3 Ways An Autoresponder
Can Help Your Business

What is an autoresponder? It's a text document that is served up whenever email is sent to a specific email address. Exactly like a fax-on-demand except it's handled by email.

The entire process is automated, so it's an excellent way to interact with your customers and prospects without having to spend any time composing an email.

Use an autoresponder to: 

1. Increase sales. 
Do you have a price list, monthly specials, articles you've written, etc. that you would like people to be able to help themselves to? Do you receive emails requesting more information about your business? This will also help to qualify prospects with minimal effort.

2. Let people know you're away.
When you go on vacation or out-of-town business trips, do you check your email? If you'd prefer not to, we can set up a temporary autoresponder that will give people information on when you'll return and whom to contact in your absence.

3. Reach people who only have email.
There are millions of people who still don't have Internet access. Some are using wireless devices. Others get their email at work but their employer who doesn't allow Web surfing. Still others just don't "get" the Internet (figuratively OR literally speaking). Rather than let clueless prospects wander lost in your website, give them the information they need and you'll have a friend for life! 

FAQ:

Q: How will I know who requests my information? 
A: We would need to set up a form on your site to collect each requester's email address.

Q: How many autoresponder documents can I have?
A: As many as you are willing to pay for. I charge a flat rate of $10 to set each one up.

Q: Why not just put the document on my website? 
A: You should do both. An autoresponder allows visitors the opportunity to re-read the article at their leisure at some point in the future. With so much information overload, people might forget to go get the information themselves. And even if they do, many forget to bookmark websites. With an autoresponder, they have the information they're interested in, AND a link to your site (don't forget to include one!). Another important consideration is printability. Most websites are set at 800x600 resolution, which won't print correctly unless you specify "landscape" (which looks weird and takes extra pages).

Also, consider that when you are talking to a customer or prospect on the phone (or leaving a message on voicemail), it is simpler to give an email address than a URL to the information you want them to see. Even the shortest URL can get confusing when you try to give it verbally. 

Relationship marketing is the buzzword of the decade. Every positive interaction your prospect has with your company brings them closer to having a relationship with you. People aren't inclined to follow through when they're in passive mode (visiting your website). Asking for and receiving an article in their email is active. Aren't proactive people the ones you really want to reach?! They're just serving themselves to you on a silver platter.

Note: When you have material (such as a price list) that is subject to change, be sure to include a link to the page on your website and a disclaimer so people won't hold you responsible for outdated information.

Q: How can I protect my copyrighted material from being plagiarized?
A: You can't, so it's pointless to worry about this. Anybody can copy text on a web page or for that matter, in a published book. However, if they publish it on the Web, there are ways to find it. Try doing a search for a string of unique text which should appear only in your material.

A word about formatting: Your text will look better and be more readable to your recipient if you edit it in Notepad to control line endings. The most readable text uses hard returns after each 70-character line. The easy way to do this is to create a line with 70 dashes for a visual guide that you can copy into your clipboard (control-C) and paste above each section temporarily (control-V).

For more on the subject, you might want to read 50 Ideas on Using Autoresponders.