Autoresponder might sound like a Transformer name, but trust me, it is neither fictional nor mechanical. However, it is considered digital to some extent. A lot of people talk about them when the topic of the conversation is about growing your online business. It’s an ingenious little marketing tool that requires minimal set-up, but produces maximum results if employed correctly.
So what is an autoresponder?
Simply put, an autoresponder is an application or software that enables you to send emails to people automatically. It will reply to your messages even if you are away from your computer. Business establishments have made use of this clever feature in a variety of ways, like a kind of answering machine for emails, to retain their customer base online, and even increase it.
Online business owners use autoresponders to simplify and automate tasks to streamline their business process. For example, it would take a company a lot less time to simply set up an automated confirmation message to go out every time a person fills in a support request and sends it in. Large companies who receive a huge amount of emails a day save time and production costs by using this feature to automatically answer frequently asked questions, or redirect the sender to the location where their concern can be addressed.
How does it work for Internet marketers like us?
From a marketing standpoint, businesses can also use autoresponders to manage their mailing lists – the one area internet marketing gurus are calling the gold mine, where the money is. The people who subscribe to mailing lists are, by definition, people who are interested in seeing more of a company’s product, and purchasing from them. The allure is in the repetition: it’s said that it takes 21 days for a habit to take. In the same way, a majority of people need to be told about a product seven times before they buy it.
With an autoresponder, business owners don’t need to slave away emailing each and every person on the mailing list – everything is done automatically on the computer. So, after writing a series of promotional emails, for example, all someone needs to do is sit down and watch the magic happen. Every person who joins is automatically added to the mailing list and sent those emails. If they choose to unsubscribe, that’ll also be taken care of with little to no fuss.
If you are a business owner, ask yourself this: how many times are you telling your customer about your product? Chances are it’s less than seven. You need to keep your customer engaged if you want your visitors to make the jump from browsing to buying. Using an autoresponder is a simple form of permission marketing: people give you their email address and you provide them with free, quality information. “Quality” is the keyword here – you don’t want to flood the people on your mailing list with sales pitches and useless flowery words. Keep your emails informative and to the point, with only a slight promotional slant. As time goes by, you’ll find that they will come to trust you more, which can only lead to one thing: more potential customers.
Anyway, that about wraps it up for this post of Andy Basics. I hope you found today’s article enlightening and I wish everyone the best of luck using their autoresponders. If you have any questions regarding this topic, or anything about Internet marketing in general, feel free to leave a comment in the section below.
Later,
Andy
