Copyright 2005 Michael Tansey
What if you could send out all the information that your potential customers have requested without checking your email or answering a phone? While this may seem impossible, it is becoming more and more popular among the most successful Internet marketing gurus. This is all due to what is called an autoresponder. An autoresponder is an automatic method of responding to emails sent by existing or potential customers and is an absolute must for any Internet business. Time is money and answering emails personally takes a lot of valuable time for both you and the customer. Not only do autorespnders allow you to spend the time elsewhere in your business, but it gives the customer access to the information almost immediately.
Since there are so many different uses for autoresponders, they can be of value to virtually any type of business. Some choose to use the autoresponders to answer frequently asked questions about a product or service. Others use them to provide information about pricing and/or your product information. Autoresponders are also a nice way to welcome new members to a website or group as well as thank them after a visit.
One might ask what would be the advantage of using autoresponders as opposed to simply listing the information on the site. An important feature of autoresponders is that they send you an email notification each time a response is sent out. This allows you to track the success of your promotions as well as have the email addresses of potential customers at your fingertips so that you can easily send out updated and new information to them.
It is of the utmost importance to choose an effective autoresponder. An autoresponder should be as personal as possible and send out follow-ups to potential customers since it has been proven that persistence pays off. The average is seven contacts before a final sale is conducted. Generally speaking an advertisement should be short and to the point. However, in this case, the customer has asked to see this specific information and therefore an effective autoresponder should allow you to place as much text on the page as you desire. The autoresponder that you choose should also provide automatic updates to their customers free of charge.
The autoresponder is one Internet marketing tool that will not cost you an arm and a leg. You can get free autoresponders online from several sources. The automatic responses will be a welcome addition to your marketing strategy and will help to automatically increase traffic to your site all while you do nothing after it is set-up. Be sure that the one you choose includes all the extras that will send your site to the top and your profits through the roof.
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Mike Tansey has been online since early 2004. He can help YOU start your own profitable business on the Internet within the next 24 hours... visit: http://www.Profit-Unlimited.net/pips.html Receive More Informative Tips and Articles, Click Below: mailto:Profit_Unlimited@GetMoreInfo.com?subject=REF100
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Autoresponders are a perfect way to increase traffic to your site. They can save many valuable hours by automatically answering emails concerning frequently asked questions about a service or product or by sending a welcome letter to new members of your program. There are many ways that autoresponders can help your business. One of the most important is their ability to track the effectiveness of your promotions. Since autoresponders are one of the most popular marketing tools available today, they are being used by a lot of different kinds of business and websites. Some of these take advantage of the system to use the autoresponders in a negative manner. You should be aware of some of the "Golden Rules" when using autoresponders.
Thou Shalt Not Use an Autoresponder Address When Submitting to Search Engines.
Since you will most likely submit your site to search engines such as Google or Yahoo!, directories, classifieds, and free for all sites, you should be made aware of the fact that these sites commonly use an autoresponder as well. If you were to use your autoresponder to contact these companies, their autoresponder will reply to yours, and so on and so on, thus, creating a cycle of auto-responses that will flood your email box and theirs as well.
Thou Shalt Not Use an Autoresponder to Subscribe to Ezines or Discussion Forums.
Since most of the time an Ezine will send you updates and new information regularly, your autoresponder will send them a message each time. In a discussion forum, every person in the discussion forum will receive your auto-response. This can be irritating and most of the time you will be unsubscribed. It is often hard for the administrators of the forum or ezine to determine who is using the autoresponse, and therefore it is simply common courtesy to never use an autoresponder in this manner.
Thou Shalt Not Use an Autoresponder to Take Advantage Of Unsuspecting Individuals.
Some very unprofessional companies will use autoresponders to respond to an automated message. When this is done, the address in the "from" field will automatically be subscribed to their mailing list. This is an extremely unethical use of autoresponders, and those who do it are in jeopardy of creating a very negative image for themselves and their company. Rather than promoting the service or business, this usually leads to people becoming very upset and spreading a negative word about the company rather than a good one.
The Internet can be a great place to do business and autoresponders can be an excellent way to save time. However, when used in an unprofessional way, they can lead to frustration and aggravation for others. Your company will suffer the loss of much business if you choose to participate in these abusive practices. The appropriate use of autoresponders can generate a large amount of business, while inappropriate use can drive away that business.
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David Hudson can help YOU
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So you don’t have a way of managing all of the customer responses coming through your inbox? I can relate, please let me share a personal story.
