Autoresponders may be the most powerful marketing tool in existence online.
If you are going to build an online business that will survive and grow over the long term you must use an autoresponder to build an email list of customers and prospects.
While nowadays you hear a lot about the power of social media and how you need a social media presence, it’s still email and autoresponders that will allow you to make money and grow your business.
This doesn’t mean using social media shouldn’t be a part of your marketing plan. It just means you shouldn’t make having fans on Facebook, or followers on Twitter, or subscribers on You Tube, as the ultimate goal.
For starters, you are at the mercy of someone else. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Pinterest or any other social media site, you are growing their business. And they can shut you down at any time for any reason.
If your entire business is built around your Facebook page and its fans, what happens if Facebook shuts down your page? Or changes it’s algorithm again and your posts reach far fewer fans?
No matter what your marketing strategy is, whether it’s a Facebook fan page, You Tube, or even paid advertising on those platforms, your ultimate goal should be to get them on your email list.
For that, you need an autoresponder. When you build an email list, you have an asset. The viability of any business is it’s customer and prospect data base.
When you have your list, no matter what else happens, such as Facebook taking down your page, you still have a business.
Despite what many say, people still check their email and they still are more likely to buy via email, than from something someone posts on a social media site.
You can market via social media, engaged with prospective customers, answer questions, and build trust but do so with the idea of getting them to sign up to your autoresponder email list.
Once you have them on your autoresponder list, you can communicate with them at any time. That list is yours no matter what happens to your social media sites.
Besides being able to communicate and having a business asset, you can increase your sales conversions through your autoresponders.
Let’s say you’re a fitness professional and you start building a list with your autoresponder.
Inside that autoresponder list, you can provide information and ask questions that allow you to automatically put your prospects on other lists that are more specific.
So you might have a general fitness email list but by sending out emails on topics like bodyweight training or the Paleo diet, you can set up your autoresponder to track certain actiona.
And based on actions people take, such as clicking on a link in that email, the autoresponder will put them on another autoresponder list that focuses on bodyweight training or the Paleo diet.
Your conversion rates will skyrocket because you can tailor the email messages you send to those people to focus on their area of interest, while promoting a product, yours or as an affiliate, that solves their problem.
In the example of the Paleo diet, maybe you promote a Paleo recipe ebook. Or, if you find there is a lot of interest on that topic, you create your own product around the Paleo diet.
One of the biggest secrets of autoresponders include is that your customers will remain aware of you. On social media, they may not see everything you post. But everyone checks their email.
And let’s not forget that email marketing still generates the biggest ROI (return on investment) online, generating $38 for every $1 spent.
There may be lots of ways to generate traffic online, but ultimately all those strategies should lead to an autoresponder.
The biggest secret of autoresponders is that they are the key to building a successful online business.