subject: Autoresponder Marketing and List Building [print this page] Autoresponder Marketing and List Building
One of your biggest and best assets as an internet marketer, is your email list. The best way to keep your list organized, managed, and easy to contact is through the use of an autoresponder.
You can have several campaigns and autoresponder email addresses to keep your lists separate and targeted. If you are advertising an ebook about knitting, you will want to keep that list of leads separate from a list targeting people wanting information about dog training.
Why keep a list or lists at all? When a visitor comes to you site to look, they may not be ready to buy. If you don't have a way to contact them after they leave your site, chances are you lost the sale. However, if you do have a way to reach them (via an email address and your autoresponder), you can provide them with more product information and try to make the sale. In the current economic climate that we are in, many buyers want to gather the information and facts they need, before purchasing.
I recommend that you setup your autoresponder with a follow-up series of messages. When your prospect subscribes to your list, they will receive a welcome message confirming that they have joined, as well as the information that you want to provide to them with this initial email. After the first email has been sent, you will set-up a series of messages, which will be mailed on subsequent days to this same prospect.
Let me share an example of this with you.
Your prospect subscribes to your list with their email address.
They in turn receive back an instant message (email) that welcomes them and gives a short description of the product that you are selling (knitting ebook). At the end of the message, make sure to link back to your website.
1 day after the initial email has been sent, your prospect will receive another email with 10 fun facts about (knitting) as well as the website link again.
3 days later you will send a final email with a short excerpt from the ebook and a special link to the website that includes a $5 off coupon good only for 24 hours.
There are several websites on the internet offer autoresponder services that you can use. Try searching for autoresponder in Google, or go to Aweber, EmailAces, Getresponse or ListWire. These are web-based companies and not software based. Simply set-up an account and add your messages, and you are ready to start. If you have a pre-existing list, you need to check what your import limitations will be.
If you are starting from scratch, and don't have an email list of prospects yet, you will want to set-up your subscribe form, and add it to the code on your website. It helps to offer something free to prospective leads to entice them to add their email address to your list. Make sure that your free gift is something of interest or value to your visitors. A free ebook, or software program, relating to your niche are good ideas.
My final word of advice on using an autoresponder and list building, is to write and mail out a newsletter. Most internet marketers only send sales ads to their lists, and their remove rates are fairly high per mailing. However, if your prospects feel that they are learning something by being on your list, they are more likely to stay on as subscribers.
