8 tips on building trust through email automation for beginners

Most new marketers treat their automated emails like a digital megaphone, shouting at subscribers until they hit ‘unsubscribe.’

But what if your automation felt like a warm handshake instead?

Mastering building trust through email automation for beginners is the secret to turning a cold lead into a loyal customer.

Here are 8 tips..

• Authenticate Your Domain
• Human sender
• Expectations Set
• The Ask
• Working Links
• The Immediate Gratification Rule
• Enable Easy Opt-Outs
• Entertainment

Keep reading, and I’ll go over these tips in more detail with a cheat code and a secret way to break the rules and still make tons of cash..

How to Authenticate Your Domain for Better Deliverability

If you send bulk emails from a personal Gmail address, your deliverability will drop like a large boulder.

Unfortunately, you need to purchase a domain in order to gain trust with email providers. The good news is it’s REALLY cheap.

In fact, this place has domains you can get for 99 cents for a year. It’s a great investment because you own something online.

Not only will email providers trust you more, but your readers will as well.

Funny story, Bitcoin actually got its start with email.

To stop spammers, they had someone do a short capcha. Normal people were annoyed, but people who mass-sent spam, it broke their system.

The proof-of-work system with Bitcoin was based on this (to stop email spam).

Why Using a Human Sender Name Increases Email Open Rates

People trust people, not company names or departments.

With my newsletter, I use my whole real name, so it’s transparent. This is what I recommend and do.

Yes, you could use a pen name such as the actor Brad Bitts, whose real first name is “William.”

I wrote a post about blogging with your real name and the “pitt”falls and advantages to it. I think it’s better to use your real name.

Video is even better and builds trust, especially if you can show your face.

I know Tim Farris wrote a post about how it sucks to be famous, and he stopped showing his face on camera.

Honestly, you and I are probably not going to have that problem. If I did, it would be a great problem to have. Nobody knows who the fuck I am.

So I recommend showing your face on camera, and you will earn more money. When you have too much cash, you can also be like Tim Farris and disappear.

Video can work with the welcome sequence, landing pages, and even on bridge pages. Bridge pages is instead of sending the reader directly to an affiliate link, you send them to a bridge page to warm them up.

Having a good webcam really is worth its weight in gold.

As you can see, they are very inexpensive. You can view the prices on Amazon and see if there are any deals.

How to Set Clear Expectations in Your First Welcome Email

This is sort of like when on YouTube, some creators say when videos will be put out.

Honestly, I suck at this.

When your reader knows the “schedule,” they are more likely to transition from passive recipient to an active viewer.

Sort of like when you know when your favorite TV show airs.

Another great thing is that people will unsubscribe in the beginning. Being upfront with them, you weed them out earlier, which is better than later.

Sort of like me going to a bar, and when a girl isn’t interested, I can move on, but if a girl is maybe and I continue to work and then tells me no later, so all my time was wasted.

Back when I sold cars, this term was called strokers. People who looked but never purchased anything.

Plus, setting expectations can build trust.

The important thing is you have to MEET the expectations. If you say there is a weekly email (there NEEDS to be a weekly email). Otherwise, you lose trust.

If you want more on this, a great read is about a storybrand. It has tips on how to Clarify Your Message so readers will want to listen.

This is great for an email newsletter.

The Best Way to Ask for a Reply to Build Subscriber Rapport

A great rule of thumb is to have ONLY 1 call to action in an email.

Keep things simple!

In your welcome sequence, instead of having a call to action as check out this affiliate product. It might be better to build up rapport, then ask a certain question such as…

• “What’s the #1 reason you decided to join this list today?”
• Are you currently a total beginner at [Topic], or have you been at it for a while? Just hit reply and type ‘Beginner’ or ‘Pro’!”
• “If you could snap your fingers and solve one problem with [Your Topic] today, what would it be?”

The reason this is a good idea is that, from a technical standpoint, it’s the strongest positive signal you can send to Gmail or Outlook.

It tells the email tool that you’re a VIP person, so they SEE your emails.

It gets you out of SPAM jail.

Plus, it can help you gain feedback to improve. Just don’t overdo the feedback, you might look insecure that way!

A few times in the welcome sequence, then monthly surveys or weekly is better than every day. Hope this makes sense!

Checking for Working Links and Mobile-Friendly Email Design

It’s a good idea to read through your autmations every 12 months, 6 months, or even better, quarterly.

Ensure the links still work and the flow of the emails makes sense.

The truth is, email and blogging are VERY passive.

Still, it’s good every few months to go back in and update them. I did this with this blog, and MAN did it help.

Links are the main thing. A great tip is to use the free WordPress plugin “Pretty Links.”

Then use this free website to check for broken links. With pretty links, if you update 1 link, it automatically updates your links in your email sequence, which saves you time.

Also, it’s good to ensure your emails look good on a mobile device!

The Immediate Gratification Rule: Automating Your Lead Magnet Delivery

As soon as someone joins your newsletter, it’s a good idea to send them what they want.

Usually, there is a lead magnet. This bribes someone into giving you their email address.

It’s like today, more people have less patience, so sending them their gift and welcome sequence sooner is better.

Enable Easy Opt-Outs to Improve Your Long-Term Sender Reputation

Making it as easy as possible to unsubscribe is just good business advice.

If someone doens’t want to be on your list, do you really even want them on it? No right?

This also builds trust. Another amazing idea is to include a pause for a week or a month. Maybe the reader is going through some crazy times and doesn’t want to unsubscribe, but just pause it.

It’s like a compromise rather than an ultimatum.

How to Use Storytelling and Entertainment to Humanize Your Brand

The one thing that has helped my emails do better is entertainment.

It’s the unwritten rule that can enable you to break other rules.

It’s like if you suck at everything, but you’re entertaining, your reader will give you more breaks. Don’t take my word for it, try it yourself.

Some of the best email marketers I know break all the rules, but because their stuff is so entertaining, it just works.

How do you make your emails entertaining?

I created a full cheat sheet that is easy to consume that you can steal from me for free. This will improve your open rates, clicks, and most importantly, earn you more money.

Plus, it’s a lot of fun for you and the reader!

Closing: on building trust through email automation for beginners

I honestly think perfection is NOT what you want.

In fact, I have a whole theory that going more amateur on emails, videos, and written words is better now because it makes you human in an age where some people are sick of AI.

I recommend doing something, a basic email newsletter. In fact, make it not even that good to start. But then slowly make it a little better.

The danger is trying to make everything perfect to begin with, and then nothing gets done.

If I haven’t blown up your head already, I wrote a post on 11 steps to make the most money from a tiny list.

You don’t need 100,000 subscribers to make good money. Even with a tiny list, you can do great.

I hope this post was helpful. Bye for now.