Is Your Autoresponder Truly Promoting Your Company?

Getting other people to promote your web site is one of the most popular Internet marketing methods around, today. Affiliate relationships are all the rave with people who have web sites. Web marketers worldwide are trading links everyday, in hopes of driving each other's traffic to their respective sites. This is certainly something any hard-working Internet business owner should do, but it may be a bit overrated. While using affiliate advertising is a strong marketing ploy, effective use of multiple e-mail lists and an autoresponder is one of the most powerful, multi-faceted marketing tools available today.

Many Internet marketers are using autoresponders, but very few are getting the most from them. Most people use their autoresponders strictly to publish ezines. A well-written ezine is a powerful tool, no doubt, and should be part of any successful online business, but there is so much more to autoresponders that many people overlook. I have spent recent months experimenting with various uses for my autoresponder.

Following is a variety of ways to increase your customer base with proper autoresponder use..

1. EZINES: Write a powerful, information-packed, weekly ezine (electronic magazine). Place a subscription link on your site, so all visitors subscribe to your ezine. This way, you have them, if they don't buy, so you can constantly send them information, tossing in links back to your site and plugs for your product or service. Remember, research says the average consumer needs to see your name, product, or service four to seven times, before they finally decide to buy. Don't forget to offer something free to entice people to subscribe, and be sure to let them know you'll never share their information. Don't bombard them with useless information or solicitations. Give them information that they will value, so your name becomes synonymous with professionalism.

2. e-COURSES: In addition to your ezine, use your autoresponder to offer some type of free five or seven day course. This is another great way to gather those e-mail addresses. If a visitor doesn't subscribe to your ezine, perhaps she'll be interested in your course. Then, you can send her the ezine later. Be sure to keep the e-mails in the course brief, and don't give away too much information. Be sure links back to your site are all over each e-mail, so the person will ultimately go back and buy your product.

3. FULFILLMENT: If you're selling information, use your autoresponder as a fulfillment tool. Make sure your online merchant (PayPal, Click Bank, etc.) is set up so upon payment, your customer is taken to a Thank You page. On this page, add HTML code from your autoresponder that actually sends the product the customer purchased. Incidentally, any good autoresponder will generate the HTML code for you, and you simply cut and paste it to your web site. When setting up the delivery e-mail, just write a nice letter, telling the person her new information product has arrived. Then, upload the product as an attachment to that e-mail. Remember to give very clear instructions. For example, if your book is a PDF file, be sure to say in the e-mail that the person will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it. I always add a link to Adobe, to make it easy for the customer to get Acrobat Reader, and I remind the customer that it can be downloaded there for free. When you read about successful Internet marketers who say they make money while they sleep, this is how they are doing it. I didn't believe it, until I converted my business to this type of system. Now, I make money while I sleep, too.

4. REFERRALS: First, to make this work effectively, you should have a web site for your ezine. If you don't have a site, strictly advertising your ezine -- you should build one. Then, place a referral page on it. Again, use your trusty autoresponder to create this system. On the page, offer something free to visitors who refer a friend. Assure them that you will not spam the person -- that you are just going to send him an e-mail explaining what your ezine is about and then the person will have the option to subscribe. This is another great way to capture e-mails. Incidentally, you can set up the autoresponder to e-mail the free information to the person doing the referring, as well. So, once again, you are doing no work, once your codes are placed on your site.

5. ADVERTISING: Your autoresponder is the vehicle that drives your ezine, so advertise on your ezine, and use your autoresponder to promote that advertising. You can get creative with this and have a lot of fun, while you're making money. There are sites that you can join for a nominal fee that drive advertisers to you. Just search ezine advertising on the Internet, and you'll find plenty of them. Once you join, you'll start getting lots of small ads in your personal inbox, or any e-mail address you supply (it can't be an autoresponder address, though). Then, you run this ad for free in your ezine, but you get to add the new e-mail address of the advertiser to your list. Now, just create another list for your autoresponder that sends sales pitches to these people with other types of advertising offers. For example, you might charge $25.00 for a solo article about one of your advertisers in a future edition of your ezine. Be sure to keep the sales pitches coming by writing constant short letters about your service to the people on this list, and set up your autoresponder to send them to the advertisers every couple of weeks.

