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January 26, 2008
Autoresponders are a handy tool for your online internet business. An autoresponder is a program that automatically sends out pre-written messages at the pre-selected times. These messages are sent out to anyone who requests information from a certain email address, fills out a form on your website, etc.
They can be used for ecourses, tutorials, articles, (with follow-ups) newsletters, mailing lists, free reports, general information or questions, and more. Autoresponders can help automate your online business so you have more time to spend helping customers, etc. One word of caution - do not lose the personal touch. Autoresponders are very helpful, but do not rely on them to run your whole business. You need to maintain personal contact with your customers.
If you have an email address on your site where people can email for more info or a free report; try spicing it up with an autoresponder. The autoresponder will send out the information/report immediately. You can then add several follow-ups to the existing info and they will all be delivered automatically! This frees up your time and also gives the customer the requested info instantly.
NOTE: Be sure and give the customer the option to opt out or refuse the follow-ups if they so choose. You do not want to be reported for spam. This can also be set up with the autoresponder.
You might want to set it up something like this:
A person responds to an email on your site for more information on a particular service or product. Your first autoresponder message goes out immediately thanking them for their inter rest and giving them all the basic info as requested. Maybe add some testimonials. Personalize the message with their name, if possible.
A couple of days later message #2 goes out telling about your experience, credentials and more testimonials. Then message #3 a few days later could be a free report with information pertaining to your products. If you sell home decor items, offer some decorating tips with your products being the subject.
After that come s message #4 with any specials or sales you may have coming up. Message #5 could be a final grab for the sale and you could also let them know about your ezine, if you have one or other free resources/services you provide.
I have also used autoresponders for my articles and ecourses. I put each article on an autoresponder with a couple follow-ups and then I also have a master list of all my articles. I promote the address of the master list from which people can automatically receive the individual articles and follow-ups.
An autorepsonder also works very well for ecourses and tutorials. Put each lesson separately and have them sent out a couple days apart to keep you in the customers mind.
Don’t wait too long in between or people will forget about you and the tutorial. At the end of the ecourse, you can add a couple of follow-ups or maybe a survey on how they like the ecourse with a free report or ebook as a thank you.
Use your imagination and marketing talents. The possibilities are endless with autoresponders.
Simply do a search for autoresponders and you will have plenty to choose from. I have always used GetResponse. There are free ones as well, but the features will be limited. But depending on what you are using them for, free might work for you.
Once you set up your autoresponders, they can be marketing your products/services for you 24/7, which could increase your sales and income substantially!
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Terri Seymour has several years online experience and has helped many people start their own business. Visit her site at http://www.seymourproducts.com for help, resources, & more. Seymour Products also offers $1 resell ebooks, low-cost wholesale home decor business, free affiliate programs and a free resource ezine. mailto:subscribe@seymourproducts.com
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November 9, 2007
Now that you have a web site up and running, complete with a squeeze page (Step 12), you need an auto responder.
What is an auto responder?
An auto responder is simply a piece of software that manages your subscriber list and emails your subscribers preset letters at preset intervals. Basically, it automates the correspondence you will have with your opt-in subscriber list.
Why do you need an auto responder? Because without one you will be emailing your contacts one at a time when you have something to recommend. That is fine for your first 10 subscribers, but after that it becomes a little crazy.
There are basically three types of auto responders available:
1) Personally hosted auto responder. This is an auto responder that you download on your own computer and use it to send your emails out. For small lists, this may be OK, but two things occur long-run. 1) If you are sending out 10,000 emails a day, your personal internet service may not like it. In that case, they may ask you to stop, or even shut down your account. 2) Email providers, after they receive a few SPAM complaints about you (and you will get complaints, even if your list is double opt-in, meaning that not only do people have to request your email, but they have to confirm that request personally), may block your personal IP address (the identifying information from your computer) so that none of your emails reach their email clients. After awhile, very few of your emails are getting through to your list.
2) Web-hosted auto responder. Many of the web hosts offer an auto responder service through their website. The problems with this are similar to hosting the auto responder yourself. Although they usually don?t limit how many emails you can send, you will still develop a problem with the IP address of your web site or web host.
3) 3rd party auto responder companies. These are auto responder companies whose main business is delivering emails. They host their own auto responder, handle all of your correspondence, track how many of your emails are actually delivered, and work with the email companies to make sure your emails are consistently delivered. When you are first starting out, this is usually the best way to go, and you can get a decent 3rd party auto responder service for about $20 per month.
Next Step: What to mail your list?
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This has been part 13 in an extensive series on building your own internet marketing business. To subscribe to receive the entire series via email, click here: Step by Step to Internet Success
To read more about how to start an online business, click here and download my free book: Internet Success
Sean Mize is a successful offline and online entrepreneur and marketer, and has written extensively on the topic of online business creation and success.
