Seven Things You Must Know About Autoresponders and Why You Cannot Afford Not to Have One
Seven Things You Must Know About Autoresponders and Why You Cannot Afford Not to Have One
I recently heard of a would-be internet marketer who wanted to try and setup an online business without the help of an autoresponder. She had intended to send out every email to all of her clients manually but thankfully I was able to convince her of the error of her ways! Quite simply, having an autoresponder is an essential element of the internet marketer's toolkit and nobody can afford to do without one.
So what is an autoresponder and what do you need to know about them? Here are seven basic facts to get you started:
1. An autoresponder is a tool which allows you to automatically send an email, or a series of emails, to your clients. For example you write a welcome' email once, send it to your autoresponder and leave it there. Then each time a new customer joins your list they will automatically receive your 'welcome' email without you having to do anything further.
2. You can use your autoresponder to communicate with your new clients by email on a regular basis without the need to sit in front of your computer for hours on end. Simply write a series of, say, seven emails you want them to receive over a period of time. These could be emails giving more information about you and the services you offer; could contain links to your affiliate products or promote the benefits of your own goods or services. Take time writing these emails as they are setting out your stall' to your new customers and remember you will only have to write these emails once.
3. When you are happy with what you have written then you upload the messages to your autoresponder and tell it when you would like the emails to be sent out. For example you might send out your welcome message immediately someone joins your list; the first follow up email might arrive the next day and you might want to spread the others out to arrive every two to three days. Then the series of emails you wrote once gets delivered to every customer in a timed series starting from the day they signed up and you have to do no more work to communicate with your list.
4. How do customers get onto your autoresponder list in the first place? The most common way is through a sign-up box on your landing (or squeeze) page where visitors give you their first name and email address in return for, typically, some sort of free gift. Their email goes directly to your autoresponder and their name is used to personalise each email which is sent out to them so that the emails all have that personal touch which is so important in business.
5. What if I want to send an extra email message or messages which are not on my list? That is another great feature about many autoresponders which will allow you to send additional messages to clients as and when you see fit. Say, for example, you have a hot new offer you want to share with your list right away. You simply write the email, upload it to your autoresponder, and tell it to send the message out to your list immediately and the message will be sent for you. It won't have any impact on the email series you have already set up this will keep sending out messages as before.
6. But I have different types of customers and I don't want them all getting the same messages, can an autoresponder help me here? The simple answer is yes,' and you just use different opt-in boxes for your different customer types. Say you have three websites in three different niches, then you have an opt-in box on each site all going to the same autoresponder but each branching out into a different list. Now all you have to is to create a separate email series for each list and the autoresponder will handle everything for you from there.
7. What if I change some of my offers or have new affiliate products to promote, won't I be sending out-of-date information to my customers? This is another great feature of your autoresponder because you can edit, add and delete emails at will. All you have to to is remove the email you no longer want to go out and replace it with the new one featuring your new offer or affiliate product. (One of my lists contains a series of 100 emails, imagine if I had to send that manually to each of my clients!)
So there you have it, the lowdown on autoresponders and why they are such an essential tool in your internet marketing toolkit. There are many different types of autoresponder on the market, both free and paid-for versions, and choosing the right one will be your next major decision to make.