Autoresponders

Double Your Online Marketing Profits with Autorespond Autoresponders ers

Center for Technical Communication 31 Cheyenne Drive Montville, NJ 07045 973-263-0562 [email protected]

Double Your Online Marketing Profits with Autoresponders is copyrighted by The Center for

Technical Communication. Communication. No portion of this th is manual can be reprinted or reproduced in any way without the author’s express written permission except by the authorized purchaser of this eBook, who may print out one copy for his or her use. Copyright©2014, by the Center for Technical Communication. Communication. All rights reserved. A Note on the Content Do not make the common error of assuming that if the copyright date on an e -book you have purchased is not the current year or last year, y ear, the book is out of date and of no value. The reality is that the principles, ideas, and strategies in this book b ook have made millions of dollars for me, my clients, and my students – students – and and are still doing so today. They are absolutely current and valid, and not dated. Do not make the mistake of thinking that if you find some URL links that don’t work, the book has lost its value. With rare exception, in virtually every book or e-book I have written, published, or read, the resource links (Website URLs) represent about 0.1% of the value of the work. About 99.9% of the value is the written text, and that is completely intact in this and every other book or e-book I sell.

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Center for Technical Communication. ©2014


Table of Contents 1.

What’s an Autoresponder, Anyway?................................................................................ Anyway?................................................................................ 1

2.

Take Stock of Your Experience with Autoresponders ................................................... .......................... ......................... 2

3.

Advantages over Direct Mail Marketing ...................... ................................................... ......................... .......................... 3

4.

Autoresponders Will Not Write Your Copy But the Software Will Provide Structure and Direction .................................................. ........................ ................................................... ................................................... .......................... 4

5.

Leaving Technical Issues to the Technicians ........................... ...................................... ......................... ............. 5

6.

Make Money While You Sleep .................................................... .......................... .................................................... ...................................... ............ 5

7.

Execute a Well Thought Out Plan and Double Double Your Income ...................................... 6

8.

Welcome to the Dashboard Dashboard and Autoresponder Functions Functions ....................................... ................................... .... 7

9.

Help With Subscriptions ........................... ................................................... .......................... ............................................... ...................... 9

10.

Sign Up Forms .................................................................................................................. 12

11.

The Autoresponder List Builder .................................................. ........................ .................................................... ................................... ......... 13

12.

Choose Double Optin Over Single Optin to Build a Quality List............. ................... 14

13.

The Power of Segmentation .......................................................................................... 15

14.

E-mails, E-mail Campaigns, and Drip Campaigns ................................................. ....................... ............................... ..... 16

15.

Affiliate Opportunities .................................................................................................... 17

16.

Types of Autoresponders: Form and Function ................................................... ......................... ................................... ......... 17

17.

Autoresponder Type #1: Website Welcome E-mail ................................................... 18

18.

Autoresponder Type #2: Automate a Reminder for a Shopper Who Has Abandoned a Shopping Cart .................................................. ......................... ................................................... ........................................ .............. 19

19.

E-mail Autoresponder Type #3: Send an Automatic Birthday Greeting................. . 21

20.

Autoresponder Type #4: Send an Anniversary Anniversar y Greeting and/or Coupon ............... 24

21.

Autoresponder Type #5: Confirm a Purchase .................................................... .......................... ................................... ......... 26


Double Your Online Marketing Profits with Autoresponders

22.

Autoresponder Type #6: Shipping Status .................................................................... 28

23.

Autoresponder Type #7: Announce a Sale .................................................................. 30

24.

Autoresponder Type #8: The Campaign Appeal ......................................................... 31

25.

Autoresponder #9: Respond to Changes in a Customer’s Behavior....................... 32

26.

Autoresponder Type #10 Deliver a Free eBook–or Report–All at Once or in Easily Readable Sections ...................................................................................... 34

27.

Autoresponder Type #11: Deliver a Course or an Entire University of Products ....................................................................................................................... 36

28.

Autoresponder Type # 12: Request Customer Feedback on a Product or Service ........................................................................................................... 38

29.

Autoresponder Type #13: Accompany Customer on Pr oduct or Website Free Trial ........................................................................................................... 40

30.

Autoresponder Type #14: Engage New Subscribers with Content Library Access 41

31.

Autoresponder Type #15: Ask a Question: Give an Answer Propose a Solution ... 43

32.

Autoresponder Type #16: Offer Tips ............................................................................ 44

33.

Autoresponder Type #17: Send Alerts ......................................................................... 45

34.

Autoresponder Type #18: Send a Link to a Contest .................................................. 46

35.

Autoresponder Type #19: Send a Quotation, Note of Inspiration, or Other Daily Dose of Concise Information ......................................................................................... 47

36.

Autoresponder Type #20: It’s Time to Renew a Membership, Subscription, or Service .......................................................................................................................... 48

37.

Autoresponder Type #21: Make an Announcement, Send an Invitation ............... 50

38.

Autoresponder Type #22: Send Out Your Newsletter, with Artistic Flair ................ 50

39.

Autoresponder Type #23: Send a Thank You Note, Automatically ......................... 51

40.

Use Your Autoresponder with the Intention of Creating Consumer Loyalty........... 53

41.

Follow Up and/or Upsell ................................................................................................. 53

42.

How Much Should I Personalize My E-mails? ............................................................. 54

43.

Solidify Communication ................................................................................................. 55



44.

Autoresponders and Deepening the Creation of Your Brand .................................. 55

45.

Small Businesses Need Autoresponders..................................................................... 56

46.

Big, Bigger, and Biggest Businesses Need Autoresponders.................................... 57

47.

Use Facebook Effectively, and Twitterize .................................................................... 57

48.

Hey! I Thought More People Would Be Opening My E-mails What’s Wrong?....... 58

49.

Your Readers Have a Problem, and You Have Not Given Them Real, Executable Solutions ...................................................................................................... 59

50.

Convey Urgency in Your E-mails .................................................................................... 59

51.

Caution: Ads Piggybacking on Your Free Autoresponder E -mails May Alienate Customers......................................................................................................... 60

52.

Heads Up: Video Autoresponders Are on the Rise ..................................................... 60

53.

Crafting Winning Autoresponder Content/ Scripts .................................................... 63

54.

Capture as Much Information as Possible about Your Prospect, Over Time: Begin with the Squeeze Page ........................................................................................ 63

55.

Are You Really Giving Your Prospects Valuable Information? ................................ 63

56.

Content Is King ................................................................................................................ 64

57.

Situate Copy Using an “F” Pattern ................................................................................ 64

58.

Use Plain Language ........................................................................................................ 65

59.

Extra! Extra! Your Subject Lines Are Your Headlines ................................................. 66

60.

Power-pack the First Sentence of Your E-mail ........................................................... 68

61.

Share Some Treasure ..................................................................................................... 69

62.

Remember, Subscribers Want to Protect Their Privacy ............................................ 69

63.

Get to Know the Experts in Your Field .......................................................................... 69

64.

Testimonials: The Golden Words of Ordinary People ...................................... .......... 70

65.

Less Is More ..................................................................................................................... 70

66.

Consider the Look of Your E-mail and the Effect You Want to Make................. ..... 70

67.

Your Readers Hate Green Eggs and SPAM ................................................................. 72



68.

Avoid Embedding Each E-mail with a Hard Sell Message .................. ...................... 75

69.

A Sample Autoresponder Series ................................................................................... 75

70.

Frequency of Autoresponder E-mails and Varying Content ..................................... 85

71.

Choosing an Autoresponder Company and Software................................................ 87

72.

Select Autoresponder Features That Will Add Hours of Leisure to Your Day ........ 93

73.

Affiliate Programs Integration ....................................................................................... 93

74.

Cost of Autoresponder Programs ................................................................................. 94

75.

Industry Leaders’ Price Comparisons .......................................................................... 95

76.

Resources: Selected Autoresponder Companies ....................................................... 96

77.

Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 100

78.

