Introduction to Autoresponders

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 revenue), you have a problem. The good news

is an autoresponder is an inexpensive - or even free -

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 feedback about your website - for free!

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 interval

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.

To personalize your autoresponder messages, you can attach

a signature. Signatures in this case are much like business

cards. You can include your name, company, all your contact

numbers and addresses, and a brief message.

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.

You can create a standardized signature that every employee

in your business uses, or you can go wild, and let every

staff member create their own personal signature. Of

course, like everything in life, there are some rules and

guidelines to creating a personal signature.

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! The content should include your name, your company

name, your email address, fax number, and any other contact

details, such as 800 numbers. Lastly, always include a

short personal message about your company. It should be a

subtle sell of your services or your products, and possibly

your company's reliability and longevity.

Another specialized use of autoresponders is to create

courses that you can then offer your site visitors for

free. You must choose a topic in which you are an expert

and that precisely targets your potential customers.

Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into

a number of different sub-topics. Then offer your site

visitor a free 10 or 15 day course, each day offering a

different sub-topic. 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 and its

services or products. 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. 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 free autoresponders you can use. Try

http:/www.getresponse.com, or http://www.fastfacts.net. Or

go onto Google and you will find a long list of free

autoresponder companies. Then sign-up for your chosen

autoresponder. Once you do, you will receive instructions

as to how to set it 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. It's a good idea to set up one for the owner, such

as president@yourdomain.com. This presents your company in

a personal, approachable light and insures that direct

contact is provided.

Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing

tool, allowing you to make contact with thousands of

potential customers. This is an invaluable asset

considering how many potential customers you usually have

contact with before you make an actual sale. Essentially,

an autoresponser allows you to automate part of your

marketing campaign.

Creative and Profitable Ways to Use Autoreponders

An interested visitor who has been strolling through your

site has finally come to just what she is looking for and

is about to make a purchase. It's a sunny afternoon, and

her cat, who happens to be sitting on the moss under the

visitor's large fifty-year-old snow-rose bonsai tree,

suddenly jumps down, and the priceless tree topples over.

In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and

your sale is dust - unless you have had the foresight to

utilize an autoresponder that has captured her email

address. If you have installed an autoresponder, you can

then follow-up with her, and in all probability, make the

sale when the poor woman has finished repotting her

precious bonsai.

Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do

so much more than just automatically answer your email.

Here are a few ideas that will help you to creatively and

productively use your autoresponder to transform the casual

visitor into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponder

to:

1. Publish a newsletter. Certain quality au�oresponders

will manage subscriptions and follow-up with interested

prospects. Your newsletter can keep your visitors informed

about your services or products, while building your

reputation as a credible expert in your particular

business.

2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates. Inform

them of current sales you are running and of promotional

material that your affiliates can use themselves to

increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and

techniques that your affiliates can use to successfully go

out and promote your business.

3. Write reviews. Cover books, software, music, e-books,

movies, etc., and put each review in an autoresponder.

Review your affiliate programs, using a link to your

affiliate's page in your autoresponder.

4. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing

targeted articles is a powerful tool to build your business

credibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase your

sales potential. If your articles contain valuable

information, many editors will print what is known as a

resource box for you. A resource box contains your bio and

a brief description of your service or product. It can also

contain your autoresponder address. Let's say you've

written fifty articles. Put them on separate autoresponder

accounts and create a master list that contains the titles

of each article, the autoresponder address, and a brief

abstract. Then promote your master list. Additionally,

include your publishing guidelines so your affiliates can

add their articles to your list, increasing the number of

writers who are represented in your article list.

5. Create mailing lists. Inform subscribers to your

articles when you've written new ones that they may want to

publish in their own newsletter or website.

6. Automate your sales process. Use an ad to insure

repeated exposure of your message, which has been proven to

effectively increase sales. In your ad, put your

autoresponder address where a visitor will be exposed to

numerous marketing materials. This multiplies the chances

of converting visitors into customers. For example, if

you're selling a particular product, put testimonials about

how spectacular it is on your autoresponder, and add a

detailed, enticing description of your product.

7. Distribute advertising. Let's say you sell advertising

on your website or in your newsletter or e-zine. Set your

autoresponder to send the information about rates and how

to place an ad automatically to all prospects' email

addresses. Then have your autoresponder follow-up. It can

also send notification of any special deals you are

currently offering.

8. Distribute an email course. Each day, have your

autoresponder send out another lesson. Just be sure that

each lesson has quality content - not a sales pitch. Your

content will do the selling for you, and will do it much

more effectively. You can include tips centered on a

different topic for each lesson, illustrating how your

product will benefit the reader. Include the tangible

benefits the visitor will reap by purchasing your product.

Make sure to include a paragraph or two at the end of each

lesson enticing your prospect to consider making a

purchase.

9. Automate a reminder about your service or product after

a visitor has completed your course. This will increase the

possibility of sales from visitors who have taken your

course but are dragging their feet about actually making a

purchase. You can also use these reminders to promote new

products or services, and the products and services of your

affiliate programs.

10. Distribute free reports. This gives your visitor an

idea of the type of information you can provide and the

quality of your product or service. Make sure these reports

are not sales letters or you will more than likely lose a

potential customer than gain a sale.

11. Create trivia quizzes on your site and place the

answers in an autoresponder. Your visitor will then be

motivated to request your autoresponder, and you will have

a record of the visitors' email addresses who took your

quiz. Or create a contest and have any visitors that enter

send their responses to your autoresponder. Your

autoresponder can be set-up to send them a confirmation of

their entry.

12. Offer a trial version of your product. Give your

prospects a sample of your ebook, course, software,

membership, etc. People who are exposed to a little taste

often end up wanting the whole pie. You can also capture

their email addresses when you offer them a free trial from

your website. Set up your autoresponder to give

instructions on how to obtain their free trial, and then

make sure to follow-up to try and close the sale.

13. Link to hidden pages on your autoresponder. For

example, a hidden page could be your affiliate page that

contains graphics, promotional articles, and text links

that interested affiliates can make use of. Inform visitors

that they may have free access to your affiliate page by

simply requesting your autoresponder. You will then gather

a list of visitors who may be interested in becoming your

affiliates.

14. Use an autoresponder on your order page. Post a request

form for visitors to be notified of special offers or

discounts in the future. This creates a very effective

mailing list that contains the names of people who are

already your customers.

15. Put your links page on your autoresponder. It should

contain up to fifty links that would be of particular

interest to your visitors. Make sure to add your own

promotional copy at the top or bottom of this page.

Now that you have proof that autoresponders can be used

creatively, see if you can come up with some brilliant

ideas of your own!