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Using Autoresponders to Reach "Top-of-Mind Awareness" with Your Customers

Communicating with your customers on a regular basis is essential. Thankfully, it's easy to do with one of our favorite marketing tools—the autoresponder.

Have you heard that potential buyers must see your marketing message seven times before money changes hands? It's a marketing truism that's been around since the Eisenhower administration. The actual number of "exposures" might be 3 or 9 or 14, but whatever it is, people are unlikely to buy the first time they visit your site, especially if your are selling an expensive product or service.

They must first become aware of their own needs (or desires), then educate themselves before buying. And that takes time, as well as information.

On a major purchase, it may take a year or more for your customer to get comfortable; to make sure your product is right one, to consider the price, and to weigh it against other options. Even on a small purchase, people want plenty of information to justify their decision.

Yet many businesses miss the opportunity to communicate with their visitors on a ongoing basis, apparently hoping that they will be favorably remembered. Then . . . nothing happens. The reality is "out of sight, out of mind". The visitor does not become a customer. Here's why . . .

• Can you blame them for being a little skeptical? They don't know how to find somebody they can trust.
• They're cautious, not wanting to make a commitment until all the facts are known.
• They're busy. Decisions get delayed until the last minute, or until somebody offers a quick and easy solution.
• They're confused. So many alternatives combined with too little (or too much) information leads to a "paradox of choice" and the bane of all marketers, decision paralysis.
• They're burned out from the 24/7 assault of advertising, hype, and sales pressure.
• They're value oriented. They want to make sure they're getting the most for their hard-earned money. That requires information.
• They're forgetful. "What was the name of that dentist?"

With so many forces at work, it's essential to contact and educate your customers regularly—over weeks, months, years—to overcome skepticism and instill confidence, to provide just the right information, to separate the hype from the truth, to demonstrate value, and to bolster fading memories.

Your goal is to reach "top-of-mind" awareness. When a potential customer thinks of your particular product or service, they should think of YOU.

As a business owner, what's the best way to reach this prized level of awareness? Simply this:

At the very beginning of the process, when your prospective customer is just becoming aware of their needs and desires, you should be providing information, helping to guide their aspirations into reality.

What? Is it that simple? Yes, it's that simple. Just think back on your own experience. How many businesses that you've dealt with bothered to make that effort? Very, very few. Make your business the one that does—use an autoresponder to meet your visitor's deep need for information. For $20/month you can send unlimited communications to 10,000 subscribers. That's an incredible deal.

What's an Autoresponder?

As the name suggests, an autoresponder is simply a computer program that responds via email, delivering a personalized message in seconds, automatically. When "triggered" by a special incoming email address or fill-in-the-blanks web form, it will send one or many follow-up messages to your prospective customer, without any additional effort on your part.

Use your autoresponder for newsletters, reminders, buying guides, special offers, and multi-part training sessions.

Customers always request and then confirm they want to be on your autoresponder list, so there should never be any problem with the perception of spam—and they can opt-out at any time. Rather than guessing, follow best practices and let your readers choose how often they want to hear from you. It will normally be every 2-4 weeks, but it could be shorter or longer, from daily to quarterly.

In addition to programmed messages, your autoresponder will also "broadcast" non-scheduled mailings for special events, announcements, news, etc.

Autoresponders perform three major tasks:

• Send out a series of messages automatically
  
• Automatically confirm that a inbound message has been received
• Manually broadcast to your list

But what if you don't have much of a mailing list, or even a web site set up for marketing. . . how do you start the ball rolling? Use your other marketing tools to prime the pump: integrate your autoresponder address into your radio and TV spots, postcards, print media ads, mailed newsletters, hand-outs, social networking sites, online forums, etc. This gives you an opportunity to:

• Build your list
• Track the effectiveness of your campaign

Let's look at the humble postcard, one of the least costly and most effective tools. Instead of just printing your normal business email address on the postcard, include your autoresponder address. Something like this . . .

freeguide@domain.com

A simple address like this one encourages circulation, it's easily mailed from person to person.

Offer some type of information or benefit that's truly helpful and relevant to your customer as an enticement for them to sign-up.

• If you're an architect, offer a guide to business owners on how to build their own office building.
• If your run a home improvement store, offer a how-to course on saving energy around the house.
• If you make guitars, talk about what goes into a great guitar and show how yours achieve their smile-inducing tonality.
• If you own a health spa, review the benefits of all the services you offer, and how they will make your customers feel great.
• If you're a dentist, don't send me a lame birthday card, tell me how to keep my teeth and gums healthy!

There are more ideas at Web Marketing Basics

Since you can create as many autoresponder addresses as you want, there's an opportunity to code the addresses to track how well your media is performing . . .

freeguide1@autoresponder.com (postcard)
freeguide2@autoresponder.com (tv ad)
freeguide3@autoresponder.com (print ad)

The autoresponder messages are identical, but because you're using a unique address, you'll know exactly which media, design, headline, or message works best (the autoresponder software will tell you).

In any case, the postcard recipient simply sends a blank email to the autoresponder address and the process begins (they can also sign-up on your site). It's a great way to deliver multi-part messages over time. By the way, if you go the multi-part message route, provide a way for impatient readers to download the whole series at once.

If it makes sense, include a buy button in the message, taking the reader straight to your shopping cart.

That's right, while your toes are exploring the warm sand of a Mexican beach, your trusty autoresponder will continue to educate your customers and make sales around the clock.