Sources ........................................................................................................................... 101

About the Author ....................................................................................................................... 105 About the Editor ........................................................................................................................ 105



1. What’s an Autoresponder, Anyway? An autoresponder is a piece of inexpensive software or a service that automatically sends prewritten e-mail messages to a select list of prospects or customers, either in response to an action taken by the prospect or at a predetermined, preset date or in terval. For example, you download a free white paper and get an e-mail a few minutes later from a sales rep saying he noted that you requested their white paper on X, and now he would love to talk to you about the X services his company offers. Or you get an e-mail from a local restaurant offering you a free glass of wine for your dinner this week because it is your birthday. The software and the e-mails they send are known autoresponders , because they automatically respond to a given action or data (i.e. anniversary of your purchase of your car from the auto dealer) . Autoresponders are sometimes referred to as “autoresponses.” Logistically, autoresponders represent a great boon since your business will receive requests that can and will be handled while you attend to other business –or sleep. This book is the culmination of research and intense personal experience with autoresponder technology. I subscribe to one of the most popular autoresponders and have researched dozens. In general, companies market these programs, telling us that they are super-easy, but that’s a little disingenuous. Before I actually began my adventures with them, I read tons about the processes –and expected to pay my fee for subscription and just jump in and make money happily ever after, designing effortless e-mails and campaigns. However, that just wasn’t the case; in fact, my experience underscores the need for this book. While setting up your autoresponder is not rocket science, it will involve some commitment of time, I believe a week, at least, to become relatively fluent at the process, and several months to master autoresponders since you will have to adapt templates and other generalized information to the specific needs of your business.


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Am I at odds with the autoresponder companies? No, that’s not the case. But certainly my own experience tells me that the map is not the territory. I believe the investment of time is well worth the potential outcomes. Today, use autoresponses to build my list, disseminate a newsletter, and in general, to keep in touch with clients and prospects. I have a professional writing business, so I added that instantaneous focus to my journey and the production of e-mails. I’m not an artist, nor do I have any history in designing e-mails with HTML. However, the autoresponder allows me to add visual appeal, and well-timed and executed relevance to the words I sell. While I sell words, and you may sell something else, I bet we have a number of important things in common, which probably include not going back to school to learn HTML or Web design. Even if you are an HTML Picasso and have painted the Web with your genius, you will find another array of reasons to invest in autoresponders, and I will explain them in this book.

2. Take Stock of Your Experience with Autoresponders “What experience?” You are asking me. “I’ve never written an autoresponder!” Perhaps that is true. But I’m sure you have read hundreds, if not thousands of them. Whether or not you use some kind of autoresponder in your business today, you are already familiar with many, as a consumer. Today, for example, I received at least ten of them –that were of interest to me. Early this morning, I downloaded an eBook through a link that came with an autoresponder. About an hour later, my electric company sent me a notification that my current bill was now visible. Next, I received another notice that a subscription (that I no longer want) has expired. I ordered some vitamins and immediately received back an order confirmation. Another autoresponder informed me that I could track a shipment of plants for my garden. And that was all before lunch. As the sun settled high in the sky, Amazon.com sent me an intriguing autoresponder, a sales for marketing books I had not yet read (according to Amazon’s data.) It was an impressive list of over twenty books that I actually have not read. The autoresponder


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prompted me to check off any books I wanted for immediate ordering, and then quite audaciously at the end of the page added: “Click here to order all!” That would have been a lovely book order totaling over $600, had I decided to go for it. A bit later, my dentist sent me an autoresponder reminding me about an upcoming appointment. Several e-mails with addresses I thought I had memorized bounced back to me with messages that they were undeliverable. And finally, my own autoresponder company sent me a flurry of e-mails all packed with information about growing my list. One of those e-mails urged me to download an eBook on the subject, and so, via autoresponder, I downloaded my second eBook of the day. At suppertime, I ordered a pizza online, and immediately received back an autoresponder telling me that my pizza was now being tossed, sauced, and topped per my unique instructions, which also appeared in the message. It included the time that the pizza would arrive at my door, and after a long workday, save the day. As you can see, the types of autoresponders I came in contact with during a typical workday were extremely varied, came from diverse businesses, and touched many aspects of my life. While sometimes, autoresponders can be superfluous and of little use, today, on what I consider a typical day, a good handful proved uniquely useful.

3. Advantages over Direct Mail Marketing If you are marketer with several decades of work in the bank, you are probably a veteran of direct mail. Perhaps you still even believe that direct mail is the beginning and end of your entire marketing world. Autoresponders are here to challenge that belief system. I don’t believe that direct mail marketing is dead, by any means, but some of the waters have gotten rougher to navigate, particularly since the 1990s. Let’s take examine just a few advantages that e-mail autoresponders have over direct mail. Autoresponders are green: They use no paper, consume no trees, and are infinitely recyclable. Many consumers prefer to receive e-mail for environmental reasons. The carbon


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footprint of an autoresponder is almost non-existent. There are no expenses connected with using paper, unless you choose to print out campaigns and reports to archive hard copies. Are you we really moving toward a paper-less world? Probably not tomorrow. But you need not have a crystal ball to see a future in which most of our formerly printed material is digitally-delivered. Printing and postage costs are higher than ever and only rising, because of the increased cost of paper and various factors involved in delivery of snail mail. Did it cost you a dollar or more to print each of your catalogs? Yet, you will never really know if the mail is delivered to the right address. You are, of course, looking for the best ROI (return on investment); something that now is very easy to measure when you use autoresponders. With direct mail, you are never really able to effectively measure who is looking at what you send out. Autoresponders allow you to measure the effectiveness of a single e-mail or a campaign, with great precision. So does direct mail, but with e-mail you get results much faster. The autoresponder also allows you to almost instantly know how well you are doing . Are your current advertising techniques working? That will surely take weeks to measure with direct mail; whereas, the autoresponder dashboard calculates how well you are doing from the moment you send out the first e-mail. Of course, the main advantage is that autoresponders are triggered automatically based on either actions taken by prospects or data about the prospect in your database.

4. Autoresponders Will Not Write Your Copy But the Software Will Provide Structure and Direction When you decide to use autoresponders, you will either hire a copywriter to do the work for you, or write them yourself. I will provide key guidelines for writing successful autoresponders; even if you decide to farm them out to a copywriter, these guidelines should help you to recognize weak e-mails and e- mail sequences. Most autoresponder


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companies, however, provide tips for writing effective e-mails, and templates often provide minimal framework to help with composition. While some may wish for completely computer-generated writing, I disagree, wholeheartedly. It is our writing that gives life, and ultimately, humanity to the e-mails. Without a human thinking and generating emotion at the keyboard, no one will read them.

5. Leaving Technical Issues to the Technicians While this book does cover technical issues, its goal is not to be nitty gritty when it comes to the technology. Autoresponder companies sell their products with the promise that any layman can use them, and we are should hold them to that. In fact, their job is to simplify what is ultra-technical, and should the need arise; provide customer service to simplify those issues quickly and in a friendly and efficient way. Many autoresponder users will never need to plunge into the deep seas of technology that underlie the software. That’s a good reason for celebration since we would rather spend our time building our businesses. The great companies run similarly great blogs, with time ly educational slants. Competitive companies also supply downloadable issue-specific guides. Most are free; however, I have had to pay for a few.

6. Make Money While You Sleep So how exactly can you work less and increase earnings? That autoresponder, like all high tech programs, is simply enjoying the benefits of mushrooming, intelligent automation. No two companies will provide the same product, even though sometimes it will seem that they differ by nuances. Learning about these features does not have to be a big deal. Most companies use their newsletters to keep customers or potential customers educated and up to date, on a weekly basis. While the promise of making money while you sleep may sound like something from SPAM, in this case, the message is true. Properly set

up autoresponders, whether in the form of a single e-mail, one campaign, or a multitude of


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them, will work for you during the prime hours of your day and all through the n ight. Imagine the cost of having to hire staff for these purposes! The more you use autoresponders, the greater your potential for sales and huge savings.

7. Execute a Well Thought Out Plan and Double Your Income If you are sending out single e-mails and hope for sales, statistics tell us that you are chances of successful are very slim. It may take seven or more correspondences before someone decides to buy, and of course, the more pricey the object or service in the question, the more deliberation time will be needed. So any time you engage in a campaign of organized follow-ups, your chances of success increase. If you follow-up with a wel lorganized, well-timed, and well-written campaign that also delivers value with each e-mail, it is no exaggeration: you have doubled your chances of success. Such campaigns were once done manually, making them time-consuming, tedious, and downright laborious. The autoresponder rescues you from the continuous drone work. Autoresponders can be used to automate communication for nonprofit ventures, and if that is your desire, it’s easy to translate this information for those undertakings . Nonprofits, of course, also need to make money to stay afloat. For marketers, the appeal of the autoresponder is obvious: we use them to deliver immediate information to potential customers. The main application is to follow up an action and convert it to a higher-level action. For instance, if I opt into an e-list, I get a series of autoresponder e-mails trying to upsell me to a paid product. While far from the sole function of an autoresponder, this conveys in a nutshell what most of us are after. Copywriter Kathryn Aragon of www.kathrynaragon.com has been using autoresponders in her business since 2010. And she lets us know that they work! “Autoresponder campaigns create the momentum to arrive at the finish line of the most desired upsell. We follow-up our dynamic introductory e-mail with e-mail concentrating even more power into the objective, locking them into preset time interval .”


