Friday, October 06, 2006

Automate Your Business With An Autoresponder

Copyright (c) 2006 Constantin Chersin
IT Pro Vision
http://www.itprovision.net/
 
When you run your own business there are many things to do and
just not enough time to complete them all. It is critical to not
only organize your time but to take advantage of technology and
automate your business. Autoresponders will allow you to do this.
They are relatively cheap, will save your time and allow you to
organize the many daily chores of your business.
 
Now before you go out and just get a free autoresponder, stop and
take into consideration a few points. Free autoresponders have
very limited features and they put their ads into your messages.
This will make a bad impression on you and you will lose the
trust of your readers. Trust and credibility is critical when
selling anything.
 
Autoresponders have many uses here are a few:
 
1. Newsletter management
2. Thank you notes-follow up note to customers
3. Mailers
4. FAQ answers
5. Announcements
6. Ads
7. E-courses
 
Your newsletter is a powerful promotion tool and needs to be well
maintained and managed. Without an autoresponder you will take
many hours to complete the simple tasks of newsletter management.
An autoresponder will manage your lists, by taking care of
bounces, those who unsubscribe, and visitors who subscribe to
your newsletter. A simple web form will allow subscribers to be
added to your list. Your autoresponder will let you to send out
your newsletter with just one click of your mouse. Many
autoresponders have a tracking feature allowing you to tell how
many subscribers open your newsletter and how many have used your
links. This lets you see the effectiveness of your newsletter and
ads.
 
It is respectful and simply good business etiquette to send a
thank you note to your customers and clients. Your autoresponder
can be set up to send one immediately they buy, and include a
link for downloading or shipping instructions. It can also be set
up for a scheduled follow up letter which will ask if they need
any help and offer a bounce back offer.
 
Mailers are a powerful way to promote your business and can turn
indecisive prospects into buyers. They are a series of messages
about your product/services. Messages are sent out at timed
intervals. A good time frame is about 7-10 days on a daily basis.
Do not overdo this sales technique or you will lose potential
customers. Here are some common ways they can be used.
 
Mailers sent to your customers can be very rewarding. Offers of
discounts, or coupons on related items are called bounce back or
backend selling. Once your customer has bought and enjoyed one
product from you they will be highly likely to buy from you
again. Use your bounce back offer in your follow up email.
 
Be careful never to abuse this powerful way of marketing. Only
market to your opt-in-list, people who have specifically asked
for more information about your product or have actually bought
from you. Never send out messages to anyone on a random basis
this is unsolicited mail and will get you into a lot of trouble
and can even result in your losing your business.
 
Your FAQ list can be set up on an autoresponder. Instead of
spending hours per day to answer customers questions you can make
a list of frequently asked questions and answers. In your follow
up letter to your customer you can reference and provide them a
link in the letter which when clicked will bounce back an email
with your FAQ.
 
Announcements are good to send out to your subscribers and
customers. They inform them of any new services you are offering,
or a special discount or certificate. You can also tell them
about anything special that will be published in the newsletter.
 
Advertisements like solo ads will always be sent out by your
autoresponder. These can be scheduled ahead of time and your
autoresponder will automatically send these out to your list.
 
E-courses are a great promotional tool. You can give your reader
valuable information and at the same time can put a tiny 3 line
ad with your signature. They are usually 5-7 days long on a daily
basis. This means that you will have the chance to build a
relationship and a possible sale with a prospective customer and
show your tiny ad 5-7 times.
 
There are so many ways to use this powerful marketing tool. Used
wisely and well it can build your business and expand your
markets. Above all it will put much of your daily chores on
autopilot and leave you time to run your business more smoothly
and with less stress.
 
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Constantin Chersin is an entrepreneur specializing
in software and web development. For more information
about his services and how he can help you promote your
business, please visit http://www.itprovision.net/
Constantin is also the publisher of the
free marketing newsletter "IT Pro Vision."