Autoresponders

A ‘stay in touch’ system to develop an ongoing relationship of trust

The point of using an autoresponder is that when people search for services like yours in Google, they may just be inquiring. They may not be ready to commit money at this stage. An autoresponder allows you to:

1.  Keep in touch 
2.  Deliver information a potential client might value 
3.  Develop an ongoing relationship so that the client begins to trust you 
4.  Position your business as the expert in the field so that when potential clients are ready to commit, they come to your business first 

Stay Front of Mind with Clients who aren’t ready to buy just yet

Once you have a potential client’s email address, you can send them a series of marketing emails in order to inform them of, and ultimately sell them your services. It is crucial that this information is relevant to what the potential client is seeking - you don't want to spam them because this will annoy them and turn them away from using your company in the future.

However, if you send subtle, engaging and informative content to a potential client through an autoresponder system, you will keep yourself front of mind. When they are ready to commit to using services like yours, they will think of you first.

The Upside of Email Marketing

Many small businesses aren’t confident that ‘email marketing’ is a good idea. They think it will alienate potential clients and give them a bad reputation. This is a very common reaction and completely understandable when we think about the typical way most businesses practice it. And they’re completely right. Just think, if you received numerous irrelevant and repetitive emails on a product or service that you weren’t interested in, without any clear ways to unsubscribe and be left alone, you’d be annoyed too. That’s spam.

There are ways you can use emails in a professional and effective way, to attract and retain clients instead of repelling and alienating them. Firstly, research shows that 31% of people like to be marketed to by email (although they don’t mean spam like ‘Viagra’ sellers, of course).

Secondly, there is a fundamental truth of marketing:

What worries businesses the most when emailing, is annoying their potential customers. And you certainly will if you frequently send people unsolicited junk without telling them how they can unsubscribe. In this situation, yes, email marketing is a terrible way to generate leads.

However, this can easily be avoided. As long as you create relevant content for your audience, keep your sales pitches subtle, don’t send too often and always include an option to unsubscribe, you shouldn’t alienate potential customers. A carefully created email will generate leads. For people who have subscribed to receive emails from Lead Creation clients, we implement our Auto Responder system using mailchimp.com to automatically send out a sequence of relevant emails, which include the option to unsubscribe every time.

Rules You Must Follow When Emailing a Cold List 

A ‘cold list’ is a list of people whose details you have, who you intend to market to, who have not expressly agreed to receive any material from you. For business-to-business marketing. In Australia, you are allowed to send unsolicited content if it is relevant to the receiver’s business. However, it is a grey area where the bureaucrats err on the side of the receiver, so to avoid complaints, there are three rules we strongly recommend our clients follow when emailing to a cold list:

1. Never send more than two emails. In these emails you give them the opportunity to register to receive more information from you. If they haven’t registered after the two emails, you take them off the email list. Permanently.
2. The email must be carefully tailored to a small, very targeted list. A list for whom the offer of a free White Paper is likely to be seen as valuable if they read the email.
3. You tell them in the second email that this is the second and last email they will be receiving from you (of course you still include the automatic unsubscribe button). This message goes near the top of the email

While we are careful about the marketing messages and content we send out in email, there is of course an overarching rule that we advise all our clients: only use email if you feel comfortable with it. It is a valuable but not critical component. Not sending any emails is not mission threatening, as it is a very small part of lead generation.

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