the style of [PERSON NAME], write 5 LinkedIn posts to encourage readers to register for this online masterclass – [URL FOR MASTERCLASS REGISTRATION PAGE].
• Rewrite this Facebook post in a more engaging style: [LINK TO EXISTING POST]
• Based on the information on [YOUR URL], create a short bio I can use on my social media profiles. My audience is [IDEAL CLIENT/TYPE OF PERSON].
• Rewrite this Facebook post for LinkedIn: [LINK TO EXISTING POST]
  
• My Facebook page is [FACEBOOK PAGE URL]. Please suggest how I should schedule social media posts at the most optimal times based on historical data and user behaviour, in order to increase post engagement and reach.
  

Other AI prompt examples:

• I need to tell my client that their conversions from social media are down by 26.4% this month. Please suggest what we should look at to find out why and then draft an email I can send to the client to advise them of this, recommending our next course of action.
  
• Summarise the latest news on [TOPIC]? Use bullet points and write in friendly, simple terms that an 8-year old could understand.
• Write a media release about [PRODUCT NAME/URL]. The aim of the media release is to get media coverage that will [AIM OF THE MEDIA RELEASE].
• Suggest an outline for a non-fiction book about [BOOK TOPIC], including chapter title suggestions.
  
• Please do a spelling, grammar and punctuation check on the following content: [CONTENT TO BE CHECKED].

Don't be afraid to be specific and detailed. In fact, the more specific, the better.

And if you don't like the answers you get, you can ask your AI tool to revise it. Just remember to tell it how you want it revised. For example, shorter, longer, summarise, expand, less salesy, more hyped, more excited, or in simpler terms.

AI technology has revolutionised the way we create content for our businesses and I’ve no doubt it will continue to be refined. By using AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, you can save time and resources while still drafting high-quality, engaging content that resonates with your audience.

So why not give it a try?

With these AI prompt examples and the right tools, you can take your content creation to the next level. This will help you achieve your business goals faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Want to know more about how we can help you with setting up your follow up system? Great! 

We'd love to offer you a free consultation. Simply book a free, no obligation call with us today.

Should you be using AI tools in your follow up? This is a question many have been asking lately.

It’s Jason Buckner here from Automation Made Easy. And it’s no secret what my thoughts are when it comes to email marketing and follow up campaigns. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that they are super important for businesses of all sizes as a way to nurture and engage with customers and drive conversions.

Follow-up emails, in particular, can be highly effective in keeping customers engaged and moving them through your the sales funnel. However, with so many emails flooding inboxes every day, it can be challenging to stand out and deliver messages that are relevant, personalised, and timely.

Now, something you may have heard about lately is AI and how it can simplify your business. There’s been a lot of talk about how these tools can do a lot of the work that you and/or your team would usually do.

But… are they all they’re cracked up to be? After all, we’ve all heard that saying about something that sounds too good to be true!

So in this article, we’re doing a deep-dive into the pros and cons of AI-powered email campaigns… and whether you should jump on the AI bandwagon.

Firstly, what is AI? In short, AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. It’s the use of software, algorithms and such to do specific tasks for you.

To a degree, you’re probably already using AI is some form. For example, if you use software such as Keap to manage your database, sales and prospect/customer emails, there is a component of AI within that. The software is programmed to automatically perform specific actions where required.

For example, if you set up a campaign asking Keap to automatically add a particular tag to a customer who buys XYZ product, then send them specific emails, this automation is a form of AI.

There are also various AI tools that will help with a variety of other tasks, including planning and writing your emails for your campaigns!

Benefits Of Using AI For Follow Up Email Campaigns

Some of the many benefits of using AI for follow up email campaign management include:

Improved personalisation:

Personalisation is a key driver of email marketing success. AI can help you analyse customer data, such as their past purchases, browsing behaviour, and preferences, and create highly personalised messages that resonate with them. Or personalisation can ensure that a specific action is implemented for each individual customer, based on their previous actions.

For example, you can use AI to dynamically generate product recommendations, send personalised discount codes, and craft subject lines that are relevant to an individual.

Increased efficiency and effectiveness:

AI-powered email campaigns can help you save time and resources by automating repetitive tasks, such as list segmentation, A/B testing, and scheduling.

This can free up your team to focus on higher-level tasks, such as crafting engaging content and analysing campaign results.

Also, AI can help you optimise your campaigns by analysing customer engagement data and adjusting your messaging, timing, and targeting in real-time.

