To their own demise, many businesses refuse to leverage inexpensive technology like an auto-responder to create and grow a house list of prospects and customers. I see this being a problem for brick and mortar businesses more so than pure online businesses, but even online businesses can learn to be a little more creative and educational in their auto-responders versus just trying to sell sell sell.
While many people may think that using an auto-responder is only useful for sending out mass emails, there are actually a variety of others ways that you can make an auto-responder work for you. An auto-responder is excellent for opening new doors for gaining more clients for your products and services. The following are even more ways that you can use an auto-responder on your website to help increase the business for your site.
Collect Leads – One way that you can use an auto-responder on your website is to use it to help you collect leads. You can set up the auto-responder to collect leads and then you will be able to get an email digest that will show you each person who has requested any information from your auto-responder. It can be difficult to get your own leads, but using your auto-responder can help you collect them easily.
Price Lists – Another great way to use an auto-responder on your website is to use it to make price lists available to prospective customers. You can not only offer price lists for all your products and services, but you can also make product descriptions available as well as order forms and other type of sales material.
Free Reports – Many people also use their auto-responders on their website to help generate free reports as well. If you publish reports in an auto-responder format that are free, it is important that you make sure that they in some way relate to your website or your business. These free reports can help you to generate even more traffic to your site, which can lead to even more sales for your business.
Customer Surveys – Customers surveys are another great way to use your auto-responder on your website. You can make a survey that is in auto-responder format and allow customers to fill out the information so you can see how satisfied they are with your services or products. As you read these surveys, it will help you to find new ways to make your services better for your clients.
Publish FAQ’s – You can also use your auto-responder to help publish FAQ’s as well. It can get a bit difficult to answer the questions that everyone sends to you, so developing a FAQ list and using your auto-responder to publish it can save a great deal of time for you and can also offer more helpful information to your prospective customers as well.
Testimonials – While you may not have room on your website for all of the testimonials regarding your services or products, you can use your auto-responder to publish endorsements for your products and testimonials as well. This will enable you to be able to include all the of the testimonials about your product so potential customers can read them for themselves.
E-zine Archives – Publishing older e-zine articles that have been in your archives with your auto-responder is another great way to make use of your auto-responder on your website. This will provide visitors to your site with more helpful information that will be informative and helpful, and will also bring more customers to you as well.
Entire Website Content – Some people have found that actually publishing their entire website content in auto-responder format allows busy people to be able to print off the content so they can read it later. You may offer great content, but someone just browsing through may not have the time to read everything. Putting your site in auto-responder content will give them an opportunity to read the information later, which just may bring them back to your site.
E-books – Another great use for auto-responders on your website is using them to publish e-books. This is an excellent idea that makes it much easier for site visitors to be able to get your content. This way they will not have to worry about downloading the e-book and they will not have to worry about having special software to read it immediately.
Terms and Conditions – Lastly, you may want to use your auto-responder on your website to publish the conditions, terms, return policies, refunds, and other important information regarding your website and purchasing your products. This makes this important information readily available to anyone who may need it as well.
I use Infusionsoft as my auto-responder and CRM.
Bottom line, leverage the auto-responder to grow your list and engage them, and you will grow.