How to Use Engagement Emails to Build Social Proof, Trust, and Sales

Now that I have taught you the psychology of how to do these emails, let’s discuss how we can run these in a sequence. Let’s brainstorm some patterns. Let’s say that we start our sequence out with a statement and a question, the next email could be another question, then a follow-up question, followed by a homework assignment. We could also include a fifth email asking them how their homework assignment went.

We can do to beef up this follow-up homework assignment email. For instance, we can say:

“By the way, several people did the homework assignment, and here’s what they said about it:”

How do you get people to tell you the responses from the homework email? A number people go through your email campaigns and if it’s a good homework assignment a number of people will write you back and say, “That homework assignment was incredible. It really help me out.” They may say why it helped them out. If they don’t tell me, then I will email them back and asked them how it specifically help them. For example:

“Brian, I am so glad that homework assignment helped you out. What was a way that helped you out the most?”

The subscribers should write us back and let us know how it helped them out. When someone tells me something positive like that, I hit reply and say:

“Brian, thank you so much for sharing that with me, I really appreciate it. By the way, would it be okay with you if I share what you just wrote with other people my email campaign? I think it could possibly help.”

Around 95 to 98% of people were so grateful to me that I gave them the homework assignment and helped them, so I usually get a yes. I copy and paste this into a folder called “Testimonials.” This way, two things happen. If I don’t need that information right now, it’s easily accessible if I decide to write a sales page 6 months from now. This allows me to keep both the testimonial and approval there in black and white.

Anytime someone comes down the road and says, “Hey, I didn’t mean for you to publish that.” Well, I had the permission in black and white in the email. I let them know that I would be more than happy to take the email off. However, I have never had this happen – it’s just always important to be prepared. This also prepares me to use these testimonials anytime that I need them.

What else can I include?

In tomorrow’s email in our engagement campaign, I can say:

“Hey, how did the homework assignment go for you yesterday? By the way several people who have completed it have said several things… Brian said that really helped him do XYZ.

Karen said it helped her do XYZ. And John said it really helped him with (example answer).“

What have we done now? If they have not done the homework assignment, I increased the chance that they would complete it now. For those who did the homework assignment, I have increased the power of this assignment through social proof. Now they know that they’re not the only one, other people got something out of it too.

Let’s make this email even stronger…

Again, most people are not going to do the homework assignment just because you sent it over. Many people are going to read this email that you sent to them, and if they have not completed this exercise they’re going to. At the end of the email I say this:

“By the way, if you missed the homework assignment and you would like to do it now. Here it is again:”

I then list a homework assignment again for them to complete.

You may think that when you write your follow up campaign that you may not having those testimonials. So what do you do? Just write the exact same email but don’t put the testimonials in there. Then, three weeks later when you have 10 testimonials, take the strongest testimonials and use those. Just go back in and edit your email and put those in.