Are You Using an Autoresponder and Email Marketing Software?

We get a lot of autoresponder and email marketing software related questions here at Tips and Tricks HQ since the WP eStore plugin has some autoresponder integration options. In this article I have covered the answers to the following basic questions around autoresponders and email marketing software:

• What is an autoresponder?
• Should I be using an autoresponder service?
• How to get the most out of an autoresponder and email marketing software?
• Which autoresponder service should I use?

What is an Autoresponder?

An autoresponder is a software that can be used to send emails to people automatically. It can also respond to an email that is sent to it. This allows individuals and businesses to react to emails and questions without human intervention. A simple example of an autoresponder is when you go on vacation from work and you set up an automatic response letting people know you will be out of the office. Autoresponders are often used as a marketing tool for online businesses. With autoresponders you compose some pre-written emails that you want sent out to your customers (e.g. instructions after they have purchased a product, news about upcoming product releases and so on). You can specify when you want these emails sent out and to who, even if you are away from your computer the emails are always delivered. Autoresponders are an easy and efficient way to get information to your customers.

Should You Use an Autoresponder Service?

If you have an online business then yes you should use an autoresponder service. List building and email marketing is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to get your product and information out to your customer base. For an online business to compete and survive, it is necessary for you to build an email list of people who have willingly given their email addresses, so they can be informed about things they are interested in. Email marketing software can also be used to send out newsletters, upcoming product releases, online courses (you can set it so each part of the course is date released) and for any other reason you may need to mass email you customers. If you were to send out say for example 1,000 emails from your personal email account without an autoresponder only about the first few would be delivered before your email account is blacklisted for sending spam. Well known autoresponder service providers are usually trusted by the mail servers as they have a reputation of only allowing you to send emails to people who have opted in (this means the person receiving the email had to confirm that they wanted to receive emails from you). In most cases your mail will be delivered to your customer’s inbox and not their spam folders when an well known autoresponder service provider is used. You will also have access to stats like how many people opened the email, how many read the entire email etc (this could be very useful information for your business).

How to Get the Most Out of an Autoresponder Service?

To use an autoresponder you need to build an opt-in list. This is usually done by giving away useful or valuable information for free but requiring your visitors to give their email addresses before they can get the item (e.g. using a squeeze page). Another list building technique is to collect email addresses when your visitors make a purchase on your site. Make sure the emails you send have useful information and not just over done sales pitches. This will help you build a relationship with visitors and customers so they will keep coming back. You can create multiple lists, this way you can send emails to customers that are interested in a certain topic (e.g. an eBook on a specific subject, or people interested in e-commerce etc).

Which Autoresponder Service Should You Use?

There are many autoresponder and email marketing service providers out there. I couldn’t tell you exactly which one you should be using without assessing your situation and needs but here are some guidelines:

• The goal is to get the most value for your money without compromising functionality.
• Take a look at what each service provider has to offer.
• Determine which features you need then look for an autoresponder service that best fit your need.
• Try to find one that will grow with your business.

I personally recommend using one of these three autoresponder service providers simply because they offer good value for your money.

• AWeber
• MailChimp
• GetResponse

The above autoresponders can also be integrated with the WP eStore plugin (WordPress Shopping Cart) so you can easily build up your customer list on auto pilot. Also, don’t forget to read the post on 10 tips for writing an autoresponse email.

If you have any questions or comments please leave them below in the comments area.

Are You Using an Autoresponder and Email Marketing Software?

We get a lot of autoresponder and email marketing software related questions here at Tips and Tricks HQ since the WP eStore plugin has some autoresponder integration options. In this article I have covered the answers to the following basic questions around autoresponders and email marketing software:

• What is an autoresponder?
• Should I be using an autoresponder service?
• How to get the most out of an autoresponder and email marketing software?
• Which autoresponder service should I use?

What is an Autoresponder?

