There’s an old saying that goes like this, “necessity is the mother of invention”, perhaps you’ve heard it. Let’s look at an example of it being used. Online marketing of products or information was in its infancy 10 years ago, and it had a huge disadvantage to overcome. How to attract, hold and sell to a market that you never met and your only tool was a computer screen. Take a look at online marketing today, how have they done? Actually very well, the tools that have evolved are very effective, they can be quite useful and cost effective for “brick& mortar” businesses as well.

1.  Website – Try to imagine an advertising platform that can be changed and/or updated any time you want.  Your company website can be changed or added to any time you want and at very little or even no cost. Your website can be used to provide information to your existing customer base, as well as new customers. Things such as store hours, maps, specials or even an e-newsletter subscription form. Directing people to your website may even save some phone time. 
2. Blog – Is a blog the same thing as a website, well it could be, however the typical blog platform is really good as a content management and reader communication platform. If your customers have questions about your services or products they can post their questions online. Some Blog platforms are easy to update, which makes them ideal for a small website.
3. eMail – email marketing is the main tool online marketers use to keep in contact with their customers. Why would a “brick & mortar” business want to use email marketing? Think direct mail at no cost! Think putting your message directly on your customers/prospects computer! The only costs associated with email marketing, if done on a smaller scale are possible costs to prepare your message. Your email lists can usually be managed with your basic email program. For larger scale email marketing campaigns there are services available that will do everything except gather the email address. If you are a “brick & mortar” business owner, you should be asking every customer you come in contact with for their email address. To stay in compliance with “anti-spam” legislation be sure to ask permission to email them and have them sign a form authorizing the same. Most people will give you their email address, if you assure them that you will not give it to anyone else, and if you tell them what you are going to send them and how often.
4. Auto-responder – Automation of your email marketing messages or newsletters makes your campaign more consistent and much easier to manage. So what does an auto-responder do? It sends your pre entered messages to all of your customers on the schedule you set up. Imagine you send a monthly newsletter, you can write as many issues as you need, enter them into your auto-responder and they will be mailed automatically as scheduled. You can email a special message to all of your list members any time between scheduled messages, without upsetting your schedule. Auto-responder software can be had at no cost and can be installed on your computer, or for time savings you can use an auto-responder service, usually for a monthly charge.

Check this website for a example of an customer information site, http://www.SecureYourStuff.com, just copy and paste the url into your browser address bar. 

Finish Strong

The Autoresponder – The Most Powerful Tool in Your Toolbox
By Paul Upp

Have you noticed the amount of time it takes to actually attempt to setup an efficient online business?

Between the studying, the reading, the writing, the webpage design, trying to figure out how to properly size a graphic, keeping abreast of Web 2.0 and social networking, with all the twittering, the Facebooking, the MySpacing and the Digging (whatever the heck that is) … how can anyone manage to make a buck?

Undoubtedly, time management rates pretty high on the list of skill sets that a successful online entrepreneur must possess.

Fortunately, there are tools and techniques where one can employ leverage and automation to help lighten the work load. I have found that the most powerful and often most misunderstood of these tools is the Autoresponder.

An autoresponder is an application that provides you with a simple way to very efficiently communicate with groups of people.

Your leads and prospects are provided a convenient way to subscribe, or opt-in, to your autoresponder. This insures that your subscriber has agreed to receive communications from you and in many cases is actually looking forward to receiving your next communiqué.

By setting up a series of messages that contain quality content your subscriber will begin to get to know you and actually build a trusting relationship with you, although you have never actually met. This is one of the key principles to Attraction Marketing … build a list, establish a relationship with that list and continue to provide valuable content to your list.

You can also use your autoresponder to send out a broadcast message to your subscriber list that will introduce them to a new program, technique, book, training article etc. etc. Since you have built a relationship with your customer base they will appreciate your recommendation and strongly consider taking advantage of the products you introduce.

One of the key considerations when choosing an autoresponder for your business is the effectiveness in your autoresponder actually being able to complete the delivery of your messages to your subscriber base. This is known as deliverability. With the concern over spam and legal issues surrounding unsolicited email a good quality autoresponder is critical.

I have found TrafficWave, Aweber and Get Response to be good quality autoresponders with a very good deliverability rate. These three applications are also fairly user friendly and include helpful tutorials to get you up and running quickly.

The second consideration when implementing an autoresponder is that you have to “feed it”. The autoresponder needs a message or series of messages to be sent to your subscriber base. This can be a newsletter, a training course or any content that would provide value to your subscriber base.

