Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Autoresponders and Spam

Autoresponders and Spam – What You Need To
Know


There are laws against sending spam. There are
even laws that you must adhere to when you send
out email that was requested. No matter what type
of email you are sending out, the chances are good
that the anti-spam laws apply to you in some way.

In order to be in compliance with the anti-spam laws
in various states in the US, each commercial email
that you send must include your name or business
name, your street address, city, state, zip code,
and phone number. You must also include
instructions that will allow the recipient to remove
themselves from your mailing list. If you fail to do
any of this, you are essentially breaking the law in
various states – no matter what state or country you
live in!

Protect yourself from spam complaints in any way
that you can. Make sure that when a customer
requests any type of information from you that an
email is sent requesting confirmation before any
other email is sent. If someone is placing an order
from you, include a check box on the order form,
asking for permission to send them periodic emails.
Never use your autoresponder to send unsolicited
commercial email!

A lot of people seem to have a problem with autoresponders
requiring that lists that are downloaded into the autoresponder
to be double opt-in. Be aware that this is for your protection and
for the protection of the autoresponder.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Autoresponders and Shopping Cart Integration

When people place orders through your website, it
is always a good idea to immediately acknowledge
the purchase. One way to do this is with the use of
an autoresponder that can be integrated with your
shopping cart. In fact, many shopping carts that are
available today have their own autoresponders built
into the system.

When you set up your autoresponder to send a
message to someone that has placed an order,
there are several things that should be included in the
message. This is an opportunity to speak to your
customer, and to let them know about other deals
that you have or special items that you have available.
You should not miss this opportunity.

Do not try to get your thank you or sales message on
the same
autoresponder as the customers email
receipt. Putting the sales message on an email that
is automatically sent to grant the customer access
to their purchase is also a bad idea ,that would go
better with the receipt. Make sure your thank you and
sales message is a message that is sent out all by
itself, so your customer can focus solely on that!

Thank the customer for their recent purchase. Tell
them how much their purchase will help them, and
then tell them about other available products that
work well with the one that they just purchased, or
that are similar to the one that they just purchased
in some way. For instance hair conditioner works
with hair shampoo. Vacuum cleaner bags or carpet
powder works well with vacuum cleaners. Just let
them know about the various products that you offer
that will compliment their purchase in some way.

The important thing is to not let your customer get
away without further contact! Think about being in a
brick and mortar store. When you go up to the
counter to pay, there are many items there for sale.
These items are meant to be picked up as last
minute purchases, or impulsive purchases. Your
thank you or sales letter serves the same purpose.

Don't make the mistake of bombarding your
customer! You can usually send them periodic
information about your specials after they have made
a purchase through you, but emailing them on a
daily basis with your offers is not good business!
Use your
autoresponder responsibly! Make sure that
your autoresponder is set up to handle automatic
remove requests, and make sure that the information
that you are sending your customers is of value to
them
.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Using AutoResponders to Offer Secret Pages

Autoresponder Access to Secret Pages

People love to have access to things that other people can’t get. It makes them feel special, and it is a marketing tactic that really works. Granting access to secret pages works well on the Internet. It works best when it is limited. For instance, you can grant access to only a lucky few, or you can have a time limit for accessing the pages. You can grant access to secret pages on your website with an autoresponder.

The way this works is quite simple. You create a directory on your website that is password protected, with one login and password that everybody can use. You then create some valuable content for that directory. You can call this your secret vault or your private stash or anything else you want to call it – as long as it sounds like something that your visitors may really want to get their hands on. For instance ‘the secret tools that helped me earn thousands each month’ would probably entice many people who want to learn how to make money.

Once you get the directory and the pages set up, put the URL of the pages and the login name and password in an autoresponder. Write a sales page and distribute it to your opt-in list, or have other list owners distribute it to theirs. Make sure you ‘limit’ the offer. Don’t let people assume that you are going to share this secret information with the rest of the world – they want to be the only ones with this special access!

Keep access to the secret pages free. The goal is to get people to those pages, so that they can purchase your products or services. However, remember that you’ve advertised secret tools or secret information.Therefore, when they get to those pages, there must be something of value there for them to collect – for free in most cases. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you will be losing money by giving something away for free – you won’t. In fact, you’ve already gained by collecting the names and addresses of the people who were interested in your secret information!

Again, this is a marketing tactic that really works, and it is a great way to use an autoresponder. Once people have requested the information for your private pages, you can email them periodically, using your autoresponder, to let them know about updates to the secret site. While you are updating them, you can also tell them about other specials or new products in your line.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Articles and Autoresponders

Writing articles to market a product or service is an excellent way to build business. The articles should be very informative, providing the reader with information that is relevant to a specific topic. The article usually includes a link to a webpage for more information. The webpage, of course, is designed to sell a product or service that relates to the topic of the article.

These articles are commonly submitted to article banks, websites, and ezine publishers. This is one of the most effective ways to market a service or product on the Internet, and it can become even more effective when it is combined with the use of an autoresponder.
Begin by setting each of your articles up in your autoresponder. It is important that each article have its very own autoresponder address, so you will need an autoresponder service that will allow you to do this. Next, make a master list of your articles, with the autoresponder address for each article listed beside the title. You can even add descriptions of the articles on your master list if you want to.

Advertising your articles one at a time can take a great deal of time…but advertising one autoresponder address – the one for the master list – won’t take very much time at all. Simply put it in your newsletter and on your website. You can even allow other ezine publishers to use this is a free resource for their subscribers!