An autoresponder is a software that can be used to send emails to people automatically. It can also respond to an email that is sent to it. This allows individuals and businesses to react to emails and questions without human intervention. A simple example of an autoresponder is when you go on vacation from work and you set up an automatic response letting people know you will be out of the office. Autoresponders are often used as a marketing tool for online businesses. With autoresponders you compose some pre-written emails that you want sent out to your customers (e.g. instructions after they have purchased a product, news about upcoming product releases and so on). You can specify when you want these emails sent out and to who, even if you are away from your computer the emails are always delivered. Autoresponders are an easy and efficient way to get information to your customers.

Should You Use an Autoresponder Service?

If you have an online business then yes you should use an autoresponder service. List building and email marketing is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to get your product and information out to your customer base. For an online business to compete and survive, it is necessary for you to build an email list of people who have willingly given their email addresses, so they can be informed about things they are interested in. Email marketing software can also be used to send out newsletters, upcoming product releases, online courses (you can set it so each part of the course is date released) and for any other reason you may need to mass email you customers. If you were to send out say for example 1,000 emails from your personal email account without an autoresponder only about the first few would be delivered before your email account is blacklisted for sending spam. Well known autoresponder service providers are usually trusted by the mail servers as they have a reputation of only allowing you to send emails to people who have opted in (this means the person receiving the email had to confirm that they wanted to receive emails from you). In most cases your mail will be delivered to your customer’s inbox and not their spam folders when an well known autoresponder service provider is used. You will also have access to stats like how many people opened the email, how many read the entire email etc (this could be very useful information for your business).

How to Get the Most Out of an Autoresponder Service?

To use an autoresponder you need to build an opt-in list. This is usually done by giving away useful or valuable information for free but requiring your visitors to give their email addresses before they can get the item (e.g. using a squeeze page). Another list building technique is to collect email addresses when your visitors make a purchase on your site. Make sure the emails you send have useful information and not just over done sales pitches. This will help you build a relationship with visitors and customers so they will keep coming back. You can create multiple lists, this way you can send emails to customers that are interested in a certain topic (e.g. an eBook on a specific subject, or people interested in e-commerce etc).

Which Autoresponder Service Should You Use?

There are many autoresponder and email marketing service providers out there. I couldn’t tell you exactly which one you should be using without assessing your situation and needs but here are some guidelines:

• The goal is to get the most value for your money without compromising functionality.
• Take a look at what each service provider has to offer.
• Determine which features you need then look for an autoresponder service that best fit your need.
• Try to find one that will grow with your business.

I personally recommend using one of these three autoresponder service providers simply because they offer good value for your money.

• AWeber
• MailChimp
• GetResponse

The above autoresponders can also be integrated with the WP eStore plugin (WordPress Shopping Cart) so you can easily build up your customer list on auto pilot. Also, don’t forget to read the post on 10 tips for writing an autoresponse email.

If you have any questions or comments please leave them below in the comments area.

Create An Email Newsletter That Makes Readers Want to Return to Your Blog

Email newsletters are a great way to boost traffic to your blog posts and grow a loyal readership. However, you better do email newsletters the right way or you risk having the recipients hit the unsubscribe button without looking back. There is a lot to creating excellent email newsletters and big companies who send them out have teams of writers, designers, marketers and computer programmers collaborating on the newsletter. This can be overwhelming for the one man or one woman blogger, but there are some tried and true methods you can use to quickly create email newsletters that make readers want to return to your blog.

Make It Look Professional By Using a Template

Unless you’re a coding ninja, save your time and sanity by using an email newsletter template. There are several free sources for these templates including MailChimp, CampaignMonitor and PatternHead. There are so many templates with so many different color, layout and theme choices that there is no need to personally customize and design your own newsletter in most cases. Plus, using a template ensures your newsletter will look professional and without misplaced lines of code, which is the most important factor.

Make It Look Not Like Spam

There are a couple key ways to make sure your emails don’t look like spam. First, only send an email newsletter when you really have something important to say. You never want to bombard your readers with meaningless emails and even if you think you have important things to say in daily emails, you still should send emails at most once every few days. Secondly, make it easy for a user to unsubscribe. Spam artists are notorious for not allowing users to unsubscribe or burying that option deep in an email where it’s hard to find. Although, this may sound tempting, mimicking spammers will only serve to decrease your readership.

