When your business is slow, like in the current economic conditions, there is a proven way to help things pick back up. Using autoresponders can make potential customers turn into new and repeat customers without much work on your part. It also helps stay in contact with that vital follow-up that leads to referrals and keeps customers coming back long after that first sale. They are much more than just emails; they are a way for you to connect and secure business.
What is an autoresponder
An autoresponder can act like a digital office assistant and help stay in touch with clients or potential clients. It will remind them that you are there to help and want to keep your business relationship open. It will also reassure them that your business is trustworthy and knowledgeable when they have questions. Though it would be simple to have a distribution list for ten or even fifty people, managing more names and emails can be a pain and take valuable time away from your business. Instead, an autoresponder takes away the headache and saves time and money when used to its full potential.
How to choose the best autoresponder service
Some things to keep in mind when choosing an autoresponder include delivery rates and opt-in choices. You want to find an autoresponder with delivery rates of 98% or better so that you know the email is getting to the recipient. With opt-in choices, you will normally see one or two choices. It is best to have two choices as only one will return more spam hits, and you could get dropped from your service if you get too much spam. Also, you want to look at reviews on the company website. Good companies will also carry a money-back-guarantee if their product is worth your time. Watch out for free services as they usually include ads that make your company look cheap.
Ten tips
Here are ten vital tips to help your business stay on top of the technology curve and keep your follow up current and legitimate for your target market. Most autoresponders are in the form of a newsletter or e-zine article.
1. Keep the content current and applicable to a wide audience.
2. Parts of the response should be customizable, so the clients name appears, and it feels more directed directly at them.
3. The process to get subscribers should be simple or else people will not be interested.
4. If possible have a plain text version of content for people who prefer not to receive large size emails with pictures.
5. Keep the number of times information is sent to a small number, like once per week as opposed to ‘daily digest’ content. Most people will unsubscribe if they are flooded with content they cannot get through in a short period of time.
6. Prepare your content in advance outside the autoresponder to be sure it is spell checked and proofread by others before it is sent off.
7. Watch current trends and be able to explain in layman terms what is going on in your market or industry.
8. Help point out potential pitfalls or things like recalls of products
9. Think about adding informative links like blogs and consumer review information if applicable.
10. Include at least one simple acknowledgment that the customer came to your website and you appreciate their time
Now that you are armed with another tool in your marketing tool bag your business can begin to achieve its top potential!
The old-school follow-up
Usually, the follow-up progress begins when the lead requests more info about your business proposal. In the offline Network Marketing system the respond for a request like that is giving the prospect some kind of information (an info package, a DVD about the opportunity that explains everything better than we could etc.).
This was done personally or through the mailing service. I want to point out that these advertising methods cost quite a lot of money according to the materials used for making them, plus paying for the postage. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to do this once as there were some more people on the list they wanted to transfer these promotional stuff.
Just to mention, I was marketing the same way. However, I transferred the information by email. Either way, after forwarding the information the next step is the follow-up. The reason why it’s crucial is because nobody will join you just because you sent them some information. In the older way of Network Marketing, regularly unqualified prospects (not entrepreneurs) were approached with home based business propositions. Therefore, it was even more important to build relationships and trust with your prospects. Even if you were pursuing friends and family, you needed to be the person that they respected and listened to.
Today everybody is busy. Therefore, each opportunity has to be shown more than once in order to get people make a decision. That’s why follow-up is used in MLM to make the leads think of your opportunity and to have them take action.
The traditional process looked like this: Mr. Distributor chases everybody he knows, he posts some information packages (it cost money and takes time) and then begin to call each person few times, to get rejected at the end of the day. No, sign-ups, and it costs 2 valuable assets: time and money.
Autoresponders in the online world
The greatest element of following-up by using an Internet MLM system is that it makes the time period shorter between the first connection and the selling at a later stage. It is also less expensive.
However, the best is that it can be done automatically without you actually being there and 24/7. Doing this online let you sleep while a prospect is asking for more information on your website on a different side of the planet, and it makes no problem to provide the requested service. It saves you a lot of time and money.
Once your Home Business leads subscribe to your newsletter on your site, your autoresponder starts to send out the first message in the next minute. and from then on it will send valuable information every day. Your Home Business leads – by reading those emails – can make their decision whether they want to buy your product or not, without feeling pushed at all. (You know, people like buying they don’t like to be sold.) This is also a very good method for those who experienced a lot of rejections during their MLM career; in this case they won’t. By using Internet MLM you can have prospects come to you requesting information, and they are the ones who feel impressed whenever you call them. This is the modern Network Marketing. And why would you stick to a cheap car if you could have an Aston Martin?
