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Article by: Jeremiah O'Connell
If you've reached the point of exhaustion trying to keep up with
answering the mountain of emails that threatens to bury you alive
every single day, you're ready to learn about autoresponders.
The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to their email
inquiries. However, unless you can figure out how to work continual
twenty-four hour shifts, or hire enough people to constantly monitor
incoming emails (while they're eating up your revenue), you have
a problem. The good news is an autoresponder is an inexpensive
- or even free - method of quickly responding to emails. What
these programs do is automatically respond to incoming emails
as soon as they are received.
Emails are essential to your business for many different reasons.
Most importantly, these invisible email voices give you their
feedback about your website - for free! However, if you spend
all your working hours answering these emails, how are you supposed
to run your business? The answer is simple: use autoresponders.
Autoresponders are programs that automatically respond to your
emails without you so much as having to click on your mouse.
There are a number of good reasons why you need an autoresponder
besides just answering your email. For example, autoresponders
can be used if you need a way to send information about your services
or products, price lists, or if there are repeated questions asked
across large numbers of emails. Maybe you want to offer your site
visitors a special bonus of some kind, such as advice or relevant
articles. All of this can be handled by an autoresponder. Additionally,
you can advertise your business and then build stable relationships
with your customers by using autoresponders.
Autoresponder programs vary from software that runs with your
email program to a specialized script that runs on your web hosting
company's server. This kind of script may use a web page form
or simply operate with your email account. This kind of script
is programmed to send out a standardized message whenever an email
is received. The message is sent to a particular script or email
address.
Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out standardized
messages. They can send out an unlimited number of follow-up messages
sent at predetermined interval of time. For example, you can set
your autoresponder to send out a new message every day for as
long a period as you desire.
There are numerous companies who offer autoresponders free of
charge. Your website hosting company often provides autoresponders
as a free service. If this is not the case with your web hosting
company, there are numerous companies who offer this service for
a small fee, or free of charge, providing you attach an advertisement
for their company to your emails.
To personalize your autoresponder messages, you can attach a
signature. Signatures in this case are much like business cards.
You can include your name, company, all your contact numbers and
addresses, and a brief message.
It's a good idea to attach a signature to every email that is
sent out. This works as a repeated reminder of your business identity
every time a customer sees it. The more they look at your signature,
the more likely your company will spring to mind when your particular
service or product is needed.
You can create a standardized signature that every employee in
your business uses, or you can go wild, and let every staff member
create their own personal signature. Of course, like everything
in life, there are some rules and guidelines to creating a personal
signature.
Keep the length of your signature between four to six lines of
text, with no more than 70 characters in a single line. Make sure
that your email program does not cut off your text! The content
should include your name, your company name, your email address,
fax number, and any other contact details, such as 800 numbers.
Lastly, always include a short personal message about your company.
It should be a subtle sell of your services or your products,
and possibly your company's reliability and longevity.
Another specialized use of autoresponders is to create courses
that you can then offer your site visitors for free. You must
choose a topic in which you are an expert and that precisely targets
your potential customers.
Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into a
number of different sub-topics. Then offer your site visitor a
free 10 or 15 day course, each day offering a different sub-topic.
The first topic should always be a welcome message to your site
visitor and an explanation about what is to follow. Your explanation
should be enticing, getting the point across that you are offering
free, quality information that your target audience will find
of great value.
With every lesson, include the number of the lesson, the topic
title, information about your company and its services or products.
At the end, include a few blurbs about the next lesson to entice
the subscriber to continue on.
Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable information,
and leaves the visitor lusting to know more. Otherwise, you may
lose them in the very beginning.
Of course, you have to write up your course before you can offer
it. Once you have done this, and gone over the material carefully,
employing a professional writer or editor if necessary, you must
transfer your text to your autoresponder.
Email is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and it
is fast. Use it to advertise your business by choosing your email
address carefully. Your website should contain different email
addresses for different contact requests. For example, use info@yourdomain.com
for information requests, or sales@yourdomain.com for questions
about sales. It's a good idea to set up one for the owner, such
as president@yourdomain.com. This presents your company in a personal,
approachable light and insures that direct contact is provided.
Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing tool,
allowing you to make contact with thousands of potential customers.
This is an invaluable asset considering how many potential customers
you usually have contact with before you make an actual sale.
Essentially, an autoresponser allows you to automate part of your
marketing campaign.
Jeremiah O'Connell http://www.AbbeyIt.net
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and comes with Unlimited Usage, Try "Autoresponder Unlimited".
For a Full List of it's Powerful Features, visit: http://www.abbeyit.net/AutoresponderUnlimited
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