Your TIME, Your RESULTS - Your Auto-Responder by Rhonda Hailey You will greatly BENEFIT from taking advantage of Auto- Responders. They can set you free, and more importantly greatly improve your sales or closing ratio. WHY Autoresponders? Because they INCREASE your productivity and more importantly your SALES by: *** Saving your TIME - Time you can spend on more important things like ad copy. *** Increased EFFICIENCY - it works even while you sleep. *** Improves customer/affiliate relations by providing useful information in a timely manner and developing the all important RELATIONSHIP. So HOW do you use Auto-Responders? Every Auto-Responder is different yet much the same. You simply follow your systems directions for configuring. You will be asked to specify where you want successful subscribes to be directed to, where to send return mail, where to send your original subscribe requests and even a signature file, etc. You can enter your contacts into your autoresponder system and set up a series of messages that they will receive. These can be sales messages, follow-up messages, training messages, motivational messages to your downlines - whatever you need. The key is to get your message series set up, and then actually use it! Most professional Auto- Responders will also allow you to send "broadcast messages" which are great for safelist owners and ezine publishers, or anyone with a downline or customer base. If you are reading this, you probably fall into one of these categories. How NOT to use your autoresponder: 1) You should NEVER use your autoresponder address as a "reply to" address. This is not accepted on the Internet and is reasonable cause for cancellation of your account. 2) You should NOT enter random email addresses into your system. This is the same as SPAMMING, even if each message has removal instructions. 3) You should NOT enter other autoresponder addresses into your system. This will cause emails to "bounce" back and forth between the autoresponders. Basically, use good judgement. If something seems like it could put your account at risk, it probably will. The three most common ways to allow opt-ins to your auto- responder: 1) Use the admin area of your autoresponder to automatically create a WEB FORM for your website. This form will collect name and email address information (and anything else you want) from your site's visitors and will allow them to receive your information. This is called "opting in", it means you have their permission to send them information or sales messages. 2) When corresponding, or in your advertising, you can provide your auto-responders email address, i.e: mailto:youraccountname@yourautoresponder.com Again, this is allowing one to "OPT-IN" to receive information from you. 3) You can IMPORT lists of people that have already opted to receive information from you by using the import function of your account. Which Auto-Responder should you use? There are many auto-responders available on the net and many are free. The problem with most free accounts, is that the way they are kept free is by selling advertising. You set up a series of messages in your free auto-responder and every time your customer reads your message, they also read the paid advertisement placed at the top of your message. (Just hope it isn't a competitor's message or distracts your customer off to another site, instead of yours.) Your customers' inbox is already full of distractions. If you are lucky enough to get them to open your mail, you certainly don't want somebody elses ad or link there competing for the valuable seconds his/her eyes may spend on your message. If you are serious about your business, I strongly suggest you get serious about your auto-responders and turn lose of $15-$20 a month to get a professional system. Before you buy - be sure to consider your goals and future plans. It may make sense to spend more money now, for a system you will grow into, in order to SAVE much time later when you outgrow an inadequate system. Things to consider: Do you promote more than one program or product? Do you purchase leads or need the ability to IMPORT? Do you have employees or downlines to train or motivate? Do you respond to frequently asked questions or find yourself typing out the same information often? Do you publish a newsletter or plan to? Do you need or want the ability to use html in your messages? Will you want the ability to correspond with your opt-in list over an extended period of time, or long term? In the meantime, you can get a good professional auto- responder from ISOR which also provides an extensive list of web-master tools and resources, including ad tracking. http://www.rphinc.net/cgi-bin/atz/t.cgi?iso_article Its your TIME, Your RESULTS - your Auto-Responder does matter. Choose wisely. --------------------------------- Rhonda Hailey is the editor of RUMBLES from the Jungle E- Zine. We help you Save TIME and Money while getting better RESULTS. Free weekly Classifieds and downloads for subscribers. Visit: http://rumblesfromthejungle.com __________________________________________________ ©Copyright 2003 - Rhonda Hailey Reprints permitted with Editors Box intact.