If you are using your autoresponder to sell a product
or service, you must be very careful as to how you
approach your potential customer. Few people like
a hard sale, and marketers have known for years
that in most cases, a prospect must hear your
message an average of seven times before they will
make a purchase. How do you accomplish this with
autoresponders?
It’s really quite simple, and in fact, the
autoresponders make getting the message to your
potential customers those seven times possible. On
the Internet, without the use of autoresponders, you
probably could not achieve that. Too often, marketers
make the mistake of literally slamming the potential
customer with a hard sales pitch with the first
autoresponder message – this won’t work.
You build interest slowly. Start with an informative
message – a message that educates the reader in
some way on the topic that your product or service
is related to. At the bottom of the message, include
a link to the sales page for your product. Use that
first message to focus on the problem that your
product or service can solve, with just a hint of the
solution.
Build up from there, moving into how your product or
service can solve a problem, and then with the next
message, ease into the benefits of your product –
giving the reader more actual information with each
and every message. Your final message should be
the sale pitch – not your first one! With each
message, make sure that you are giving the
customer information pertaining to the topic – free
information! This is what will keep them interested
in what you have to say.
This type of marketing is an art. It may take time to
get it exactly right. Use the examples that other
marketers have set for you. Pay attention to the
messages that you receive from other marketers.
Start a ‘swap’ file, and keep those messages. Use
some of the better sales copy for your own
autoresponder messages – just make sure that
yours doesn’t turn out to be an exact copy of
someone else’s sales message!
Remember not to start with a hard sale. Build your
potential customers interest. Keep building on what
the problem is, and how your product or service can
solve that problem or fill that need. If you are doing
this right, by the time the potential customer reads
the last message in that series, they will be
convinced enough to make a purchase!