| I was having a forum discussion with one of my community members named Anna, who had concerns about her email sequence. She was roughly copying the Blog Sales Funnel formula I teach in Blog Mastermind 2.0, and asked about issues with email open and click-through rates dropping off significantly after the first week of a sequence. Most of the content sequences I use in my own blog sales funnels are two weeks to a month long. People join an email course from my blog, then I send them a series of content designed to help solve specific problems and recommend my products as a next step if they want more help. (You probably have been through one already since you are receiving this email.) It takes a minimum of two weeks to deliver the content. What Happens If People Stop Responding? It's easy to get depressed when you look at your open and click-through rates on your email sequences. This is especially true as the weeks progress. Week one is pretty good -- especially the first email you send. Then you will notice in week two things start to drop off, and it only gets worse if you have a week three, four or more. If people stop paying attention, why not just focus on the first week? This was the concern Anna floated with me in the community. She had created a month long sequence, but the numbers dropped off quite a bit during the latter weeks. I explained that this is common for email sequences, and don't jump to any conclusions just yet... You see, although the numbers may drop off, it's the people who are still paying attention that really matter. It Takes Time To Build Trust If you've ever tried to sell a course or a membership or any kind of coaching program, especially a high priced one, you know you face one big hurdle... You need to build trust. Without trust, there is no sale. Trust, especially online, takes some time to foster. While you can pack in a lot of trust-building elements that instantly convey you're the real deal (think press coverage badges, awards, testimonials, etc), real trust comes from building a relationship. This is especially true for us expert-based blog and information marketers. People buy our products because they like us, learn from us and study our work over a period of time. To put it simply, you need those week two, three and fours to continue the trust building process through your educational content. This is why in my opinion, raw clicks are not as important as whether people care. Engagement trumps traffic. Even if your open and click through rates are way down, it is those people who read the emails and blog posts who become customers. They are deeply engaged. They are the right person for the message you deliver. They get what you stand for and love it so much they want more. They benefit the most too, able to apply what you are teaching and get results shortly after studying your work. Of course at the end of the day the effectiveness of a blog sales funnel is whether it converts customers. You have to make sales. Just remember that opens and clicks aren't always the best representation of how effective your content is. When people care and benefit, they buy. Talk to you soon, Yaro Starak
Entrepreneurs-Journey.com | 
Hi! I'm Yaro Starak. I've been living the laptop lifestyle thanks to blogging since 2005.
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