Email is the Net's most powerful marketing tool. And autoresponders are the best idea yet for marketing with email.
There is an old saying that the first ad rarely sells. You have to put your product, service, or idea in front of a prospect several times before she buys.
Autoresponders are designed specifically to get your message back to the same prospect over and over. That's why most autoresponder packages come in groups of 7 messages--from the 7 message marketing rule that has been the rule in advertising since our grandparents were in diapers.
But what do you say in your 7 messages? We've written autoresponder series for hundreds of customers. Here is one method that always works.
This method is called REMIND 'EM. People don't read your sales letter as carefully as you think. They tend to skim. They read the first message, but miss the second and third message. The prospect may not tune in again until message five. It's so easy for people to completely miss your main points intended to lead to a sale.
It's important to *repeat* your main message over and over. Say it once, twice, three times in your first message. Say your main message in a different way in the second message. Re-cap your main point again in the third message. That way, people who aren't paying attention still get your important ideas.
Here's an example of how the "remind 'em" formula works for a 7 letter series promoting personal security products.
Message (1) The world is a dangerous place. You need new innovative security products to insure your protection.
Message (2) More details on how and why the world is a dangerous place. List places or situations that are especially threatening.
Message (3) Recap how the world is a dangerous place. Give more details on the key new security products that have come out.
Now start the middle section of messages. Note how they become more instructional telling people how to use the products.
Message (4) Protect yourself from the dangerous world with Product A. Here's how to use Product A. Here's why you would use it. Here's where to use it.
Message (5) Protect yourself with Product B. Here's how to use it. Here's what happy customers say about it. Tell a hair raising story of how Product B saved a customer's life.
Now comes the wrap-up and reminder, especially important for people who never got around to reading your earlier messages.
Message (6) Go back to your main sales letter used in numbers 1 and 2. Start all over reviewing your main points and highlighting your most popular products.
Message (7) This is the final follow-up email. I usually have it come two weeks to one month after message 6. It's designed to scoop up all the people who weren't ready to buy in the beginning, but may be ready to buy now.
It can start with "For the past few weeks I've been sending you important information about how to protect yourself in threatening situations. I know you are busy and may not have had time to consider how these products could improve your life and confidence." At that point, you again review your main points.
Repetition is the key to advertising success. Find creative ways to keep the main message going week after week and you will have as many customers as you can handle. Busy prospects simply need time for your message to sink in. As we used to say when I worked in media, it's just when you and your staff are sick to death of a commercial that the audience is just beginning to notice it.
A Simple Way To Create 7 Effective Autoresponder Messages
20 Ways To Increase Your Traffic And Sales Using Free Follow-Up Autoresponder Courses
An auto responder course is a group of articles or information set up to be sent out separately over a set period of time by e-mail. People just e-mail your auto responder to receive the free course and it is sent out automatically over time. You can find free follow-up auto responders to use by typing it into any search engine. Below are ten ways to use them to increase your traffic and sales.
1. Offer your course as a free bonus for purchasing one of your main products or services. People will buy your products quicker when you offer a bonus.
2. When you write and give away a free course you will become known as an expert. This'll gain people's trust and they will buy your main product quicker.
3. Allow others to add your free course to their own product packages. Their customers will see your ad when they purchase.
4. People love to get freebies. A free auto responder course is perfect. They will visit your web site to get the free valuable information.
5. Allow people to receive your course for free, if they give you the e-mail addresses of 3 to 5 friends or associates that would be interested.
6. Allow other people to give away your free course. This will increase the number of people that will see your ad in the course.
7. You could trade advertising space in your course for other forms of advertising. It could be banner ads, e-zine ads, web site ads, etc.
8. Gain new leads by having people sign up and give you their contact info before they can receive your auto responder course.
9. Give away the auto responder course as a free gift to your current customers as a way of letting them know you appreciate their business.
10. Give away the course to people that join your affiliate program. This will increase the number of people that sign-up.
