One of the more powerful marketing automation tools for online marketers is the auto responder. Many “brick & mortar” business people are not aware of this amazing tool, however it is just as useful and powerful for them as well.

Read that first sentence again slowly…did you see “powerful marketing automation”, think about that [...]]]> By: Jim Newell

One of the more powerful marketing automation tools for online marketers is the auto responder. Many “brick & mortar” business people are not aware of this amazing tool, however it is just as useful and powerful for them as well.

Read that first sentence again slowly…did you see “powerful marketing automation”, think about that for a moment, what could it mean for your “brick & mortar” business? Automation of repetitive tasks is one of the keys to running a successful business, either online or “brick & mortar”, especially when you have a small staff.

Auto responders first came into use as a way of alerting e-mailers that their message bounced, or did not get sent. Have you ever sent an email message to someone and got an immediate reply that they are on vacation?  Those messages are sent by a basic auto responder system included in their email system.

As people saw how useful these auto responses were, and how quickly they were delivered, it just became natural that they be adapted to marketing. What is somewhat amazing however is how few businesses make full use of this automated and and very useful message delivery system. If you are reading this article in the one of my newsletters, that newsletter was sent to you via an auto responder, which points out another great attribute of this great tool, that being the ability to deliver specific communications on a predetermined schedule.

The real power of an auto responder is the users ability to preload the communications you want to send, and when you want them sent, ie; message number 1 could be sent immediately, then number 2 a few days later. number 3 two weeks after number 2 and so on.

When your subscriber signs up for your list, or when you enter them on your list the schedule stars, so that no matter when someone starts on your list they receive the same messages as everyone else and on the same schedule. You would also have the ability to send a special message to all subscribers at any time, without changing the original schedule. Some auto responder users have their communications scheduled a year or 2 into the future, kind of a set it and forget it procedure.

This is all part of the making money while you sleep magic that you hear about, you are marketing to your subscribers on auto pilot, all of the time, are you beginning so see the possibilities?

There are 3 basic ways to set up auto responders, the amount of work done by you and the amount done by the auto responder varies quite a bit depending on which method you choose.

• Auto responder software on your site – a lot of work for you
  • Pros
    • Open source software available, no cost
    • No monthly charges
  • Cons
    • You handle subscriptions
    • You set up messages and schedules
    • You email messages as per schedule
    • You handle subscription cancellations
• Auto Responder Service – some work for you
  • Pros
    • They take care of subscriptions and cancellations
    • They send all emails, on your schedule
    • Easy set up of messages and schedule
    • Most guarantee all subscribers are double opt-in subscribers
  • Cons
    • Charge a moderate monthly fee to manage
• Full service email marketing management services
  • Pros
    • More than just auto responders, they handle all of your email marketing
  • Cons
    • Can be expensive

In my experience, most auto responder software loaded on your site, is to much work. It is very easy to get busy and forget to email messages on time, add subscribers to your list, remove cancellations from your list, not insure that all subscribers are double opt-in, etc.

Auto responder services offer excellent management of your list or multiple lists, they handle the double opt-in procedure, they all have tutorials to get you up and running quickly. Once you get your campaigns are up and running, they run on autopilot, occasional changes or tweaks are easy to make. My service costs me less than $20 per month and is worth every penny.

Full service email management services are well suited to larger businesses, do a fantastic job of handling all of your email issues, however cost can be higher.

Whichever method you choose remember than communicating with your prospects and customers on a regular basis is one of the best ways to increase customer retention and one of the easiest ways to add sales.

I recommend Aweber, for your Auto responder needs

 You have gone to the effort to attract subscribers, if taken care of and offered information and the occasional product, these folks will stick with you and even be profitable. That said some people do very well with this method.

You hear it everywhere on the Internet, the money is in your list. It seems that every other online marketing guru sells a program for building your list. Most of them lead you to some PPC scheme, this of course will cost money, in some cases a lot of money.

If you agree that [...]]]> By: Jim Newell

You hear it everywhere on the Internet, the money is in your list. It seems that every other online marketing guru sells a program for building your list. Most of them lead you to some PPC scheme, this of course will cost money, in some cases a lot of money.

If you agree that the money is in the list, and that you do not want to spend huge amounts of money to build it, where do you turn?