Email Marketing 101: Getting Readers From Their Inbox To Your Blog

Marketing is a highly refined skill and it’s what will get readers to click on the links in your email newsletter that will take them over to your blog. While you can earn advanced degrees in fields of marketing, here are some of the basics of email marketing to get you started:

• Don’t give out all your information in the newsletter, give snippets: If you send out a nice long email with some great content and helpful information your readers will appreciate it and may thank you, but they have no reason to visit your blog again. Rather, display several information “teasers” that when clicked, takes your reader to the full article on your blog.
• Make your headlines and teasers outrageously interesting: Headlines and teasers are only a few words to a few sentences long at most. You only have a small window to grab a reader’s attention so you must make the most of it. Spend time crafting teasers that your reader’s can’t ignore. Some common teaser formats that work include any numbered lists, “top” or “best rated” lists or negatives, such as “the worst (product names) you should avoid.” These formats tend to spark interest most of the time, but anything that really relates to your readers on a substantial level or anything that’s truly creative will result in clicks to your blog.
• Use awesome clickable images: Pictures really are worth a thousand words sometimes. A great didactic, creative or humorous image can result in more return readers to your blog than you’d probably expect. Filling your newsletter with a few well-placed images and your readers are guaranteed to pay more attention to your email. However, do not use too many images, since users without the highest internet speeds will dislike this and do not rely on images alone, since some of your emails will undoubtedly be flagged as junk mail. These images will not load unless a user un-flags the email. In this scenario your headlines and teasers will be the end all be all of your newsletter.
• When all else fails give your readers incentive: Nothing encourages return readership to your blog like giving something away for free or offering something at a steep discount. Put forth a sense of urgency by saying the first “X” number of readers to visit after receiving this email can claim their free “ABC” product.

Track Visits After Sending Out Email Newsletters to Learn Your Readers

Pay careful attention to spikes in visitors shortly after you send out email newsletters. Inevitably, some letters will gain more visitors than others. Realizing which topics your niche readership favors the most will allow you to cater to them in the future, ensuring long term success for your blog.

10 Tips for Writing an Autoresponse Email

If you are using an Autoresponder service (eg. AWeber, GetResponse,MailChimp etc) then chances are that you will be writing auto-response emails that will get sent out to your subscribers once they subscribe. Every piece of communication that you send adds to the overall impression that a customer has of your product or service. Autoresponders can be used for simple acknowledgments, newsletters, or even series of newsletters. Here are ten tips about autoresponder use.

1. Acknowledge your customers

Send an email to thank your new users for signing up to read your newsletter. This reminds those users that you have received their opt-in request. It should also give your customers an idea of what they should expect in your writing as well as how frequently they should expect to receive it.

2. Make privacy policies crystal clear

Your readers want to know that their information is not going to be sold or given away to other users or companies. Place a link to your privacy policy within your newsletters.

3. Unsubscribing should be as easy as subscribing

People unsubscribe for a variety of reasons. Don’t feel offended or take it personally when someone doesn’t want to be subscribed to your newsletter. Immediately remove the subscriber when requested.

4. Stay in their minds, don’t anger them

Do you like it when a place sends you an email every day? Do not send your email out as frequently as possible. Send out a newsletter every week or two. People unsubscribe for receiving too much email.

5. Make it personal

People want to believe that the information in your newsletter is just for them. Subscribers care about how you can help them personally. Starting a newsletter off with ‘Dear (name),’ is a lot more effective than ‘Dear newsletter subscriber.’

6. Use catchy and descriptive headlines

You want a newsletter that will capture the attention of your subscribers. Try out a test of newsletter headlines to see what works the best. Give readers a hint of what you are sending them.

7. Don’t sell

The pieces that you do with the autoresponder are designed to build trust and entice readers to keep you in mind when they need to get your products. They do not need to be pressured into buying because they already know that you exist.

8. Reward subscriber loyalty

Even though selling outright is frowned upon, offering time limited coupons is not. With coupons, you are not going for the hard sell. Instead, you are telling the customer that you will be there when they are ready.

9. Offer useful and relevant tips

Customers are reminded of the experience that they received when a newsletter is emailed to them. You want to keep that rapport by sending them tips about subjects within your expertise.