So what do you put on your auto responder?
Well, it varies dramatically depending on your purpose, but for ours and this project, you are simply going to put a simple series of about 3-4 messages in your auto responder sequence.
These emails are not designed to sell, but rather to allow your customer to get to know you. Remember, you are simply building a relationship with like-minded folks online, so you have someone to share your new product with when you release it in a couple of weeks.
Your first email should simply thank the subscriber for joining your list, indicating that you strive to maintain a quality mailing and will do your best to only send helpful information. If you have offered a free ebook or other product to first-time subscribers, you can include a link to that ebook in this email. If you do not have anything to offer your list yet, please feel free to give away a copy of my ebook ?15 Steps to Internet Success?. I find that it is pretty highly read and received and makes for a great introduction to internet marketing, and therefore makes for a great gift.
Your second, third and fourth emails should be spaced about 4-6 days apart, and should simply be useful information for them. If you are actively using the forum approach (Steps 7-9) you could even make it a type of question and answer format, answering popular questions from the forums.
Remember, you goal here is NOT to sell anyone anything, simply to build a relationship and build yourself up as an expert in their eyes. You see, no matter how much you know about your niche market, until they get to know you and see that you understand their field better than they do, they do not perceive you as an expert. This email sequence helps you do just that.
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This has been part 14 in an extensive series on building your own internet marketing business. To subscribe to receive the entire series via email, click here: Step by Step to Internet Success
To read more about how to start an online business, click here and download my free book: Internet Success
Sean Mize is a successful offline and online entrepreneur and marketer, and has written extensively on the topic of online business creation and success.
July 7, 2006
An email automatic responder or autoresponder is the second most important marketing tool I have to make money online. The first would be my hosting company. Without these 2 tools my internet marketing business is dead in the water.
In the world of internet marketing, millions of sites are fiercely competing with each other to gain new clients. For any ecommerce site to succeed, it must capture the interest and the trust of its visitors. It is not enough that your site is perfectly designed or has the latest in animation of content.
You should focus your efforts not only in attracting visitors but also in leading them to make a purchase. There are dozens of marketing strategies you can use to attract more buyers and pump up your sales. One of them is by establishing an excellent and professional reputation for prompt and efficient response.
As more potential customers visit your site, you should expect a flood of inquiries and requests for information. This is an excellent opportunity for you to capture more clients and lead them to buying from your site. Thus, it is important that you carry out an efficient and prompt response to every email you receive. The fastest and most effective way to do this is by utilizing an email automatic responder.
Autoresponder services use a computer program that automatically return a prewritten message to anyone who sends an email to your site. It is widely used for responding to consumer inquiries and visitor comments and suggestions.
Follow up automatic responders are also used by e-zines in responding to people who subscribe or unsubscribe to their online magazines. Companies, who send out their e-newsletter regularly, also use utoresponders.
How can effective autoresponder services help boost your business? The answer lies in its ability to return a prompt response to any e-mail the site receives. By responding rapidly and efficiently, you create a very good impression on your potential customer. Good email autorespondrs help you get important information back to these customers immediately. An effective autoresponder service helps you communicate your message promptly, creating a sense of professionalism and efficiency that your clients will definitely appreciate.
Another very important advantage of email automatic responders is that it saves time with multiple marketing tasks. Certainly, you do not have enough time to personally make and send all correspondence. Autoresponder services allows you to send thank you letters, newsletters, product information, brochures, orders etc. to hundreds of clients almost immediately and simultaneously. Autoresponder services are also indispensable in any email marketing campaign.
Choosing the right autoresponder is very important. What makes the best automatic responder? First, you should pick an autoresponder that is reliable and can give you 24/7 service. You cannot afford to lose a customer because your autoresponder failed to answer his query or request for information. The ability to respond promptly is the first thing you must look for in any automatic responder.
Another key factor you should consider when choosing Autoresponder servcies is flexibility. Good autoresponders allow you to customize unique responses that will have maximum effect on the customer. You should avoid creating an impression that the customer is communicating with a machine instead of a real human being.
An excellent email automatic responder lets you provide the information that is specifically targeted for what the potential customers are looking for. Because any email from potential customers essentially represent the customer’s intent on getting more information about your product, which can ultimately lead to direct sales, all emails are important. Thus, a top Autoresponder servcie must fulfill all these duties to help you boost your business.
For all of our autoresponder needs we prefer Aweber. They are very reasonably priced and have proved to be reliable and easy to use.
About The Author
Jeff Schuman
Team-Schuman.Com contains the best make money online and make money websites available today. If you want to make money check us out here: http://www.team-schuman.com/email-automatic-responder.html
June 29, 2006
When I first wrote this article, I found myself remembering the hours and hours wasted online searching for useful information about this topic.
