Autoresponders are highly profitable – no matter what industry you’re based in. It’s the type of strategy smart marketers invest their time in because when done right, the profit substantially outweighs the cost.
Today I’m going to teach you:
- What an autoresponder is
- What type of autoresponder you should avoid
- The three types of autoresponder that will increase your ROI
What is an Autoresponder?
An autoresponder is a sequence of pre-written emails you send to people on your email list – automatically. It’s passive income. You set it up, let it run in the background and eventually make revenue from it.
Typically, marketers would setup an autoresponder to start when someone first joins an email list, as a way to familiarise a customer with their brand. For example, if a user opts-in for your list, you could automatically send an email on day 1, and then send two more emails on days 3 and 5.
Avoid This Mistake
The biggest mistake I see with some businesses is the fact they don’t have an autoresponder setup. This could mean someone opts-in to an email list and then receives nothing. The problem is, if you don’t email your list regularly when someone first subscribes, when you do eventually send an email, because people haven’t frequently heard from you, they may forget who you are and think you’re spamming them.
The key is to give value when people subscribe. Giving value allows you to earn your customer’s trust, which will help you sell to them in the long run.
Avoid Using This Autoresponder
If there’s one autoresponder that’s a waste of time, it’s this one. The truth is, setting up this autoresponder equals setting up no autoresponder. Yes, it does a good job greeting your subscribers, but equally, a single welcome mail isn’t going to endear customers to your brand or USP.
Instead, here’s 3 autoresponders you should consider setting up:
Autoresponder #1: The Helper
This autoresponder is my favourite. The basic idea here is to increase the chance a customer will purchase by first earning trust. You can earn trust by educating a prospect about a product’s advantages, before leading into a sale.
For example, let’s say you’re the owner of an online pet store. You notice your customers are experiencing trouble selecting the right products for their pets. Because they can’t decide what to buy, resistance creeps in and so they leave without buying.
In this instance, you will want to stop the resistance occurring. To do this, you could send them a simple questionnaire, which then reveals whether the customer’s pet should be getting product X, Y or Z?
By answering these questions, it can help break down buying resistance and increase the chance a customer will buy.
Autoresponder #2: Keen Dealer
According to a study reported on Huffington Post, it costs 5 to 7 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain one. With this in mind, whenever an existing customer buys, it makes sense to upsell your products to increase their order size.
To do this, a technique I frequently use is offer discounted bundles. For instance, let’s say I’m the owner of an online tennis store. If a customer buys a racquet, and I want to increase their order size, I could offer a bundle that contains a sweatband, racket grips and tennis balls. Quite simply, upsell autoresponder is just one of the methods to maximise customer orders and grow your business.
Note: your customers can easily forget that they wanted to buy one of your products. So don’t forget to send customer reminder emails to buy.
Autoresponder #3: The Asker
An autoresponder isn’t just an automated tool to sell your products and services. You can use it as a way to engage with customers and get ideas for new products. For instance, you could ask customers if you could:
- Interview them to understand what they value in your products. These insights will help you improve your marketing message
- Share their successful stories of using your products. You can then create case studies to publish on your site to generate greater credibility among your audience
- Send them a survey to understand what problems they have. Knowing this helps you create new content to serve their needs
Final Thoughts
An autoresponder really is the marketer’s treasured asset. Not only does it give you the ability to nurture prospects into paying customers, it’s highly profitable too.
I hope you found this article helpful, and if you’d like to receive more exclusive email marketing tips, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter by clicking here.
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