Would you be interested if I told you that all you really need is a computer and a take charge attitude? You can be collecting email addresses for your own list within 48 hours. And you can do it without spending your money on paid traffic sources!

If having an online business is your goal, finding new customers every day, without having your own list of opt-in prospects is a lot of hard work and near impossible.

When you have and cultivate your own list you have a ready audience for each offer you create, each newsletter you send out, each blog post you make. Each of these items is being sent to someone who asked to be on your list, you already know they are interested in the subject matter on your blog, newsletter, or the products you promote. This kind of “targeted” traffic is priceless to the online marketer.

Once you start building your own list you can even begin to automate your contacts with them by using an auto responder program, once you have the messages you want to send entered and scheduled, folks who subscribe to your list, or lists will begin receiving your messages on your schedule.

You can start building your list on your own with an opt-in subscription form on your website or blog, with social marketing, article marketing or any of a dozen or so more methods. This will work, however without someone to guide you, someone who has already been through the “try & fail” gauntlet, who has perfected the methods that really work, you could be wasting valuable time and money.

Let me introduce you to Carrie Wilkerson, The Barefoot Executive. Carrie has “been there done that” with list buiding, she has developed a fantastic list building training program that will have you up and running with building your list very quickly.

Here is the program description directly from Carrie, check it out, if this would work for you, take action now! Click Here!

There has to be a reason that some part of a business does better than other parts, why some employees are more productive than others, why some sports team dominate their sports etc. There really is a logical explanation, and once you understand what it is and how it works, your business in [...]]]> By: Jim Newell

There has to be a reason that some part of a business does better than other parts, why some employees are more productive than others, why some sports team dominate their sports etc. There really is a logical explanation, and once you understand what it is and how it works, your business in fact your life will never be the same. 

The Pareto Principle, or sometimes referred to as the 80-20 rule, applies to almost every facet of business operation, every management function, in fact it is applied to and holds pretty much true to almost anything in life. 

The rule was developed from observations made in the early 1900’s by Vilfredo Pareto who had an engineering degree, was an economics lecturer and philosopher in Italy and Switzerland. His 1906 observation was that 80 percent of the property and wealth in Italy were held and controlled by only 20 percent of the population. He also observed that 20 percent of the pea pods in his garden produced 80 percent of the crop. The names Pareto Principle or 80-20 rule were not coined by Pareto but actually credited to him by noted management expert Joseph M. Juran and others who became familiar with Pareto’s work and observations and determined that they could be applied to almost any problem or procedure and seem to always work out to the 80/20 ratio. 

1. 80 percent of your profits will come from 20 percent of your products or services. The key is to identify which of those products and services are in the top 20 percent. Those are the products you never want to be out of, those are the services you want to continually improve on or expand. These services and products are the ones you want to advertise the most heavily. You will want to be sure which of the remaining 80 percent of your products and services are really needed and that they support the top 20 percent. 
2. 80 percent of your sales will come from 20 percent of your customers. After you have identified which of those customers are in the top 20 percent, they are the ones you want to be sure are always catered to, they are always made aware of specials and new products, that they are always given to opportunity to become repeat customers. These are the ones you want to solicit testimonials from. 
3. 80 percent of complaints will be generated by about the same 20 percent of problems. Tracking your complaints will allow you to see and focus on the specific problems and areas that generate the most complaints. Finding those specific problems will allow you to identify and fix them. Of course you should never stop tracking complaints, because as soon as you fix one another will take its place. 
4. 80 percent of your successful campaigns will come from only 20 percent of your advertising. Identify your successful campaigns and duplicate or build on them. Use similar delivery methods for your message; some will work better than others with a particular audience. Knowing which methods and campaigns actually work will save o lot of money in your advertising budget. 
5. 20 percent of your sales force will produce 80 percent of your sales. Nurture, grow and reward that top 20 percent, they are the superstars who will make your business successful. One of the attributes you will find in this group is that they will be the self starters who will always find a way to get the business. This will allow you to put more resources into developing the other 80 percent. 

As stated earlier, the Pareto Principle or 80-20 rules works almost anyplace you apply it, the percentages will not always add up to 100 percent, however the ratio will be very close. The 80-20 rule works with online as well as “brick & mortar” businesses. This is truly a Common Sense Marketing tool that you should make part of your decision making and evaluating arsenal.

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