"An Autoresponder - the Marketer's Best Friend"
by Azam Corry
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
Marketing Help, Tools & Resources: http://NowSell.com/?AutResp
Reprint Rights eBooks & Packages: http://eBookSaver.com/?AutResp
==> Subscribe to Azam's Biz Bits Marketing eZine and get a hot
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