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This creates elegant and efficient information delivery, culminating in increased sales overall, and one large sale (if all goes well). (I will discuss what can go wrong later in this book, since the autoresponder is not magic and requires your time and attention, albeit in lower doses, to optimize sales.) The insertion of your personality into the process will make your autoresponders shine. No one should ever think, “Hey, I’m reading an autoresponder,” or whatever word may be in the person’s vocabulary designating such a communication. Ultimately, a prime goal of the autoresponder is to build trust, something that has been, oft times, difficult to accomplish en masse. So, again, this suggests your adding bits of soul, and your own creativity, to what you or your copywriter composes. Dare to make it all original! The time and energy saved through eliminating the repetition of individualized messages common to business practices in the old- school past may very provide a lifeline to businesses functioning on a slim margin. And for businesses on firmer ground, using the autoresponder simply makes great common sense, as the feature both engineers frugality as it makes more money. If you have an online business, you may already s peak the language of autoresponders. If you are not, it is in your best interest to make them a part of your moneymaking tool kit, soon, since when well-executed, each auto-responder brings the reader one step closer to being a real live customer.

8. Welcome to the Dashboard and Autoresponder Functions

( Courtesy of Benchmark E-mail.)


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Your autoresponder’s dashboard shows you real -time statistics and shows you how well your e-mail or e-mail campaign is doing. As seen above, the basic dashboard information includes tracking the number of e-mails sent, opens, bounces, unopened emails, and the click through rate. All dashboards must give you this information, and deliver it in real time. All autoresponders will offer you dashboards that look like this , although layout will vary.

(Courtesy of Benchmark E-mail.) This table measures click through rates of various e-mails, giving numerical values, or real numbers of clicks, some of which are connected to blogs in this particular table. Clicks indicate response to an identified e-mail messages. This rate is measured by the percentage of recipients that click on a link included in the e-mail. So above, you are looking at the raw click numbers. A click means that a prospect has clicked on a link in your e-mail. You can easily derive your click rate percentage by dividing the number of clicks by the number of e-mails you sent. Then multiply this number by 100 and you have your click rate percentage. Comparing and contrasting this data with previous campaigns allows you to track the progress of your endeavors. Your dashboard can render these percentages, also, automatically. You may be tallying click performance on separate e-mails, e-mail campaigns, or blogs. Basically, if you can create the e-mail for a particular purpose, you can track it separately, and see how it is performing against other projects. Your dashboard segments this information, with elegant and utilitarian clarity.


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(Courtesy of Benchmark E-mail.) Look for a dashboard that allows you to view “Opens by Location.” Since many of us are marketing globally, this is critical information. Perhaps your e-mails are underperforming in a targeted market such as the U.K. or Australia, but doing fine in the United States . You may need to consider cultural factors that may be causing this problem and then adjust particular e-mails through segmenting them by country or region, and re-writing or repurposing e-mails according to new parameters. A tour through the many workings of the autoresponder may seem intimidating. But in fact, the dashboard, and other functions of your online program were designed to selfexplanatory. If you cannot manage a function on your own, you should call Customer Support to walk you through any given process.

9. Help With Subscriptions Expect to find these basic functions with your autoresponder: 1. A Manage Subscribers Heading/Section: This section will give you an overview of the process of subscription management. You will be able to view all current


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subscriptions, as well as those who have unsubscribed. On this page, you can also tracks e-mails that were undeliverable. You will need to segment your search by time/ date. So, for example, you can view any of those fields by the current date. That will be your default field. Or you may choose another time frame. Common time frame parameter include: since yesterday, the past seven days, the past thirty days, and the past year. The page should provide you with additional tools to make your work more precise. These include a Bulk Unsubscribe Tool, a Suppress Subscribers Tool, and a Block Subscribers Tool. 2. Bulk Unsubscribe: This is useful if you have more than one list. Most long time users will develop more than one list through segmentation. This tool will help you track multiple “unsubscribes” and through this tracking, aid you in understanding reasons for these actions. You must offer subscribers an easy and accessible link to unsubscribe. Legally, this requirement forms part of the CAN-SPAM Act. 3. Suppress Subscribers : You may wish subscribers from receiving certain e-mails. Why would that be the case? The most common answer would be relevance. Your subscriber has delivered additional information, to you, for example signaling that you would be sending irrelevant information. Thus, you may choose to suppress subscribers rather than potentially irritate them with irrelevant communication. 4. Block Subscribers: Use this tool to block subscribers from your list. This is useful when you have encountered a person who may be engaging you in superfluous or destructive communication, or spying or sabotage of your business. 5. Using the Messages Tab/ Section of Your Autoresponder: The Message Tab section of your autoresponder will help you to navigate through the critical areas of technology’s functionality. 6. The Follow Up Series: Since the follow up series is the bread and butter of autoresponders, this section usually contains a prompt to begin writing a follow up


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series, or campaign. This can also amount to single, simple follow-up e-mail, if that is your need. When you click on this link, you will usually see three options: 

Create a drag and drop e-mail



Create a plain text message



Create your own HTML message

Expect your Drag and Drop E-mail creator to provide you with a wealth of pre-made templates that you can adapt to your own business and purposes. These templates range from cool and business-like to neon-bright. Many people consider this drag and drop feature a huge part of what they are paying for, since they are not artistic, probably don’t know HTML, and nevertheless wan t showy e-mails with options such as adding videos and animations. Creating plain text messages may not be as exciting, but it is a good idea to have a plain text option when you are sending out an important message, since many subscribers will only be able to get such a message on certain electronic devices, and you don’t want to shut out anyone from receiving a transmission. Thus, send your bright and colorful e-mail with a plain text option. You can also simply send a plain text message. According to Bob Bly, “Often plain text outpulls HTML.” This probably explains why most of the autoresponders I receive every day are still delivered this way. Plain text is the safer option, from the point of view of many marketers, since HTML can have “bugs” running underneath it. While eye-candy options abound, HTML will not now offer the Fort Knox security of old reliable plain text, in which case, w hat we see is what everyone gets. From the point of view of the person sending out the e-mail, plain text virtually shuts down, hackers, SPAMMERs, and Phishers, preventing sabotage or a distortion of your message. It is best to track your own results with your autoresponder and weigh benefits and drawbacks on a regular basis. This issue will remain a moving target for some time to come. If however, you have supreme confidence in just your words, you can go for that option. Remember to run split-tests, however, to see how your audience responds to plain


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text e-mails versus those more gloriously executed and endowed. You will really never know which type your audience prefers unless you go for the split test. Luckily, you autoresponder gives you all the tools to send as many split test e-mails, as you require. And autoresponder companies encourage split testing! Those who know HTML may be the daVincis of t he process, for they can certainly create anything they can program.

10. Sign Up Forms You should see a tab in your autoresponder program to create a sign up form for your list. The information on this page will lead through the creation of a unique page, again, through the use of pre-made templates. You will be able to create, edit, publish, and delete this form, per your needs. This page will track very important conversion rate information, also. Your page may also provide you with links and information about how to collect more subscribers using Facebook, WordPress, and PayPal. Create sign up forms according to your business needs. Most of us, will be seeking subscribers to blogs or newsletters, thus building our mailing lists. You can create a sign up form for any Web initiative or event of your desire, for example, the following: 

A Webinar



A teleconference



A brick and mortar event

This page will also have links to important information on how to add your sign up form to your Website. The best companies will provide a step- by -step video or animation to walk you through this process. The Split Test may again be of use to you here if y ou find that your sign up numbers are not meeting your expectations. There are many reasons why this may be happening, and certainly not all of them have to do with the look and approach of your signup form;


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however, the appearance and presentation of the sign up form can be simply split tested by using two decidedly different sign up forms. Even if you are getting hefty numbers of sign-ups, it is possible that they can improve. So, the split test is really a good idea no matter if your numbers are low, average, or high. They can always improve. If the split test shows no great difference in sign-ups, then you need to look to factors outside of your autoresponder that may be causing this, particularly, low traffic.

11. The Autoresponder List Builder A principal feature of your autoresponder software is list building, which should be clearly noted through a tab feature. Click on it. First, your autoresponder will request basic information about you and your company. This includes your name, address, e-mail, and the name of your company. You will be given the opportunity to personalize your list by detailed, concise information about your company here, also. You can usually add some e-mails directly to this l ist, and most will allow you to transfer lists, or import subscribers. You will then see tabs that elaborate a number of options for you immediate or later use. These may include creating follow up series messages, broadcasts, and blog broadcasts. To demonstrate that these programs have become a force of the 21 st century, this area of the autoresponder should contain E-mail Parsers. Parsers are actually rules organized into functional sets. They read and process e-mails, extracting information into sets, for more precise processing. These often comprise payment processors. This process will allow you to integrate your lists with any number of shopping cart options and third party applications. And while you may be already familiar with the shopping cart applications, parsers are by no means limited to this function.