11. Make money selling advertising space in your course. You could charge for small classified ads or sponsor ads.
12. Get free advertising by submitting your course to freebie web sites. This will increase the number of people that will see your ads in the course.
13. Make money by selling the reprint rights to those people that would like to sell the course. You could make more money by selling the master rights.
14. Hold a contest on your web site so people could win your course. You will get free advertising when you submit your contest to free contest directories.
15. You'll gain valuable referrals from people telling others about your course. Word of mouth advertising can be very effective.
16. Make money cross promoting your course with other people's products or services. This technique wills double your marketing effort
17. Increase your e-zine subscribers by giving your course to people that subscribe to your e-zine. This'll give people an incentive to subscribe.
18. Allow your affiliates to use the free course as a promotional tool for your product. Each lesson could include their affiliate link.
19. Promote other businesses affiliate programs you join with your free auto responder course. Include a different affiliate link on each lesson.
20. Advertise a different product or service on each lesson. If you only have one, use different emotional response ads on each lesson.
For more tips & tricks to increase your traffic and sales using free follow-up auto responder courses Free Work From Home website today!
Autoresponder Access To Secret Pages
People love to have access to things that other people can’t get. It makes them feel special, and it
is a marketing tactic that really works. Granting access to secret pages works well on the Internet.
It works best when it is limited. For instance, you can grant access to only a lucky few, or you can
have a time limit for accessing the pages. You can grant access to secret pages on your website with
an autoresponder.
The way this works is quite simple. You create a directory on your website that is password protected, with one login and password that everybody can use. You then create some valuable content for that directory. You can call this your secret vault or your private stash or anything else you want to call it – as long as it sounds like something that your visitors may really want to get their hands on. For instance ‘the secret tools that helped me earn thousands each month’ would probably entice many people who want to learn how to make money.
Once you get the directory and the pages set up, put the URL of the pages and the login name and
password in an autoresponder. Write a sales page and distribute it to your opt-in list, or have other list owners distribute it to theirs. Make sure you ‘limit’ the offer. Don’t let people assume that you are going to share this secret information with the rest of the world – they want to be the only ones with this special access!
Keep access to the secret pages free. The goal is to get people to those pages, so that they can purchase your products or services. However, remember that you’ve advertised secret tools or secret information. Therefore, when they get to those pages, there must be something of value there for them to collect – for free in most cases. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you will be losing money by giving something away for free – you won’t. In fact, you’ve already gained by collecting the names and addresses of the people who were interested in your secret information!
Again, this is a marketing tactic that really works, and it is a great way to use an autoresponder. Once people have requested the information for your private pages, you can email them periodically, using your autoresponder, to let them know about updates to the secret site. While you are updating them, you can also tell them about other specials or new products in your line.
A Good Autoresponder
How many free autoresponders have you tried? Really how many? And how many emails did you get through using them? How do you know? How many people opened your followup message?
My point here is that if you have no clue for the answers above you probably are not operating a followup campaign successfully. These are crucial element that must be explored when you are choosing an autoresponder.
Some good steps to take to ensure you are getting what you need out of a autoresponder include... Compare your autoresponder with those of top marketers, chances are they are using the best in the business. You can't go wrong with this step!
Other observations you might make are related to spam filters. Have you ever gotten an e-mail and seen something like this..."F`R`E`E" Yes this is a good way to beat the spam filters as they won't read Free they will read something totally different. However it can be time consuming going through your article and finding which words are "Danger" words. This can go along way in your marketing efforts. So make sure you find an autoresponder that has a spam rating feature... these features will automatically show you where in your article your "Danger" words are.
Another crucial element of e-mail marketing are your statistics. How many e-mails are being opened can tell you if your subject line is any good or if you did a good job branding your name. If you know your e-mail statistics you are one step in the right direction in optimizing your potential sales. Finding an autoresponder that shows in depth analysis with your followups are also key.
What should a followup contain? Good question... My personally experience suggests directing your subscribers to a full article located on the web. There are some good reasons for this. You can create an excitement teaser in the followup e-mail and beg your article to be read on the web. There is also the chance that since you have an article archive on the web many subscribers will often read more than just your original article. Your subscriber might not be interested in one article but they may find what they are looking for browsing through your previous articles.