When I first started my online business, I didn’t know what an autoresponder was, and I was intimidated by setting one up on my site. I simply had an HTML form set up that would send e-mail address of people that wanted my newsletter straight to my inbox. I can only imagine the amount of money that I was leaving on the table. I had no way of responding back to my potential customers. When I saw a newsletter signup come into my inbox, I would copy and paste a reply back to them.
The times have changed. Not only is the above situation not acceptable, but there’s no way you can effectively grow your business without an autoresponder.
After all, since you now have your website set up to sell your e-book, you are going to need a way to handle the various types of correspondence being sent to you from potential customers.
Autoresponders are an effective and economical innovation (software program) designed to “respond” to any messages a website receives. Thousands of online businesses use autoresponders to send a confirmation “thank you” notice when anyone registers with their email address on the site. Think of them as an answering machine for your website.
Using an autoresponder is a critical component to having a successful ebook business. Not only do you need to respond to messages and inquiries, you must implement an email sales campaign to promote your ebook. If you were to try to manage the emails yourself, the task will eventually become impractical and extremely time consuming. You could hire someone to answer them, but when your site is receiving several hundred hits a day with an average of 50% registering to receive more information; you would need to hire several people thus making the cost very prohibitive. In business, “time is money and money is time”, and online, and autoresponder is the only solution.
If you do not have an autoresponder, you will lose sales, and lots of them. If you are not using an auto email program to get these non-committals to return to your site, you will not be able to sell your ebook to them. It’s really as simple as that.
How does an autorepsonder work? By utilizing the information you input into the programs, the Autoresponder will automatically answer any email or sign-up your site receives. You can even program a variety of responses and how many times you want to send your customers an email; plus any sales receipts, download information and access, support problems – can all be effectively handled by an autoresponder. Obviously if there is a support situation, you or your webmaster will need to step in and fix the problem, but the autoresponder can easily let the customer know that someone will be emailing them soon to help.
Due to the nature of your business (e-book sales), you will need a variety of email autoresponses depending upon the situation. A typical list of responses for an e-book sales site might include some or all of the following:
1) Thank you response for visiting and signing up;
2) Free newsletter emailed to all sign-ups;
3) Special offer emails to entice purchase;
4) Purchase notification/invoice;
5) Thank you for purchasing;
6) Informing of your newest e-book;
7) Offer free course/bonus for signing up;
8) Notification of problems/complaints received from customers;
9) Notification of feedback received.
Basically the uses of the program are endless, in fact anything that you would want emailed to several customers can be handled through an autoresponder. And just like the almost limitless uses, there are a vast number of autoresponder companies vying to handle your e-business correspondence.
Many sites have free autoresponder programs available which handle minimal email tasks; however because you are trying to sell ebooks, you should look for a system or service that does not limit the capabilities of your emails. Make sure you get unlimited email size plus you will need the ability to send multiple emails to the same person over a period of time. Remember, the reason for sending several emails over a course of time is based on the fact that most customers (about 60% - 70%) do not purchase on their first visit. If they are interested in learning more about your ebook, they will sign up for more information. And this is when you use an autoresponder to send multiple targeted information emails to drive those reluctant customers back to your site for the purchase. You will also want to have the ability to track your emails to assess the effectiveness of such a campaign. We use www.aweber.com and www.getresponse.com is also a good solution.
The messages you will want to send will depend upon the reason for the need to respond. One way you can handle this is by having multiple email addresses for your site. Here is a short list of email addresses you will need:
1) support@yoursite.com
2) Yourname@yoursite.com
3) Yourassistant@yoursite.com
4) sales@yoursite.com
If you need additional addresses, do not hesitate to set them up and use them; the more you categorize your customer’s emails, the better you, your webmaster and your autoresponder program will work. The autoresponder will know the difference between newsletter sign-ups, customer logins, purchases, and so on. This is all configured in the program, as is sending notification emails for receipt of a customer’s inquiry at one of your listed email addresses.
Again, you or your webmaster will manually have to answer any inquiries received at a site listed address. Unfortunately at this moment in time, autoresponders cannot read and answer emails. I would imagine that sometime in the not too distance future this will become a possibility. One can always hope!
Now you understand why autoresponders are an important if not critical ingredient in developing a productive, functioning, 24/7 e-book sales site. Using one will help increase your sales, drive those hesitant potential customers back to your site and take care of those everyday tasks associated with having a professional and courteous Internet business. Offering excellent customer service is a significant business building tool, especially for online businesses when a customer assesses you and your site faster than you realize.
About the author:
David Hennebery is the owner and creator of a very successful ebook called ebookprofitmaker. He is regarded as an expert in eBook marketing and selling. To contact him email support@ebookprofitmaker.com or http://www.ebookprofitmaker.com/articleoffer.html receive 35% discount
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