How To Start Your Own NewsletterYour Road Plan To Email Marketing Success |
14. Auto Responder ImprovementsAuto Responder Improvements Stuck in an auto responder rut with only your eZine going out regularly? Get out of the rut with some of these ideas for improvements. 1. Provide back issues of your eZine archives via your auto responder instead of hosting all your archives online. This will give your subscribers and web site visitors easy access to them and offers a chance to include graphics, audio and video and other components all rolled up in .pdf files for quick, easy download. 2. Help with tech issues and publish your entire web site, save it in a pdf file, and load it into an auto responder. Sometimes visitors don't have enough time read your entire site or they lose their Internet connection or time online. So this way, they could print it out and read it offline. 3. You could offer your eBook via an auto responder. Often your visitors won't have to download it or have the software to read it right away, so this way they can take it “to go”. 4. For a handy - -and nice legal - touch, you could include the terms and conditions to purchase transactions and load them into an auto responder that is triggered with each purchase. This could include return policies, purchases, refunds etc. Auto Responder Marketing Techniques The Internet offers many means of affordable marketing with auto responders. Here are a couple of popular ways of using them. DIRECTORY Some webmasters set up link or article directories on their sites. They create a directory on a specific industry topic, placing their own ad or banner along the top. Then they invite others to add their website links via a link exchange program, listing themselves in your directory. Or they invite articles to be submitted that include a resource box at the bottom of each with a link to the author’s website. This results on increased traffic as sites link up across the World Wide Web. Enter “link exchange software” or “article directory software” into a favorite search engine for help with each. TEACH A COURSE Some marketers write up a simple step-by-step instructional class in their area of expertise. Then they break it up into smaller portions or messages and set them up in an auto responder as email messages, including short ads within each message to invite sales & website visits. Then they invite website visitors to sign up through on online form or email subscription address offered through the auto responder service. As people sign up, they will learn more about the products and services through the teaching series. Do the Two-Step! Top sales pros confirm that it often takes seven or more communications or sales messages before prospective customers make a purchase. They also confirm that it’s generally easier to sell to a referral, because someone they know gave positive testimonial about their products or services. What would happen if you combined both of these powerful ideas? A nifty and thrifty two-step. Try this two-step tip: 1. Collect leads with your auto responder. Ask for mailing addresses and telephone numbers, too, for additional ways to follow up with each person. When you download the e-mail digest of everyone's e-mail addresses and other information from those who requested additional information from your auto responder, follow up multiple ways. Send postcards. Call. Mail sales letters and other promotional pieces. 2. Publish a price list of all the products and services that you offer in an insert, direct marketing package and / or .pdf to be made available via auto responder. You could also include order forms, product descriptions, and other sales material. Then send to the people in #1 above with monthly updates, announcements of new sales and products / services, and a request for referrals. So why not improve your closing ratio and reach out even farther at the same time? Do the two-step! Improve Your Sales with Auto Responder Improvements Improve your marketing and sales with some auto responder Improvements. Try some of these: 1. Publish free reports to send via your auto responder. The reports should be related to your business or web site & contain info, ads and links to your sites. People love getting freebies. 2. Collect vital customer satisfaction information by publishing a survey to send via auto responder to those who sign up on your site in exchange for a free eBook, software or trial period at your membership site. This type of information will help you understand their needs, likes & dislikes better. 3. Instead of answering each customer question that is e-mailed to you, publish "Frequently Ask Questions" and make them available via auto responder to those who sign up. To save time and support headaches. 4. Instead of publishing all of your customer testimonials or endorsements on your website, publish only a few there. And set up an auto responder form that invites visitors to receive a complete list via your. Give them a power-packed list; it's more effective to include all of them. Mix and match. Change your auto responder strategy to change your auto responder results! We discussed various strategies for creating, designing, marketing, and advertising ezines. We also discussed automated tools and services for distributing and delivering your ezine. However, there are a few tactics for delivering ezines yourself, which are worth mentioning. Although, I would recommend using a list server or a ezine distribution service for this purpose, you may distribute the ezine yourself. Before we discuss some of the ways to deliver ezines yourself, here’s what you would have to do manually: For all new subscribers send out a welcome email and add them to your subscriber database. For every unsubscribe request you would have to send an acknowledgement email and manually remove the email address from your database. And finally, you would have to manually send out a copy of your ezine to each and every subscriber from your database. This sounds easy doesn’t it! But wait till the time your list grows into hundreds and thousands. Handling such a massive amount would surely become a nightmare. Thus, I would absolutely recommend letting a list server or distribution service deal with these hassles. However, until the time your list grows you may handle these tasks yourself. Here are a few pointers that might help in carrying out the entire process efficiently. Some people use a plain text editor for storing all addresses. However, you are much better off using a tool such as MS Excel or MS Access. This would make managing your subscriber list much easier. It would easier to locate, edit and delete addresses compared to a text file. Store your ezine in both text and HTML format in a good word processor such as MS Word. Whenever you need to send out the ezine just copy and paste it onto your email client. Next, you need to enter all the email addresses into the email address rows of the email client. Please note that it is always advisable to paste all of the email addresses into the “bcc” row. Most email programs will have 3 outgoing fields, the 'To' field (more about this in a minute), the 'cc' or 'carbon copy' field and the 'bcc' or 'blind carbon copy' field. If you paste your list into the 'bcc' field then each address on the list will receive a copy of the newsletter but they will not be aware of the other addresses to which it has been sent. If, however, you mistakenly paste it into