I wanted to share it with you and you have permission to reproduce it on your site or in your
newsletter. Please include the resource box. Enjoy.
If you are using your autoresponder to sell a product or service, you must be very careful as to how you approach your potential customer. Few people like a hard sale, and marketers have known for years that in most cases, a prospect must hear your message an average of seven times before they
will make a purchase. How do you accomplish this with autoresponders?
It’s really quite simple, and in fact, the autoresponders make getting the message to your potential customers those seven times possible. On the Internet, without the use of autoresponders, you probably could not achieve that. Too often, marketers make the mistake of literally slamming the potential customer with a hard sales pitch with the first autoresponder message – this won’t work.
You build interest slowly. Start with an informative message – a message that educates the reader in some way on the topic that your product or service is related to. At the bottom of the message, include a link to the sales page for your product. Use that first message to focus on the problem that your product or service can solve, with just a hint of the solution.
Now, pay attention closely. What you’re about to read will help you save hours of frustrating, wasted hunting, and let you hone in on some of the best material on this subject!
Build up from there, moving into how your product or service can solve a problem, and then with the
next message, ease into the benefits of your product – giving the reader more actual information with
each and every message. Your final message should be the sale pitch – not your first one! With each
message, make sure that you are giving the customer information pertaining to the topic – free information! This is what will keep them interested in what you have to say.
This type of marketing is an art. It may take time to get it exactly right. Use the examples that other marketers have set for you. Pay attention to the messages that you receive from other marketers.
Start a ‘swap’ file, and keep those messages. Use some of the better sales copy for your own
autoresponder messages – just make sure that yours doesn’t turn out to be an exact copy of
someone else’s sales message!
Remember not to start with a hard sell. Build your potential customers interest. Keep building on what the problem is, and how your product or service can solve that problem or fill that need. If you are
doing this right, by the time the potential customer reads the last message in that series, they will be convinced enough to make a purchase!
I hope you’ve found this information helpful and gained something of value from the article.
In case there is any specific portion that is not clear enough, or that you’d like to know more about, please write to let me know and I’ll try and update the article or write another one getting into greater detail.
About The Author
Robert Kleine is an author, copywriter, website developer and designer. His newest website, http://www.rapidarticle.com is becoming one of the fastest growing article directories online. Submit your articles or get yourself free content for your site.
February 7, 2006
If you want to take control of your online business and automate your business tasks, you need a fully functional email automatic response system. This will handle all of your email tasks and deliver your messages to your leads 24/7 with ease.
Setting up your fully functional autoresponder system on your own domain is very easy, this is how you avoid paying monthly fees to those big companies that charge high prices for their services. Email automatic responders give you the power to streamline your business and free up more time to concentrate on your marketing efforts instead of spending hours replying to customer responses and follow up emails.
This will definitely help you to potentially explode your mailing list to thousands of leads in a very short time. We all know that the moneys in the list. If you have no list, then chances are pretty good that your sales will be somewhat of a disappointment.
Subscription boxes on your homepage offers the visitor an effortless way to subscribe to your list, ezine, marketing course or whatever you are offering, eliminating the chances of SPAM. As a result, helping you build your mailing list. Surviving in the online business world almost always require you to build a list. Email automatic responders help you to do just that.
We are all looking for more efficient and faster ways of doing business online. By using email automatic responders, you will be helping to minimize the daily tasks of running your online business. Cutting down on workload and expenses is what we are all after. When you cut down on these tasks, the end result is more time for the other important things in life, not to mention greater profits. After all, this is what the online business world is about.
November 30, 2005
If you have an auto responder on your e-mail address then perhaps if you evacuate your area under mandatory evacuation requirements prior to a catastrophic and large category hurricane then it would be wise to alert everyone who e-mails you that you will not be able to the mail them back for quite a while.
It is important that you consider this and since people are also watching the television news they will know how big hurricane was and how much damage was caused then cut you some slack on your obligations whether they be for business or personal. It is advised that you leave on your email that you are safe and have left the state and will attempt to pick up older e-mails every so often but you cannot guarantee it yet.
Essentially you want to let everyone know that you are sorry that you can do nothing about the return of the e-mails but you thank them for e-mailing you can assure them that you will try to pick up your e-mails at a later date and respond.
This is proper e-mail etiquette and it is the right thing to do. It also alerts acquaintances and distant family members that everything is okay and although there is a severe hardship and adversity having to leave your home that you are okay. Please consider all this in 2006.
‘Lance Winslow’ - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington
October 29, 2005
If you participate on a list serve for your industry or academic efforts you may wish to consider using your secondary email address if you have an auto responder, which alerts the other party that you are out of the office. Nothing can be more aggravating to other list serve users than to get five replies that; So-in-so is out of the office until Monday.
