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Casual Articles - Autoresponders - A Powerful Marketing Tool
Since my first consulting project almost thirty years ago, I have learned a lot about how to successfully manage consulting projects and the client/consultant relationship.Here are some ideas that may help you with your consultants (and your lawyers, accountants and other professionals):1. Before you introduce consultants to the process, be sure you need what you want and want what you need. Beware of consultants that agree to do whatever you want, whether you need it or not.2. Look internally to confirm the three "C's" of consulting project readiness: Capacity in budget, time and resources; Commitment of management and staff affected by the process; and Capability to support t
No doubt your product has many desirable features which pick off your prospect's problems one at a time. Don't try to address them all in one e-mail, you'll just confuse your subscriber (and quite possibly yourself).
Focus on one or two key points (problems) in each message and show how your product will make their problems disappear . This will take 3 or 4 messages for most products.
Action
Finally you need to tell the prospect what you want them to do. It's not enough to provide your name, phone number and a link to your website. Tell them exactly what you want them to do, e.g.:
Click here to visit the website and place your ord
ARE YOU SELLING TCO, OR TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP, TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND PROSPECTS?Many sales people are faced with the problem that their products and services are the highest quality, and therefore their prices are also the highest.You may face this problem in many of your prospects, but you cannot get into a bidding war. You must realize that you cannot close every sale. Some prospects are easy to close, some are hard, and some are impossible. Many sales people believe that great sales people can close anything. But this isn't true. Good sales people know how to get maximum value out of the products and services they sell.Provide Value to your clientsEnsure your clients
For example, message 1 may be sent immediately, message 2 may go a day later, message 3 a further day after that etc. You load your messages into the responder once and then just let it do the follow up for you.
Email addresses can be input manually, via a form on a website, or by sending a blank email to the autoresponder address. If you put email addresses in manually then it is absolutely essential that you have the recipients permission - otherwise you are spamming.
Autoresponders work well because they allow you to communicate with your opt-in subscribers several times. This allows you to build a relationship and it takes you out of the "one chance to make a good impression (sale)" arena which has many advantages.
One of the main advantages is that you don't need to make ludicrous over-hyped claims just establish rapport with your subscribers and give them the actual facts they need to make a decision.
A lot of research has been done into this field and it has been found that people rarely buy anything at the first time of asking. You will often hear that 7 autoresponder messages is the ideal number but it will vary depending on the product or service that you're promoting.
One of the key things to remember is that you don't need to dive straight in and push your product in the very first message. In fact this is a bad thing to do.
Perhaps you've heard of AIDA? It stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action and is an often quoted mnemonic in the field of advertising. It can be used as an aid for most advertising and marketing campaigns and it can certainly be applied to autoresponder messages.
Attention
Grab your prospect's attention using a very simple webpage which has an eyecatching graphic, a few bullet points outlining your service, opportunity or product and a signup form for them to enter their e-mail address in order to receive your autoresponder messages.
You can encourage them to sign up by giving away a free e-book or a special report. Keep the page simple and uncluttered and design it so that your prospect doesn't have to scroll down in order to complete the sign up form.
Interest
To a certain extent you also have your subscriber's interest but don't rest on your laurels. Your first autoresponder message should be a fuller explanation of what you're offering your subscribers. By which I mean the benefits that you're offering them not the details of the product or service itself. Ask yourself what problems your target audience may have then provide the answer to those problems in general terms.
At this stage you don't have to tell them exactly how you will solve their problems, it's enough that you know what their problems are and that you have some proven method of addressing them. Because of some standard pleasantries that need to go in the first email, this "interest" phase will probably need 2 messages to cover it.
Use bullet points and lists to list the problems as these are easy for people to read quickly.
Desire
Having built some empathy with your prospect by demonstrating that you understand their problems, you now need to generate some desire for your product by providing some more detail of exactly how it will solve these.
No doubt your product has many desirable features which pick off your prospect's problems one at a time. Don't try to address them all in one e-mail, you'll just confuse your subscriber (and quite possibly yourself).
Focus on one or two key points (problems) in each message and show how your product will make their problems disappear . This will take 3 or 4 messages for most products.
