Team Alpha 375

Boost Lifetime Customer Value with A Soap Opera By Richard Lindner

I bet you never thought that a corny, melodramatic daytime TV series that was developed to sell dish soap could ever help improve your email marketing. BUT it can... And although the strategy I'm discussing here doesn't actually include boosting your guilty pleasure TV intake - it is very much inspired by the addictive and episodic nature of the soap opera. Not to mention, with all the extra lifetime value you'll be getting from your customers -- you'll probably be able to spend more time on the couch "watching your stories." ...if that's what you're into. What is a Soap Opera Series? The only Soap Opera Series (S.O.S.) I'm really interested in is the one created by Andre Chaperon for his online course "Autoresponder Madness 2.0" (which I highly recommend, btw). In a nutshell, the S.O.S. is an incredible email strategy that combines storytelling and relationship building to market to your existing customers. Through a very formulaic progression of emails, the S.O.S. creates anticipation, builds interest, and identifies new opportunities/needs/problems, resulting in more engagement with customers on your list. Basically, it helps familiarize your customers with other offers in your business without annoying the heck out of them. Why You Need a Soap Opera Series Time and time again, research shows that the people who've already purchased something from you are the most likely to do so again. Therefore, your list of existing customers is one of the most important and effective lists you can possibly market to. BUT, most marketers don't do this. Why? Basically, it's because they're LAZY. You worked hard to attract leads and convert those leads into customers. If you don't do the necessary maintenance to boost lifetime value and retention, you're throwing all that work away. Even worse, you're not showing the customer how much you value their business - bad move. Think about it. This is a person who's already found one of your offers compelling enough to make a purchase. The likelihood that they'll connect with one of your future offers is very high. That's why you must develop an S.O.S. to keep up your end of the relationship. Sending Out an S.O.S. As I mentioned before, the Soap Opera Series is very formulaic, and therefore it's fairly easy to reproduce. That's the genius behind it. The idea is that it's like an email rollercoaster ride where your customers are up one day, down another. It's an offer-specific, daily email campaign - not just an email blast. The first email will reference the email that's coming the next day. The second email may open up a "loop" or pique curiosity about an email that's coming a few days later. Step 1 The series starts with building reciprocity in emails 1 and 2. We do this by giving away free, but useful information and storytelling. In emails 3 and 4 we move towards identifying a problem or opportunity in the marketplace. Once again, we'll often reference an upcoming email, saying something like, "Tomorrow, we'll tell you a story about how one of my friends was able to..." Remember the S.O.S. is all about building storylines and introducing subplots. That's where the soap opera part comes in. Step 2 Next, in emails 5 - 7, we show the customer a lead magnet (a free report in most cases) that addresses the specific problem or opportunity we discussed in emails 3 and 4.  This is where we try to move the customer (who's now really a prospect again) into what we call a "choose your own adventure."  Step 3a If they do show interest and opt-in to receive the free report or video, they are placed into a new autoresponder series (and TEMPORARILY removed from the S.O.S.). Basically, the soap opera has worked and you've got your prospect's attention. At this point, the customer begins a "perpetual launch" series for a product or service that solves the initial problem/opportunity we presented - it's designed to advance the customer through their chosen "adventure." Once the prospect has opted in to receive their free report, we immediately send them 3 - 4 more pieces of content that follow a very specific formula. Content Piece #1:  Identifies the opportunity or problem Content Piece #2:  Shows the "how and wow" Content Piece #3:  PROOF!  Case studies, social proof, and testimonials Step 3b Then and only then do we ask for the sale, but we also give the prospect several ways to buy. The first opportunity they are given to purchase is through a perpetual webinar. If the prospect registers for the webinar, they are moved to a reminder series that encourages attendance.  After the webinar has ended, if the prospect did not buy, they are sent two opportunities to attend webinar replays.  If the prospect has STILL not purchased, they are moved into a 5-part email series sending them straight to the video or long-form sales letter for the product or service.  If at any time the prospect BUYS, they are immediately removed from all series and added to a customer stick email series. Step 4 If they DO NOT show interest or don't opt-in to receive the free report after S.O.S. emails 5 - 7... we simply move on. We assume that they simply are not interested in what we are offering and that's fine -- but we definitely don't want to keep hitting them over the head about it.  In emails 8 - 10 we go back to the exact same formula we used for emails 1 - 4... reciprocity, storytelling, opening loops, presenting a DIFFERENT problem or opportunity, and offering a free report that leads into a different perpetual launch or sales process. Are you starting to see a pattern here?  You should be, because at this point it becomes as simple as "Lather, Rinse, Repeat" until you have gone through your entire product line AND, if you're smart, some of your strategic partners, joint venture partners and affiliate's offers too! The Takeaway By allowing your customers to choose which offers they're actually interested in, you're not only providing them with a much more personalized experience... ...you're also NOT annoying them with extensive information about products they're not interested in. The S.O.S. not only boosts your list's engagement and conversion rates, it also lowers your unsubscribe rates because it combats list fatigue. Keep in mind, this strategy doesn't have to be reserved for customers -- it works great for a prospect series as well, especially when you're generating cold leads that don't know much about you or your products.