Broadcasting! So your subscribers are finished receiving their original followup series... now what? Find an auto responder that allows you to broadcast an update or an offer to the entire subscriber list. Don't let your subscribers go to waste, this feature is a must!
Remember not to bore your hard earned subscribers. Present them with a problem and offer them a solution! Its that easy...
Find my recommended autoresponder on my marketing blog!
The Difference Between Autoresponder Programs and Autoresponder Services
Many newcomers to the Internet marketing arena are not aware that there is a vast difference between an autoresponder program
and an autoresponder service. Not knowing the difference, they often purchase the wrong type of autoresponder, and find out too
late that they have wasted money on a program that is useless to them.
An autoresponder program is a program that is set up on your web server. This is usually a free autoresponder that comes with
your web hosting account. Many people don’t like to use autoresponder services; so instead, they use an autoresponder program
that they have more control over. Some of those people don’t like the autoresponder programs that come with their hosting
accounts either and purchase autoresponder programs or scripts that must be installed on their web server.
Other people are quite happy with using an autoresponder service. This is a service that is usually paid for on a monthly or yearly
basis. The fees are ongoing, and everything is browser based. In other words, you can set up your autoresponder messages and
manage your opt-in list through your web browser – just as you can with an autoresponder program that is installed through your
web hosting account. The difference is that the service runs on the autoresponder service’s web server – not yours or your web
hosts.
Beginners are usually better off using an autoresponder service. These services are very easy to understand and to use, and no
technical knowledge is needed to set things up. As a newcomer to the field, however, you might be concerned about the costs of
an autoresponder service. If this is the case, you have the option of signing up with a free autoresponder service.
Free services make their money by placing advertisements in each autoresponder message that you send out. Sometimes these
ads appear at the top of your messages, and sometimes they appear at the bottom. Some of the free services are simply an
enticement to purchase the professional version, and have many of the more advanced features, such as tracking, disabled.
More advanced users often choose to use autoresponder programs, simply because they have more control over the autoresponder,
and they don’t have to follow some of the stiffer rules imposed by autoresponder services, such as sending confirmation to each and
every person who is entered into the autoresponders list.
The autoresponder that you choose is strictly up to you, but in most cases, an autoresponder service should suit your needs. If
you are unsure, look for a service that offers free signups, with the option of upgrading to the professional paid version at a later
Using an Autoresponder to Publish an Ezine
There are many uses for an autoresponder. One
such use is the publishing and distribution of an
ezine or newsletter. Since autoresponder services
usually are set up to send automatic responses to
the people on the list at certain intervals after they
sign up, setting up an autoresponder to send out an
ezine can be a little confusing.
Depending on the service or autoresponder that you
are using, you will need a ‘broadcast’ feature. The
broadcast feature works essentially the same as the
autoresponse feature, with one big difference. The
messages are not sent out at intervals. The
messages can, however, be scheduled to go out on
a certain day, which has no bearing on when the
subscriber was actually added to the mailing list.
Broadcast messages are ‘one time’ messages that
are only sent to your current mailing list. People
who sign up for your list after the broadcast has
been sent do not receive it, unless the specifically
request it with an autoresponder address, which
you must set up.
Using the broadcast feature of most autoresponder
services, you can simply go and either type your
newsletter, or copy and paste it into the editor, then
choose to send the broadcast to your entire mailing
list. More advanced autoresponder services will
usually have broadcasting features.
Using an autoresponder to maintain a mailing list
and to distribute a newsletter is a wonderful idea.
Your subscribers can easily opt-in, or opt-out, and
all of the distribution is handled for you, based on
the schedule that you set. List maintenance can
become very difficult without the automation that
autoresponders provide. You can write each issue
of your ezine or newsletter well in advance, and
have it delivered to your mailing list, no matter
where you are or what you are doing. That is the
beauty of automation!
