Is Your Auto-responder Truly Promoting Your Company?
By Mark Barnes
Getting other people to promote your web site is one of the
most popular Internet marketing methods around, today.
Affiliate relationships are all the rave with people who have
web sites. Web marketers worldwide are trading links everyday,
in hopes of driving each other's traffic to their respective
sites. This is certainly something any hard-working Internet
business owner should do, but it may be a bit overrated. While
using affiliate advertising is a strong marketing ploy,
effective use of multiple e-mail lists and an auto-responder
is one of the most powerful, multi-faceted marketing tools
available today.
Many Internet marketers are using auto-responders, but very
few are getting the most from them. Most people use their
auto-responders strictly to publish ezines. A well-written
ezine is a powerful tool, no doubt, and should be part of any
successful online business, but there is so much more to
auto-responders that many people overlook. I have spent recent
months experimenting with various uses for my auto-responder.
Following is a variety of ways to increase your customer
base with proper auto-responder use..
1. EZINES: Write a powerful, information-packed, weekly
ezine (electronic magazine). Place a subscription link on your
site, so all visitors subscribe to your ezine. This way, you
have them, if they don't buy, so you can constantly send them
information, tossing in links back to your site and plugs for
your product or service. Remember, research says the average
consumer needs to see your name, product, or service four to
seven times, before they finally decide to buy. Don't forget
to offer something free to entice people to subscribe, and be
sure to let them know you'll never share their information.
Don't bombard them with useless information or solicitations.
Give them information that they will value, so your name
becomes synonymous with professionalism.
2. e-COURSES: In addition to your ezine, use your
auto-responder to offer some type of free five or seven day
course. This is another great way to gather those e-mail
addresses. If a visitor doesn't subscribe to your ezine,
perhaps she'll be interested in your course. Then, you can
send her the ezine later. Be sure to keep the e-mails in the
course brief, and don't give away too much information. Be
sure links back to your site are all over each e-mail, so the
person will ultimately go back and buy your product.
3. FULFILLMENT: If you're selling information, use your
auto-responder as a fulfillment tool. Make sure your online
merchant (PayPal, Click Bank, etc.) is set up so upon payment,
your customer is taken to a Thank You page. On this page, add
HTML code from your auto-responder that actually sends the
product the customer purchased. Incidentally, any good
auto-responder will generate the HTML code for you, and you
simply cut and paste it to your web site. When setting up the
delivery e-mail, just write a nice letter, telling the person
her new information product has arrived. Then, upload the
product as an attachment to that e-mail. Remember to give very
clear instructions. For example, if your book is a PDF file,
be sure to say in the e-mail that the person will need Adobe
Acrobat Reader to open it. I always add a link to Adobe, to
make it easy for the customer to get Acrobat Reader, and I
remind the customer that it can be downloaded there for free.
When you read about successful Internet marketers who say they
make money while they sleep, this is how they are doing it. I
didn't believe it, until I converted my business to this type
of system. Now, I make money while I sleep, too.
4. REFERRALS: First, to make this work effectively, you
should have a web site for your ezine. If you don't have a
site, strictly advertising your ezine -- you should build one.
Then, place a referral page on it. Again, use your trusty
auto-responder to create this system. On the page, offer
something free to visitors who refer a friend. Assure them
that you will not spam the person -- that you are just going
to send him an e-mail explaining what your ezine is about and
then the person will have the option to subscribe. This is
another great way to capture e-mails. Incidentally, you can
set up the auto-responder to e-mail the free information to
the person doing the referring, as well. So, once again, you
are doing no work, once your codes are placed on your site.
5. ADVERTISING: Your auto-responder is the vehicle that
drives your ezine, so advertise on your ezine, and use your
auto-responder to promote that advertising. You can get
creative with this and have a lot of fun, while you're making
money. There are sites that you can join for a nominal fee
that drive advertisers to you. Just search ezine advertising
on the Internet, and you'll find plenty of them. Once you
join, you'll start getting lots of small ads in your personal
inbox, or any e-mail address you supply (it can't be an
auto-responder address, though). Then, you run this ad for
free in your ezine, but you get to add the new e-mail address
of the advertiser to your list. Now, just create another list
for your auto-responder that sends sales pitches to these
people with other types of advertising offers. For example,
you might charge $25.00 for a solo article about one of your
advertisers in a future edition of your ezine. Be sure to keep
the sales pitches coming by writing constant short letters
about your service to the people on this list, and set up your
auto-responder to send them to the advertisers every couple of
weeks.
These are just a few of the ideas I've put into place with
my own Internet business that have been successful. Remember,
the key to successful auto-responder marketing is to come up
with every idea that will gather more e-mail addresses of
prospects, who will eventually become customers. Be creative,
and have fun with your marketing.
Mark Barnes is author of Winning the Mortgage Game and
several other finance books. He is also publisher of Biz Sense
Online and Let’s Talk Sports, weekly business and
entertainment ezines. Learn how you can educate yourself and
give to charity at the same time, when you purchase Winning
the Mortgage Game at
www.winningthemortgagegame.com. To get Biz Sense Online,
send a blank e-mail to
bizsenseonline@getresponse.com. To get Let’s Talk Sports,
send a blank e-mail to
letstalksports@getresponse.com
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