Action
Finally you need to tell the prospect what you want them to do. It's not enough to provide your name, phone number and a link to your website. Tell them exactly what you want them to do, e.g.:
Click here to visit the website and place your ord
If you are reading this article you are living breathing proof that a wacky headline draws attention*. Unless someone is forcing you to read this.Maybe someone is holding your eyelids open and forcing you to stare at this article. But you don't have to READ it. You could just let your eyes go out of focus. Try it.Or maybe they have a gun to your head and are making you read it out loud. In that case... YOU STUPID GUN MAN! I HATE YOU! STOP MAKING ME READ THIS OR I COULD GET ANGRY!If you have made it this far, your captor obviously has a good sense of humor.Maybe you should hire HIM to write your headlines. He just might be crazy enough to bring you some serious business p
One of the main advantages is that you don't need to make ludicrous over-hyped claims just establish rapport with your subscribers and give them the actual facts they need to make a decision.
A lot of research has been done into this field and it has been found that people rarely buy anything at the first time of asking. You will often hear that 7 autoresponder messages is the ideal number but it will vary depending on the product or service that you're promoting.
One of the key things to remember is that you don't need to dive straight in and push your product in the very first message. In fact this is a bad thing to do.
Perhaps you've heard of AIDA? It stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action and is an often quoted mnemonic in the field of advertising. It can be used as an aid for most advertising and marketing campaigns and it can certainly be applied to autoresponder messages.
Attention
Grab your prospect's attention using a very simple webpage which has an eyecatching graphic, a few bullet points outlining your service, opportunity or product and a signup form for them to enter their e-mail address in order to receive your autoresponder messages.
You can encourage them to sign up by giving away a free e-book or a special report. Keep the page simple and uncluttered and design it so that your prospect doesn't have to scroll down in order to complete the sign up form.
Interest
To a certain extent you also have your subscriber's interest but don't rest on your laurels. Your first autoresponder message should be a fuller explanation of what you're offering your subscribers. By which I mean the benefits that you're offering them not the details of the product or service itself. Ask yourself what problems your target audience may have then provide the answer to those problems in general terms.
At this stage you don't have to tell them exactly how you will solve their problems, it's enough that you know what their problems are and that you have some proven method of addressing them. Because of some standard pleasantries that need to go in the first email, this "interest" phase will probably need 2 messages to cover it.
Use bullet points and lists to list the problems as these are easy for people to read quickly.
Desire
Having built some empathy with your prospect by demonstrating that you understand their problems, you now need to generate some desire for your product by providing some more detail of exactly how it will solve these.
No doubt your product has many desirable features which pick off your prospect's problems one at a time. Don't try to address them all in one e-mail, you'll just confuse your subscriber (and quite possibly yourself).
Focus on one or two key points (problems) in each message and show how your product will make their problems disappear . This will take 3 or 4 messages for most products.
Action
Finally you need to tell the prospect what you want them to do. It's not enough to provide your name, phone number and a link to your website. Tell them exactly what you want them to do, e.g.:
Click here to visit the website and place your ord
The time when worms and viruses were a top priority of IT are long behind us. Botnets and phishing attacks now dominate the webscape and new variations are emerging daily.Botnets: To give you an idea on how prevalent this threat is becoming, Zombie Master Jeanson Ancheta pleaded guilty to seizing control of hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers and renting the zombie network to people who used it to send out spam. Keep in mind that this "Zombie Network" included computers at the Weapons Division of the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California,
Attention
Grab your prospect's attention using a very simple webpage which has an eyecatching graphic, a few bullet points outlining your service, opportunity or product and a signup form for them to enter their e-mail address in order to receive your autoresponder messages.
You can encourage them to sign up by giving away a free e-book or a special report. Keep the page simple and uncluttered and design it so that your prospect doesn't have to scroll down in order to complete the sign up form.
Interest
To a certain extent you also have your subscriber's interest but don't rest on your laurels. Your first autoresponder message should be a fuller explanation of what you're offering your subscribers. By which I mean the benefits that you're offering them not the details of the product or service itself. Ask yourself what problems your target audience may have then provide the answer to those problems in general terms.
