Easy-To-Do Automation For Techno-Phobic Web Site Owners Who Want To Stop
Losing Valuable Time On Daily Chores And Start Increasing Sales
..FREE
classified ads are just about useless! Even if your ads are very well
written...the fact is that nobody ever goes to a Classified site to browse
through Business Opportunity ads.
..Opt-in mailing lists (Safelist) get you nothing but a clogged-up inbox
from people trying to sell you something... and you spend hours every day
just trying to keep the darn thing emptied out!
..Search Engines are useless for business opportunities. There are over 10
million pages and your page never gets higher than the 900,000th no matter
who you pay to help you!
..Your FFA pages are worse than useless! No wonder they call them Free For
All.
..Surf-for-Hits programs are self-defeating! Everybody browses mindlessly,
without any interest in YOUR page, only trying to build up enough credits
to get you to look at their sites...but do you? Of course not!
..Start-pages looked like a good idea when they were first introduced, but
nobody ever gets sales from them...did you? It's only an excuse for the
owner of the program to justify sending commercial emails to you.
..Autohits and their plethora of look-alikes sound good because you can
switch a couple of them on and go to bed and log up hundreds of hits while
you sleep! Problem is, that's exactly what everybody does! Nobody ever
buys anything in their sleep!
..Banner exchange programs could be effective if it wasn't for the fact
that all of the Affiliate Programs you belong to, provide replicated pages
that can't be edited to let you add a banner. Besides, banners on your
website tend to siphon your prospects off to other opportunities!
..Posting to Newsgroups is tedious, dangerous and non-productive. They
bring nothing but Hate-Mail, some pretty foul language, and a nasty
assortment of viruses and "worms"
..Many companies have built wealth on the fear of "Spam", selling you
their programs of Opt-In subscribers. The truth is, these lists are people
are just like you, trying to create a business online. They are not
interested in your program.
IF YOU HAVE
BEEN DOING ANY MARKETING WITH THESE PROGRAMS,
YOU KNOW I TELL YOU THE TRUTH. THEY DON'T WORK!
There are no two ways about it. E-mail is still the primary way
business owners are communicating with their customers and subscribers.
E-mail is used to answer questions. follow up with potential customers.
confirm purchases. provide information of interest. and maintain
relationships. It's a vital source of income for any successful
Internet business.
Now I'm sure you already understand this, but let me ask you a serious
question: Are you managing your e-mail as efficiently as you could be?
Statistics from a recent Jupiter Media Metrix report say not.
Only 38% of online businesses are reported to be living up to
customer's expectations, responding to their inquiries within 6 hours or
less:
- 62% are taking longer than 6 hours to respond.
- 33% are taking 3 days (or longer!) to respond.
- And a shocking 24% of businesses have thrown up their hands and
given up responding to customer inquiries entirely!
And all of these disturbing statistics point to the simple fact that,
despite all of the technology available, nearly three quarters of web site
owners have no idea how to manage their e-mail. After all, why else would
you so severely neglect the critical and extremely valuable
relationship with your customers and subscribers?
I've seen it happen to some really intelligent business owners. You
start out with the best of intentions. You grow your web site traffic. you
run a few successful promotions. and suddenly you go from personally
answering a handful of e-mails each day to drowning under hundreds of
customer inquiries, questions, and requests. Managing your e-mail suddenly
becomes a full-time job!
If you plan to grow your business, you can't afford to be
spending your days chained to your computer, replying to e-mail after
e-mail individually. Especially if you want to grow quickly! Even if
you're using canned messages (i.e. pre-written e-mails that can just be
cut & paste), looking after your e-mail one by one can fast become
overwhelming.
And this is where a lot of new e-business owners find themselves stuck.
You may be there yourself right now. You're tired of wasting your days
replying to the same e-mails over and over again. but automation is
even more intimidating. Replying to hundreds of e-mails each day
probably seems a lot less daunting than finally buckling down and
getting automated.
I know where you're coming from. The mysterious scripts and software
that seem to magically automate the average e-commerce web site can be a
bit intimidating for a new e-business owner.
You know that, somehow, automation should give you the power to.
- Anticipate and instantly respond to the needs of your customers
by answering common questions on the spot.
- Give potential customers the exact information they need,
exactly when they need it - when they're still a hot prospect -
so they can make that important buying decision.
- Capture the e-mail addresses of visitors to your web site so
that you can market to them again and again - for free!
- Increase the perceived value of your web site by offering
free reports or articles that can be e-mailed to prospects the minute
they request them!
- Dramatically reduce the time you waste on daily chores so you
can start growing your business instead of getting trapped running it!
- Start capitalizing on the lifetime value of your existing
customers - automatically increasing your sales without increasing
your workload!
. and much more.
You see other e-businesses doing it all around you - taking advantage
of this mysterious "automation," freeing up their time to increase their
profits even more. But how the heck is everyone doing it? Is it "I Dream
of Jeannie" wizardry? Cross your arms, wiggle your nose, and voila
- instant automation?
