The following six tips provide some suggestions for maximizing the effectiveness of your autoresponders.
Tip #1:
Personalize autoresponding messages with the person's name.
Personalizing an email with the respondents name improves the probability that it will be opened and read. How do you feel when you get a letter with a salutation such as "To Whom It May Concern" or even worse something like "Dear Resident" or "Dear Customer" ?
Many email providers offer spam filtering options. Anti-spam filters take things like names and personalized salutations into account when they are deciding whether a message is junk or a legitimate email. If an email provider has spam blocking turned on there is a possibility that autoresponder email may be filtered before it reaches your prospect or customer.
Tip #2
Keep required fields to a minimum.
Many autoresponders require that a visitor first supply information before they are emailed the information they are requesting through the autoresponder. Don't ask the visitor to supply more than the basics and always make it perfectly clear which fields are required, such as an email address, and which are optional..
People who are surfing the net are operating at "net speed". Things happen fast and people want results quickly or else they may be inclined to click away to somewhere else. Long input forms with many required fields can prove to be very daunting and cause prospects to lose patience.
Tip #3
Try to make them useful and informative.
People surf the internet because they are seeking information to help them satisfy a personal need or solve a problem. People buy online when they feel that they have found the best solution to their problem.
If you are requesting information about a particular subject you want more than just a "Thank you for inquiring" message cluttering up your mail box. You want information that helps you make an informed buying decision.
Take for example a situation where a prospect is looking for real estate in a particular planned community or development. The autoresponder should not only tell them that someone will contact them with more information, but should alsosend the prospect a link to a floor plan or some other useful, helpful information about the property.
TIP #4
Link back to your website.
Most people quickly scan their email before filing or deleting it. If the subject of the autoresponse catches their attention and the body of the message contains links back to your website where they can find more detailed information, you can get the prospect back to where you want them - at your website.
Remind prospects and customers what they will find when they return to your website. Never assume that your prospects and customers know or remember all of your product or service offerings.
These links should be clear and unambiguous such as "To find XYXZ click here", "To take advantage of our special offer Click Here", "To read our free white paper click here", and so forth.
These links should be clear and unambiguous such as "To find XYXZ click here", "To take advantage of our special offer Click Here", "To read our free white paper click here", and so forth.
TIP #5
Use a signature line with your name, company, contact information and tag line.
You always want to give yourself the opportunity to get your name, your company name, your company's mission statement and contact information in front of people. A good signature line should have at least your name, your company name, website domain name, email address and phone number.
All of your autoresponder correspondence should have this information as well as a tag line or a magnet. While this may seem obvious, it is often overlooked.
The tag line should contain information about what a visitor will find on your website. Make sure that people know what they can find at your website by including a good tag line and/or a good magnet.
All of your autoresponder correspondence should have this information as well as a tag line or a magnet. While this may seem obvious, it is often overlooked. The tag line should contain information about what a visitor will find on your website. Never assume that your prospects and customers know or remember all of your product or service offerings. Make sure that people know what they can find at your website by including a good tag line and/or a good magnet.
TIP #6
Allow the content of the autoresponding messages to be easily changed by the business owner or webmaster through an administrative back end or control panel.
One of the first rules of the web is to "Test, Test, Test". In practice this means that you must always be modifying your autoresponder copy so that you maximize it's marketing power.
Autoresponding email messages are, in fact, yet another form of marketing copy that can either be effective or ineffective. This means that you will have to change the text copy of your autoresponder many times until your message is optimized.
If you are a business owner this situation can lead to many frustrating calls to your website designer or developer to change and upload the autoresponder content. This can be especially annoying if you need the content changed immediately and your site developer can't get to it for several days because they are either away from their email or busy on another project.
The best way to overcome this problem is to have an online database for your website with an with an administration section (also called a control panel, site manager) to update the new autoresponder copy. When the new copy has been submitted it is automatically incorporated into all subsequent emails.
We highly recommend autoresponders to get your marketing message and your "magnets" to your prospects and customers immediately. This saves you time and money and most important of all it can help to turn a prospect or better yet into a customer or a customer into a happy repeat customer.
