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Autoresponders – The More You Know, The More Effective They Are

Posted on February 14th, 2008 in Autoresponders by admin

If you have signed up with an autoresponder service, you need to take the time to read the instructions to learn how to use the service – before you load the first word of your first message!

Not knowing how to use the service will lead to many mistakes, and your customers and potential customers will most likely see every mistake you make!

As soon as you have complete the sign up process, load one email address into the autoresponders mailing list – yours. If there is a manual or help file for your autoresponder, read every word of it, and really learn how to use all of the features of the autoresponder.

Work with it, sending messages to your own address, until you know your autoresponder service inside and out! This may take a little time, but after a few hours or so, you should know all that there is to know, and you will be able to set your autoresponders up much more effectively in the future.

Taking the time to learn now, will not only save time in the future, it may also help you tweak and tune your autoresponder messages and tracking in a way that increases your responses!

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Autoresponders and Spam – What You Need To Know

Posted on February 14th, 2008 in Autoresponders by admin

There are laws against sending spam. There are even laws that you must adhere to when you send out email that was requested. No matter what type of email you are sending out, the chances are good that the anti-spam laws apply to you in some way.

In order to be in compliance with the anti-spam laws in various states in the US, each commercial email that you send must include your name or business name, your street address, city, state, zip code, and phone number.

You must also include instructions that will allow the recipient to remove themselves from your mailing list. If you fail to do any of this, you are essentially breaking the law in various states – no matter what state or country you live in!

Protect yourself from spam complaints in any way that you can. Make sure that when a customer requests any type of information from you that an email is sent requesting confirmation before any other email is sent.

If someone is placing an order from you, include a check box on the order form, asking for permission to send them periodic emails.Never use your autoresponder to send unsolicited commercial email!

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Autoresponder Access to Secret Pages

Posted on February 14th, 2008 in Autoresponders by admin

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.

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Articles and Autoresponders

Posted on February 14th, 2008 in Autoresponders by admin

Writing articles to market a product or service is an excellent way to build business. The articles should be very informative, providing the reader with information that is relevant to a specific topic. The article usually includes a link to a webpage for more information. The webpage, of course, is designed to sell a product or service that relates to the topic of the article.

These articles are commonly submitted to article banks, websites, and ezine publishers. This is one of the most effective ways to market a service or product on the Internet, and it can become even more effective when it is combined with the use of an autoresponder.

Begin by setting each of your articles up in your autoresponder. It is important that each article have its very own autoresponder address, so you will need an autoresponder service that will allow you to do this. Next, make a master list of your articles, with the autoresponder address for each article listed beside the title. You can even add descriptions of the articles on your master list if you want to.

Advertising your articles one at a time can take a great deal of time. But advertising one autoresponder address – the one for the master list – won’t take very much time at all. Simply put it in your newsletter and on your website. You can even allow other ezine publishers to use this is a free resource for their subscribers!

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Autoresponder Training Sessions

Posted on February 14th, 2008 in Autoresponders by admin

Autoresponders work very well when it comes to training others. This is why autoresponders are the perfect way to conduct email courses. But there are other types of training that can be done with autoresponders as well.

Even college professors have found a use for autoresponders. They can use them to remind students about upcoming tests, or to deliver study guides. Since the information in that professor’s course is taught over and over again each time a new class comes in, this saves the professor a great deal of time.

Autoresponders are also used by colleges to remind faculty and students about upcoming events. Because events are scheduled in advance, these autoresponder messages are set up in advance, and nobody has to depend on a secretary to get those notices out!

Many businesses use autoresponders to keep their employees trained. When new equipment is brought into the office, and employees need to know how to operate it, an autoresponder can be set up with training instructions.

No matter what kind of business you are in, there is a way that autoresponders can be used. The use of an autoresponder will save quite a bit of time, and it can also serve to make the people in your organization much for effective.

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Personalizing Autoresponders

Posted on February 14th, 2008 in Autoresponders by admin

Have you ever walked into a store in your town, and been addressed by name? This has probably happened to you at stores that you frequent often. The shop owner knows your name, and uses it. He remembers you, and he wants you to know that he cared enough about you and your business to remember you. In the offline world, this is just one aspect of customer support.

