As a business owner, there’s absolutely nothing that says, “you’re on the wrong side,” like using an autoresponder for your e-newsletter marketing. There’s a few different things that you can do in order to set it up properly, so you can deliver messages to your list, but they’re all pretty self-explanatory.
The real challenge for the autoresponder, in my opinion, is the number of people that get turned off by the word “autoresponder.” Now, why on earth would you want an autoresponder, I mean come on, isn’t that supposed to be a feature of your website? Now there are people who have their autoresponders set up to send out emails, but for the most part, when people use that term, they’re thinking, “I’m gonna spam you.”
But it’s not spamming if you’re giving them the option to opt in. And in this case, people were thinking that it was, because it was a double opt in process. So the autoresponder was just asking them if they want to receive messages from you. The problem is, this is not a long term solution for your business, in that this won’t actually provide you any long term sales, because people will forget who you are, and will just get irritated, and unsubscribe. And when unsubscribes happen, there is literally nothing you can do about it.
So now what do you do? But you can have an autoresponder, so your customers can go in and opt into your autoresponder, and have them send messages out to you as if you’re still subscribed. But when that happens, your subscriber list will explode. And the thing is that they’ll do it because they’re actually signing up, and they want to be on your list. So just don’t fall for that, and be careful with who you trust with your marketing.
Now, I’m assuming you’re using a WordPress blog, but the concept is the same for any blog. You can get an autoresponder which will automatically followup on your blog. Now obviously if one of your readers were to click that and go onto your Facebook fan page, then they will no longer be on your autoresponder list. So be careful that when you’re using autoresponders that you’re not spamming people.
The best way to set up autoreply lists is to have a simple web page, so when someone goes to your website, if they subscribe, and they signup, then a single web page would send that person out an automated sequence of emails. Now there are a variety of ways to implement this. And I like this one which is actually quite good.
Basically what this does, is it sends you four emails, then it waits for them to click on one of four things. If you’re a good friend, then they do not click on the emails, then you get some Facebook friends, then they do click on one of your articles (you can write and submit articles to article directories), then they subscribe to maybe your mailing list. If they then get on my space and sign up for something, then they get sent straight to newsletters. And if they like an article I’ve written, then they will unsubscribe and then I stop sending them emails.
The best thing that I find is that if someone subscribes to my mailing list, but they do not immediately download some of the articles I’ve written, then I will not send them any newsletters. And the reason being is that, if they don’t like my stuff, then they’ll either unsubscribe, or click that “Don’t send me anything” link. And if I then send them emails, then they’re not going to know that they like my stuff, which is fine, because I’m not going to email them at all. But if they just subscribe but they like my stuff, and they don’t immediately download some of my articles, then they’re going to download some of my stuff, they’ll like it, and then they’ll unsubscribe to my mailing list. I’ve had this happen twice, so this is definitely the best way to set this up. And it’s very much like, in the beginning that might seem kinda weird, but you’ll get used to it fast.
And this is really useful if you’re selling a product. Because suppose you have a product. And you have a web page that talks about the product. And it gives away this free report. And all the people who get the free paper, but who do not buy the product, they will then automatically unsubscribe from your list. But they’re going to be subscribed to your newsletter forever, and that way they can get the product whenever you add it in.
So you can do that. This will save you email addresses.
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