17 Powerful Ways to Use a Professional-grade Email Autoresponder to Build Your Business

Email autoresponders are extremely powerful indispensable marketing tools for any business on the Internet whether that business is an “online business” or an offline business with an Internet presence. There is no better marketing tool currently available for consistent controlled communications to your customers, potential customers, and even employees, partners, and suppliers. This article reveals 17 powerful ways to use your autoresponder; the primary focus is for business applications, but autoresponders can also be used for non-business applications as well.

Before we cover the various applications of email autoresponders, let’s cover what an autoresponder is … An autoresponder is a webserver-based software application that sends a pre-written sequence of emails (text or HTML) according to a pre-defined schedule when someone joins (or is added to) your email list.

Application #1 – Sales Messages:
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The most obvious business use for your autoresponder is to provide a sequence of sales messages when a potential customer completes a form on your web page or clicks a link to join via email. The best way to get prospects to join your sales stream is to offer them something of value for signing up (e.g., a free report, newsletter, ebooks, or simply a link to a website).

Application #2 – Training:
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A slightly less obvious application for your autoresponder is to provide a mini-course, or even a massive training course. For example, you can sign up to receive a free mini-course about how to use Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and even get your PPC ads for 80% to 90% lower cost at www.Autopilot101.com/ads_PPC.htm. Or you can sign up for a free course with 101 lessons on marketing and how to get your web host to pay you.

Application #3 – Steps To Use or Implement:
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The next form of training is a formal procedure on how to use a product or service purchased by your customer. If you sell a course on money-saving techniques, like the MONEY SECRETS Home Study Course for example (www.LifestylePublishing.com/money_secrets.htm), you could use your autoresponder to send them a fast-track course on specific steps to do each day for two weeks. If you sell above-ground swimming pools, you can have them join your autoresponder to get all the installation instructions.

Application #4 – Duplication & Team Communications:
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If you are involved in Multi-Level-Marketing, Network Marketing, or referral marketing, you can “publish” your autoresponder campaigns so your “downline” can easily import your campaign for their recruiting and/or sales efforts.

Application #5 – Banner Advertising:
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Some autoresponder services include free banner advertising services. You can upload your banners (or use the ones they provide), and they will display your banner ads.

Application #6 – Free For All (FFA) Advertising:
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FFA pages allow people to advertise their products and services with one-line ads that are displayed on your FFA page until it scrolls off the bottom of the list due to other ad submissions. The power of an FFA page is you get to send a single email advertisement of your own in exchange for letting your prospect post their ad. This can be a nice free form of advertising for you.

Application #7 – Generating Traffic:
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Some professional autoresponder offer a quality guaranteed traffic service to further market your business. This is usually offered for an extra charge, but you earn a commission on your own ads (which means you are actually getting discount prices). Furthermore, you can advertise your guaranteed traffic website and earn a commission when someone places an order on your website.

Application #8 – Capturing Leads:
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You can also use a sign-up form for your autoresponder on a “squeeze page” to capture leads (i.e., to build your list). This is generally done by presenting a compelling offer if the prospect enters their name and email address. Then upon submitting their information, your form immediately takes the prospect to a web page and sends the first email in your campaign.

Application #9 – Tracking Ads:
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On the Internet, there are lots of services that offer ad-tracking links where you enter the web address for the website you are advertising, and the service gives you an alternate web address. Then by advertising the alternate address (i.e., your ad-tracking address), it will register a “hit” every time someone clicks your ad-tracking link. Then the link automatically and immediately forwards your prospect to the target address. This is a great way to determine which advertising resources deliver and which don’t … thus saving you money when you cancel the ones that don’t produce. But why pay for this service if your autoresponder offers it for free?

Application #10 – Product Delivery:
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You set up your autoresponder to deliver information products … whether offered free or purchased. All you have to do is publish the product on the web, and pass the web address (and the UserID and password if applicable) to your customeryou’re your autoresponder.

Application #11 – Broadcasting:
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Broadcasting is the ability to send an email to everyone on your autoresponder list simultaneously anytime you wish;  in other words, the email has not been pre-written or added to your campaign. It’s just an impromptu email sent to your entire list. The next seven techniques all fall under the category of “broadcasting”.

*** ALERTS:
If you want to alert your customers to something unexpected, broadcast it.

*** NEWS:
Notify your customers about a change in your business … for example, new address, new email address, special holiday hours, etc.

*** SPECIAL OFFERS:
If you have a large email list of people who remember and like you and your products, you can announce a special price, a new product, or limited-quantity promotion, and generate a nice influx of cash. Make sure you make a limited-time offer.

*** REMINDERS:
Use your autoresponder broadcaster to remind your subscribers of an upcoming event, sales expiration, or whatever you want them to remember.

*** Keep You In Mind:
On average, most people must see you and your product seven times before they will buy, so use your autoresponder to keep you in the forefront of their mind. Be original; make them look forward to hearing from you again.

*** Publish a Newsletter:
Writing your own newsletter has many benefits. It establishes you as an expert in your niche; it reminds your prospect you exist; it educates your customer; you can add your ads to your newsletter for free, and you can even sell advertising in your newsletter.

*** Conduct Surveys:
Send out surveys to your email list. Find out what your customers want, what they liked and disliked about your products or services, what they wish they could get (leads to new product ideas), reveals where they frequent on the Internet, … The only limit is your creativity. Want to know something from your customers? Use your autoresponder broadcast feature to ask them.

Not all autoresponders offer all of these applications: you need a professional-grade autoresponder to get most of these applications, and there is only one autoresponder I have found that actually offers all of these applications and more.

This particular autoresponder also has the most important characteristic of a small fixed monthly fee … no matter how big your subscriber list gets. In fact, you can have unlimited email campaigns (i.e., email sequences), unlimited emails per campaign, and unlimited subscribers per campaign, and the price stays fixed at $17.95. Plus you can get a 30-day free trial, and with just a little effort, you can even get your autoresponder service free for life within about 60 days (see the article list below). You can learn more about this autoresponder and request a free report at this web address:  http://www.trafficwave.net/members/rbstoker/report.html 

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Written By:  Dr. Bryan Stoker,  webmaster@LifestylePublishing.com
www.Autopilot101.com         www.LifestylePublishing.com

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
*  How To Determine The Best AutoResponder For Your Business
*  The Most Important Features For Selecting Your AutoResponder
*  How To Generate A 5-Figure Monthly Income Using Your AutoResponder

All these articles and more are available at www.LifestylePublishing.com/articles-autoresponder/
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Recommended “Best AutoResponder” For Most Businesses:
http://www.trafficwave.net/members/rbstoker

Other Good AutoResponders:
GetResponse:  http://www.GetResponse.com/index/rbstoker
Aweber:  http://www.aweber.com/?291423
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