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The following is just a small sampling of potential third party integration applications. These include well-known shopping carts, membership sites and podcasting tools, and lead services: Possible Shopping Carts include 

Google Checkout



Professional Cart Solutions



Shopping Cart Gurus

Possible Podcasting Tools and Membership Sites include 

Extreme Member



Nanacast



Wish list

Possible Lead Services include 

GMC Leads



Nextag Mortgage Leads



Unbounce Form Submission

A good service will also allow you to customize and test parsers that do not appear on their basic lists. Needs for third party integration will vary according to your business, but make sure that the possibility of adding various parsers, and indeed several at a time, is possible.

12. Choose Double Optin Over Single Optin to Build a Quality List Today, autoresponder companies recommend the double optin for list building and to prevent your e-mails from showing up as SPAM, something that would reflect badly on


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you and your company. My autoresponder company, for example, only allows double optins. I am grateful for this and consider it a form of protection. Your autoresponders may be underperforming because you chose a single optin over the double. A double optin is a security device that decreases the likelihood of your e-mail and email relationship being sucked into a black hole of deletions. For example, for a double optin, Jane, signs up for your newsletter/ or e-mail list; she then gets another e-mail asking for confirmation of this subscription. The relationship solidifies. However, I realize that for some, this is contentious point. The single optin will no doubt yield a bigger list, and maybe a vastly larger list, but the chance of passionate interest in products and services is greatly diminished. The double optin upgrades the level of interest: i.e., the person in question has taken the time to actually “confirm” interest. So, while the double optin will inevitably yield a smaller list, you can regard it as a one that has been weeded out, thus yielding a better inventory of potential customers. When making this call, you are choosing between quality and quantity. Siding with quality has perennial force.

13. The Power of Segmentation Your autoresponder allows you to divide your customers into ultra-specific lists to better serve them. The power of segmentation also allows you to serve their specialized needs more readily. Let’s take the example of a pet supply company. Of course, most of the business will involve serving the owners of cats and dogs, two animals with distinct needs –and some overlapping products. When you ask your customer via a survey if he or she has a cat, dog, or


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other animal (and then ask prospects to specify the “other”), you have closed a marketing gap. Rather than casting a very wide net, you write to the cat, dog, or bird owner with precision. Keen use of segmentation helps you to make more sales. The easiest way to refine your segmented lists is to communicate with your subscribers through surveys. Use the autoresponder’s survey functions to tally data, and then decide how you wish to use it. Copywriter, Kelvin Parker refers to segmentation as sorting subscribers into “buckets.” And he tells us that this technique has been around, frankly, forever. While this is true, in the past segmentation was a laborious and time-devouring task. Imagine sending out surveys to a list of several thousand subscribers. Even if only ten percent respond –and we expect that autoresponder technology would yield a higher level than that− sorting through the responses by human hand and mind could take days, we eks, or even months. It is always possible to still take this route; however, the chances of being left in the dust by your competition loom ominously, if this is your decision.

14. E-mails, E-mail Campaigns, and Drip Campaigns When you use your autoresponder to its greatest potential, you will be sending out single e-mails that express a one-time goal. However, ultimate autoresponder success comes from the launching and sustaining campaigns over time. First, you decide the ultimate purpose of your campaign and set some time-based parameters. Let’s take the example of a company that sells different types of flours and baking ingredients. (I have this experienced a campaign like this.) The winter holiday season is a great time to sell lots of flour and baking ingredients. So a campaign may deliver you Christmas cookie recipes, for example. I start to get these right after Halloween from various companies. They may begin with an email a week, but by the time the prime holidays draw closer, I may be receiving a recipe a day. These recipes always feature links to buy a product, such as specialty molds, for


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example, or different types of ingredients, like hard-to-find chestnut flour (a favorite in Italian Xmas cookies). The owners of these companies know that we are apt to splurge during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Often, I see that I am receiving e-mails for different holiday campaigns. For example, the New Year’s campaign may overlap a Christmas campaign. These campaigns succeed because of the relentless delivery of interesting and helpful information and inherent follow-up.

15. Affiliate Opportunities Depending upon the offerings of your autoresponder company, you can begin your adventure in affiliate marketing by becoming an affiliate of that very organization. When this is possible, you enter into an affiliate agreement and are given an affiliate URL to use in your e-mails. When people decide to sign up for the same autoresponder, and through clicking on your URL, you will receive a commission that may be as high as thirty percent. Normally, you will continue to receive this commission each time a payment is made. Of course, affiliate agreements vary, and not all companies provide them, so check for this opportunity first before choosing your company. Ideally, this opportunity should be free. If you find a fee involved, and deem it unreasonable, shop around. You can have this opportunity at no cost. You will be asked to provide your tax ID to track payments that normally are dispersed on a monthly basis. Using your autoresponder, you can set up e-mails with imbedded links to sell other affiliate products. Sales are tallied through the affiliate, and payments are made to you according to agreements you make with this party. Taking this route certainly helps you to get closer to doubling your income using autoresponder tech. For more information on affiliate marketing, click here: http://www.jvmagic.net/

16. Types of Autoresponders: Form and Function The many forms of autoresponders are panoramic and infinitely useful. In this section, I describe and provide examples of major forms; however, in no way is this list


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either hard boundaried or in any other way limited. Quite the opposite: creative users are thinking up new ways of using autoresponders every day. The best combine exemplary form: plain text or, at the other end of the spectrum: ravishingly fancy html, with titanium copy.

17. Autoresponder Type #1: Website Welcome E-mail

(Courtesy of The Orchard.)


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The average Web user has received hundreds, if not thousands of these. What should this e-mail look like? What information must it contain? Autoresponders require strategic organization. Your introductory e-mail presents a great opportunity and potential pitfalls. We all know that first impressions last. No matter sometimes, first impressions are completely wrong: the human psyche devours that first impression, and you have only one chance to make that first impression. So, you need to put extra umpf and effort into that flagship e-mail. It is really your spotlight moment to create unforgettable branding energy. Remember: Websites cannot generate autoresponder messages unless the visitor opts in. Daniel Miller of Benchmark E-mail extols the virtues of autoresponders as a longterm tool for branding. But this branding journey of a thousand miles starts with one e-mail that will pop off the screen and plant a good seed in the reader’s mind. Make this reader want to know more and look forward to the next correspondence. For example, an initial e-mail should provide a good sense of what the company or person in question is about. It encompasses a very necessary introduction. However, customers want more: they want testimonials, and they want to hear from experts. And of course, the want more detailed success stories. Thus, e-mail two may involve a powerful series of testimonials; e-mail three, can introduce the first of several experts speaking to the value of the product, and e-mail four might provide a very detailed success story.

18. Autoresponder Type #2: Automate a Reminder for a Shopper Who Has Abandoned a Shopping Cart The telephone rang. The baby cried. Life interrupted a sale. And this is no big deal, after all. Maybe someone has abandoned a shopping cart –and really wanted to complete that sale. But unless you follow up, you will never know.


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You can automate reminders, or you can slog through abandoned shop carts yourself and write unique reminders. But really, don’t you have better things to do? Good autoresponder companies provide you with templates for reminding a potential customer about an abandoned sale. Here is an example of one you can adapt for your needs: Hello (insert potential customer’s name via autoresponder). We have noticed that you have not completed your order and want to do everything possible to help. We are concerned that you may have encountered a problem while trying to complete your order. Please click on the given link so that we can assist you or call (Give Customer Service number.) This type of autoresponder is brief, businesslike and expresses clear concern about the abandoned shopping cart. Should a live chat with a customer service representative be available, you can also provide a separate link to click on. Your cart misses you!

FOR THE HOME

View in browser

FURNITURE

BEDDING

WOMEN

MEN

JEWELRY

Hello Maria Teresa,

WATCHES

SALE

Your Club O Balance is:

Thank you for being a Club O member.

Forget Something? There is still an item in your cart. You left an item in your cart. Get it before it's gone.

Down Alternative Solid Reversible 3-piece Comforter Set Rating 5

1 Reviews

today: $49.99 Option: Full/ Queen- Navy/Regatta


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19. E-mail Autoresponder Type #3: Send an Automatic Birthday Greeting

Greetings, Mr. Wayne Funk! Your special day is almost here–yes, September 17th–and we are going to help you celebrate in style!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Here’s a gift for you!


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Mountain Laurel Press is offering you fifty percent off your first book purchase–and we are throwing in a free book of your choice to make this your happiest birthday ever!