Better targeting and segmentation:

AI can help you identify customer segments based on their behaviour, demographics, and preferences, and tailor your messaging accordingly.

For instance, you can use AI to segment your email list based on purchase history, location, or even the weather forecast in their area. This can help you deliver more relevant and timely messages that resonate with your audience on an individual basis.

Enhanced customer engagement and experience:

AI-powered email campaigns can help you create a more engaging and interactive experience for your customers.

As an example, you can use AI to create personalised quizzes, surveys, or interactive product demos that encourage customers to engage with your brand. This can help you build stronger relationships with your audience and increase brand loyalty.

Challenges Of Using AI For Follow Up Email Campaigns

Okay, so we’ve looked at the main benefits of using AI. Now, let’s take a look at the challenges.

Lack of human touch and emotional intelligence:

One of the biggest challenges of using AI for follow up email campaigns is the risk of coming across as impersonal or robotic.

AI can analyse customer data and generate personalised messages, but it can't replicate the human touch and emotional intelligence that comes with human communication. Customers may feel disengaged or turned off if they sense that your emails are generated by a machine rather than a person. 

And really, these tools are only going to work as well as they’re programmed. Not just by the software creators, but by the end-user (i.e. YOU). It’s important that your campaigns are set up correctly and tested, as the software is going to provide results based on the instructions you set.

So if you give bad instructions, guess what sort of results you’re going to get?

The clearer and more accurate your instructions,
the better the results from your AI tools.

Risk of coming across as impersonal or spammy:

Another risk of using AI for follow-up email campaigns is the risk of coming across as spammy or pushy. AI can analyse customer data and identify optimal times to send emails, but it may not take into account the customer's context or preferences.

For example, a customer may not appreciate receiving a follow-up email immediately after making a purchase or being bombarded with too many promotional messages.

Dependence on data quality and accuracy:

AI-powered email campaigns rely heavily on data quality and accuracy. If your data is incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate, your AI-powered campaigns may not be effective or may even backfire.

For example, if you send a promotional offer to a customer who has already purchased the product, it may come across as tone-deaf and irrelevant.

Search engines may not be impressed:

It’s important to note that search engines can usually tell when content has been written by an AI tool. And generally, the search engines show sites with higher authority and fresh, high-quality content in the search results above the everyday, same-as-everyone-else content.

Which means, in addition to the points above, simply copying and pasting content written by your AI tool may not rank your content as well in the search results as it will if you simply use the AI content as a first draft.

Using AI To Help Write Your Marketing Campaigns

While the use of AI in software has been around for a while now, AI tools have not been so great for creating content. Until recently, that is. Tools such as ChatGPT have been a game-changer in this area.

However, I recommend using such tools carefully.

What I suggest is that you download ChatGPT and allocate an hour or two to play with it. ChatGPT is a very popular, free AI tool so it’s a good one to start with.

You can sign up to ChatGPT from here: https://chat.openai.com/auth/login

They do offer paid plans too, but the free version is perfectly fine to start with and may be all you need.

How To Use ChatGPT And Similar Tools

I could create an entire course on how to use AI tools such as ChatGPT, but to keep today’s post concise, I’ll just give you a very quick overview.

ChatGPT can be a useful tool for generating ideas, writing copy, and improving the overall effectiveness of follow-up email campaigns. Many people seem to think it’s a great tool for writing all of their content, but that’s not entirely the case. (And I don’t recommend you do that!)

What I recommend you try these type of AI tools for is things like:

• Generating ideas
• Helping to understand your target market, avatar or ideal customer
• Suggesting headlines and email subject lines
• DRAFTING content for video scripts, blog posts, web pages, emails, social media posts, ad copy
• Offering suggestions for alternate or improved copy
• Optimising your content, including blog posts, web copy and email copy.

You’ll notice I said “DRAFTING” content… not “WRITING” content. There are a number reasons for this.

The main reason is that AI writing tends to lack personality. And it's your personality and unique brand voice that will help you to stand out from the crowd.

Another important reason is that ChatGPT (and similar tools) gather their data from the internet. And in case you haven’t already figured this out… just because it’s on the ‘net doesn’t mean it’s accurate.

So while AI tools can be great for researching and drafting content, it’s important that you then revise that to add your own style and personality. Plus, FACT CHECK. Make sure what you’re saying is correct.