Almost.
Like anything, you can make the automation of your web site as
simple or as complicated as you want. Large e-commerce sites hire
programmers with education and experience to put together intuitive
automation systems that make learning to translate Greek to Latin seem
easy. Fortunately, the average web site owner just starting out doesn't
need anything nearly this complicated (or confusing!).
Did you know that all of the automation I've mentioned so far in this
article can be accomplished with one simple tool called "autoresponders"?
Automate Your Customer
Service And Dramatically Increase
The Sales You Close With This One Simple Tool...
Now don't panic!
Autoresponders are not difficult to use. So take a deep breath and
let's get past any techno-phobia that might be preventing you from
making your life a lot easier - and your business a lot more
profitable!
An autoresponder is basically an e-mail tool that is designed to
automatically respond to any incoming messages to a particular e-mail
address that you set up. Confused? Then let me give you an example that
will clearly illustrate exactly how this works.
Example #1:
A visitor arrives at your web site and reads your sales copy. They're
interested in your product, but they have a question that needs to be
answered before they'll consider making a purchase. So they e-mail you at
faq@yoursite.com (an e-mail address you've set up for just this purpose).
Your experience answering customer questions has shown you that there
are 10 or 12 questions people ask over and over again. So rather than
answering each person individually, you put together a "Frequently Asked
Questions" (FAQ) e-mail. You spend an hour or so writing it, making sure
that it's thorough and that it ultimately directs the reader back to your
web site to close the sale.
You then set up this FAQ e-mail in an autoresponder, so when the
visitor e-mails their question to faq@yoursite.com, they are automatically
sent your FAQ e-mail. It's neat, clean, and simple.
The e-mail your visitor receives might read something like this:
| Subject: Answer to your question Hi!
Thank you for your inquiry. Our experience has shown us that most
people ask one of the following ten questions, so we've sent you this
informative e-mail because we know that your time is valuable and we
want to make sure that your question is answered as quickly as
possible.
If you find that your question is not answered below, then please
do not hesitate to e-mail us at info@yoursite.com We'll be happy to
answer any further questions you may have.
Yours truly,
Your name here.
*** And answers to your 10 most frequently asked
questions start here *** |
Within 5 minutes of sending their e-mail to faq@yoursite.com, the
visitor receives your e-mail via your autoresponder. They read through
your FAQ e-mail and find the answer to their question.
The visitor is impressed because.
- You anticipated their needs
- You replied instantly
- You answered their questions
- You made it easy for them to e-mail you any
further questions
. and this means that you look extremely professional. This
instant reply also lends your business a measure of credibility because
you've made it clear that your customers are your first priority and that
you take your business very seriously.
Do you think this visitor will go back to your web site to make their
purchase? Chances are very good that they will. In fact, the
probability that you will close this sale is much higher than if you
had forced this person to wait a week for a reply. Or hadn't answered at
all.
How much time did this take you? None. You wrote the e-mail and then
used the autoresponder to automate your customer service. You now provide
fast, high-quality customer service, decrease your workload, and
only respond to customers who have unique questions or situations that
need your personal touch. It'll take you just minutes each day to respond
to customer inquiries instead of the hours it did before you got
automated!
Let me give you another example.
Example #2:
If you've been reading this newsletter for a while, then you already
know that a critical step in closing sales involves establishing your
credibility. And establishing your credibility, in many cases,
requires repeated contact with potential customers.
A good way to initiate a "second contact" with a potential customer is
by using autoresponders.
A visitor arrives at your web site and starts looking around. They
notice that you offer a free article titled "The Best Ways To Save Time
And Money." They click on freearticle@yoursite.com and are prompted to
send a blank e-mail to this e-mail address.
The visitor is quite content to take 30 seconds to do this because they
want this valuable information.
So they send a blank e-mail to freearticle@yoursite.com to request the
article from your autoresponder... they spend a few more minutes looking
around your web site... and then they leave. They have a clear interest in
your product or service (they requested your article on the subject,
right?), but they're just not ready to buy yet.
Now this is the really powerful part. The visitor checks their
e-mail half an hour after they've left your web site. perhaps even the
next day. and discovers your free article waiting in their Inbox. They
read it because they requested it and therefore already know it contains
information that is of interest to them.
So this is your second chance to:
- Prove your expertise,
- Establish your credibility,
- Develop a relationship with them by providing valuable information
they can use, and
- Direct them back to your web site to close the sale!
Pretty powerful, right?
Now imagine how you could increase your sales even more by
sending this potential customer a follow-up e-mail - using the e-mail
address they gave you when they requested the article - and asking them if
there is anything else you could help them with? Or even by sending them a
special offer as a "thank you" for reading your article?
The possibilities are endless really. You could offer autoresponders
like.
- salesinfo@yoursite.com - for people who would prefer to
receive your sales information in an easy-to-print e-mail they can read
offline. (Not everyone has free Internet access, so this saves them
money!)
