"An Autoresponder - the Marketer's Best Friend"
Autoresponders (also known as mailbots, automatic
email and email on demand) are great promotional tools, without which
you'll find it difficult to succeed online.
They provide the easiest way to automate the
selling process, and are basically email versions of the fax on demand
services that have proved to be very successful in recent years.
Instead of you personally having to reply to each
and every enquiry about your service or product - sending out sales
letters, order confirmations and thank you letters, etc. - you can set
up an autoresponder to do all this for you. And ...
... save your valuable time for those promotional
activities that really do need your personal attention.
Essentially an autoresponder is an email program
that automatically replies to any email sent to it, sending out a
predetermined response letter that you've previously saved. Having one
or more autoresponders will free up a vast amount of your time, and
enable you to dramatically increase your profits.
Prospects can get information about your products
and services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Without need of *any*
human intervention, let alone manually following-up each lead.
Apart from saving you time, autoresponders provide
you with another essential ingredient for successful online marketing:
Prompt and timely replies.
As you should already know, the vast majority of
internet surfers want information fast. This is no less true when
they're answering your online ad and requesting more information. They
don't want to wait for days or even hours until you get around to
replying to the pile of mail you get everyday. And they've already
become accustomed to getting it in seconds from most companies online.
Think... 'image'!
You wont appear a very reliable organisation if it
takes days just to get a reply to an email enquiry. Even worse, the
initial interest created by your carefully crafted advertisement - the
spark that lead to a request more information - may well have waned
later on.
It's therefore essential that you respond with
additional information immediately, creating a positive image, and
getting your sales message read by a hot prospect.
Choosing your Autoresponder
You aren't short of choices in this department ...
there are innumerable companies that offer autoresponder services.
Various options and pricing structures are available.
There are also several free services that earn
revenue from small advertisements placed in your autoresponder's
replies. The size of these ads varies between different providers, so
it's worth shopping around.
Whether or not you decide on a free or paying
service is largely dependent on your needs and budget, but don't be put
off just because the service is free - some paid autoresponder services
are not as good as the best of the free ones.
There are however a few things that you should
look for. One of the first is the amount of freedom you're given in the
choice of your autoresponder's email address name. Ideally you should
be able to name your autoresponder something relating to your product
or business, unique enough that you can also use it for tracking your
advertising effectiveness in various locations or with different
advertisements.
You will also want a service that allows you to
personalise your response as much as possible, by using the prospects
first name in the body of the letter - in the Dear Xxxx, for example.
Another important consideration is whether or not
you will receive notification when someone has requested information
from your autoresponder. Generally this takes the form of a copy of the
prospects original email request, including any of their comments. This
is important in order to keep up to date and to deal with any special
requests.
Check to see if there are any limits imposed on
the size of your autoresponder text and how often you can change it.
Some companies will charge extra to send large files or for frequent
modifications. You may need both.
A very useful feature that you should look out for
is the ability to set up one or more automatic follow-up letters at
predetermined intervals - this can really help to increase your sales
as ...
most people need to see an advertisement several
times before finally acting on it.
I use GetResponse [ http://www.NowSell.com/get.html
], a service that I feel excels in all areas. They offer a great free
service (ad supported) or a paying option if you want to get rid of the
additional advertising in your mail outs.
© 1999-2000 Azam Corry "Do it Better. Do it
Faster. Do it Right!"
Online since 1998, Azam Corry can help you
succeed. No-Bull
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