These are just a few of the ideas I've put into place with my own Internet business that have been successful. Remember, the key to successful autoresponder marketing is to come up with every idea that will gather more e-mail addresses of prospects, who will eventually become customers. Be creative, and have fun with your marketing.

Mark Barnes is author of the wealth-building system, Winning the Mortgage Game and other investment real estate books. He is also a suspense novelist, and his new novel, The League, will thrill both suspense and sports fans. Learn about Mark's wealth-building system and get his free home loan course at http://www.winningthemortgagegame.com. Learn more about The League and read an excerpt at http://www.sportsnovels.com

Video Commerce Consortium

What You Can Learn From Obama's Video Email Marketing Mistakes Video Commerce Consortium One thing that both online video marketing and politics have in common is that people are more apt to criticize small mistakes than praise what is working. Last week, the Obama campaign sent out an e-mail blast unveiling a new anti-Romney docu-drama ...

Post 'social' improved speed to information and context ZDNet (blog) Banner ads are not only still with us - along with paid keywords and email marketing they continue to be the dominant form of online advertising. Facebook may have just gone through an expensive lesson in scale: running a billion user account free ... and more »

Survey: E-mail, QR codes retailers' preferred marketing tools Chain Store Age Additionally, retailers surveyed report that, on average, 20% of emails opened in a given campaign are opened on a mobile device. Additionally, QR codes have become more standard elements of retailers' mobile marketing efforts within their stores and ... and more »

OnSpot Social Launches New iPad® App that Allows Business Owners to Collect ... Virtual-Strategy Magazine and “How can I collect more customer e-mail addresses for my e-mail newsletter?” Any business or individual who uses social media marketing and email marketing to communicate with an audience can use OnSpot Social to expand their network of subscribers ... and more »

Marketing Pilgrim

So Email Marketing's Dead? Don't Tell HubSpot That Marketing Pilgrim If you need more evidence that email is indeed alive and well you should consider what HubSpot (a Marketing Pilgrim sponsor of our inbound marketing channel) has added to their suite of, you guessed it, e-mail. OK, so if a company that has managed to ... and more »

How to handle the overwhelm of being a financial advisor in 2012 RIABiz Abby Salameh: You want to answer that e-mail immediately, return that phone call ASAP, and respond to that text message the minute it comes in on your phone. Brooke's Note: The definition of a good financial advisor these days has expanded to ...

E-mail Marketing for Business Seminar in Batesville In Arkansas Email marketing is an amazingly cost-effective way to build relationships that drive business success. In today's challenging economic times this cost advantage makes e-mail marketing a very powerful tool for building any business or organization.

Enter to win a $50 Gift Certificate! Fall River Herald News Entries will not be accepted through e-mail, postal mail or by facsimile. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. MAKING A PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. ALL FEDERAL, STATE, LOCAL AND MUNICIPAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS APPLY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Enter Daily Deals SweepstakesSturgis Journal all 2 news articles »

App Spotlight: Create Email Groups on Your iPhone with MailShot 2.0 PCWorld (blog) By Rick Broida, PCWorld Email groups are an important part of business life, yet Apple's iOS offers no support for them. So what happens if you want to send a message to, say, everyone in the marketing department, or a select batch of customers? and more »

USA TODAY

Players, NFL disagree on context of bounty e-mail USA TODAY By Matthew Emmons, US Presswire Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was mentioned in an e-mail from a prison inmate to the Saints coaching staff. The e-mail, obtained by the Associated Press, was written from prison by marketing agent Mike ... Bounties on Rodgers and Newton were in jestCBSSports.com all 336 news articles »