An interested visitor who has been strolling through yoursite has finally come to just what she is looking for andis about to make a purchase. It's a sunny afternoon, andher cat, who happens to be sitting on the moss under thevisitor's large fifty-year-old snow-rose bonsai tree,suddenly jumps down, and the priceless tree topples over.
In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, andyour sale is dust - unless you have had the foresight toutilize an autoresponder that has captured her emailaddress. If you have installed an autoresponder, you canthen follow-up with her, and in all probability, make thesale when the poor woman has finished repotting herprecious bonsai.
Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that doso much more than just automatically answer your email.Here are a few ideas that will help you to creatively andproductively use your autoresponder to transform the casualvisitor into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponderto:
1. Publish a newsletter. Certain quality autoresponderswill manage subscriptions and follow-up with interestedprospects. Your newsletter can keep your visitors informedabout your services or products, while building yourreputation as a credible expert in your particularbusiness.
2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates. Informthem of current sales you are running and of promotionalmaterial that your affiliates can use themselves toincrease their commissions. Include tips, advice, andtechniques that your affiliates can use to successfully goout and promote your business.
3. Write reviews. Cover books, software, music, e-books,movies, etc., and put each review in an autoresponder.Review your affiliate programs, using a link to youraffiliate's page in your autoresponder.
4. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributingtargeted articles is a powerful tool to build your businesscredibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase yoursales potential. If your articles contain valuableinformation, many editors will print what is known as aresource box for you. A resource box contains your bio anda brief description of your service or product. It can alsocontain your autoresponder address. Let's say you'vewritten fifty articles. Put them on separate autoresponder accounts and create a master list that contains the titlesof each article, the autoresponder address, and a briefabstract. Then promote your master list. Additionally,include your publishing guidelines so your affiliates canadd their articles to your list, increasing the number ofwriters who are represented in your article list.
5. Create mailing lists. Inform subscribers to yourarticles when you've written new ones that they may want topublish in their own newsletter or website.
6. Automate your sales process. Use an ad to insurerepeated exposure of your message, which has been proven toeffectively increase sales. In your ad, put yourautoresponder address where a visitor will be exposed tonumerous marketing materials. This multiplies the chancesof converting visitors into customers. For example, ifyou're selling a particular product, put testimonials abouthow spectacular it is on your autoresponder, and add adetailed, enticing description of your product.
7. Distribute advertising. Let's say you sell advertisingon your website or in your newsletter or e-zine. Set yourautoresponder to send the information about rates and howto place an ad automatically to all prospects' emailaddresses. Then have your autoresponder follow-up. It canalso send notification of any special deals you arecurrently offering.
8. Distribute an email course. Each day, have yourautoresponder send out another lesson. Just be sure thateach lesson has quality content - not a sales pitch. Yourcontent will do the selling for you, and will do it muchmore effectively. You can include tips centered on adifferent topic for each lesson, illustrating how yourproduct will benefit the reader. Include the tangiblebenefits the visitor will reap by purchasing your product.Make sure to include a paragraph or two at the end of eachlesson enticing your prospect to consider making apurchase.
9. Automate a reminder about your service or product aftera visitor has completed your course. This will increase thepossibility of sales from visitors who have taken yourcourse but are dragging their feet about actually making apurchase. You can also use these reminders to promote newproducts or services, and the products and services of youraffiliate programs.
10. Distribute free reports. This gives your visitor anidea of the type of information you can provide and thequality of your product or service. Make sure these reportsare not sales letters or you will more than likely lose apotential customer than gain a sale.
11. Create trivia quizzes on your site and place theanswers in an autoresponder. Your visitor will then bemotivated to request your autoresponder, and you will havea record of the visitors' email addresses who took yourquiz. Or create a contest and have any visitors that entersend their responses to your autoresponder. Yourautoresponder can be set-up to send them a confirmation oftheir entry.
12. Offer a trial version of your product. Give yourprospects a sample of your ebook, course, software,membership, etc. People who are exposed to a little tasteoften end up wanting the whole pie. You can also capturetheir email addresses when you offer them a free trial fromyour website. Set up your autoresponder to giveinstructions on how to obtain their free trial, and thenmake sure to follow-up to try and close the sale.
13. Link to hidden pages on your autoresponder. Forexample, a hidden page could be your affiliate page thatcontains graphics, promotional articles, and text linksthat interested affiliates can make use of. Inform visitorsthat they may have free access to your affiliate page bysimply requesting your autoresponder. You will then gathera list of visitors who may be interested in becoming youraffiliates.
14. Use an autoresponder on your order page. Post a requestform for visitors to be notified of special offers ordiscounts in the future. This creates a very effectivemailing list that contains the names of people who arealready your customers.
15. Put your links page on your autoresponder. It shouldcontain up to fifty links that would be of particularinterest to your visitors. Make sure to add your ownpromotional copy at the top or bottom of this page.
Now that you have proof that autoresponders can be usedcreatively, see if you can come up with some brilliantideas of your own!
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