Do the Two-Step!

Top sales pros confirm that it often takes seven or more communications or sales messages before prospective customers make a purchase. They also confirm that it’s generally easier to sell to a referral, because someone they know gave positive testimonial about their products or services.

What would happen if you combined both of these powerful ideas? A nifty and thrifty two-step. Try this two-step tip:

1. Collect leads with your auto responder. Ask for mailing addresses and telephone numbers, too, for additional ways to follow up with each person. When you download the e-mail digest of everyone’s e-mail addresses and other information from those who requested additional information from your auto responder, follow up multiple ways. Send postcards. Call. Mail sales letters and other promotional pieces.

2. Publish a price list of all the products and services that you offer in an insert, direct marketing package and / or .pdf to be made available via auto responder. You could also include order forms, product descriptions, and other sales material. Then send to the people in #1 above with monthly updates, announcements of new sales and products / services, and a request for referrals.

So why not improve your closing ratio and reach out even farther at the same time? Do the two-step!

The Right Content for Your Email Marketing

Email marketing may include sending email advertisements to a large distribution list, publishing and distributing an e-newsletter and sending informative emails with a soft sell approach to encourage recipients to make a purchase or visit your website. Whether you opt to utilize one or all of these email marketing techniques, you will be faced with one specific dilemma and that is writing the content which will appear in these emails. This is critical because these emails may be the first impression potential customers are receiving for your products and services. Superior content will give the potential customers a good first impression which may make them more likely to purchase your products or services. This article will discuss some proven techniques for ensuring the content you use in your email marketing campaign will reap the maximum benefits.

The importance of hiring a professional writer to assist you in your email marketing campaign cannot be stressed enough. It is one of the most critical elements to the success of your campaign. You may be a decent writer or you may have a staff member who you think can do a good job creating the content for your email marketing but unless you or your staff member is a professional writer by trade, the quality of the work will likely not be of the same quality as a professional can produce. This can be very damaging especially if your competitors are hiring writers to create their content. Your emails will likely not be viewed as favorably as the emails written by professionals.

The content you decide to include in your email marketing efforts is largely a matter of personal preference but there are some methods which have traditionally been more successful than others. The type of content which may be effective often includes informative articles, short useful tips, links to relevant websites, advertising for complementary products and even some subtle forms of advertising which are meant to persuade the recipients of the email to either make a purchase or visit your website.

Full length insightful articles which are likely to be of interest to the members of your email distribution list are an excellent idea for your email marketing campaign. These articles are a good idea because they will likely contain information which the recipients of your email will appreciate. Additionally, these articles give you the opportunity to include information about your products or services in the copy of the email. This can be a subtle form of advertising when it encourages the recipients to purchase a product or service or visit the website without actually asking the recipient to do so.

Short product reviews can also be very useful and helpful when you include them in your email marketing campaign. These reviews can help to attract a great deal of attention especially when the reviews focus on the products you offer and provide favorable reviews for these products. This type of information can either be subjective in nature or can remain objective by simply specifying the features of the products and offering other concrete pieces of information as opposed to opinions of the products.

Advertising is often a quite important part of an email marketing campaign. This advertising may either be direct or indirect in nature. Direct advertising may include banner ads or other graphical advertisements which encourage website visitors to click through the link to reach either your website or a sponsor’s website. Indirect advertising may apply to content in the copy of featured articles which subtly encourage visitors to make a purchase or visit your website. The indirect marketing in an email marketing campaign is usually supporting the products or services you offer while direct marketing will likely promote products and services offered by sponsors who paid to receive advertising space on the email. Email recipients are usually well aware these graphics are part of an advertisement and will choose to click on these links when they have an interest in the products or services being offered.

Making The Most Of Autoresponders

 

If you’ve created a website and started adding your content to it, chances are you’ve also built some links and submitted some articles to the major search engines.  After you have done all of the above, the next logical step, which many happen to overlook, is to take your business to the next level with an autoresponder.  These tools are great to have, although many simply overlook them.

Often times, someone will visit your website through a link or search engine.  In many cases, a potential buyer will look around your site and find exactly what he has been looking for.  Sometimes, the buyer will get distracted with other things, and leave the site before he makes a purchase.  There are many reasons as to why a potential buyer might leave your site on accident before making a purchase, although you can capitalize and make the most of this opportunity with the use of an autoresponder.

By capturing the visitor’s email address, an autoresponder will give you the chance to contact the potential buyer in the future and capitalize on the sale that you missed out on before.  Although autoresponders are mostly known for their abilities to automatically answer email, they are also more flexible, allowing you to do so much more.  If you use your autoresponder creatively and productively, you’ll gain more leads and customers than you ever imagined.

The best autoresponders out there will manage your customer list and continue to follow up with customers who have signed up on your list.  You can also keep your autoresponder list updated with new products and services as well.  These programs will grow with you, allowing you to build a reputation in your area of business and become an expert over time.

Through the use of an autoresponder and an affiliate program you can contact your affiliates quickly and easily to let them know about new offers you have or offer them new material that they can use to help them sell your products to increase your sales and their commissions.  You can also send out broadcast emails to your affiliates as well, providing them with tips and helpful advice that will assist them with selling your products.

Autoresponders are also a great way to provide advertising as well.  If someone is interested in advertising on your website, you can use the autoresponder to automatically send out an email detailing the cost of advertising and how the individual can find out more about it as well.  This is a great asset, especially if you make a lot of income with advertising on your website.

Another way you can make the most of your autoresponder is by allowing your visitors a taste of what you have to offer and the quality of your products or services.  If you plan to send out samples, you should avoid making it appear to be a sales letter.  If you do, you’ll normally end up losing more business than you gain.  Most buyers don’t like receiving sales letters, and will avoid doing business with you if they receive a sales letter.

Even if you’ve never used an autoresponder before, you can find many different uses for it.  Autoresponders are great for many different purposes, other than answering emails.  There are several types to choose from as well, which gives you plenty of opportunities for your business.  All you need to do is select the type that works best for you – then discover more and more creative ways to use it to your advantage.