Business Building Tools: Autoresponders
Follow Up with
Autoresponders
Following up with your prospects can be automated and
simplified when you are using an
autoresponder system.
It's like hiring a virtual employee that doesn't take coffee breaks or
vacations. With an automated system, your business can be working for you while
you're away or asleep, 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year!
Autoresponders are special Internet utilities assigned to a particular
e-mail address (i.e. financialfreedomseekers.com@GetResponse.com) that
instantly delivers information via e-mail. When your prospects send an email to
financialfreedomseekers.com@GetResponse.com
or fills out a lead capture form, the autoresponder will instantly send your
marketing message within seconds! You can send an article, report, newsletter,
press release, or sales information, etc.
High Tech vs. High
Touch?
It's important to keep in mind that autoresponders are not meant
to replace human contact, but are designed to enhance your personal efforts by
making a cold market warm and to assist you with follow-up. DO NOT rely on
autoresponders to be your only form of contact with your prospects. There still
is no better contact than either face-to-face or by telephone.
Why you should use an autoresponder
- Persistence is one of the key virtues in selling
success.
It is well established that most prospects will not respond
after just one or two contacts. I have often read that most sales are made
after the fifth contact and most sales people quit after the first. Perhaps
your prospect was busy or had a bad day or even accidentally erased your
initial email. You'll never know. The industry average is that you must have 5
to 7 contacts with a prospect before they will make a decision whether to join
you or not. Personally, I have found that many of my prospects that eventually
join my business have been in my pipeline for anywhere between 2 and 5
months... and sometimes longer. Therefore, you must have a long-term strategy
for following up with your contacts. If you do not properly follow up with your
prospects at least 5 to 7 times after sending your initial message, you are
throwing potentially $100's to $1,000's away!
- Building your online mailing list.
My
favorite method for generating leads is to generate my own on the Internet and
building my own online mailing list with automation. Building your own online
mailing list is perhaps the most powerful way to market in the 21st Century!
The list you create "yourself" will always out perform and out sell any other
type of list. Most beginners and many established entrepreneurs doing business
on the Internet make a huge mistake when they overlook building an online
mailing list. Every person who emails or opts-in to your list can be followed
up with again and again automatically until they Opt-out or convert into a sale
without YOU being accused of the Internet’s most controversial subject...
SPAM. If you want to maximize your sales, time, and money, it's absolutely
essential for you to build an online mailing list with automation.
- Working with purchased leads.
Nearly all the
reputable autoresponder systems now require the leads loaded into that system
be double opt-in. That means before your prospects will be sent any emails,
they must verify they want to receive them. For this reason, loading a list of
purchased leads into your autoresponder will not be nearly as effective as
generating them yourself with a opt-in/splash page. Some autoresponder systems
allow you to purchase leads from them and may allow them to be loaded without
the double opt-in process. Expect leads purchased this way to be more
expensive.
- Hire an Automated Virtual Employee
Savvy
entrepreneurs know that they can significantly increase their profits by
automating time consuming tasks such as processing information requests. Your
prospects are likely asking the same questions over and over again. Instead of
writing a personal reply every time your prospects ask the same questions, you
can save yourself allot of time by preparing answers for those common questions
and delivering the responses via an autoresponder.
Not all autoresponders are created
equal
Following are some of the features I suggest are important in
selecting a good autoresponder system.
- Personalization
Personalized follow up
email marketing works especially well! Personalization lets you treat all your
potential customers individually. Plus, it will dramatically increase the
probability that your prospect will read your email message. By using the
prospect's name they will identify and be more acceptable and attentive to your
message.
- Multiple messages in series
The simplest
autoresponders (often included with POP3 email accounts) only send your
marketing message once. While that may be fine for specific information
requests, it certainly is not enough for a long term campaign. Remember, you
must have 5 to 7 contacts with a prospect before they will make a decision
whether to join you or not. So, your autoresponder should have the flexibility
to send a series of messages over a long-term time interval.
The secret
of email marketing is providing information to your prospects frequently. You
can market to everyone on your list as long as they "opt-in" to receive your
email messages. So, be selective on what you send and how often you send
messages. The moment you get too far away from your audience interests, people
begin to "opt-out' of your list and your list begins to shrink.
Advanced Email Marketing
You might choose to
start with a free autoresponder system, but once you decide to take your
business to the next higher level and truly leverage the power of email
marketing, you will want to get a more fully featured system with more powerful
marketing tools.
-
GetResponse also offers a FREE autoresponder system in addition
to their upgraded Pro system. I have tested this system and have found it to be
fairly versatile. This system uses a double opt-in process for your imported
leads so I found it to be not real effective if you want to import your
purchased lead lists. For leads generated on-line with splash pages,
GetResponse has worked great.
-
1AutomationWiz.com offers a complete system with autoresponders
and shopping cart pages. I have tested this system and have found it to be
fairly versatile - but expensive.
-
MailLoop can help you automate your entire business. I have not
tested this program, but it comes highly recommended.
-
Freeautobot.com offers a FREE autoresponder system. I have not
personally used this system, but I imagine it would be a good place to start if
you are new using autoresponders.
-
Topica allows
you to build and manage your customer database, create and send targeted email
campaigns, and track and optimize your campaign results. I have not personally
used this system.
- RobotReply.com offers a fully featured autoresponder
system that I tested until they cancelled my account for no apparent reason.
Use this system with caution.
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