Customer service like this is almost impossible to achieve on the Internet, but some semblance of it can exist when you personalize your autoresponder messages. Autoresponder messages can be set upto address people by their first or last name – or both. In fact, there is quite a bit of personalized information that can be added, depending on the autoresponder that you are using.

The information is included in the autoresponder messages by using codes. Each autoresponder will use different codes to insert the information in your messages. You simply write your message, and put the codes where you want the personalized information to appear. For instance, your message may start out with ‘Hello (code for first name)! In this case, the person’s first name will be inserted where that code is.

Personalizing your autoresponder messages will most likely improve your response rate. Research has shown that emails that are personalized with the person’s first name are opened more often, and those people are generally more receptive to the contents of the email message. It is usually very easy to do. You write one message, using the codes where you want the personalization, then, no matter who that one email is sent out to, their personal information will appear where the codes are.

Of course, the autoresponder must collect the information first. This is done with the use of forms that activate the autoresponder. For instance, if you are giving away a free ebook, and you have your visitor fill out a form with their email address to receive the download instructions for the ebook by email, that form should collect any type of information that you want for personalization – such as a first name, as well as the email address. If that information is not collected, the autoresponder won’t have anything to insert where that code appears in your messages!

Take a look around the control panel of your autoresponder, and find out what type of personalization you can add to your autoresponder messages. You may be very surprised at the improved results!

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Invoicing with Autoresponders

Posted on February 14th, 2008 in Autoresponders by admin

If you have recurring invoices that you send out, you can easily automate this process with autoresponders. Many business owners find that they spend a good portion the day sending out invoices, or trying to collect on unpaid invoices! This can easily eat into the time that you could be spending generating new business.

If the amounts invoiced are the same each month, and due on the same day each week or month, you can easily automate the invoicing process with the use of an autoresponder. Many shopping carts that have autoresponders built in work well for this. Others may take a little time to set up, but in the end, they will save a great deal of time overall.

Get extra usage out of the automated invoicing process by adding small messages to the invoices that alert these clients to new products or services that you offer. Think about your phone bill – doesn’t your phone company send out additional sales material with each bill? There is no reason you shouldn’t use this same marketing technique with your autoresponder invoices!

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Autoresponders and Shopping Cart Integration

Posted on February 14th, 2008 in Autoresponders by admin

When people place orders through your website, it is always a good idea to immediately acknowledge the purchase. One way to do this is with the use of an autoresponder that can be integrated with your shopping cart. In fact, many shopping carts that are available today have their own autoresponders built into the system.

When you set up your autoresponder to send a message to someone that has placed an order, there are several things that should be included in the message. This is an opportunity to ‘speak’ to your customer, and to let them know about other deals that you have or special items that you have available. You should not miss this opportunity.

Do not try to get your ‘thank you’ sales message on the same autoresponder as the customers email receipt. Putting the sales message on an email that is automatically sent to grant the customer access to their purchase is also a bad idea – that would go better with the receipt. Make sure your ‘thank you’sales message is a message that is sent out all by itself, so your customer can focus solely on that!

Thank the customer for their recent purchase. Tell them how much their purchase will help them, and then tell them about other available products that work well with the one that they just purchased, or that are similar to the one that they just purchased in some way. For instance hair conditioner works with hair shampoo. Vacuum cleaner bags or carpet powder works well with vacuum cleaners. Just let them know about the various products that you offer that will compliment their purchase in some way.

The important thing is to not let your customer get away without further contact! Think about being in a brick and mortar store. When you go up to the counter to pay, there are many items there for sale. These items are meant to be picked up as last minute purchases, or impulsive purchases. Your ‘thank you’ sales letter serves the same purpose.

Don’t make the mistake of bombarding your customer! You can usually send them periodic information about your specials after they have made a purchase through you, but emailing them on a daily basis with your offers is not good business! Use your autoresponder responsibly! Make sure that your autoresponder is set up to handle automatic remove requests, and make sure that the information that you are sending your customers is of value to them.

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