Internet Marketing for Small Business: writing an autoresponder series:

 "How Can I Make My Prospect Remember My Offer?"

Remember, a website is primarily a direct response marketing medium. In other words, we use it to make a direct approach to our prospects or customers, and to invite them ... and entice them .. to make a specific response. And to do it now!

Unfortunately, many people won't respond straight away. They'll want to think about it. And very often, that means they'll go away and not return.

So what we need to do is ask them for their contact details so that we can continue to put our offer in front of them. An autoresponder service allows us to ask them for their contact details, and to continue to contact them ..... automatically ..... for as long as we want to.

Some hosting services - such as Third Sphere - offer a built-in autoresponder. But it does have restrictions on the number of subscribers you can have.

If you're serious about using the internet as an effective marketing medium, it's worthwhile investing in a dedicated, specialist autoresponder service.

There are two that I recommend - and I use both of them on different sites.

One is 1ShoppingCart, which has different levels of service - ranging from a pure autoresponder to a highly sophisticated ecommerce shopping cart.

The other - which I use on this site - is AWeber. You can see a demonstration of how their service works by clicking here (a new window will open).

"How Do I Write An Autoresponder Series?"

When you write a series of messages for your autoresponder to send out, you have to strike a delicate balance. Remember, the people receiving your messages are people who have specifically asked to receive them (the autoresponder services I've recommended both automatically include an opt-out option at the end of every message - so people who don't want to hear from you again can cross themselves off the list. When people do opt out ..... and some will ..... their details are removed from the list in the system automatically, and you receive an email telling you to remove them from any backup you might have made).

So, when you write a message for your autoresponder, you're talking to people who want to hear from you. What you have to do is write something that they'll find interesting, useful and helpful. You also want to put your offer in front of them again ..... but you don't want to be too pushy about it. You want to pre-sell rather than sell ..... and give them a link to a webpage where they can read more.

Also, don't feel you have to sell to them every time you send out a message. If you send out useful information, you'll boost your credibility and encourage people to have confidence in you. Then, when you do send out a sales message, your readers will be predisposed to trust you more.

There's a very useful ebook on writing autoresponder messages. It contains some of the most successful and persuasive autoresponder messages ever written ..... contributed by Declan Dunn, Terry Dean, Ken Evoy, Jim Daniels, Jonathan Mizel, Yanik Silver and others (if you don't know who these people are, just look them up in Google). You can download the entire 519-page ebook as a PDF file for just $17. Click on Autoresponder Magic (a new window will open).

(You'll need Adobe Reader to read Autoresponder Magic. This is a free software program which you've probably got on your computer already; but if you haven't, you can download it free here.)