50%

any book on our impressive list!

Off

Visit us before September 20th at www.mountainlaurelpress.com! get yourself something nice

Now, most people will realize that they are receiving an automated greeting –I certainly have no illusions about the personal nature of these correspondences –nevertheless, in this huge and impersonal world, generally, people welcome acknowledgement of another successful trip around the sun. This only works with a list where you have captured the person’s birthday, which can be rare but very useful data. Be audacious and create option fields allowing customer to provide additional information, quite simply name and date of birth, pictured as so –but don’t do this on your sign in or squeeze page. Save this for follow-up correspondence, or statistics show us that you will lose your optin. If you ask too much, when you are trying to build a subscribers’ list, you can overwhelm your prospects. You will create the marketing version of a bad first date. Remember you are building a relationship, so allow yourself time to collect more strategic data:


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First name: (Data Box) Date of Birth: (Data Box) MM (Data Box) (Data Box) YYYY You will want to make sure to send a “gift” within the autorespon der, if possible. Most companies will send coupons, but other gifts are possible, such as reports, and eBooks. Since coupons are the most common gift, my example will entail setting up a coupon/autoresponder. It is really up to your imagination and what you can offer reasonably. Autoresponder programs will provide coupon templates for you to customize. You may set up the autoresponder to go out on the person’s birthday–or several days before. Even a belated birthday autoresponder is possible, and may be attractive, since when the hoopla of the actual birthday is over, a belated birthday wish may stand alone and attract a spotlight. Let’s face it: anyone of us can convey a warm Happy Birthday greeting, but this autoresponder is already doing much more. Once you plug in data on the timing of your greeting, it is possible to segment (specialize) it to a greater extent. If you have captured your prospect’s address, you can use it to make the coupon, for example, more locally attainable and desirable, if possible. That is, you can specify the store where it can be used that is ideally just around the corner. In an autoresponder survey that you design, you can ask your prospect to name one or several favorite stores/ online shopping hubs. Then you can automatically segment further to make your coupon (again the most likely gift you will send) particular to that person’s needs and desires. Sample Birthday Autoresponder Happy Birthday (Insert person’s n ame by autoresponder)! We hope you are having a glorious day filled with joy and all your favorite things. Because you are such a valued customer, we want to celebrate your birthday with you by offering you 75 Percent off any product, valued over $50.00 on our Website! This offer is valid for seven days, so hurry! Use Product Code: HPYBRTHDAY at checkout.


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Then provide a link to your Website so that some shopping celebration can ensue. Add to the bottom of this coupon, any restrictions that you may need to apply, and your guarantee(s). You can finish the design of this coupon e-mail. For an idea of what your set-up page for this e-mail may look like, examine the following example:

(Courtesy of Benchmark E-mail.)

20. Autoresponder Type #4: Send an Anniversary Greeting and/or Coupon Now technically, birthdays are anniversaries, but they tend to warrant a certain type of gift response, as in the coupon e-mail j ust described. “Anniversaries,” as a type of autoresponder can certainly mean much more. An anniversary can refer to the annual celebration of a wedding date, but it can also essentially refer to any date you and the


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person on your list deem important, such as the date the person opted into your list. Physicians use anniversary autoresponders to remind patients about important visits, whether, they be monthly, annual, or those scheduled for irregular times. Schools of all types will send out anniversary autoresponders to remind students about critical deadlines. Even religious organizations send out anniversary autoresponders to remind members about special holy days and celebrations. So, while a birthday will also be just a birthday, that special personal day that comes around once a year, the types of anniversary autoresponders are almost infinite. Anniversaries are so customizable to your particular business. Choose templates that best suit your business. You will be able to add photos, logos, and other features to make this autoresponder stand out as yours alone. Also, consider anniversaries you can celebrate with consumers that are unique to your business. Make sure to capture this information with finesse on your squeeze page, or in a follow-up autoresponder. This is another perfect example of how an autoresponder becomes an automatic sales generator and a tireless assistant. Companies will provide specific anniversary templates autoresponder. Expect an anniversary e-mail to look and sound something like this.

Dear Maria: Today, December 7 th, is your 30th anniversary (a really good autoresponder will give the numerical value of the anniversary), and we wish to celebrate with you by sending you a 50 percent off coupon for anything on our site. Just like your anniversary, this will pass. However, we are extending this offer for a week (until December 14 th), to give you a chance to really explore our catalog and get what you really want. Your autoresponder can then insert coupon codes, links to your Website, and all your pre-set company information such as address, appropriate phone numbers, and guarantees.


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Happy Anniversary, Maria!

Come and celebrate with us and we will reward you with a free bottle of wine when the total of your tab exceeds $100!

Where: Martha's Restaurant, 200 Broad Street, West Hazleton, PA When: On December 7th 2014 Bring: Your appetite!

For reservations call: 570-454-0000 or visit us at www.marthasrestauranthazie.com

21. Autoresponder Type #5: Confirm a Purchase Most Internet shoppers are familiar with this useful autoresponder. This is another autoresponder that is purely informational and best rendered in plain text. As with all autoresponse types, search for the correct template for this purpose. Your customers should see something like auto-confirm@your address” in the subject line. An example of this is “[email protected]: Hello Maria (Name is automatically inserted by autoresponder): We appreciate your shopping with us! We will send you a shipping confirmation when we ship your order. See the box below for your order details. (You will want to create a separate box to particularize the order.) Click on your order invoice (a link) to view your payment history. To check the status of your order at any time, see Your order @Your Company (a link).


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It is wise to include a guaranteed delivery date below this information. Make sure that the order details include the full mailing address of the customer, somewhere in this e-mail. The template should include this field.

Order #116-7920088-5640257

HELLO DR. MARIA JACKETT I, Thank you for shopping with us. We’ll send a confirmation once your item ha s shipped. Your order details are indicated below. If you would like to view the status of your order or make any changes to it, please visit Your Orders on Amazon.com.

Your guaranteed delivery date is:

Your order will be sent to:

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Maria Jacketti 545 Broad Street

Your shipping speed:

Marigold, PA 18201-0001 United States

Two-Day Shipping

O R D E R D E TA I L S Order #116-7920088-5640257 Placed on Monday, September 8, 2014

Utopia (Dover Thrift Editions)

$2.70

Thomas More; Paperback Sold by Amazon.com LLC

Item Subtotal:


$2.70

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Shipping & Handling:

$0.00

Total Before Tax:

$2.70

Estimated Tax:

$0.17

Order Total:

$2.87

To learn more about ordering, go to Ordering from Amazon.com. If you want more information or need more assistance, go to Help. Thank you for shopping with us.

Amazon.com

22. Autoresponder Type #6: Shipping Status Customers receive this type of autoresponse after their products have shipped. This e-mail needs to contain order information in the subject line, and usually reads something like this: “Your (Insert Company Name) order (Give order number) has shipped. ” There is nothing fancy about this, and this is the information your customer needs to know. It’s particularly critical when multiple orders are in play . If a partial order has shipped, this information needs to be reflected in the subject line. Thankfully, this is one of the easiest autoresponses to set up. This is a plain Jane email, so save your artistic efforts for others.

Hello Dr. Maria Jacketti, Thank you for shopping with us. We thought you'd like to know that we shipped this portion of your order separately to give you quicker service, at no additional cost to you. The remainder of your order will follow as soon as those items become available. If you need to return an item from this shipment or manage other orders, please visit Your Orders on Amazon.com.

Your expected delivery date is:

Your order was sent to:

Friday, September 19, 2014

Maria Jacketti 545 Broad Street


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Marigold, PA 18201-0001 United States

Depending on the ship speed you chose, it may take 24 hours for tracking information to be available in your account.

Shipment Details

$10.19

La Tourangelle Roasted Hazelnut Oil, 16.9 Ounce Unit Sold by Amazon.com LLC

$13.08

La Tourangelle Toasted Pumpkin Seed Oil, 8.45 fl.oz. Tin Can Sold by Amazon.com LLC

Item Subtotal:

$23.27

Shipping & Handling:

$0.00

Total Before Tax:

$23.27

Shipment Total:

$23.27

Paid by Debit Card:

$23.27

Returns are easy. Visit our Online Return Center . If you need further assistance with your order, please visit Customer Service. We hope to see you again soon!

Amazon.com


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23. Autoresponder Type #7: Announce a Sale While the implementation of such an autoresponder might seem like the ultimate “no-brainer,” let’s look at some of the basics–and finer points of these e-mails. You will find an abundance of e-mail templates to use for your sales announcements. And of course, sales present wonderful opportunities to split-test e-mail styles, and/ or subject lines for efficacy. As the next e-mail demonstrates, sales announcements can be very elegant:

(Courtesy of AdArtDesign.co.uk)


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24. Autoresponder Type #8: The Campaign Appeal

(Courtesy of The New Zealand Red Cross.)


