4 Quick Tips for Marketing with Autoresponders
Marketing with autoresponders is one of the best ways to increase your online income. A mailing list is your most valuable asset, but only if handled with care will it work in your favor. The important part is that you know how to use it to its greatest potential.
Before we get into the tips of actually marketing to your list, let’s go over some basics about autoresponders and the steps you need to take before you ever send that first email.
Find the Right Autoresponder for YOU
Don’t just sign up for the first autoresponder system Joe-Marketer tells you about. There are so many systems out there to choose from. A specific system may work great for one person but might be too much (or not enough) for someone else.
Compare each of them and find the one that best fits your needs and budget. Making a wise decision before undergoing a marketing campaign can and will make a difference. Yes, you can change to a new autoresponder later, but why go through the hassle if it’s not necessary. Choose wisely.
Some popular options are…
- Aweber
- iContact
- Get Response
Know Thy Program
Educate yourself on your autoresponder before beginning any marketing campaign. Take the time to learn how all the bells and whistles work. Once you know what you’re working with, you’ll be unstoppable. Don’t leave anything on the table that will keep you from utilizing this powerful tool to its fullest potential.
If your autoresponder can do all that you need it to do, and you know how to use it to your advantage, your marketing campaign will flourish.
Now, onto those tips! This is where an autoresponder will make or break your business. If done right, you’ll discover why everyone and their brother says: “The money is in the list.”
Tip #1: Be Consistent
When you’re marketing with an autoresponder it’s important to be consistent. Put yourself in your prospects shoes. They want to know who you are and you’ll want them to remember you, but that doesn’t mean you need to email them every single day. Keep your business fresh in their mind, but don’t beat them over the head with it. Remember, that unsubscribe button is just a click away!
You’re busy and so are your customers. Always send your first message immediately after sign up. Depending on your specific campaign, you can send an email once a day for X amount of days or once a week.
For example, if you’ve created a free course titled “5 Days to a Healthier Self” you can send an email once a day for five days. Then shift to once a week to keep giving them more information relevant to the topic.
Don’t continue to send them a daily email after the course and don’t send them numerous emails in one day!
Tip #2: Give Your Subscribers Only the Best Quality
Internet users want information, not just sales pitch after sales pitch. Give your readers quality and informative emails with sales pitches peppered in. If your only reason for creating a list is to make money and you only focus on that, you’ll never make a sale.
Your readers need to trust you in order to spend money with you. Once they do, you’ll be unstoppable.
Tip #3: Interact to Get a Reaction
It’s one thing to read great content emails; it’s also a great option to get your list involved as well. You can really increase the interest and actions your list takes when you ask for their opinions and input. You can offer polls, ask for discussion on a blog or forum, or use a whole host of other ideas to get people to interact with you.
I’m sure you’ve signed up for a list where the messages seem cold and impersonal. Like you, many people on your list will realize you are not jumping online and “writing” an email to them every single day. However, when you offer your list a chance to interact and share their feelings you’ll set yourself apart and give them a reason to want to open your emails first.
This is an excellent relationship builder. It’s also a great way to get into the minds of your prospects. Think of it as built in market research!
Tip #4: Tell Them What to Do
Calls to action are what create customer action. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your readers will recognize what to do next. Tell them!
A call to action can be as simple as giving them a link and telling them to click it. While they KNOW you want them to click the link, the chances of them actually doing it will improve if you give them instruction to do so.
Marketing with autoresponders is a great way to increase your reach online. Remember to be consistent, offer high quality content and create an interactive experience for the members of your list. Once you get these tips fine-tuned, you’ll have a responsive group of people who can’t wait to open your next email.
Success is Not an Accident,
Paul
You’ve probably noticed video is “hot” right now.
Just look at the popularity and success of video sites like YouTube. And if you spend any time on these video uploading sites, you’ll notice they’re not all videos of cats and dogs doing funny things.
Tons of marketers are taking advantage of this medium to sell their products and grow their lists.
Can you get in on a piece of this action? You bet.
Note: Again, these tactics falls under the broader category of “article marketing.” While you can use create and distribute article videos to grow your list, you can also create videos without the use of articles. If you choose that route, follow the tips below while disregarding references to articles.
First off, however, you need to consider your market. Are they on high speed connections that can easily handle video?
Example: If you’re catering to a rural market, they simply may not be capable of a true broadband connection. Yes this happens even in today’s “modern” times.
There are a few different ways to use videos with respects to growing your list.
One way is to offer a free video or two as your freebie for anyone who signs up for your list.
Another way is to use your videos as “bait” to attract prospects to your site. This works much the same way as article marketing – you create impressive content with a call to action at the end that asks people to visit your site. People click through to your site and land on your compelling squeeze page.
Quick Tip: If people want to join your list after watching one of your videos, then offering “more of the same” is a good tactic to increase your subscriber opt-in rate. In other words, you can offer a video as your bonus freebie for joining your newsletter list.
Let’s talk about creating videos that get buzz… and new subscribers.
Here are the three steps to creating and launching a buzz-worthy video…
BUY good video and audio equipment.
Some people say – and it might be true – that prospects who are hungry for a particular piece of information wouldn’t care if you wrote it down on a piece of toilet paper.
Quick Tip: Let’s suppose I gave you the winning lottery numbers for tomorrow’s lottery. Would you care whether I scratched it on the back of a napkin or engraved it on a bar of gold? Probably not.
But of course we’re not all creating products that are the equivalent to a set of winning lottery numbers. So for the rest of us, presentation counts. That means you should buy the best video, audio and lighting equipment you can afford in order to create the most professional, polished videos you can muster.
I really like the Kodak Zi8 because it has an external mic connection.
BE creative… and controversial!
Prospects may appreciate plain, straightforward information – but they’ll rarely pass those sorts of videos along to their friends, post links to your video in forums, or blog about them.
If you want to create videos that get talked about, then they need to be centered around content that pushes the envelope. Be creative. Be controversial. Maybe even be a little offensive. After all, polarizing people and creating controversy results in plenty of niche buzz!
Quick Tip: Remember, your video has purpose. Namely, you’re using it to bring people to your site to join your newsletter. Always keep that over-riding purpose in mind as you produce your video.
Also, be sure to include your link multiple times throughout the video in both text and verbal form… especially at the end of the video. And as always, be sure to give those who view your video a compelling reason to go to your site!
BEGIN your video launch with a BANG!
Once you’ve completed your video, it’s time to get it in front of as many people as possible. If you can launch it with a “bang” – and if it truly is a viral video – then you can expect it to soon take on a life of it’s own.
For starters, post your video on the following sites and places:
- Upload your video to YouTube, Yahoo! Video, Viddler.com and as many other video sites as you can.
- Post links to your video on your blog, website, and forum.
- Post links to your video on other niche forums. (If nothing else, post it in your sig line.)
- Announce your video to your list, and encourage them to pass it along to their friends.
- Ask your friends and colleagues to blog about your video as well as adding it to their Squidoo lenses, HubPages, forums, newsletter and similar.
- Submit articles to article directories and include a link to your video at the end of the article.
- And finally: If your video is considered controversial or even offensive, then be sure to get it into the hands of the people who will be the most offended by the content. These people WILL talk about it, post links on forums, and blog about it too!
Peace,
P
