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How to
easily automate your
most time-consuming e-mail chores
I’ve seen it happen to some really intelligent business owners...
You start out with the best of intentions. You grow your web site
traffic, run a few successful promotions, and suddenly you go from
personally answering a handful of e-mails each day to drowning under
hundreds of customer inquiries, questions, and requests! Managing
your e-mail suddenly becomes a full-time job!
If you really plan to grow your business, you can’t afford
to be spending your days chained to your computer, replying to
e-mail after e-mail individually. Even if you’re using "canned
messages" (i.e. pre-written e-mails that you can just cut and paste),
looking after your e-mail one message at a time can quickly become
overwhelming.
And this is where a lot of new e-business owners find themselves
stuck. You’re tired of wasting your days replying to the same
e-mails over and over again, but the idea of automating the process
seems even more intimidating! Yet you have heard that there are
scripts and software out there that will give you the power to...
- Anticipate and instantly respond to the needs of your
customers by answering common questions on the spot.
- Give potential customers the exact information they need,
exactly when they need it – when they’re still a hot prospect
– so they can make that important buying decision.
- Capture the e-mail addresses of visitors to your web
site so that you can market to them again and again – for free!
- Increase the perceived value of your web site by
offering free reports or articles that can be e-mailed to
prospects the minute they request them!
- Dramatically reduce the time you waste on daily chores
so you can start growing your business instead of getting trapped
running it!
- Start capitalizing on the lifetime value of your existing
customers – automatically increasing your sales without
increasing your workload!
Did you know that all of the automation I’ve mentioned so far in
this article can be accomplished with one simple tool called
an "autoresponder"?
Here's how it works:
Before we go any further, I want to assure you that
autoresponders are not difficult to use. So let's take a deep breath
and get past any technophobia that might be preventing you from
making your life a lot easier – and your business a lot
more profitable!
An autoresponder is basically an e-mail tool that is designed to
automatically respond to any incoming messages to a
particular e-mail address that you set up. Confused? Then let me
give you an example that will clearly illustrate exactly how this
works…
A visitor arrives at your web site and reads your sales copy.
They're interested in your product, but they have a question that
needs to be answered before they'll consider making a purchase. So
they e-mail you at faq@yoursite.com (an e-mail address you’ve set up
for just this purpose).
Your experience answering customer questions has shown you that
there are 10 or 12 questions people ask over and over again. So
rather than answer each person individually, you put together a "Frequently
Asked Questions" (FAQ) e-mail. You spend an hour or so writing it,
making sure that it's thorough and that it ultimately directs the
reader back to your web site to close the sale.
You then set up this FAQ e-mail in an autoresponder, so when the
visitor e-mails their question to faq@yoursite.com, they are
automatically sent your FAQ e-mail. It’s neat, clean, and simple.
The e-mail your visitor receives might read something like this:
| Subject:
Answer to your question
Hi!
Thank you for your inquiry.
Our experience has shown us that most people ask one of
the following ten questions, so we've sent you this
informative e-mail because we know that your time is
valuable and we want to make sure that your question is
answered as quickly as possible.
If you find that your
question is not answered below, then please do not
hesitate to e-mail us at info@yoursite.com We'll be happy
to answer any further questions you may have.
Yours truly,
Your name here.
*** And
answers to your 10 most frequently asked questions start
here *** |
|
Within 5
minutes of sending their e-mail to faq@yoursite.com, the visitor
receives your e-mail via your autoresponder. They read through your
FAQ e-mail and find the answer to their question.
The visitor is impressed because…
- You anticipated their needs
- You replied instantly
- You answered their questions
- You made it easy for them to
e-mail you any further questions
… and this
means that you look extremely professional. This instant
reply also lends your business a measure of credibility because
you've made it clear that your customers are your first priority and
that you take your business very seriously.
Do you think
this visitor will go back to your web site to make their purchase?
Chances are very good that they will. In fact, the probability
that you will close this sale is much higher than if you had
forced this person to wait a week for a reply. (Or hadn't answered
at all!)
How much time
did this take you? None. You wrote the e-mail and then used the
autoresponder to automate your customer service. You now provide
fast, high-quality customer service, decrease your workload,
and only respond to customers who have unique questions or
situations that need your personal touch. It’ll take you just
minutes each day to respond to customer inquiries instead of the
hours it did before you got automated!
Now, that's
some pretty cool technology, wouldn't you say? Well, I haven't even
told you the best part yet! In addition to these "immediate"
autoresponders -- that get sent out instantly -- you can also set up
a series of delayed or "sequential" autoresponders. Here's how it
works:
Suppose
someone sends a message to your faq@yoursite.com e-mail address.