10. Keep it simple

Make sure that you have something mastered before adding a new mailing. This applies to services as well as content. You want to make sure that you do one thing very well before moving on.

The autoresponder can help you gain more visitors to your site. You are keeping your customers thinking of your services once every week or two. Offer great content to your readers and they will keep coming back.

This guest post was written by James Adams, a staff blogger and reviewer for an online supplier of franking machine ink cartridges based in the north of England. Subscribe to their blog’s RSS feed for updates on his latest posts.

Facebook Promotion 101: How to Develop a Like Campaign

Contrary to what many people think, Facebook likes don’t come with the territory. Yes it’s easy to create a page and get a few likes, but is usually stops there for lesser known companies. Getting your first 1000 or even 500 likes is definitely the hardest. It takes time and patience to boost your exposure and reach on Facebook. So let’s take a look at the more important steps you’ll need to take in order to develop and carry out a successful “like” campaign.

Tag Your Page

Using the Facebook tagging system is a great way to promote your page and get more visitors and likes. You can do this by posting a status message on your personal Facebook profile and mentioning your Facebook page. Use your creativity to come up with a clever way to get people to click through to your page and “like” it. Maybe you have a special promotion going on or you have an interesting link that you’ve posted – anything to peak the interest of your Facebook friends.

Suggest to Friends

Every page has a handy link in the sidebar called “Suggest to Friends” which allows you to do just that. It’s a great way to recommend your page to your friends, who are sure to like it just because they’re you’re friends and want to support. Just don’t abuse this feature because many people are sure to get annoyed if you’re constantly bugging them about it.

Contests, Giveaways, Promotions

You can never go wrong with a contest or giveaway; not too many people will turn down free prizes. The best way to do this is to require users to like your page before being able to see any information about the promotion. This is easy since you can create a new tab dedicated to the contest or giveaway and then make it viewable to fans only. Of course you’ll want to make sure that you’re giving away something that is valuable and worth the “like.”

A great tool for creating and managing Facebook promotions is Wildfire. With all of their integrated tools, features and statistics you’re sure to increase your Facebook page fans.

Connect to Twitter

Twitter’s popularity does not seem to be slowing down at all. So why not take advantage of one of the top social sites on the Web? You can do that by linking your page to Twitter and converting followers to fans. Upon setting this up, all of your Facebook page posts will be sent to your Twitter profile along with a link. Hopefully you’ve already built up a decent following on Twitter and continuously working on building your brand there.

Use a Like Box

Facebook social plugins, namely the Like Box, are a very effective way of getting more likes for your page. You can customize it as you like and then add it to your website or blog. Visitors to your site can then “like” your page without even having to go to Facebook. It can also display recent posts from your page and other fans. If you have a site with high traffic, you really should not be without this.

Use Facebook as Your Page

Many people are not too familiar with this feature, but you can actually use Facebook as your page instead of as your personal profile. This allows you to comment on and “like” content as your own brand and really helps to extend your reach and peak the interest of others. Just remember that you’re representing your company and all of your actions will show up on your fan page. You’ll want to be careful of what you say and “like,” yet use your creativity to get new fans.

Facebook Ads

Running an ad on Facebook is smart, easy and effective. You can target users by location, age and interest. What you put in your ad is important; you’ll need a catchy image and text to grab people’s attention. A “like” button can be displayed below your ad, which makes it quick for users to become a fan. Often times you can even find advertising coupons for Facebook floating around the Web. This is as a great way to test the waters before getting your feet wet.

One of the best things about Facebook ads is being able to target the friends of those users who have already liked your page. They’ll see your ad and the fact that a name they’re familiar with has already liked it is sure to peak their interest.

Along with all of these tips, also make sure you’re utilizing your social media profiles and bookmarking sites. You’ll want to share the link to your page anywhere you can and bookmark it for others to find (ie. LinkedIn, Google Buzz, Delicious, Reddit). Make sure you’re using appropriate tags and a catchy description for SEO purposes. You never know where people will find out about your page, but the most important part is that they do find out about it.

Also remember that these tips are not a one-time thing. You’ll have to keep up with promoting your Facebook page on a regular basis until you reach your desired goal. Good luck.