the 'cc' field, each address will again receive a copy of the newsletter but they will also see a full listing of all the other addresses to which it has been sent! The most professional ezines never let out email addresses of other subscribers. This can be done by pasting all email addresses into the “bcc” row. You cannot send out the mail unless you enter a valid email address in the “To” field. This problem can be solved by having your own email address in the “To” field. Make sure that this email address is different than the one you use to send out the ezines, otherwise your ezine would again look unprofessional. The reader doesn’t have to know that the email address in the “To” field is your own. You could sign up for a free email at hotmail or yahoo for this purpose. Once you follow these procedures you can send out your ezine. Managing a huge list can be a major problem. However, your worries don’t end here. There are many other problems you are likely to face if you go the manual way. Your email program may not support 'bcc'. In this case each newsletter would have to be sent individually. Your ISP, or your own modem, may be slow, resulting in a posting which takes a very long time to complete. Your ISP connection may be unstable, resulting in a loss of your connection part way through the mailing. Your mailing will result in a number of 'undeliverable' messages. Some of these will result from email addresses that no longer exist, while others will simply have been returned because of a temporary connection problem somewhere along the line. How do you know which to delete from your mailing list and which to send again a day or so later? Your ISP may have an email policy which restricts the number of 'bcc' recipients that can appear on an email message - a policy which is being adopted by an increasing number of ISPs. Thus, you are best served by letting a professional service handle the distribution of your ezines. 5. Conclusion Throughout this book we have discussed most of the proven strategies that should help you in succeeding with Ezines. After experiencing a certain level of success with your ezine you can think of adopting newer tactics and consequently increase your budget. With time you would surely realize the potential of ezines. This is when you should take your ezine campaign to the next level. One thing you should look to have is automating all or at least most of your procedures. Initially, you may not spend a lot of money on sophisticated tools but with success you should definitely aim to do so. Once you have the hang of ezines, you would find that most of your time should be ideally spent on marketing and advertising. Administrative functions should be completely automated. Next, you should adopt more sophisticated and comprehensive tracking packages. All marketing effort should be tracked and analyzed. This is where you should be spending your time – and not for managing subscriber lists! Finally, after publishing at least 15 to 20 issues of your ezine, you can contemplate compiling these issues into a single eBook. Such an eBook can be a great source of content and can be easily sold to existing as well as new customers with a high rate of success. There are many other innovative ways of profiting from your ezines. With proper planning your ezine can be a great success. All tactics, strategies, tips, and guidelines provided in this eBook may seem a bit overwhelming initially, but believe me once you go through the process of setting up an ezine campaign step by step it you would actually start enjoying your new venture. One thing you should always bear in mind that running an ezine campaign, like any other business, can only be successful with considerable persistence and dedication. You are mistaken if you expect substantial results immediately. It might be days before you start reaping your rewards – patience will pay off! Ezines are all about building credibility and trust amongst your subscribers. Most publishers lose patience only after a couple of months. You should give it more time – at least 10 to 12 months. I’m sure by then you would start achieving desired results. 6. eZine Templates Given below is a sample ezine template. This could be used for both Text as well as HTML ezines. Please note that this is not a guideline – just a recommended template for your convenience. Ezine Title Sub Title Issue# 00 Date Dear Name of the Subscriber, This publication is 100% opt-in. Please be assured that your privacy will be maintained and all records are kept confidential. No information would be given out. --------------------------------- Subscription Management --------------------------------- Subscribe info unsubscribe info contact list owner >>>>>>>>>>SPONSOR MESSAGE<<<<<<<<<< Your ad headline here Your ad body here Your http:// link here >>>>>>>>END SPONSOR MESSAGE<<<<<<<< Editor Notes: This section could be used to introduce the topic of the Ezine. You could talk about various articles in this issue of the Ezine along with a brief introductory message. Contents (Similar to a TOC) - Article - Resources - Other Information Feature Article Place around 50% of the article here. >>>>>>>>>>SPONSOR MESSAGE<<<<<<<<<< Your ad headline here Your ad body here Your http:// link here >>>>>>>>END SPONSOR MESSAGE<<<<<<<< Place another 25% of the article here. >>>>>>>>>>SPONSOR MESSAGE<<<<<<<<<< Your ad headline here Your ad body here Your http:// link here >>>>>>>>END SPONSOR MESSAGE<<<<<<<< Place the remaining part of the article here. Resources Place your resources here >>>>>>>>>>SPONSOR MESSAGE<<<<<<<<<< Your ad headline here Your ad body here Your http:// link here >>>>>>>>END SPONSOR MESSAGE<<<<<<<< Place any other information such as questionnaires, surveys, contests here. Subscription Management Subscribe info unsubscribe info contact list owner _______________________________________________________________________ Publication name is a weekly publication of your business name http://yourdomain.com/. Copyright © 2003 Your Company Name, All rights reserved worldwide. Given below is a sample welcome letter that you may send to every new subscriber. Please note that this is just a recommended template that you could use. Dear Name of the Subscriber, Thank you for subscribing to "EZINE NAME". "EZINE NAME" will provide you with a wealth of information to assist you in "EZINE FOCUS". It will be delivered to your email address every "EZINE PUBLISHING DAY". You will also receive an occasional "Special" mailing should some important information arise that just can't wait for the next publication. Rest assured that we respect your privacy and will NEVER share your email address with anyone. (Include this if you are running such a promotion) We appreciate your subscription and to show our appreciation, we'd like to give you a free exclusive gift just for subscribers of "EZINE NAME". Place details of the free gift here. Thank you for subscribing to EZINE NAME. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS. Regards, YOUR NAME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Browse Site3. Invite Guest Writers to Write in Your Ezine 5. Free Resources on Writing Skills 6. Write Attractive Descriptions 8. Free Hosts – a Definite No No 10. Suggest the Change Subtly to Your Readers 11. Creating a Comprehensive Online Media Kit 13. Always Look for Opt in Ezines 14. Auto Responder Improvements |
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