There are many people who believe they are "marketing" online, however, they still do not have or use an autoresponder. Here are the top 5 reasons why you need an autoresponder in your business:
1. Leverage. The money is in the autoresponder list.
The whole point to marketing "online" is to leverage the power of the internet. It's amazing that people will begin to place advertising online, and hire website design firms and blog design consultants and even post articles and videos on sites like YouTube and EzineArticles.com and not leverage the potential traffic by building their own email follow up list.
If you do not attempt to capture the contact information of your website or blog visitors so that you can communicate with them and build a relationship of trust, then you are clearly shooting air balls and missing the whole point. Leverage online is not about simply using the internet to find people to get to your site. Most people who visit your sites and blogs have NO INTEREST in buying anything from you on the first visit and are simply scanning your site for a few seconds and leaving.
Online Marketing 101 and List Building 101 teaches that a simple offer (bribe) of specific, relevant information in return for the prospect's contact information such as their name, email and phone number is a fundamental marketing strategy that allows you to build a list of targeted opt in subscribers who you may now communicate with long term. You can use offers to special reports, audios, videos or ebooks in exchange for the prospect's contact info.
This allows you to leverage the power of the internet even more. Instead of only using it to FIND people, you can now use it to capture people and build relationships.
2. Speed of Contact
Email marketing with an autoresponder is fast. How quickly can you type up one email and click a button. Even with a list of 5,000 subscribers, with an autoresponder you can type ONE email and click a couple buttons and immediately have that one email hitting the inboxes of all 5,000 people on your list.
You can create special discount offers and email them out to your list. You can send out new product announcements or new services or time sensitive current information. Any piece of information you choose can be formed into an email and sent to your entire list with the click of a button. That is fast relationship building.
3. Global and Mobile Marketing
Vacation to Fiji? No problem. Take your business with you and generate sales while you're in between snorkeling trips! Seriously, with autoresponders being a service based online and no software or hardware to worry about, as long as you have an internet connection, you can log into your autoresponder and create an email to be submitted NOW or LATER. The heart and soul of marketing online is being global and mobile.
4. Automated Marketing or Live Broadcasts
With an autoresponder you can write a series of email follow up letters and load it up into your autoresponder and take off. As people subscribe to your list they begin to receive your follow up series whenever you want them to, such as one email follow up per day, or once every 4 days. It's totally up to you.
You can set up a series of follow up letters to cover a one week period of time or it can last a full 24 months if you want. You have total control and power.
In addition to being able to load up a series of letters, you can choose to write a live time email once per day, once per month or 5 times per day if you want and broadcast them out in real time... or schedule them to go out whenever you wish. An example would be when I was going on vacation and knew I'd be on a plane on a certain Thursday, I decided to pen up my email on Tuesday, and schedule it to hit my list on Thursday at 9:00 AM.
You have total control and flexibility over the content and timing of your communications and that is powerful. You can treat your email marketing as an ongoing conversation with your list and not like a dry set series of "closing" letters.
5. PROFITS!
Using an autoresponder intelligently gives you the beautiful advantage of being able to profit from the same group of people again and again through time. The only thing you need to focus on is the level of relationship that you build up with your readers. Assuming you don't harass or abuse your list, using an autoresponder can be like having your own ATM machine. You can literally write an email and get sales any time you wish.
If you are anywhere near marketing on the internet, and you do NOT have an autoresponder working for you 24 hours a day and 7 days per week, you are NOT really serious about your business. You simply CAN'T be. It's so cheap. It's so easy. And it's such a no brainer, that not having an autoresponder to build your own list with in the year 2010 and beyond is just crazy.
On the other hand, beware of the critical mistakes most people make with their autoresponders that render them a complete waste of money and time. Do not be the one committing the painful and business killing errors most people make with these things and you'll be fine.
Be sure to learn and avoid the biggest blunders people make when marketing online with autoresponders. We have all that plus a whole lot more free training here on my internet marketing free training site: http://www.leverage-ur-postcard.com/. My name is Luis Sarmiento and I'm here to save you tons of time and money. And my kids are cute too!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Luis_Sarmiento
