autoresponders_traffic.htm

A: Autoresponders have become the hottest technology when it comes to communicating with a large number of people about your business, products, and other useful information.

By using an autoresponder, you don’t have to send out e-mails separately to individuals. An autoresponder makes it easier for you to track what mails have gone out and to which group.

Here is a short breakdown of how an autoresponder works:

People either e-mail you with permission for you to add them to your mailing list or fill out the form to add themselves to your autoresponder automatically.

The form that your prospect fills out places their, name, e-mail, mailing address or any other pertinent information that you require into a database that stores this information for you and then queues the recipient for the first available message that is to be sent to them which is usually a confirmation link stating that they wish to be added to your list.

Then the next consecutive e-mails that follow are sent to your list for the information that they requested.

Let’s say you have a series on a certain topic you can load that series into the autoresponder for them to be sent out to your participants in a timely manner.

Most autoresponders will also allow you to send unscheduled e-mails out to your clients as well for future updates.

Also any truly great autoresponder will also have an opt-out link for your participants to leave your list at any time they choose.

Autoresponders are broke down into two basic categories: third party services and server side utilities. A third-party service is a site that charges you a monthly membership fee for the use of their mailing software. Server side utility is a script that you install and run from your own domain. It is recommended that you go with a third-party service rather than a script that you run from your own domain. Here are some of the reasons for this:

By using a third-party service, you are not straining your own server with the data storage and e-mail usage. This can be very important when it comes to e-mails that bounce and the strain that it puts on your Webhost. Many Webhost services will cancel your service when you overload their server with too many bounced e-mails.

A third-party service also has all the double opt-in information that you will need in the event of any spam complaints that may arise. By using one of these services, if there ever was a spam complaint against you, you may never notice any interruptions in your mailings as they take care of any of the problems that arise with such an occasion.

With a good third-party e-mail service, they also are always working on ways to improve the non filtering of e-mails that are sent out from their location and potentially blocked by filters and various other barriers that may arise.

Due to so many spam complaints that arise everyday, more and more e-mail addresses are added to the dreaded blacklists. With these blacklists, your e-mail will no longer be delivered to your customers once you are placed on one of them. It is rather hard to get your own e-mail taken off this list due to other spam complaints that have came from the same e-mail server, even if you aren’t the one that was accused of doing the spamming.

Whether you have a very large or a small e-mail database, being placed on a black list inadvertently can be very devastating for you in a loss in sales or sign ups. This is why you should pay the monthly membership fee for a good reliable autoresponder service.

The following is a list of services or capabilities that you should look for in a reliable autoresponder service:

Controlling multiple mailing lists from one control panel.

Each campaign can handle a large number of subscribers.

Ability to add your own custom fields to your forms.

Ability to import existing leads.

Cycling prospects through all your different campaigns.

Use of simple tracking codes to see which of your capture pages works best.

Spam hit utility that will allow you to analyze your messages so that you can make your messages more spam filter friendly.
Q: How would I go about gaining subscribers to my opt-in list?

A: There are many means of gaining subscribers to add to your opt-in list. Any form of advertising your splash page that has your form on it will be important. Yes, it will take work to build your list as it has in any other aspect of your business.
You will want to test out every advertising venue that your time and money allows. While doing this, don’t overwhelm yourself with thinking that you need to do every thing that you see and read about to build your list. Work building your list the same way that you did your business, one step at a time.

You will also want to track your advertising means. By tracking your advertising vehicles that you are using, you will then be able to see which ones are pulling in your subscribers.

By seeing which sites are working, you will be able to increase the effectiveness of your next promotion.

You will also want to track your subject lines and ad bodies as well to see which are working and which are not. You will want to use a quality tracking service to aid you in this as well.