Autoresponder Strategies That Build Your Lists and Profits!

By now most people have heard of autoresponders; after all auto responders are one of the most helpful tools available for your web business.

Used correctly, autoresponders can save you hours of manual labor each month, and boost your opt-in subscriber rate & sales overnight.

However, most people using auto responders just aren't thinking creatively enough when using this technology and are not really getting the maximum benefit from this powerful marketing technology

Don't get me wrong, using your web based autoresponder for things like providing:

Free reports, Customer service FAQ's, Product information about your goods, biz opp or MLM opportunity, or things like order confirmations, welcome letters, thank you letters, free newsletter or e-zine subscriptions etc, is great, and you should continue doing that.

but there are more creative ways to use your autoresponders to obtain get more subscribers, sales and market reach for your product, or service.

Here are a few examples:

Suppose a prospect visited your web site and requested info about your "widgets."
Your auto responder would respond immediately and then continue to follow up over the next few days / weeks sending letter after letter, until the prospect purchases the "widget" that they were asking about.

However, if the prospect doesn't make the purchase after 5-7 follow ups, chances are that they'll never buy…that particular product…

But it doesn't mean that they won't buy something else that you offer later on.

So in the last one or two follow ups in the autoresponders series that they requested, why not include an offer for another product you sell, or for a product that you are an affiliate for? 

This way you'll get to promote multiple offers to the same prospect without spamming or having to pay for new leads.

Here's another example:

Using a autoresponder / web form to survey your prospects and customers? Offer some sort of thank you gift (like an ebook, coupon or some other promotion) for their participation and you'll have plenty of takers!

The advantages here are that:

  1. You'll find exactly what your prospects are looking to buy -- then you can sell it to them.
  2. You can place an offer in the autoresponder "thank you letter" that goes out immediately after they've filled out the survey. 

It's a win/win for everyone. The participant gets a free "whatever” and you get valuable insight into what your customers want to buy from you! Plus, you get to make a back-door soft sell product pitch at the same time.

Here's another idea:

You may already use an auto responder to deliver a "Thank You" letter or purchase receipt when your prospect buys something from your web site, right? Then why not super-charge your follow up receipt with a few links to other related products that you offer, or are an affiliate for.

After all, the customer just bought from you and has their credit card "in hand."

Providing links to other products or autoresponders on your "receipt page" is a great way to squeeze out more profit of each customer. On average, if your other offers are relevant, you could see about a 30% up sell rate.

You can even use Autoresponders to “entice” people to subscribe to your lists. Here are a few clever ways I’ve seen this done:

Are you an author trying to promote your book online? If so, here’s a great trick: Use a Autoresponder to give away the first 2-3 chapters delivered sequentially over a few days. The last free chapter should include an order link to that the prospect can buy your book after “getting hooked” by the first few free chapters.

What if you an author and sell a subscription-based newsletters? Autoresponders can help you skyrocket your conversion to sales.

Here’s how:

First you’d spend a few days writing 6 – 12 issues of your newsletter. Make sure that the content in each issue is “timeless" meaning that no matter when the reader reads that article, it is still relevant.

This sort of content is also called “Evergreen” content. Next upload these pre-written articles into your autoresponder so that a new issue goes out about once a month.

Now offer a “free” subscription to this newsletter on your web site, newsgroups, etc.

Now the secret here is that at the end of each “evergreen” issue, you should offer the subscriber an upgrade to your “Paid” newsletter.

Tell them all the reasons why the “paid” version is even better than the free version. Maybe it’s got more “insider tips”, it’s more current, is delivered more often, etc.

The idea is that when someone subscribes to the “free” version, they should be so impressed that they really want the “paid” version. 

Several years ago, Marketing Guru Jonathan Mizel sold a marketing newsletter for $19.95 a year, and quickly built a list of over a 1,000 PAID subscribers using this method. Many people have followed this model and done very well for themselves.

Now a side benefit here is that even if your subscribers don’t upgrade to your “paid” newsletter, they are still OPT-IN subscribers and you are free to send them offers on other items that you sell from time to time.

Just don’t send an ad more than say once or twice a month, in between the issues of the “free” newsletter. Or you could even include advertisements in each issue of the “free” version of your newsletter.

Here's another and it's one of my favorites:

Notice: Not all AR companies offer this advanced feature. If yours doesn't, click the link at the bottom of this article for more information.

Set up your autoresponder system so it can automatically UN-SUBSCRIBE a prospect from a particular auto responder series when they buy from you & then RE-SUBSCRIBE them to another autoresponder series automatically!

Here's an example: Let's say a prospect subscribes to your autoresponder through a squeeze page, direct opt in or web form on your site in order to get more info about one of your products or services.

Once they've decided to ORDER that particular product, you then want subscribe them to different autoresponder series AFTER the original sale, so you can follow up with them & promote other products on the back end - right? (I certainly hope so!)

However, the problem with most Autoresponders systems is that the first autoresponder that the customer subscribed to is still active and still sending them follow up messages - for a product they've already purchased!

Ouch! That's a sure way to tick someone off & lose future sales!

However, when using the “Unsubscribe upon Subscribe” option found in the Smart Internet autoresponders offer by ecommerce tools provider 1AutomationWiz.com.

With these you can tell your autoresponder system to AUTOMATICALLY unsubscribe a user once they've purchased from you! And then you can have the system subscribe that NEW customer to a different autoresponder series (that promotes your other products) -- after removing them from the first.

Make sure that email autoresponder provider offers this important feature. If not, you are leaving money on the table guaranteed.

This sort of automated technology will save you from potential embarrassment, making a new customer angry and make you appear more professional to both your prospects and customers.

 

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