Tweet

Email Marketing Made Easy #03 - Using Autoresponders to Send Follow Up Emails

Guest post by: Gary Baker

Article Overview: In addition to sending email to an address, autoresponders can be triggered from a form on your website, where the visitor will enter his information and receive an instant reply. But now you want to set up a sequence of "autoresponses," so you can send further messages to your prospects at intervals you specify (such as two, five or seven days later).

Email Marketing Made Easy #03 - Using Autoresponders to Send Follow Up Emails

In addition to sending email to an address, autoresponders can be triggered from a form on your website, where the visitor will enter his information and receive an instant reply. But now you want to set up a sequence of "autoresponses," so you can send further messages to your prospects at intervals you specify (such as two, five or seven days later). Here is an example of an initial autoresponse message...

Dear John Smith,

Thank you for requesting more information on our products earlier. I have attached to this email a document containing our price listings for August's catalogue of products.

Please read through it at your convenience, John. I will get back to you the same time on Wednesday with our special offers. Feel free to send me an email or call me if you would like to discuss your needs in greater detail.

Thanks again,

Joe Bloggs

Bloggs Business Supplies Inc.

By the way, the customers' name, dates, phone numbers and what ever you want have been automatically added by the autoresponder for you. It can capture and add a first name, full name, month, year, a few days ahead, you name it! Why? Because with an autoresponder you can ask for additional pieces of information, such as through a web form and incorporate them into your email messages!

You can also attach documents! Then, a series of follow-up messages are sent over time at intervals you choose! Here's one example of a sequence for following up with prospects who have requested information:

1st message is sent immediately

2nd message is sent 2 days later

3rd message is sent 5 days later

4th message is sent 8 days later

5th message is sent 12 days later

6th message is sent 16 days later

7th message is sent 20 days later

(Keep in mind that the timeframe may be different, depending on your type of business, product or market.) Below, I will illustrate how to set up your autoresponder with a sample sequence suitable for following up with people who have, say, requested information on a particular product.

Autoresponse: A "Thanks" for Requesting Information

The aim is to thank your prospect for requesting information and introduce your website or product to them. It's important to outline the major benefits and what's in it for them!

Follow-Up 1: Introduce a Deadline or Time-Limited Offer

After a few days, your prospect can easily forget about you. Don't just remind them of your offer but also make them feel a sense of urgency, like, "I better get this before it's too late".

Use scarcity, such as time-limited or quantity-bound offer. Perhaps there are only 17 seats left at a seminar you are promoting, or maybe only 200 copies of your book printed.

Follow-Up 2: Reinforce Benefits to Persuade Prospects

Sent 3-5 days after the original request, elaborate on the offer by reinforcing the benefits. Stress the benefits they get from buying your product or doing business with you.

Follow-Up 3: Pile on the Bonuses to Get Them Excitedd

Stress the bonuses or premiums (many people buy products just for the bonuses). Remind them that bonuses are limited and guaranteed for a number of days. Again, use scarcity!

Follow-Up 4: Build Value by Comparing Your Product

Demonstrate the value by comparing "apples to oranges." If you're selling a report on how to create websites, compare it to paying an experienced (and rather costly) web designer!

Follow-Up 5: Boost Desire with Glowing Testimonials

Build trust. You're totally unknown to your prospects. But they will trust you far more if you give examples of what other people have said about your company and product.

Follow-Up 6: Demand Action and Remind of Deadline

This final step of your sequence is what makes or breaks the sale. Remind your prospect of the benefits of your product, and especially the urgency and scarcity, like a deadline.

(Potential) Follow-Up 7: Do Market Research

Remember that even when the follow-up sequence is complete your prospects are still very valuable to you, whether they bought or not. First, you can contact them for research.

Ask them why they haven't bought from you. The information they provide may help you change your offer or even rewrite (or add something to) your autoresponder sequence.

Second, contact them on a regular basis thereafter using your autoresponder's "broadcast" feature as provided by suppliers such as aweberto let them know of website updates, new products, special offers, etc.

