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The Truth About Auto-Responders
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Jim Moore
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Dec 22, 2002 20:53 PST
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The Truth About Auto-Responders
By Jim Moore, Online Editor of TennTimes - the News
20:21 12/22/02
One of the biggest reasons businesses lose customers is that we don't
follow-up! Long-time customers just sort of fade away into the sunset
and so we spend 3-5 times the effort to get NEW customers to replace
them.
The more technological we get, the harder we work - frantically trying
to play catch-up with the information overload.
Fortunately, those little demons in a box can also help us out when we
do business on the Internet.
Auto-responders are kind of like a fax-on-demand. It allows our
customers to get the information they want when they want it. In truth,
it's the opposite - it allows us to keep in touch with our customers,
sending them pre-written information or sales letters spaced at
intervals we choose ... without printing or postage.
"Why Use an Intelligent Autoresponder, Anyway?"
Are you giving your hot prospects every possible opportunity to buy from
you? Probably not. Over half (or 64%) of your prospects need to see your
offer more than once. For example, they may:
Be swamped with other things,
Have forgotten or misplaced your offer,
Have more urgent expenses at the time,
Not have enough information about your product
Or not trust you enough to act on your offer.
If you have a website, the problem may be worse — no matter how
effective your website is! However, despite the fact that the odds seem
to be against you, there is an easy solution...
Let me ask you this question: what are the two biggest secrets to making
insane profits on the Internet — used all the time by millionaire
marketers — in virtually record time? They are...
Secret Number One...
Instant Gratification
Over 64% of your prospects will never — I do mean NEVER! — buy from you
the first time they are presented with your offer. It's just human
nature. And on the web, it's even worse!
You only have a few precious seconds to capture the attention of your
prospects and close the sale — if not, many will leave your website at
the click of a mouse, never return to it again!
Plus, in today's fast-paced world, people want everything really fast on
the Internet. They want it and they want it now!
If you fail to serve them quickly, you are not only are you losing
potential sales but also you may be working ten times harder to generate
just a few simple sales to keep your business afloat!
Secret Number Two...
Credibility and Trust
Your business is totally unknown to your prospects. People can not
touch, smell, taste, hear or feel your offer in a digital world. Quite
simply, your credibility is crucial to your success online.
Like it or not, people are still leery of buying on the web!
A Boston Consulting Group Consumer Survey found that 70% of respondents
worry about making purchases online. That's why you must build trust
with your prospects. By staying in touch with your prospects, you will
develop a certain kinship with them.
With a smart, automated responder you can follow up several times with
your prospects. So, you stay in touch, build credibility, increase your
responses, maximize your profits and save time
I use two auto-responders (www.GetResponse.com and AceAutoResponders at
www.greedytraffic.com)and a forum or mailing list (www.Topica.com).
Let me compare them for you.
GetResponse and Ace offer free auto-responders; the only catch is they
run their own ads at the top. Fair enough.
GetResponse offers you only five messages, Ace offers seven. Both let
you get as many separate free auto-responders as you want (great for
trying out market research for different products).
Topica is more what I'd call a forum. It lets you post as many articles
as you want and notifies your subscribers when a new one is posted. Your
subscribers can either have the whole article automatically sent to them
whenever it's posted, they can receive a summary, or they can simply go
online and read them at your site.
Topica is not an auto-responder because (a) you have no control over
when your subscribers get your messages other than when you post new
ones and (b) therefore there is no way to space your messages out in set
intervals the way auto-responders can do.
Both types have their advantages and disadvantages.
Auto-responders give the subscribers no control over what they read; a
mailing list such as Topica does.
For example, I used the auto-responders to start sending out part of
free 10-lesson course called "What You MUST Know Before Building a
Business Website!" But those who sign up for GetResponse can only get
five installments; Ace subscribers can get seven. So I send both lists
to my Topica site to get the rest of the lessons.
With the paid version of, say, Ace ($97/year as of this writing) you can
pre-write up to 50 different messages. The hard part is getting it set
up and getting all those messages put in - but then you can forget it
for 50 weeks (if you send them out one week apart).
One important thing, to me, is customer service. Ace has a pretty weak
online help system. GetResponse even has a toll-free number for paid
customers. But then, at $19.95/month, GetResponse is quite a bit more
expensive ($240 yr. vs. Ace's $97/yr).
My advice is this:
Before you get an auto-responder, lay out a plan for using them. If you
know, as with Ace, you'll be able to send a max of 50 messages - all
prepared by you ahead of time - then you should first get 50 messages
written. Or at least 25. (I like to get it done and over with, myself!)
Prepare these as both text files and as very simple HTML. I've had some
trouble with GetResponse HTML pages working, so I prepare them both
ways. Compose it in text first - in the fastest, simplest word processor
you have
Let me tell you about NoteTab! I don't get a penny for doing this and
Erik Fookes, who wrote it, doesn't even know I'm doing this. I love it!
You can keep several documents open at once - they all show up in a
string of little tabs across the screen, whereas MS Word opens each one
in a separate Window and that puny NotePad that comes with Windows
should be thrown out. MS Word also puts in its own invisible little
codes that can really screw things up when you're trying to do a Web
page or auto-responder message in it.
Get NoteTab free at www.notetab.com. It's tiny - takes up no space! And
you can do everything from simple text to HTML in it, with handy HTML
commands in a little toolbar ready to insert. Check it out! It's my WP
of choice for 4 years now.
OK, back to work!
GetResponse has excellent computer reliability; both they and Ace backup
regularly. STILL - make your own backup of your messages and your
subscribers. ALWAYS!
As handy as auto-responders are, they still have their limitations.
You can't preview your message (and it's touchy HTML codes) before you
save it. Ace makes it hard to send your messages to yourself; it would
be nice to be able to send yourself all of them or a selected group
without having to change the time-period settings (you'd have to reset
them all to 0 days).
Neither Ace nor GetResponse let you actually see your messages as they
would be received. They should also offer the click-a-button ability to
Javascript encode your email address so spammer sweeps don't pick it up.
(This is a service I provide free with all websites I design, by the
way).
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FORUMS or MESSAGE BOARDS
Here's where Topica comes in - and there are several other good ones out
there.
Stop and think for a moment about your very own business - be it a
lawnmower repair shop, a boutique, a beauty salon, a hardware store, a
doctor's office, I'll bet you can't think of a one I couldn't give you
rock solid examples for right out of your own office.
Wouldn't it be fantastic to have an online library of facts very
specific to YOUR business, prepared you (or I'll do it for you!) - where
your customers could not only read up on the latest tips from you about
how to get their lawnmowers ready for winter, but also provide you their
own instant feedback, comments, suggestions - even their own article
submissions?
That's Topica!
I have two such forums (they're free!) at On the Go!
(http://www.topica.com/lists/OntheGo) (an online library of business
tips) and The Omega Report (an online library of the kinds of news
stories we're not told about in the mainstream press). The Omega Report
is edgier, political and a little more controversial, so I won't mix
that with business.
If I were to make a pie chart of Topica, Ace and GetResponse - showing
how much I depended on each and which took my top priority, Topica would
be the biggest piece of the pie ... about 2/3, with Ace and GetResponse
sharing 1/3.
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