They instantly receive your "Frequently Asked Questions" e-mail...
and then automatically receive another message a few days later! It
might look something like this:
| Subject:
Follow-up to your inquiry
Hi,
I just wanted to touch base
with you and make sure that you didn't have any more
questions. (If your question wasn't answered by the FAQ I
sent out the other day, please drop me a line at info@yoursite.com).
I also wanted to let you
know about a special that we are offering to new customers.
If you decide to purchase within the next 7 days, I'll
give you a big 20% discount off your first order!
Remember, this offer is
valid for new customers only, and expires in the next
seven days!
Click here to visit my site and find out more about
this special offer.
Yours truly,
Your name here.
|
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Just like with
the autoresponder that gets sent out immediately, you only have to
write this ONCE, and simply tell your autoresponder software to send
it to everyone who sends an e-mail to faq@yoursite.com after three
days.
Can you even imagine how difficult this would be if you were
doing it manually? You would have to save every e-mail you received,
and then reply to them after 3 days had passed. Using autoresponders,
you just write the message once, and the software takes care of
everything else!
And you don't need to stop at just two messages. You can set it
up so that everyone who sends an e-mail to your faq@yoursite.com
address receives one message immediately, another three days later,
another one four days after that, one more seven days later, and
another after three weeks! In fact, as long as you have the right
software, there is no limit to how many messages you can
automatically deliver to your customers and subscribers!
How can
I make it happen?
So now we’re back at square one, aren’t we? You want the
autoresponders and the powerful automation they can bring your
e-business, and now you have a general understanding of how they
work, but how the heck do you add them to your web site?
Good question! You basically have four choices:
- Your web host: If you are
willing to commit to a long-term contract (i.e., one year or more),
you can sometimes get a couple of immediate autoresponders for
free from your web host. Unfortunately, I STILL haven't found a
web host that will provide sequential autoresponders, meaning that
you'll have to look elsewhere for this service.
- Autoresponders with rotating
ads: You can get "free" sequential autoresponders if you are
willing to let other companies advertise in your message however,
I don’t really recommend this. You can’t control the ads that
appear in your e-mails, so these ads can really distract your
reader from your sales message, and you appear "unprofessional"
because it’s obvious you’re using a free service. You’re basically
giving someone else free advertising, with few benefits to you.
Free isn’t always as good as it might sound!
- Paid autoresponder services:
You could also use a paid autoresponder service. This can give
you flexibility in deciding exactly what autoresponder plan is
right for you without being forced to include advertisements in
your message. You'll also have greater flexibility to customize
your autoresponders than if you were to use a free autoresponder
service.
The only real drawback is that they can get quite costly. Paid
autoresponder services can cost as much as $20 or $30 per month
per autoresponder, while others will charge you a fee each time
someone requests your information. If you decide to go this route,
be sure that you really shop around because the cost can get out
of control very quickly if you're not careful.
- Mailloop 6.0: This powerful
piece of software gives you unlimited immediate AND sequential
autoresponders, meaning that it's the only autoresponder program
you'll need. You can literally set up HUNDREDS of different
autoresponder series, and -- since it all runs off your own
computer -- you never have to worry about your autoresponders
suddenly going "offline."
(I should also mention that Mailloop does a lot more than just
autoresponders... It is actually a complete e-mail automation
package. You can run all of your e-mail promotions through it, use
it to automatically subscribe and unsubscribe people from your
opt-in list, manage your customer and subscriber databases, and so
on and so on...)
You can read much more about how this incredible program works by
clicking here.
Final thoughts:
Don't be
intimidated by this simple technology. Like I said, if you can
install and use software (it's as easy as clicking a few buttons and
following a few instructions), then you can easily use
autoresponders to automate.
Ideally, your
goal should be to get automated and then grow. Of course,
some of you may already be drowning in e-mail. If that's you, don't
keep putting this off! E-mail automation is going to be critical
to the success of your e-business.
If you're
automated and using autoresponders to manage daily chores, then
you're going to have time to focus on promotions and growing. If
you're drowning in e-mail, you're going to severely handicap your
sales and income because you'll be too focused on trying to just
stay afloat.
Autoresponders
are easy to set up and they offer a wide variety of opportunities to
automate different aspects of your business. From customer
service... to order confirmations... to following up with potential
customers... it's an easy way to give customers the instant service
they're demanding, while increasing your sales and actually
freeing yourself from tedious chores. |
