Top 10 Ways to Integrate Autoresponders into Your E-Marketing Strategy

In order for any of your other e-Marketing strategies to work, you need a mechanism for capturing the email addresses of your website visitors. An autoresponder service will do that for you – that and much, much more!

Autoresponders (an automatic response sent by email) have come a long way. While they used to be limited to messages such as "out of office," "on vacation," or "your mail could not be delivered because...", today's robust and varied autoresponder services provide a host of useful and varied applications.

Here is my "top 10" list on ways to integrate autoresponders into your e-marketing:

1. Publish a newsletter. Your newsletter can keep your website visitors informed about your services or products, while building your reputation as a credible expert in your particular business.

2. Stay in touch with customers. Notify your customers of special offers or discounts in the future. It is much easier to sell something new to an existing customer, then to get a brand new customer.

3. Invite affiliates. Provide exclusive information about your affiliate program via an autoresponder. You can include links to "hidden" pages that aren't linked from anywhere on your website. So the only way "in" is to request the autoresponder. These pages may contain graphics, promotional articles, and text links that affiliates can use to earn commissions by referring you.

4. Offer a freebie. A special report or article about your area of specialty will give your visitor an idea of the type of information you can provide and the quality of your product or service. You can include some subtle promotion, but keep it toned down or you may lose a potential customer instead of gaining a loyal fan.

5. Promotions. Send a follow-up message to let these subscribers know more about the products and services that are available. This will increase the possibility of sales from visitors who have taken your course but are dragging their feet about actually making a purchase. You can also use these reminders to promote new products or services, and the products and services of your affiliate programs.

6. Provide a sample. If you're selling an e-book, software program, home study program or coaching membership, use an autoresponder to deliver a brief sample, excerpt, or time-limited trial.

7. Distribute an email course. Set up your autoresponder to send out another lesson at set intervals, e.g. every day or every other day. Just be sure that each lesson has quality content - not a sales pitch. Your content will do the selling for you, and will do it much more effectively. Write tips about a different topic for each lesson, illustrating how your product will benefit the reader. A tip I learned from Andrea J. Lee's book is that you can incorporate your affiliate links within these e-courses.

8. Create targeted mailing lists. For example, invite people who enjoy reading your articles to sign-up for a list, and then send out a notice to that list when you've published a new article.

9. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing targeted articles is a powerful tool to build your business credibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase your sales potential. If your articles contain valuable information, many editors will print what is known as a resource box for you. A resource box contains your bio and a brief description of your service or product.

10. Keep your affiliates working for you. Publish an affiliates-only newsletter. Inform them of current sales you are running and of promotional material that they can use to increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and techniques that your affiliates can use to successfully go out and promote your business.

Copyright 2008 Lisa Wells.