How to Create Effective Autoresponders to Keep in Touch with Your Prospects

I often suggest to clients that they use the power of
business automation found in sequential autoresponders as
an effective method of keeping in touch with their
contacts. An autoresponder is an automated email response
or series of responses that you have previously written and
uploaded into an autoresponder service. The autoresponder
enables you to reply to customers via email 24/7 without
any intervention on your part past the setup stage. For
example, you might send an automatic reply to a new
newsletter subscriber, to someone who has requested a free
giveaway on your site, or to a customer who has just
purchased your newest information product.

Where do you find a sequential autoresponder service?
Sometimes they're bundled with shopping cart software.
Or, you can purchase a stand-alone service in which you can
set up autoresponders and send out your email newsletter,
as well.

The two features that are essential to have in
autoresponder software are personalization and tracking
ability. For greatest effectiveness, you should be able to
personalize your autoresponders both in the subject line as
well as in the body of the email. Don't you open email
more quickly when you see your name in the subject line or
when the body of the email mentions your address or city of
residence? This personalization feature permits you to
send automated emails that appear to have been written
especially for the person receiving the email. I
constantly receive both phone calls and email responses
from prospects who are the recipients of these automated
emails, which leaves me with no doubt about how important
it is to personalize your responses. The second feature,
tracking ability, enables you to see how many and which
recipients opened your email, how many emails were not
delivered, and the ability to see how many recipients
clicked on any links found within the email.

Once my client has agreed to use sequential autoresponders,
the next question usually is, "But what do I say in them?"
Fact is, what you tell your clients is limited only by your
imagination. However, I generally recommend that online
business owners plan a sequence of 7-9 emails that go out
over a series of 3 weeks. In this sequence, you need to
check in with how the prospect/customer is doing with the
call to action that got the prospect on your list, point
out other pieces of free information on your website that
would be useful to the prospect, recommend their own or
affiliate products that would be of interest, and request
another call to action of your prospect.

Here's my outline of followup autoresponders that I send
out when someone has requested a report from one of my
sites:

Immediate send: Confirmation of and thank them for their
request and remind them how to download the toolkit.

2 Days Later: Ask them what they think about the toolkit,
point out some of the info that they might check out
immediately, and request a testimonial.

5 Days Later: Offer another gift. I give them the URL of
my articles directory and info about how they can syndicate
my articles on their website at no charge and the benefits
of doing so.

7 Days Later: Ask them to complete a survey. I created a
short 30-second survey through SurveyMonkey.com that I ask
them to complete. This helps me better understand what
problems my target market has.

9 Days Later: Recommend a product. I change this offering
occasionally and either recommend my one of my products or
a product for which I'm an affiliate.

16 Days Later: Offer another gift. I tell them about my
podcast and blog and why they should subscribe and how to
do so.

19 Days Later: Ask me a question. I give them the
opportunity to personally ask me a question about online
marketing and let them know that I'll respond to it in my
blog.

23 Days Later: Make a special offer. I introduce them to
my coaching services and offer them a special rate to try
out my coaching.

Other offers you could make in your followup autoresponders
include inviting them to a discussion forum or a free
teleclass, have them subscribe to your ezine, or send them
to download or view a free audio recording or video.

Creating an effective series of autoresponders helps you
begin to develop a relationship with prospective customers,
showcase your expertise, and ultimately convert prospects
into customers.

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Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business
Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service
professionals learn how to automate their businesses,
leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more
clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these
and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing
Toolkit, visit her site at
http://www.GetMoreClientsOnline.com