Key Benefits of Autoresponders

• The name and e-mail address of each subscriber is automatically added to a database, saving you endless hours of data entry and building a valuable asset.
• Personalized follow up messages are automatically sent to each of your subscribers at regular, predetermined intervals, building trust and rapport between you and your subscribers.
• You spend more time with your family and away from your business, since the autoresponder is doing work that you would have to either do yourself or delegate to staff.
• The autoresponder converts subscribers into customers without intervention from you!
• If you try to send large quantities of mail from your own server, you're likely to run into delivery problems. Commercial autoresponder services maximize delivery rates (usually 99%+) and comply with regulatory guidelines.

Blogs and Autoresponders

Is there a way to link your blog to your autoresponder list, to make it do double duty? Absolutely. Set up your autoresponder to receive the built-in news feed from your blog. When you create a new post, it's also sent out to your list. This builds site content and communicates with your customers at the same time. Great stuff! Don't worry, you'll get a chance to place posts in a queue and check the contents before anything goes live. In fact, you can write both autoresponder messages and blog posts now and publish them at any future time through the built-in scheduler.

Speaking Up

I'm a big believer in audio. Many of us are better at speaking informally than writing—it comes naturally. That's perfect! You don't have to slave over keyboard to produce autoresponder or blog content. And you don't need to sound like James Earl Jones; just be yourself.

Record your audio message and outsource a transcription of it (to use on your site) for a small fee. Most people have too much to read already. Audio is a refreshing change that forms a more personal relationship with your customers than text.

Including a short audio recording is an effective way to break through the ho-hum of most newsletters. I'll tell you exactly how to do this with professional-level results in a coming article. Meanwhile try Hot Recorder with Skype.

To collect audio customer testimonials, check out Instant Audio, a telephone-based service that makes it quick and easy. (With a little equipment, you can do the same thing with your existing voicemail service.)

If it seems too odd to sit in a quiet room alone with a microphone, find a muse, someone to prompt you in a conversation. Consider interviewing an expert on the phone, just like your favorite radio station would do. Or share a recording made at an interesting live event.

Just a few years ago, recording and distributing audio was expensive and difficult. Now it's cheap and easy. There's no reason not to do it. You'll end up with powerful combination of text and audio content.

Just 15 minutes of recorded conversation is equivalent to about 2,500 written words, enough for 3 substantial autoresponder messages or blog posts.

The ultimate expression of "almost being there" communication on the Internet is the webcast/teleseminar. Find out more at Xiosoft. Teleseminars and video programming are advanced techniques that require another dimension of commitment, but like TV, they are very powerful.

What's Your Style?

“Is that a real poncho, or a Sears poncho?” — Frank Zappa

Does this all this sound too commercial for your taste? Are you imagining some sort of breathless hard-sell pitch in each message? There's no need to use those tactics, in fact, I don't even recommend them. Most people can see right through a thinly-disguised pitch. Instead, educate your visitors, form a relationship based on mutual respect, then provide a easy path for them to buy when they are ready.

Everything described here can be designed and deployed in any style, from elegant and tasteful to loud and aggressive. Whatever course you choose, it should match the vibe and philosophy of your business. Don't be put off with autoresponders if you're in a business that requires a long-term subtle approach, that's exactly where they shine.

Getting it Done

Sure, setting up an autoresponder mailing system is a some work, but it's one of those high-profit tactics that's crying out to be done. Here are some options for deployment . . .

• Alta can help you set up the technology and also provide a full autoresponder marketing strategy.
• Delegate it to staff. Assign responsibility for someone to send the mailing on time. Once the habit of collecting and posting content is in place, it's straightforward to maintain.
• Outsource it to Elance. They have people that can help with almost every task, including professional copy writing and publishing to your blog. Of course, if you do outsource, check everything before public release.
• Let your affiliates do the work. Setting up a basic affiliate program doesn't take much more than some tracking software which can be had for less than $100. Affiliates promote your products or service to their network, greatly leveraging your marketing. The affiliate system is perhaps best suited to shopping cart-style product sites, but with a little ingenuity, it can be adapted to services as well, for example, by filling out an appointment request form. You only pay a commission to the affiliate when a sale is made. I'm surprised that more businesses haven't considered the benefits of an affiliate network.

Autoresponders are a great way to save time, reduce stress, build customer loyalty, increase conversions, and make more money! The key is to stay focused on providing helpful information to your customers early in the buying process.

How do you find out what's helpful to your customers? Ask! You need to know what they want, what's important to them, how they view things, and what's missing in existing services or products. When it comes to building an autoresponder sequence and structuring your traffic-generation site, it's all about discovering and responding to your customers needs and aspirations.

If you tune in, and communicate at reasonable intervals, you're on the right track.

Recommended autoresponder services: Aweber and GetResponse.

Site Optimization & Marketing Strategies Growing Your Online Business Web Marketing Basics Optimization Concepts Alternatives to Paid Advertising Keyword-Based Content Audio Interviews & Tips Autoresponders & Awareness Newsletter Best Practices Paid Advertising Pros & Cons of Paid Advertising How to Write an Ad that Pulls Affiliate Marketing Programs What is Affiliate Marketing? 7 Benefits of Affiliate Marketing Checklist: Ideal Affiliate Program Motivating Your Affiliates Glossary Sample Reports Keyword Visibility Report Competitors & Partners Report Contact: Michael Charvet Alta Publishing, LLC Tel: +1-530-873-8041 IM: altapublishing Updated: April 8, 2008 © 2003 - 2007 Alta Publishing, LLC