Realize Your Business

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

What is an autoresponder and how can you use it to market your business?

An autoresponder is software that automatically responds to requests. It is typically used to create and maintain email lists, and to send messages to those lists.

You can buy or create your own software to do this. The advantage here is that you have your lists on your server. The disadvantage is you have to create, install, and maintain the software yourself, plus keep up-to-date on all applicable laws regarding collection of personal data and sending of email, plus worry about the server being down or data getting lost or corrupted.

Even though I have my own servers and someone to maintain them, I do not want to deal with all the regulatory issues regarding personal data and sending email. I also do not want to deal with ISP’s when someone chooses to report the email as spam rather than unsubscribing from the list. So I chose to use an autoresponder service.

I am using Profollow (www.profollow.com) which is Jeff Walker’s branded version of Aweber. This is a very good service, and I think the price is reasonable. There is no limit to the number of email lists I can have. I think if my lists grow really huge I have to pay a bit more, but that is a “problem” I’d like to have!

So what do I do with the autoresponder?

I assume you have a website and some way to capture names and email addresses from visitors. The first thing you want to do with an autoresponder is to set up the website to automatically send those names and email addresses to the autoresponder. This does 2 things for you.

First, the autoresponder will automatically send out a message to the person asking them to acknowledge that they want to join your list. You can use the standard message, or write one of your own. I suggest writing your own message so you can make it friendly and relate it to your website. Perhaps something like this:

“Hello {!name} -

Thank you for your interest in my special report
Training Your Dog to Sing in 30 days or Less. In
just a minute, I will send you the download link
for that report.

Before that, I need you to do one small thing for
me. I have a lot of problems with people putting
fake names into my web forms, so I need you to
verify that it is really you and you really want
the report.

Just click on the link below to verify your email
address, and the report will be on its way!”

This kind of email capture is called double-opt-in because the person first opts to be added to your email list by giving you their name and email address. Then when you ask them to confirm, they opt a second time to join your list.

When the person verifies their email address, you will get an email from the autoresponder telling you that someone has joined your list. You can also log into your account and get a listing of everyone who has joined and when they joined.

Now you get the second advantage to the autoresponder. The person’s name and email address are automatically added to the list that you indicated on your website.

You can have different websites to capture names and email addresses, and each website can be set up to add that information to its own list in the autoresponder.

Now that you have all those lists of email addresses, what do you do? You send them email!

There are two different ways to send email in an autoresponder. One is called broadcast and the other is called follow-up.

A broadcast message is sent one time to the people who are currently subscribed to your list. You create an email message and tell the autoresponder which one (or more) of your lists you want to send it to, and when you want the email to go out. Then you forget about it. At the time you indicated, the autoresponder sends your email to every person on the list(s) you indicated.

Broadcast messages are good to use when the information is time sensitive. Use a broadcast message to talk about current promotions or upcoming events.

Follow-up emails work a little differently. You create one or more follow-up messages as a sequence in your autoresponder. If you create message 1, it is sent out immediately after the person clicks on the confirmation link in the verification message. Message 1 is a great place to put the download link for your report. If I continue with the Dog Singing example, your message 1 will be something like this:

“Hello {!name} -

Here is the link to the webpage with my special
report, Training Your Dog to Sing in 30 days or Less.

http://www.mydomain.com/d2357/

After you read it, send me some email and let
me know what you think of it. I am really
interested in your experience of teaching your
dog to sing.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

{!signature}”

{!name} is a tag or variable that you set up in the autoresponder. When the email is sent, that tag is replaced by the person’s actual name.

Similarly, {!signature} is a tag that you set up in the autoresponder to put your signature. When the email is sent, that tag is replaced by the text you want to use for your signature.

Now that you have set up the first follow-up message, your sequence works like this:

1. Someone visits your website and fills out a form with their name and email address.

2. When the person clicks submit, the name and email address are sent to the autoresponder, which automatically sends a message asking the person to click a link to verify their email address (double-opt-in).

3. When the person clicks on the verification link, the autoresponder adds the name and email address to your list, then it automatically sends follow-up message 1, which contains a URL to a website where the person can download your special report.

So the follow-up message is sent whenever a person joins your list. Contrast this with a broadcast message which is sent only to the current subscribers on your list – people who are added to your list after the message is sent will never see it.

What about additional follow-up messages? Of course! You can have as many as you like. Decide what you want to do and create a sequence of messages to accomplish that goal.

Here are some ideas:

1. Create a follow-up sequence of basic tips, such as the one you are reading now. I have my follow-up messages set so that they are sent every 7 days. Whenever you subscribe, you get message 1 immediately, then 4 days later you get message 2, then you get a new message every 7 days after that. This is an example of using follow-up messages to develop and maintain a relationship with the people who are subscribed to your list.

2. Another idea is to create a training sequence. Each message is one lesson, and you can set them up to go out on a regular schedule. This is something you could sell, and it would be completely automatic. A person would go to your sales page, select to purchase, the payment goes to your shopping cart, the thank you message tells the person to subscribe to the list, and the lessons go out automatically on the schedule you set up. Personally, I would have a person verify the purchase (remember you get an email from the autoresponder when the person is added to your list). If the person on the list has not purchased your product, you can remove
that person from the list using the autoresponder software.

3. Create a sales sequence. You may have a website where people can sign up for more information about a product or opportunity you are offering. The follow-up messages can be a sequence of emails to sell to that prospect. This is all done automatically, and you only get involved when the person has questions or actually buys your product. This approach will save you time because the people who are not very interested will get the automatic messages and you do not invest time talking with them unless they are actually interested in your product. If you are selling higher priced products, you will probably need a sequence of emails to sell your product. People might buy a $27 product just by reading the sales page, but higher priced products require more contact with the buyer.

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Now it is your turn.

Do you have an autoresponder to handle the emails you send to your lists?

How are you using the autoresponder? Are you taking advantage of the different ways to use broadcast and follow-up email?

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* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the Owner/Manager of a small business.

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