Related Articles
  How a Autoresponder Can Make You Rich! - Fast Money Magnet Revealed
  Email Marketing Made Easy #20 - Why An Autoresponder
  Just what is an autoresponder?
  E is for Email Marketing
  Exactly How To Use Autoresponders To Make 10K+ a Month! ~ SECRET FINALLY EXPOSED
  Email Marketing Blunders and How To Avoid Them
  Email Marketing Made Easy #23 - Going a Step Further
  Email Marketing Made Easy #22 - Using Autoresponders
  Use the Following 4 Emails to Boost Your Sales and Customer Retention Rates
  Scraping Emails for Internet Marketers
  Email: The overloaded inbox
  Can you use webmail for email marketing?
  Use your own Autoresponder to Built Into Membership Software
  10 Tips for Writing Emails
  The Autoresponder – Your Faithful and Profitable Servant
  How To Close More Sales
  Top 10 Email Marketing Tips
  How to Convert Customers While You Sleep
  Follow-up Is the Momentum Building Power Tool
  How To Create An Email Marketing Campaign That Works

Article Tags: autoresponder, email marketing, follow up, sequence



Related Forum Posts
webinars on Autoreponders - Evan, putting it that way you may have a point - the effort doesn't seem to pay off. If you could score webinars with people you profile I can see word getting around and that driving traffic to your site and exposing them to the content you already have on the site. Based on the types of businesses approaching you to do these webinars you could also have them set the whole thing up and all you are doing is exposing it to the group. Example a webinar on Autoresponders and Email Marketing. I'm sure there are companies out there that will do the whole setup for you.
Re: Email marketing strategy - Email Marketing is successful only when you get a good list of targeted people. However, some people consider it as spam. It can work wonders for you if you have selected the appropriate list of people.
Re: Awesome Resource: Instapaper - So far the only thing I use the filters for is to send all the safelist emails I get to a folder. It currently has over 386,000 emails in it. This is a really good tip though. I need to start utilizing it. Emails eat up too much of my time right now.
Why should I hire a virtual assistant for SEO purposes? - Do you find it hard to find time for rest because of promoting your business or your website all by yourself? Well, perhaps it is the right time for you to hire the services of an SEO virtual assistant. Virtual assistants for SEO services will help you on the process of improving your rankings within search engine results to achieve an increase in natural traffic. The higher your site in the search engine results page, the more traffic and sales conversions you will obtain. Using the services of virtual assistants (VAs) certainly is the best method to move in order immediate results and in reduced operational charges. This provides a great answer especially for a small business owner whoever company is actually considerably expanding, and the jobs have normally doubled. Here are some of the services that a virtual assistant can do for you: • Traffic Geyser • Main Street Marketing • Data Entry • Web Research • Market Samurai • Managing Facebook • Managing Twitter • SEO • Local Business Listing Robot • Traffic Revolution • Infusionsoft • Senuke • Angela’s Banklink • Linkjuicer • Blogging • SMM • Virtual Assistant • Personal Assistant • Article Writing • Spinning Article • Press release • Email Response Handling • Online Order Processing • Word Processing • Forum/Comment Posting • Social Bookmarking • Video Editor • Internet Marketing • Email Marketing • Link Building • Powerpoint Presentations • Web Development • Other Administrative Support
Different Hats - CEO Sales & Marketing & Leadership Development Company Strategic Vision 10 Alliances & Growth Strategies 10 Hiring & Managing People 8 Mentoring 8-9 Strategic Planning for Clients 10 Execution of Marketing Campaigns 9-10 (i have great people who do the nitty gritty) Financial Management 9 Bookkeeping 3 (outsourced as I really hate the fine details like GST0 Administrative Follow Up 6-7 (again have great staff) Writing & Publishing 9 (getting better all the time!) Speaking 10 (so I have been told) Self Promotion 9-10 Web development & Promotion 6-7 (learning more and have brought on players who are 10+) Babysitting Employees (1 - wont do it, that's why I work so hard to hire and motivate the people I have) Great topic Kevin!! Jude


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

3 Key Factors For Raising Capital

What is Give Back Marketing?

Working Across Borders

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.