If you’ve reached the point of exhaustion trying to keep up with answering the mountain of emails that threatens to bury you alive every single day, you’re ready to learn about autoresponders.
The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to their email inquiries. However, unless you can figure out how to work continual twenty-four hour shifts, or hire enough people to constantly monitor incoming emails (while they’re eating up your profits), you have a problem. The good news is an autoresponder is an inexpensive method of quickly responding to emails. What these programs do is automatically respond to incoming emails as soon as they are received.
Emails are essential to your business for many different reasons. Most importantly, these invisible email voices give you their constant feedback about your website! However, if you spend all your working hours answering these emails, how are you supposed to run your business? The answer is simple: use autoresponders. Autoresponders are programs that automatically respond to your emails without you so much as having to click on your mouse.
There are a number of good reasons why you need an autoresponder besides just answering your email. For example, autoresponders can be used if you need a way to send information about your services or products, price lists, or if there are repeated questions asked across large numbers of emails. Maybe you want to offer your site visitors a special bonus of some kind, such as advice or relevant articles. All of this can be handled by an autoresponder. Additionally, you can advertise your business and then build stable relationships with your customers by using autoresponders.
Autoresponder programs vary from software that runs with your email program to a specialized script that runs on your web hosting company’s server. This kind of script may use a web page form or simply operate with your email account. This kind of script is programmed to send out a standardized message whenever an email is received. The message is sent to a particular script or email address.
Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out standardized messages. They can send out an unlimited number of follow-up messages sent at predetermined intervals of time. For example, you can set your autoresponder to send out a new message every day for as long a period as you desire.
There are numerous companies who offer autoresponders free of charge. Your website hosting company often provides autoresponders as a free service. If this is not the case with your web hosting company, there are numerous companies who offer this service for a small fee, or free of charge, providing you attach an advertisement for their company to your emails.
But if your serious about your personal business then you don’t want to use these free versions and have other companies advertisements on your email traffic. The other thing you don’t want to do is join a business that lets you use their autoresponder! Why? If you leave that company then the list that you spent all that time building stays with that company. For that reason and that reason alone you should always use your own autoresponder.
To personalize your autoresponder messages, you should always attach a signature. Signatures in this case are much like business cards. You should include your name, company, all your contact numbers and addresses, and a brief closing message if desired.
It’s a good idea to attach a signature to every email that is sent out. This works as a repeated reminder of your business identity every time a customer sees it. The more they look at your signature, the more likely your company will spring to mind when your particular service or product is needed.
Keep the length of your signature between four to six lines of text, with no more than 70 characters in a single line. Make sure that your email program does not cut off your text, most have an autowrap function! The content should include your name, your company name, your email address, and any other contact details, such a Skype ID, cell phone number or a business number if you use one.
Another specialized use of autoresponders is to create courses that you can then offer your site visitors for free. You must choose a topic which you are considered to be a subject expert in and that precisely targets your potential customers. Once you have carefully chosen your main subject, divide it into a number of different sub-topics. Then offer your site visitor a free course over an extended period of time in exchange for them opting into your mailing list. Each day offer a different sub-topic based on the main subject theme.
The first topic should always be a welcome message to your site visitor and an explanation
about what is to follow. Your explanation should be enticing, getting the point across that you are offering free, quality information that your target audience will find of great value.
With every lesson, include the number of the lesson, the topic title, information about your company, its services or products, but don’t sell. At the end, include a few blurbs about the next lesson to entice the subscriber to continue on.
Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable information and leaves the visitor lusting to know more. Otherwise, you may lose them in the very beginning.
Of course, you have to write up your course before you can offer it unless you happen to be working within an established system. There are good systems and there are some not so good systems available to work with but the good ones will have the training courses pre-written for you to put on auto-pilot. Once you have done this, and gone over the material carefully, employing a professional writer or editor if necessary, you must transfer your text to your autoresponder.
There are a number of autoresponders that you can use. The top two in the industry are currently Aweber and GetResponse. Both are excellent products with indepth instructions on how to set them up and transfer your text.
Email is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and it is fast. Use it to advertise your business by choosing your email address carefully. Your website should contain different email addresses for different contact requests. For example, use info@yourdomain.com for information requests, or sales@yourdomain.com for questions about sales if this is applicable to your type of business. It’s a good idea to set up one for the owner, such as president@yourdomain.com, or owner@yourdomain.com. This presents your company in a personal, approachable light and insures that direct contact is provided. I have always personally preferred to use my first name and identify myself as the owner under my name in the signature line..ie jeff@yourdomain.com.
Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing tool, allowing you to make contact with thousands of potential leads, business partners or customers depending on your type business. This is an invaluable asset in the sales arena considering how many customer contacts you usually have to make before you get an actual sale. Essentially, an autoresponser allows you to automate a large part of your marketing campaign.
This is the first in a multiple part series on autoresponders so check back again or subscribe for updates.
Your Friend For Success,
Jeff
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