Let’s suppose you want to build a list of people interested in one part of your business related to a product you sell or a service you provide. Offer a 7 part mini-course or tutorial on how to accomplish a certain task.
The reason to do this is obvious: you shouldn’t be overtly marketing a product on your blog that is designed to inform and build relationships to a broader audience.
You make an offer on your blog or in your ezine: those people interested in learning more about how to do "XYZ" can go to a landing page, register their email address and get the 7 step tutorial.
Deliver the tutorial over the span of a week via autoresponder. Make it informational and helpful, including the benefits of your own product or services related to the task.
At some point in the tutorial you’ll want to start offering a call to action to actually buy the product or contact you.
After the tutorial is over, follow-up with related content that allows you to repeat the call to action. The key is to continue to offer value combined with your offer. Don’t send too many email messages, however, be respectful of people’s time and tolerance for promotional material.
To see an example of how I wrote a series of autoresponders, go here and sign up for a 7 part series on writing successful ezines.
To learn and use autoresponders, I recommend KickStartCart.