Since all past broadcast and autoresponse
messages are saved, you can easily refer back to
old issues, or allow people to request past issues.
You can also use the tracking feature throughout
each issue of the newsletter to determine how
many clicks you are getting for the various products
or websites that you promote in your ezine.
If you have not yet purchased an autoresponder or
signed up with any autoresponder service, make
sure that you inquire about the broadcast feature
first. Not all autoresponders or autoresponder
services have this feature, and as your marketing
progresses, you will find that this is one of the most
useful features of the service or program.
Tracking Autoresponder Responses
As an Internet marketer, it is vitally important to
know how well your advertising campaigns are doing.
Advertising campaigns cost a lot of time and money,
and campaigns that are not doing well need to either
be changed or scraped. When using autoresponders
for purposes of Internet marketing, you will be able to
tell how well your autoresponder messages are doing
by using response tracking.
Autoresponder response tracking is usually easily
set up with the higher quality paid autoresponder
services. Using the tracking set up tool, you simply
enter the web site address that you want your
readers to visit, and the software generates a brand
new URL. This URL is used track the number of
clicks that you have from the autoresponder message
to the website that you are promoting.
When a person clicks on that special URL, the click
is captured, and they are automatically redirected to
the website that you intended them to arrive at. The
visitor does not know that they have been redirected
in most cases. You can monitor the results
through the control panel of your autoresponder
service account. The control panel will tell you how
many messages were delivered, and how many
clicks were received. Most quality autoresponders
will even include a feature that allows you to track
how many of the emails were opened. This is a
great marketing research tool for mass email marketing.
Not all autoresponder services offer tracking abilities
such as this. If tracking is important to you, you
need to make sure that this is one of the features of
the autoresponder service before you sign up. This
feature gives you the ability to know whether the
message you are sending out is effective, or if
changes need to be made. It also allows you to
see if the sales copy on your website is effective, in
a ‘round-about’ way. For instance, if you are getting
thousands of clicks from the autoresponder
message, but very few clicks from the sales page
to the order page, you know that the
autoresponder message is working, but the sales
copy is failing.
If you have never tracked your autoresponder
responses before, you should definitely consider it.
Again, this information allows you to find out what is
working, and what is not working. It will essentially
make your autoresponder marketing much more
effective and profitable. You will most likely be very
surprised at the results of the tracking!
Using Your Autoresponder to Generate Leads
Autoresponders are one of the most important marketing tools that you can have if you are doing business online. In fact, the
only thing more important that the autoresponder is your opt-in list! But all autoresponders start out without a list – the list doesn’t
exist until your autoresponder mailing list starts filling up with names and email addresses!
The easiest and fastest way to build up an email list is to give things away for free. Some marketers will tell you that this is a
waste of time – and if you already have a list of one hundred thousand people that you can market to, then it probably is. But for
those who do not already have a list, this is the way that it gets built! You simply pay for advertisement to promote your freebie.
Don’t think of this as lost money, think of it as an investment in future earnings.
Give away an ezine, free reports, free ebooks, free access to private websites, or anything else that you can think of. The object is
to get people to sign up to receive that freebie, and to agree to receive email from you in the future! It is a win-win situation for
everyone, but you get more than anyone else in the deal. The person gets a freebie. You get their name and email address, and
permission to email them in the future.
But if you do it right, you get even more than that. The freebie that you give away should also be used to promote your products or
services. Even if it just has affiliate links for products or services that are related to the topic of the freebie, it is a way to generate
extra revenue. Then, when you send email in the future, you can again promote your products or services. Just be sure to include
valuable information in the email as well, or you will have people dropping off of your autoresponder mailing list like flies!
Using every opportunity that is presented to you in the world of Internet Marketing is vital to your success. You have the opportunity
to earn money in the freebie that you create, you have the opportunity to earn money when you send the ‘thank you’ email after a
person has requested your freebie, and you have the opportunity to earn money every time an autoresponder message is sent out
to that list in the future! Don’t waste those opportunities, and put it all in automatic mode with the use of an autoresponder.