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Campaign appeals ask for money outright, after presenting a compelling scenario and a CTA, call to action. These autoresponders are the bread and butter of political campaigns and non-profit organizations. The following is an example of a non-profit call-to-action autoresponse: We will call our non-profit “Animal Sanctuary. “An appropriate subject line may look something like this: Take Action @ Animal Sanctuary.com. Usually non-profit organizations begin their appeals with stories of their success, or conversely, by showing images of great distress, and perhaps even horror. This call to action e-mail may show one feature story, and later in the e-mail present image-rich links to other articles, or blogs. Quite often, they provide links to follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter, or other sites. Of course, this type of e-mail needs to provide a link, stating something like “Click here to donate.”

25. Autoresponder #9: Respond to Changes in a Customer’s Behavior With your autoresponder, you can track changes in your customers’ behavior with ease and respond to them with targeted autoresponses. Life on the Web is a never-ending Web of consumer exploration and seductions. It is completely unrealistic to expect consistent behavior from your customers over time. Expect to use autoresponders to stay in touch with them on a regular basis, and this will help you keep up with and hopefully stay ahead of, your competition. Silence, is of course, the key signal that something has gone wrong with the relationship. Today’s Internet consumer expects ever-increasing levels of excellence in terms of product and services. If this customer has dropped off the radar, chances are someone else has picked up where you left off. Silence can also mean that the customer is in a frugality mode, has a glut of products/ services, has gone on vacation, gone to war, decided to live off the grid, –or has died. Negative changes in your customers are easy pinpoint: either they have stopped buying altogether, or their rate of consumption has slowed down, perhaps to a trickle. Truly,


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you will never really know what is going on, unless you ask. So, when certain negative sales parameters are met, it is a good idea to send out a survey using your autoresponder. Sending out periodic e-mails, expressing the main idea that “We have not heard from you lately and are concerned” is also appropriate. You may want to target important ideas to add substance to a conversation that the consumer can easily turn off. Exciting content here, will magnetize their attention. Try sending an e-mail that request customer feedback, but in this case probe their expectations of your company. Are you delivering what they expect? You might be surprised by customer expectations. But if a trend emerges among responses, you can choose to address these new concerns. No company can afford to cease evolving. Thus, in your communication you can discuss improves and what lies ahead in the near future, and perhaps a season or year down the line. In this type of e-mail, you can also take the opportunity to discuss important company changes that you hope will improve service. These may comprise changes in location, staff, and top company leadership. Above all, your goal is to re-start a dead or flagging conversation. Remember, there is a time and place for non-automatic conversations. Participation in social media proves you are not a robot, or a corporate drone with no time for them. It’s all about caring and re-engagement. Life is a great conversation, and business no less, both fueled by questions and answers. Your business cannot afford to be one- sided in today’s highly conversational market. There are many ways to get back a customer who has strayed, and the simple act of re-engagement is often enough to show that you care. Try asking questions to begin your conversation again. Actually, when you ask most people a question, they feel compelled to answer. Unlike the primal limbic brain functions you can engage (I talk about a number of pertinent ones in this book), asking questions involves analytic areas of the brain, first and foremost.


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On an emotional level, people believe that you are asking them a question, you respect the giver of the answer –and ergo, the answer. Indeed, when you ask people questions (even by autoresponder) you defeat the idea that they are just numbers in yo ur database or bank account. Use autoresponders to give people with value –and also to show that you value them.

Hello Mariel, It has been six months since we last heard from you. And we miss you! We know you ar e a fellow mystery lover, and Mountain Laurel Press ha s plenty of new titles to give you endless hours of entertainment. Here is some great news! Today, we are announcing the long-awaited launch of t he Mountain Laurel Press mystery book club. For each five books you purchase, you will receive another book of your choice absolutely free! And we are giving you even more reasons to celebrate and come back to us. Join our mystery book club today, and your first book is free. We will also count that book toward your first five needed to get another free title! Just visit our Website and sign up now: www.mountainlaurelpress.com

26. Autoresponder Type #10 Deliver a Free E-book–or Report–All at Once or in Easily Readable Sections Free e-books and reports are popular welcome gifts, especially when you are running a marketing or information service. But you may choose to make these available to your subscribers at various times, particularly if you find their attention to your purpose, flagging. At times, it may be difficult to distinguish an eBook from a report. In general, reports are shorter, and you may consider several of them bundled together to form an eBook. E-books have no given page length, although seventy pages or 15,000 words may provide you with a good minimum range for one. However, none of these ranges are written in stone, and are so then subject to your adaptive needs.


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Reports, historically, have carried a somewhat technical connotation, while books or eBooks are capable of giving off infinitely more panoramic vibes to a reader, in terms of the scope of their possibilities. The link that binds both forms of products is rooted in the delivery of desired, if not coveted information. Most reports that I have viewed come in under fifty pages in length, with the typical length being between twenty to thirty pages. Successful ones focus on one or two key issues and explore them in depth. You can deliver the book completely, or in chapters as part of a drip campaign. In either case, you will need to introduce the material remind the reader of the value it conveys. The eBook you are providing gratis may actually have a very high value, surely no lower than twenty dollars, but perhaps much, much higher. You can use the eBook as a stepping to upsell other information products. So, perhaps, consider if the eBook forms a part of a viable series. EBooks may not be appropriate gifts for every business, but don’t dismiss the prospect unless you have considered how you can deliver a chunk of information in good readable form that will improve your customer’s lives and / or buying experiences. Thank you for your recent order from

The Creative Cook www.thecreativecook.com

As a thank you gift, we are sending you a free eBook, The Creative Cook's Christmas Cookies! Click on the link below to access over one hundred treasured Christmas cookie recipes. But act now! This link will only be active for five days. Take advantage of this eBook download, normally a $20 value!

www.thecreativecook.com/ChristmasCookies For Customer Service, contact us at: 1-800-555-cook


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27. Autoresponder Type #11: Deliver a Course or an Entire University of Products In this, the information age, people are reconsidering pathways to knowledge. Twenty years ago, online education seemed a little flakey, but now it is completely mainstream, helping business people to learn on the go, with forgoing family responsibilities, wrestling with geographical restrictions, or spending precious energy stuck in traffic jams. Expect this movement of online or virtually delivered education to continue and grow stronger, as we head into the depths of the 21 st century So, what do you have to teach? Some examples may include but are not limited to the following: 

Marketing strategies



Investment



Small business building



Basic educational skills



Frugal living



Parenting



Gardening or Small Space Farming

This list really has no end. But chances are that a core group of people want to learn about, in depth, the very thing that is your expertise . This type of learning is a natural match for autoresponder technology. First, of course, you will need to develop your curriculum. Ecourses can be delivered in print only, but adding lectures helps to duplicate a classroom experience, and can reinforce text material provided. Simply delivering video is probably a bad idea since students need resources in hand for reference. Preset course e-mails by lesson or module using your autoresponder; then provide links to click on for video lectures, print ,downloads, tests, and other evaluation materials.


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Schedule the sending out of new lessons according to your needs. For example, perhaps your students will receive a lesson a week, or biweekly. Otherwise, you may wish to only send out new lessons after the you have received back material, such as tests or quizzes. (The latter would require you to interact more with the autoresponder.) You can teach simply by sending out well-researched, well-written lessons, and pass the onus of assimilation of this material to your students, or you can choose to be an interactive teacher. The writing of Ecourses, usually involves research; beyond this, the writer should have knock out skills when it comes to organization and process analysis. Unless you are a savvy curriculum developer, enlist one to give your materials professional polish. Remember, in theory, the course might be one that’s free offered by a non -profit, or even a for-profit organization interested in generating an upsell. Many universities, such as Yale, are now providing free courses online, as part of the open university movement. The value of these courses today is in the thousands of dollars each, given current university tuitions. So, we can see that there is great usefulness in employing autoresponder technology to educate, whether it is casually, on an Ivy League level. Your “eSchool” amounts to someplace else where you plant your flag.

Here Is Your First Spanish Lesson! Thank you for choosing The Instant Language Institute for your online foreign language learning needs. You have purchased Latin American Spanish Level 1, consisting of twenty-four lessons. Click on the link provided here to access your first online lesson. Upon finishing this lesson, you will see another link for submission of your work. One of our qualified instructors will review your exercises, which include written, oral, and auditory components. Upon satisfactory completion of each lesson, we will send you more distinct, challenging work, all ultimately leading to your burgeoning proficiency in Spanish.


