7 Profitable Ways to Use Autoresponders

A visitor clicks on the link to your site and starts
reading. She's intrigued and nearly ready to buy -- but
at that very moment, the kids come back inside and she
leaves the computer to tend to them, meaning to go back
later to make a purchase.

Chances are, you just lost a sale. There are countless
reasons why an interested prospect may not buy right away.
Even if they intend to re-visit your site later, 'later'
may never come -- they might not even remember your URL!

By capturing your visitor's email address, you can follow-up
with them and increase the likelihood of catching them at a
time that they're ready to buy. Here are a profitable ways
you can use autoresponders to help convert more of your
visitors into paying customers:

__1. Distribute a Newsletter.

Most good autoresponders have two important features that
are perfect for distributing newsletters: a personalisation
feature, and a broadcast feature. Wouldn't you be more
likely to read something that's directly addressed to you?

__2. Automate Your Sales Process.

Repeated exposure to the same message has been shown to
increase sales. In an short ezine ad, for example, where
you only have a limited amount of space, why not publish
your autoresponder address instead of a website URL? With
short ads like these, your objective is to generate leads,
not make a sale. By directing readers to your autoresponder,
you have multiple opportunities to convert your leads into
sales.

__3. Use Them to Distribute Your Articles.

Writing articles and making them freely available for
reprint is an excellent way to build credibility, drive
more traffic to your site, and increase sales. In return
for providing content-rich articles, editors will print
your 'resource box': a short description of you and your
product or service. Within your resource box, you can
direct readers to write to your autoresponder for a free
email course, free story, or whatever is appropriate for
your line of business.

__4. Send Advertising Information.

If you sell advertising on your website or in your
newsletter, you can set up an autoresponder to send this
information automatically to a prospect's email box. This
does a few things: first, it's convenient for your visitor.
Second, she'll have it available whenever she wants to
refer to it (instead of trying to remember your URL). And
finally, you can set up your autoresponder to follow-up
with her. Plus by capturing her email address, you can
send her notifications of any special advertising deals
you have available.

__5. Distribute Free Reports.

Free reports give your visitors a taste of the type and
quality of information you can provide. People who like
your report will be more inclined to purchase something
from you in the future.

Do NOT make your free report a disguised sales pitch
for your product or service. People will easily see
through this and you'll have lost a potential customer
by not providing what was promised!

__6. Distribute an Email Course.

Why not offer a mini-course by email? Every day or two,
send another chapter of your course. Once again, the
key is to provide content -- not a sales 'pitch'! Let
your content help you do the selling. At the end of
each message, include a paragraph or two tying it into
your product, and invite your prospect to make a
purchase.

__7. Offer a Trial Version of Your Product.

If you're selling an eBook, software, course, or website
membership, you might offer trial versions to interested
prospects. Many people prefer to "get a taste" of what
they're buying before they pay for the full version. In
this case, you can capture their email addresses by
offering them a free trial from your site. Your
autoresponder provides them with instructions on how and
where to get their free trial ... and then follows-up with
them at appropriate intervals to try to persuade them to
purchase the full deal.