Examples Of Using AI Tools In Your Follow Up Campaigns - Using ChatGPT

Here are some specific examples of prompts – or instructions – we’ve provided to ChatGPT and the results we’ve received:

“What are some suggestions for keywords that are relevant for a blog post on whether businesses should be using AI tools in their follow up campaigns?”

“Can you please suggest 5 content ideas for blog posts for business owners on how to improve their marketing?”

“Can you please suggest how we can optimise the copy on https://automationmadeeasy.com.au/presenting/ to increase presentation bookings?”

Let’s see how ChatGPT goes with writing an email, shall we?

“This page offers a 21 page automation checklist for business owners - https://www.21pointbusinesscheck.com. Can you please draft an email that can be sent to subscribers when they request this report and includes the download link of xxxx?”

Not perfect, but that’s a pretty good start. I can quickly edit that to something I prefer to use.

What about social media? Let’s try this…

“Please create a social media post for Facebook that announces this blog post https://automationmadeeasy.com.au/relationship-marketing and highlights its key takeaways for business owners”.

Hmmm… this suggestion is okay, but not really the way I would write this social media post. So let’s get a little more specific in what we ask for.

“Could you please revise the above Facebook post to the writing style of Jason Buckner from https://automationmadeeasy.com.au?”

Alright, this is looking better. It still needs a little revision to be something I would share on my Facebook page, but it’s good. I don’t need to change this too much at all.

Overall, these are all pretty good. They will benefit from some refining and will never take the place of a professional copywriter, but it gives you a good place to start. (Especially on those days when you stare at a blank screen for ages and don’t know where to begin. Yes… we all have those days!) 

While we used ChatGPT for these examples, you can use these types of prompt examples when using similar AI tools.

Best Practices For Using AI Tools In Your Follow Up Email Campaigns

So, overall, using AI tools in your follow up can be a huge help in most, if not all, small businesses. Just don’t rely on them entirely and remember to keep the human touch, monitor and adapt where necessary.

Here’s a summary of best practices when using AI tools.

Give clear instructions or prompts

I know I’ve mentioned this already, but it’s super important so bears repeating. It’s critical to be clear and accurate in the instructions you give AI tools in order to get the best results.

Choose the right AI tool or software:

Choosing the right AI tool or software is super important for the success of your email campaigns. There are many AI-powered email marketing platforms and tools available in the market, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

Before selecting a tool, make sure to evaluate its features, pricing, integrations, and customer support. Look for a tool that offers robust AI capabilities, such as machine learning, natural language processing, and predictive analytics. Importantly, make sure that it can integrate seamlessly with your existing marketing stack.

Start small and test before scaling up:

AI can be powerful, but it's important to start small and test your campaigns before scaling up. Start by identifying a small segment of your email list to test your AI-powered campaigns, and monitor the results closely. Look for metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. Then compare these to your baseline performance. If your test is successful, gradually scale up your campaigns and continue to monitor and refine your approach.

Use a hybrid approach with human input and oversight:

This may be one of the most important things to keep in mind. While AI can automate many tasks in your email campaigns – including writing the emails themselves, to some degree – it's super, super important to balance this with human input.

Humans can provide the emotional intelligence and creativity that AI lacks, and can make sure that your messages are relevant and engaging.

One of the important factors when it comes to asking AI tools to create content for you is that the outcome, while good, may come across as… well, to be blunt… boring. It can sound impersonal and lacks the tone and style that you would use. In short, it lacks personality.

Monitor and evaluate campaign performance regularly:

Finally, it's critical to monitor and evaluate your campaign performance regularly to identify areas for improvement and to refine your approach. Keep track of metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and ROI (return on investment) to measure the success of your campaigns.

Then compare them to your benchmarks and goals. Use this data to optimise your messaging, targeting, and timing, and to continually improve your campaigns over time.

We’ve really only touched on the surface of this topic. AI tools are also progressing in leaps and bounds when it comes to graphic creation too, but that will have to wait for another article!

For now, hopefully this introduction helps demonstrate the power of AI in creating personalised, targeted, and engaging follow-up email campaigns across various industries and sectors.

By using AI to analyse user data and behaviour, and to tailor messages and recommendations to each user's preferences and needs, your business will be able to achieve significant results and impact, including increased engagement, conversions, and customer loyalty. All while making your job - and that of your team - easier and more efficient.

If you would like to know more about how we can help you with setting up your follow up system, we'd love to offer you a free consultation.

Simply book a free, no obligation call with us today.