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Access your first lesson here: www.theinstantlanguageinstitute/laspanish/lesson1 User Name: LilaGomez Password: EXCELENTE

www.theinstantlanguageinstitute.com For Customer Service and Sales contact: 1-800-222-3333

28. Autoresponder Type # 12: Request Customer Feedback on a Product or Service I receive these autoresponses almost every day since I do so much of my shopping online. Typically, these will ask you to rate the product and/ or service. Sometimes, on a site like Amazon, you sell as an affiliate. Amazon will then send out autoresponses to customers you have shared. Your rating will then form a part of your company’s online rating on the larger site. Here is a sample of a type of autoresponder I receive frequently:

Dear Dr. Maria Jacketti,

Thank you for your recent purchase from Amazon.com!

Did you know that you can help improve Amazon's packaging by leaving feedback for your recent purchases? It's very easy--just click the "Leave Packaging Feedback" button below.

Amazon's Packaging Feedback form is now optimized for your smartphone and mobile device. Please leave your feedback today! August 25, 2014


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Herland: A Lost Feminist Utopian Novel

August 25, 2014

Looking Backward (Dover Thrift Editions)

Brave New World

Walden Two

See all shipments awaiting your feedback

Need Help?

If you have any trouble with the link above, you can rate your shipment's packaging by completing these steps: 1. Go to http://www.amazon.com/packaging 2. After logging in, you'll see a list of all of the shipments that need feedback. 3. Find the shipment on the list and click the "Leave Packaging Feedback" button on the right.

We hope you found this message to be useful. However, if you'd rather not receive future e-mails of this sort from Amazon.com, please opt-out here.


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(c) 2014 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affili ates. All rights reserved. Amazon, Amazon.com and the Amazon.com logo and 1-Click are registered trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Amazon.com, 410 Terry Avenue N., Seattle, WA 98109-5210. Reference 123237080 Please note that this message was sent to the foll owing e-mail a ddress: [email protected]

29. Autoresponder Type #13: Accompany Customer on Product or Website Free Trial If you have a product or Website that is in the least bit intricate, or sends up flags “Not User Friendly,” do your readers the service of accompanying them on an autoresponder tour. Many could use to do this but simply retreat to the position that the consumer will figure it out. Such a passive response is dangerous, since the consumer often will simply walk away. Use these steps, which, yes, amount to holding your subscriber’s hand: 1. Isolate potential or reported difficulties. These may include and are certainly not limited to difficulty navigating a Website, accessing information products, and using products in general. 2. Construct quick curricula. What does your subscriber need t o change this picture? Brainstorm; organize ideas, and then judge how many autoresponders it will take to get the subscriber up to speed. 3. Consider imbedding these lessons with video. All major responders will have this, and if you subscriber is jittery, creative video –or even just the plain vanilla variety –can come to the rescue. Often, we need visual components when trying to process new material.


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It's Time to Take a Book Tour! Mountain Laurel Press Invites You to Take an Interactive Tour of Our New Site! Click to initiate: www.mountainlaurelpress/booktour

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30. Autoresponder Type #14: Engage New Subscribers with Content Library Access Do you have a great content library? If so, it is there to help you make money, passively through engaging your readers. You simply need to take them to the library. If you don’t have a content library, consider how much it could add to subscriber engagement. To engage new subscribers with content library access, offer them library cards, that is, virtual ones. 1. Offer limited or complete content library access in exchange for subscription. 2. Construct a series of three autoresponders to hook subscribers.


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3. In the first e-mail, tell the subscribers what they will be getting: access to otherwise protected materials. Many should subscribe at first bite. Give a deadline for subscription to this service. 4. Knock on their doors again with sample materials. Reinforce time limit. 5. In the third e-mail, you may choose to extend the deadline for day or two, or for how long you deem necessary. Offer additional library samples.

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31. Autoresponder Type #15: Ask a Question: Give an Answer Propose a Solution In this type of e-mail, which differs from a survey, you ask an important question, and then deliver a solution. The question may be, “(Insert Name) Do you need to learn Spanish fast?” This e-mail would probably then discuss the very real nature of most language acquisition, something that can take years. You could then explain why your product does it faster and better, and then provide a link to order it. Life may be thought of as a journey during which we ask questions, or are confronted with problems, and then endeavor to find solutions. So, ask questions unique to your business, and then probe the solution in depth. Ultimately, you monetize the solution with your autoresponder. Perhaps you will wish to come up with a year’s worth of weekly questions and answers that sell your products. Compose these with your autoresponder; set parameters for sending them out, and they can serve you with perennial force.

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32. Autoresponder Type #16: Offer Tips Offering tips represents a lighter form of continuing education, as people are always looking for quick ways to improve doing just about anything. Chances are that then that you can use your autoresponder to disseminate tips in your specialty area. This is a form of content creation, however one that generally demands less of your time and effort than articles or blogs. Follow this plan to set up tips for your autoresponder. 1. Brainstorm content. 2. Segment content by theme. 3. Tips are general clustered in groups of three or more. But of course you can choose to offer any number of them. If you have one stunning tip that you want to highlight, you may showcase it alone. 4. Decide how many e-mails you can send, using this information, and how you will tie the copy into sales. 5. Generate copy by theme, edit, and proofread. 6. Use autoresponder to designate how you will send out e-mails.

Greetings from Weatherly Rose Gardens! www.weatherlyroses.com The time to plant roses is here again. Are you ready? For the next 12 days, we are going to send you one tip each day, helping you to purchase the best roses for your area of the country. Here is today's tip: You tell us that you have had no luck with roses in the past.


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That is true for many of us. Roses are not actually easy flowers to grow. Traditionally, the have been among the most challenging. If you don't have hours and even days to dedicate to your rose garden, we suggest you invest in KNOCKOUT roses. They flower without much care and are hardy in the coldest areas of the continental United States. Yes, they cost more than average roses, but few other roses promise such success.

33. Autoresponder Type #17: Send Alerts This is another type of autoresponse that I receive almost daily. Since I spent over two decades as a college professor, I generally receive alerts that are still tied to higher education issues. People seek alerts in these key areas: 

Employment Notices



A Change in a Company’s Status

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Weather Alerts

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Crime Alerts

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Political Action Alerts

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Activity or Event Alerts

Never use alerts in a frivolous manner, or you will end up sounding like Chicken Little. It is natural for people to open e-mail alerts because of the sensitive information they may contain. Should you send information in an alert that does not merit such positioning, you will likely alienate the reader. Do not use alerts for sales copy. Keep the boundaries of this type of e-mail distinct. Additionally, alerts are forms that beckon clear, concise copy. Say what is going on clearly, and powerfully. Alerts always carry a CTA. For some, the information in the alert is


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simply to remain vigilant. Others may carry CTAs that demand other actions, as in filling out applications for time-sensitive employment opportunities. When you send an alert, using your autoresponder, these are generally one-time only e-mails. They are perishable, not evergreen at all, and thus must be viewed in a timely fashion. The word “Alert” expresses this urgency. Be sure to emblazon this sense of urgency in your e-mail’s subject line.

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34. Autoresponder Type #18: Send a Link to a Contest Consumers love contests, and you use autoresponders to promote them. Use the software to promote a contest of your own or an affiliate contest. You will need to imbed your contest announcement with a link to enter. Contests represent a great way to get consumer traffic to your Website. Of course, the larger the prize, the more interest generated.


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You can run multiple contests, daily, weekly, or monthly contests, without hassle through using your autoresponder’s power of segmentation and tracking abilities . However, it is smart to begin with a single contest promotion, to test the waters. Track customer interest in this type of promotion. Are you seeing more e-mails opened, and more click-throughs? The dashboard delivers this information.

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35. Autoresponder Type #19: Send a Quotation, Note of Inspiration, or Other Daily Dose of Concise Information I look forward to getting these autoresponses, usually every day. You may already subscribe to a few. I routinely receive them from Nightingale Conant, Mike Dooley, Alan Cohen, and others. Let’s face it, while all have goals, and they are as diverse as we are. Yet, one of the things most people lack is a push of enthusiasm, a daily shot of encouragement. I like receiving these doses of encouragement from gurus, and other experts I admire. Frequently,


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they tap into some of the greatest ideas in human history, making them concise and easily digestible, while often updating them for 21 st century living. (As an aside, whatever your business, it is wise to take the steps to position yourself as a guru/ expert.) This is an easy e-mail to write and deliver. For example, let’s say, that I am sending out a daily thought. It would really make sense to gather these quotations, and then set up a year’s worth in the autoresponder. But setting up a month’s worth is also viable. After I have done that, I can simply set them all to mail out on specific days. And I don’t have to look at them for another year. The e-mail itself is a breeze to write, with a subject line like “Here is your daily inspirational thought from Maria Jacketti.” In a highlighted box, using a template, deliver your inspirational, thought, quotation, and/ or message, and end it by giving credit to your source.

