Sequential Autoresponder

A sequential autoresponder is a program, script or service that sends out a series of email messages in the right order and at a predetermined time in response to some form of customer contact.

In other words, once a potential client has given you permission to contact them, the autoresponder kicks in and does a number of tasks:

• Client Confirmation
  It asks for the client to confirm their permission to be contacted. This is important as it can save you from legal trouble as well as ensuring that you only send information to people who genuinely want it.
• It Builds Your List
  By adding enquiring clients to your email list you are building a valuable marketing asset with minimal effort from you once the email sequence has been set up.
• It Keeps Your Brand In Front Of Your Customers
  By maintaining regular contact you build brand awareness in your customers mind.
• It Handles Your Subscribers
  Once your email list begins to grow, the power of a sequential autoresponder becomes apparent as it handles all the subscriptions and occasional unsubscribe request without your intervention.

It is commonly accepted that it costs around seven times as much to aquire a new customer than it costs to sell to an existing one. This is because your business has to overcome the mistrust that any potential new customer has.

By using sequential autoresponders to stay in touch with your client base you are leaving the door open for that holy grail of all businesses - repeat sales.

See, once a business appreciates the lifetime value of a customer they are able to leverage that relationship from a simple hard sell one time purchase to a full blooded business relationship that is of as much benefit to the customer as it is to your company.

Which brings in even more customers via referral or personal recommendation.

The easiest way to get your follow up autoresponder running is by using one of the reliable web based autoresponder services such as Aweber. They look after all the technical stuff such as uptime and security, leaving you with the time to spend on actively marketing your business.

An added benefit of using autoresponder services like Aweber is that their email delivery rate is unmatched by anything you could achieve on your own. This is because they have agreements in place with all the major ISPs that ensure your emails get through to their intended target.

Don't underestimate the value of this. For many self hosted autoresponder systems, the nightmare of being labeled as a spammer is a very real danger that could hit your business hard. This danger is substantially reduced when you use reputable services such as Aweber.

Once you have signed up to an autoresponder service there are a few steps you need to take in order to maximize your results.

First off, you will need to entice your visitors to sign up to your email list. This is usually done by offering them something in return for their contact details, such as an ebook or free report.

Now you need to realize that this free report must actually be worth having. A sales pitch or company brochure is not going to persuade your visitor to hand over their personal details. So make sure that the report has some 'meat' to it!

Then you will need to write your series of email messages that you intend to send to your visitor as well as a timeframe for delivery.

A great way to achieve this is to produce a series or mini email course that informs or teaches your visitor.

For example, if your business sells cameras you could have a 'Ten Ways To Take Great Photos' mini course, delivering a lesson each day for the next ten days. Day one could be How to avoid Red Eye, day two could be how to capture great images of your kids, while day three could be a quick lesson on how to brighten dark images using your PC...and so on.

Can you see how someone looking for their first digital camera could be interested in a mini email course like that? No need to hit them with a hard sell sales pitch, the aim here is simply to build trust and show that you are the expert in your field.

Now think about your own particular business for a moment and come up with a few ideas for a mini series that would be of interest to your potential customers.

However the best way to see just what a sequential autoresponder can do for your business as part of a permission based email marketing campaign is to take one for a test drive!