Ascension Series – How to Fill Your Auto-Responder (Part 3)

No one dreams of staying stuck in an affair floating into an abyss. You know, trapped in the friend zone in a mind numbingly dull relationship where you give and give and give, but never get anything in return. But, enough about my college dating life…

The point of relationships is to grow and develop until both parties satisfy the need they got into the partnership to achieve.

If you accept that truth (and you should), why do most business owners treat marketing like buying dinners for hundreds of different love interests? But never turn it into a relationship? Uh oh, college flash backs again…

This is part three in the “What to Send” auto-responder series. If you missed Part One The Indoctrination or Get to Know You Series or Part Two The Engagement or Sell Something Series, you should read those now.

When the relationship with your lead, prospect, or customer started, it was because they had an urgent need that your lead magnet helped to fulfill. And if you followed the steps in email series two, the engagement series, many of your prospects bought your tripwire or core product as a bigger solution to that need. But have you fulfilled their ultimate want?

Is your client where they dreamed of being when you first encountered them? Or, have you solved one pain, but left others aching for a cure?

Most times, one product or service won’t solve all your clients ultimate needs. They can usually make more money, get into better shape, enjoy life more, or do more of whatever you sell.

For example, if you’re a love coach, maybe you helped your client get a date. But their real goal isn’t a date, it’s getting married. Your aim should be to ascend your client further towards that ultimate need.

This is true for almost every service imaginable, get creative.

Gain / Logic / Fear

In the last blog post — the Engagement Series — you learned the Gain / Logic / Fear series, one of the best ways to engage your prospects and turn them into customers. The great news about the ascension series, is you follow the same path as the last series and continue seeing great results.

The only real difference between the engagement series and the ascension series, is in the first, you refer to the lead magnet. For the ascension series, you reference the last purchase.

But What if You Don’t Sell Other Products?

Many coaches, consultants, lawyers, realtors, service providers, and business owners in general get hooked up on the fact they only have one or 2 products. So they don’t have anything else to sell during the ascension series. I have good news, at this stage, the prospect is already your customer and in your list, so it doesn’t need to be your product.

Your only goal is to ascend your customer to their ideal result. So the next service can be an affiliate product, joint venture, or any other opportunity to add new products to your line.

You can develop your own new products, but other options are licensing, buying out someone else’s line, wholesaling, or other methods of line extensions.

If you want to grow your business, never let your ideal customers find the solutions they need at a competitor. Or soon you’ll find they’re going to that competitor for all their needs.

The Ascension Series

According to Dan Kennedy, we should always be ascending our clients. In other words just because someone has bought from you before is no reason to stop marketing to them.

In fact, while getting a new customer today has never been more difficult, selling to an existing customer has never been easier. So most marketers throw away money by always focusing on new customers. And leaving their old customers wanting more, at least until they get it from your competitors.

Every time your client buys from you, you should put them into another ascension series, until they buy your next product or service. Just like in a dating relationship, this becomes a giant feedback loop where your relationship continually grows stronger, and so does the level of results your client sees.

Now that you know what to add to your auto-responder series when a client buys from you, you might wonder what to do when they haven’t. Stay tuned for part 4 in the series, coming soon.

Until then figure out what your client, the one who just bought a service from you, needs next. Repeat for all your products and services. And then write an ascension series for each one and add them to your auto-responder and automation system.