Some of the worst culprits of this are the professional parasites in our society, civilization and business world. Lawyers, accountants, government workers and such; why do they do it if they know that it upsets everyone? Well, it is simple, they could careless about anyone but themselves.
Lawyers are the worst and most self-serving when it comes to auto-responders on list serves. It seems every weekend or 3-day weekend this silly auto responder shows up and tells us all that they are out of the office? How disrespectful to the group. Little do they know they end up looking like horse’s rear-ends.
It makes sense if you have an auto-responder for your profession then use a different email address when signing up for list serves and have a little respect for others and prevent yourself from looking like such a moron and scumbag. Consider all this in 2006.
‘Lance Winslow’ - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington
August 9, 2005
By now everybody and their dog knows, that ‘The Money is in the List’. In order to be really successful as an online business, you have to have an opt-in mailing list. Nobody is going dispute this fact.
However, the ONE thing that EVERY serious online marketer will also agree on is this … the real fortune is in the follow-up!
I’m sure you’ve already heard that surveys have shown that your customers need to be exposed to your marketing message up to seven times before they are willing make a purchase. Unfortunately, surveys have also proven that most marketers do not consistently follow up with their prospects.
Using follow-up marketing to build trust and credibility for your business are essential to your online success. Follow-up marketing will enable you to sell your products better and to introduce new products in the future.
One of the most widely used promotional tools on the Internet to accomplish the task of follow-up marketing is Autoresponders. Autoresponders are sometimes called mail bots, automatic email and email on demand. They have their origin from the very popular fax on demand and because they were designed to automatically respond to any email message received with an automatic response, they eliminate the need to manually answer every response. Now that’s going to save you several hours of your valuable time.
Autoresponder programs vary from auto response messages set-up within an email program to a script that runs on a server. This script may run a web-based Autoresponder system that utilizes a web page form or it may run with a pop email account on a server.
Autoresponders can assist you in automating many of your daily tasks including:
- Building Mailing Lists
- Customer Follow-up
- Order Confirmations
- Deliver Newsletters
- Articles for Publication
- Autoresponder Courses
In addition to the standard autoresponder systems, there are also autoresponders that can send an unlimited number of follow-up messages. These follow-up messages can be automatically sent out at predetermined intervals. In other words, you can set up your autoresponder to automatically send out a new message each day for as many days as you would like.
This powerful technology is currently being used by some of the top online marketers to reach thousands of potential customers. Like I mentioned, it may take up to seven contacts with a potential customer before a purchase is made. By setting up an autoresponder and offering a free autoresponder course, you can completely automate a portion of your marketing efforts.
You can massively increase your effectiveness in your follow-up marketing; using the hidden power of autoresponders and their ability to turn multiple prospects into many customers and then customers into repeat customers.
When selecting an autoresponder service, you need to take several factors into consideration to ensure maximum performance for the tasks you want to accomplish.
Here are some critical areas you should examine when evaluating any autoresponder system:
- Personalized responses - With this feature you can address the recipient by there name making them feel that the message was sent specifically to them.
- Automatic follow ups - Remember, you have to contact your Customers up to seven time before they make a purchase.
- Unlimited text length - Because you’ll most likely be using sales letters provide to you by the products you sell, you don’t want to be inhibited by the amount of text your Autoresponder may contain. This could ultimately cost you business.
- Free unlimited updating - You need to have a way to provide your customers with accurate, up to date information on your products and services. Some services charge additional fees if you exceed a certain number of messages.
- Sign-up form code generation - Can the system generate HTML code to provide you with a Sign-Up form to place on your Website?
- Subscription-modification - Your Customers need to be able to unsubscribe themselves or modify their user contact information. Also make sure that if someone wants to modify their contact information (most common change is an email address) they can do so automatically. This one feature will save you an immeasurable amount of time.
- Sending file attachments - Although this is not a critical point, it is sometimes convenient or useful to be able to send file attachments with messages?
- Tracking system - You should be instantly informed each time someone requests your information.
Although many web hosts provide their clients with one-time Autoresponders, if you’re planning on sending out follow-up messages, you’ll want to use a more advanced autoresponder.
Autoresponders come in all sizes, shapes and colours, but I would like to introduce you to four different ones that I can strongly recommend.
GetResponse, AWeber, AutoResponse Plus and Mailloop.
In closing let me ask you the following question: How much could you raise your salary with just one additional order per month? What about several additional orders? Several hundred? Maybe even several thousand? How much money are you LOSING every day because of ineffective follow up? Autoresponders can provide you with this possibility. The more you can automate your tasks, the more time you’ll have for more important things, such as making more sales.
Terrance Wood is the founder and owner of
‘Terry’s World Internet’ - A Collection of Internet
Marketing and Home Business Tips and Tricks. You can visit
Terry at http://www.terrysworldinternet.com
Copyright © 2006 Terrance Wood - All Rights reserved.
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