Most folks are somewhat intimidated with this challenge when they are first introduced to autoresponders. They are either uncomfortable writing or simply are not sure what to say.

When I introduce new associates to autoresponders I like to use TrafficWave and I introduce them a simple yet powerful marketing solution called Traffic Exchange Profits.

The Traffic Exchange Profits system is based around the TrafficWave autoresponder and includes 25 professionally written autoresponder messages. The system incorporates a funded proposal element and the user will use the Traffic Exchange Profits marketing solution to generate traffic and leads, build a list and generate immediate cash flow while promoting any business.

Once you have taken the time to properly setup your autoresponder you will be amazed at the efficiency and simplicity of communicating with your subscriber base. And you will be pleasantly surprised at the time savings you will experience by employing leverage and automation to lighten your workload.

If you have not yet found the secret of generating cash flow, leveraging your time and utilizing automation in building any business with the power of an autoresponder get a free copy of the Traffic Exchange Profits marketing solution right away. http://tereport.com

Paul Upp is an internet coach, mentor and a 22+ year marketing professional living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Paul can be reached at paul@cashflowsimplicity.com

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Try AWeber Email Marketing Risk-Free

Many people, including some salespeople, believe that top salesmen are born to sell. Real top sales people know that is not true. Selling effectively is a learned skill…and the learning never stops.

Using email marketing is much the same…seems pretty easy…send out a message to your list and wait for the money to roll in.

If you don’t do your email marketing campaign correctly…it’s not that easy!

Things you should know or think about.

The essentials.

Never send unsolicited email, if you have not asked the recipient for permission to send them email, you are sending Spam.

The more closely you target your customer or prospect. The more successful your campaign will be.

Your first email message should not be trying to sell something. And possibly not even the first 3 or 4.

Consistency will build trust and mutual respect.

Measure, measure, measure!

This program will make money for you!

When doing email follow-up marketing, your emails have basically three challenges to win:

1. The emails have to be opened
2. The emails have to be read through
3. The emails have to get the reader to act upon your offer

Sure, the first challenge is a tough one and it’s also crucial to get it right as it affect all the rest of the challenges. You can’t get your emails read if they are not even opened. But I’m not going to get into details about the first challenge, as there are already plenty of tutorials and guides on creating a subject line that gets your emails opened. Instead, I want to give you some guidelines to write emails that get read.

Catch the reader’s attention

The first thing you have to do after the email has been opened, is to wake your reader’s interest. The most important thing to start your email with is a brief paragraph that tells the reader what they will be getting from your email.

But don’t reveal the whole thing at once. Give the reader something to wait for. Make him/her a promise: “In this email, I will tell you exactly… just read on.”

Answer their burning questions

There are certain questions you will have to answer in your emails. Here are the questions your recipients will have on their minds when opening your email:

• Who is emailing me?
• What does he want?
• Why should I care?
• What’s in it for me?
• What do I have to do next?

If you manage to answer all of these questions in every email you send, you will certainly rise your click through rate of your emails. Your recipients will soon learn that your emails are worth reading through.

Give them something valuable

The most important question to answer is “What’s in it for me?” If you can’t answer this question, you’d better not to send the email at all. You don’t want to waste your recipients time, do you?

It doesn’t have to be a big thing, but something useful. People love tips or other pieces of useful information.

Be casual and straight

People are busy – especially when reading email. Most of your recipients probably receive tens of emails daily. This means they don’t have too much time to spend per email. That’s why you should get straight to the point and skip the introductions.

Being casual is also a good idea. If you want to build a relationship with your recipients, write your emails as you would write to your best friend.

Give them something to wait for

At the end of your email, tell the reader that you are going to send another email in a few days. Give him/her a little sneak peak on the topic you are going to introduce and don’t forget to point out how he/she can benefit from it. This way you not only make the reader to open your next email, but also prepare the recipient to receive the information you are going to give.

Following these simple guidelines will ensure that your recipients will actually read the emails you send. Ultimately, this should also improve your click through rate and ROI from your email marketing campaigns.

About the Author:

Lauri Laine is helping small businesses to grow in Internet with email marketing. If you are interested in a comprehensive guide to get started with email marketing, visit Lauri’s site at http://www.follow-up-success.com and join his mailing list to receive the free Follow-Up Success eCourse.

(c) Copyright – Lauri Laine. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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