At this stage you don't have to tell them exactly how you will solve their problems, it's enough that you know what their problems are and that you have some proven method of addressing them. Because of some standard pleasantries that need to go in the first email, this "interest" phase will probably need 2 messages to cover it.
Use bullet points and lists to list the problems as these are easy for people to read quickly.
Desire
Having built some empathy with your prospect by demonstrating that you understand their problems, you now need to generate some desire for your product by providing some more detail of exactly how it will solve these.
No doubt your product has many desirable features which pick off your prospect's problems one at a time. Don't try to address them all in one e-mail, you'll just confuse your subscriber (and quite possibly yourself).
Focus on one or two key points (problems) in each message and show how your product will make their problems disappear . This will take 3 or 4 messages for most products.
Action
Finally you need to tell the prospect what you want them to do. It's not enough to provide your name, phone number and a link to your website. Tell them exactly what you want them to do, e.g.:
Click here to visit the website and place your ord
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't hear another small business owners complaining about some of the customers they have to do business with. Some of them REALLY are legitimate complaints, but after listening to 100's of different complaints, I have found the root of most of them is a lack of understanding. Therefore, I hope this article gets you on the road of addressing complaints and customer problems in your home business.The first step is to get past the irritation. It's only human nature to get a little upset when a customer writes to complain about something totally stupid. Complaints like: It's been two whole weeks and I haven't seen my ad on your website yet. Or, how about t
At this stage you don't have to tell them exactly how you will solve their problems, it's enough that you know what their problems are and that you have some proven method of addressing them. Because of some standard pleasantries that need to go in the first email, this "interest" phase will probably need 2 messages to cover it.
Use bullet points and lists to list the problems as these are easy for people to read quickly.
Desire
Having built some empathy with your prospect by demonstrating that you understand their problems, you now need to generate some desire for your product by providing some more detail of exactly how it will solve these.
No doubt your product has many desirable features which pick off your prospect's problems one at a time. Don't try to address them all in one e-mail, you'll just confuse your subscriber (and quite possibly yourself).
Focus on one or two key points (problems) in each message and show how your product will make their problems disappear . This will take 3 or 4 messages for most products.
Action
Finally you need to tell the prospect what you want them to do. It's not enough to provide your name, phone number and a link to your website. Tell them exactly what you want them to do, e.g.:
Click here to visit the website and place your ord
Customer Service is not as simple as students may surmise. But that does not mean that any business cannot at least improve upon their customer service. I suppose there is a book called; Customer Service for Dummies. And if you want to improve your customer service skills and you think you are a dumb dumb then let me offer a few tips on things you can do to make your current customer service even better.1.) Talk to your customers ask them what they like or do not like. Ask them how you can improve. After all your customers know what they want in good customer service so why not ask them?2.) Implement a Secret Shopper program and have a friend or acquaintance be a pretend shopper
No doubt your product has many desirable features which pick off your prospect's problems one at a time. Don't try to address them all in one e-mail, you'll just confuse your subscriber (and quite possibly yourself).
Focus on one or two key points (problems) in each message and show how your product will make their problems disappear . This will take 3 or 4 messages for most products.
Action
Finally you need to tell the prospect what you want them to do. It's not enough to provide your name, phone number and a link to your website. Tell them exactly what you want them to do, e.g.:
Click here to visit the website and place your order
Phone me now to discuss your needs
Send an email to sales@yourwebaddress for a full quotation
Fill in the form and send it to
This should come in by message 7 at the latest. You could probably introduce it at the end of message 5 or 6 if you like.
Whenever you decide to issue your call to action, always follow up a week later with a gentle reminder just in case they meant to take action and forgot, or life got in the way, or they lost their internet connection, or their mother-in-law visited or any of the other reasons that could have put your offer out of their mind for just long enough for it to become overlooked.
Most people will go through your series of messages, come out the other side and not buy. That's life it's just a numbers game. However, you can skew the odds in your favour by using the "broadcast" function of your autoresponder to follow up whenever you have a product update, a new product, a special offer etc.
Follow up with your list at least once every 3 months it's the follow up that makes autoresponders such powerful sales machines.
Better yet, publish your own ezine and supply your clients with useful information on a regular basis - even when you don't have anything to sell them. It'll build trust and make them more likely to buy when the time is right.
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