- article@yoursite.com - to send interested potential customers
copies of articles that initiate that important "second contact" and
remind them about your business, your products, and your web site. Once
you have their e-mail address (which they obviously have to give you in
order to receive the article via e-mail), you can contact them again to
follow up very easily!
- faq@yoursite.com - to answer potential customer's questions
on the spot, while they're still a hot prospect, and dramatically
increase the sales you're closing.
- instructions@yoursite.com - for customers who have purchased
your product, service, software, etc. but need a bit of extra help using
it. This simple e-mail could answer commonly asked technical questions
automatically!
- report@yoursite.com - to give visitors to
your site valuable information about your particular industry and
increase the chances that they'll return to your web site again and
again as valuable resource.
- info@yoursite.com - if you don't have time
to reply to a customer's inquiry for a day or two, you can at least send
them an e-mail via autoresponder to let them know you've received their
message and will be getting back to them in 48 hours. An instant,
professional reply like this ensures your customer isn't sitting at
their computer for hours, impatiently waiting for your answer.
. You could even set up an autoresponder like
confirmation@yoursite.com that confirms you've received a customer's
order or subscription to your newsletter - automatically!
By sending each new customer a confirmation of their
order, you'll put their minds at ease. They'll know that you're a
legitimate business who is going to follow through on your promises, not
some scam artist who has just stolen their credit card information. This
is also a good way to remind your customers when they can expect their
purchase to be delivered, what the charge to their credit card was, and
any product tracking information they might need.
Just think about how much time this will save you!
Are you excited? Yup. me too.
But
How The Heck Do You Make This Amazing Automation Happen?
We're back at square one, aren't we? You want the autoresponders and
the powerful automation they can bring your e-business. you have a general
understanding of how they work. but how the heck do you add them to your
web site?
Good question. You have 4 choices:
- Your Web Host: If you are willing to
commit to a long-term contract (i.e. one year or more), you can
sometimes get a couple of autoresponders for free from your web host. If
you only need 1 or 2 autoresponders, this might be a good option;
however, the reality is, if you're running a successful business, you're
going to need more. Plus, you don't really want to depend on your web
host for this service. If they go out of business or go down, you can
lose your entire autoresponder system.
- Autoresponders With Rotating Ads: You can
get "free" autoresponders if you are willing to let other companies
advertise in your message. However, I don't really recommend this. You
can't control the ads that appear in your e-mails, these ads can really
distract your reader from your sales message, and you appear
"unprofessional" because it's obvious you're using a "free" service. So
you're basically giving someone else free advertising, with few benefits
to you. Free isn't always as good as it might sound.
- Paid Autoresponder Services: You could
also use a paid autoresponder service. This can give you flexibility in
deciding exactly what autoresponder plan is right for you without being
forced to include advertisements in your message. You'll also have
greater flexibility to customize your autoresponders than if you were to
use a free autoresponder service.
The only real drawback is that they can get quite costly. Paid
autoresponder services can cost as much as $20 per month per
autoresponder, while others will charge you a fee each time someone
requests your information. If you decide to go this route, be sure that
you really shop around because the cost can get out of control very
quickly if you're not careful.
- Free Unlimited Autoresponders with Mailloop:
You already know that the Mailloop software is absolutely chock-full of
killer features that make tedious e-mail tasks a breeze. But on top of
it's e-mail and newsletter automation features, it can also be used to
send out an unlimited number of autoresponders directly from your home
computer. If you can install software, you can use these autoresponders.
It's that easy. You're 100% in control and they're totally customizable.
I won't overdo it here; I know that you've already
heard a lot about this software. Just know that it can save you tons of
cash and stress in the long run, and you don't have to be concerned
about limiting your autoresponders because of a tight budget! If you
want to learn more about getting free unlimited autoresponders with
Mailloop, then you can
click here now.
Final Thoughts:
Don't be intimidated by this
simple technology. You'll do your business a great disservice. Like I
said, if you can install and use software (it's as easy as clicking a few
buttons and following a few instructions), then you can easily use
autoresponders to automate.
Ideally, your goal should be
to get automated and then grow... but some of you may already be
drowning in e-mail. If that's you, don't keep putting this off! E-mail
automation is going to be critical to the success of your e-business.
If you're automated and using
autoresponders to manage daily chores, then you're going to have time to
focus on promotions and growing. If you're drowning in e-mail, you're
going to severely handicap your sales and income because you'll be too
focused on trying to just stay afloat.
Autoresponders are easy to
set up and they offer a wide variety of opportunities to automate
different aspects of your business. From customer service... to order
confirmations... to following up with potential customers... it's an easy
way to give customers the instant service they're demanding, while
increasing your sales and actually freeing yourself from tedious
routine chores.
It's not a
technique to be taken lightly...
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great service 24/7, hosting services and much much more. ...You can just
click on the banner and away you go to making your new website!
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