Here Is Today's Inspirational Quotation From Mountain Laurel Press: From Ralph Waldo Emerson: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson Visit us a www.mountainlaurelpress.com to purchase Emerson's Self Reliance and Other Essays!

36. Autoresponder Type #20: It’s Time to Renew a Membership, Subscription, or Service If you run a service that has paid members or subscriptions, autoresponders take the drudgery of keeping track of keeping these up to date. Program your autoresponder to send reminder notices to subscribers. In this case, it is wise to program several, with one or two tel ling subscribers/ members that they will soon have to renew. You determine how much in advance you want to do this, for example, two months in advance, and then a month before.


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You may send an urgent e-mail when services have subscribed; however, this is also programmed well in advance. Keep this e-mail simple. Tell your reader that they will soon be without treasured service, and add a link to re-subscribe or renew membership. If your customer has not renewed after the second e-mail, you may choose to add an incentive for renewal, and customers will need a link for these. Often these types of incentives are discount coupons, or in the case of magazine subscriptions, the options to give gift subscriptions at a lower price. Go light on copy here, keeping the messages simple and direct. SAMPLE?

Dear Sally: We are writing to tell you that your son Jeffrey's subscription to Toy Robot Magazine is about to expire! There is just one issue left! Don't let his subscription expire! We know how J effrey awaits every month's extravaganza of stories, news, and designs! And just imagine the inspiration that our magazine is giving your son! And while college is still years away.... It's coming sooner than you think! Don't let Jeffery miss a single issue of Toy Robot Magazine. Just click on the link below to renew at the special rate of just $24.00 for twelve issues. That's just two dollars an issue and half the price you will pay at t he newsstand.

Visit us at www.toyrobotmagazine.com


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37. Autoresponder Type #21: Make an Announcement, Send an Invitation One-time autoresponders work well for making important announcements or sending invitations to important events, such as grand openings, or re-launches.

38. Autoresponder Type #22: Send Out Your Newsletter, with Artistic Flair Newsletters are normally sent via autoresponder, and for most of us they contain familiar information, a virtual gazette of the important things you are doing. The great news about autoresponders is that they can take newsletters from the blurry and generic ho-hum


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to new visual heights. If you are stuck mailing out plain text newsletters, consider for a moment, what yours might look like instead:

39. Autoresponder Type #23: Send a Thank You Note, Automatically It’s true. Handwritten thank you notes are a rare think these days, but autoresponders can still help to keep up a civil and timeless practice, that of expressing gratitude. Traditionally, thank you notes are brief, and so in this form you want to keep up


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with this way of expressing gratitude. Recap the event and express thanks. Keep your template designs elegant.

From our team to yours, thank you for a great year of work, partnership and progress. We are honored to be your partner and look forward to continuing our work together. With our thanks every day, Your friends at Suka Behind the scenes at our photo shoot (PDF)

560 Broadway (at Prince St.) Suite 307 / New York NY 10012 sukacreative.com / [email protected] / 212 219 0082

If you are no longer interested you can unsubscribe instantly.

(Courtesy of sukacreative)


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40. Use Your Autoresponder with the Intention of Creating Consumer Loyalty We live in a fly-by-night world. Those of us who value quality of experience find this troubling, and we are not so different from the people on our lists. We are here for the long haul and our businesses reflect this long-term reliability. Offering watertight guarantees create the ultimate insurance policy, beyond simply offering an excellent product or service, for customer satisfaction. Use autoresponders to remind customers of your guarantee, frequently, until it forms part of their automatic recall about your brand. You can imbed your guarantee into each e-mail to make sure that it’s always there. You also can use autoresponders to create a survey and metrically evaluate how well you are doing when it comes to loyalty. Construct a question-loaded survey, or a number of smaller ones (or use both approaches), to continue –and enhance your conversation with your customer. Let people know why you are gathering the data. Maybe your customers would like to see and purchase VIP services. If so, what would they like to see, and how much would they be willing to pay to upgrade? Would they like to meet you and maybe a group of other experts at a live event? Write a one-time autoresponder series for each event. Often, businesses ask us if we would recommend us to a friend, while others even provide incentives to the customers for the recommendation, if it results in a sale. Some of these suggestions may seem new, while others are relatively timeless. Delivering the opportunities to increase loyalty, automatically, is another advantage of the autoresponder.

41. Follow Up and/or Upsell If you aren’t following up, what are you doi ng? Old-school, human-generated following up is either exhausting on your part, or expensive.


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Use autoresponders for all basic follow-ups. Write your upsell. Plug the copy into a series of autoresponders, and again, just revise when any time sensitive material expires. Effective autoresponders can help you cut the time involved in building a stable customer base. In the case of affiliate marketing, autoresponders may do upwards of half the customer outreach work for you, clearly streamlining the road to customers and more quickly developed revenue.

42. How Much Should I Personalize My E-mails? Autoresponders personalize e-mails. They give you the tools to minimally or moderately personalize, or indeed, to go overboard, if you desire. However, which approach will best serve your marketing purposes? Personalization is best approached with a light hand. Ironically, repeating a prospect’s name numerous times in an e-mail can make the correspondence sound more robot and artificial than personal! Autoresponder expert, Kathryn Aragon agrees with this take. She tells us: “You need to go easy with it. It can be creepy to think that a vendor knows a lot about you, so most people only use a name and a geo-location in e-mails.” Indeed this is true, for while we long to have some personal connection with businesses we favor, too much conjures a vison of Big Brother’s shadow. People crave and absolutely need their space in the marketing arena, as in every other important theater of life. But when and where to we personalize? Kathryn Aragon continues to supply us with balanced advice: “As for where to use it, you have several options. Studies have shown that you get better response if you put the person's name in the subject line. That was several years ago, and following that realization, nearly all vendors began doing that. I think was overkill and may have lost some of its effectiveness, but it still works. Then, of course, is the case of the salutation in the e-mail. Most of us do that. But some also put the recipient's name in the body of the e-mail, which is very effective. It makes the e-mail sound personal, which helps you forget it was probably automated.”


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I suggest that you read your e-mails aloud and put yourself in the recipient’s shoes . If the degree of personalization you use makes you feel uncomfortable –or if it becomes awkward-sounding, it’s time to step back and temper usage .

43. Solidify Communication The ways to solidify communication with autoresponders are infinite, if you and your prospect are in sync with each other’s needs and desires . Copywriter Kathryn Aragon describes a success story related to her blog in which the use of autoresponders made all the difference: As the new editor of the Crazy Egg blog, my first goal was to improve brand perception and build community around the blog. I felt autoresponders would be a great way to do that, so I wrote a series of five e-mails, which were delivered the first five days after a reader subscribed. Relationally, these were a massive success. After starting the series, complaints dropped and when people unsubscribed, they were almost apologetic. Interestingly, many people responded to it (my e-mails) as if they had been written by me personally, thanking me for sending them such useful information. When our readers thank us for the information we have provided, we know we are doing something very right.

44. Autoresponders and Deepening the Creation of Your Brand When you receive e-mails that consistently convey value, you will l ook forward to opening them. Someone, yes, some company out there is already doing this for you. Consider their qualities and strive to do what they are doing. It’s not about copying, but rather about mastering what they have already under their belts. What’s that e-mail like? Have you ever received an e-mail that somehow enriched your knowledge of something important in your life? I’ve received a library of these!


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When I open these e-mails, I understand that my time will not be wasted, and they are so stirring that I even save them and print them out, gathering them in a large notebook. Imagine what this kind of response and behavior could bring to the development of your brand! Of course, the value conveyed in these messages makes me want to know more and actively learn more. So, I buy more products. And life gets even better. This kind of model really should be what you strive to create with each autoresponder e-mail you send out. If it does not convey value, then it won’t increase the worth of your brand. In fact, chances are that it might do just the opposite. So, you must become your own quality control expert. Each e-mail is an opportunity to shine a golden light on your brand and take your reader deeper into the marvels you’re offering. If they are looking forward to your e-mails, and even saving them, you’ve struck gold. They will end up as customers on some level, eventually. Every follow-up elaborates and adds energy to the never-ending branding experience.

45. Small Businesses Need Autoresponders Most small businesses experience growing pains and operate initial ly on precarious ground. Unfortunately, we know that too many small businesses fail within their first year of operation. Autoresponders cannot guarantee the success of any small business, but they can offer features destined to relieve strain. During start-up personnel, salaries can loom large and drain finances. The use of autoresponders should save you at least that one c ritical salary, but perhaps more. As your business grows, you will find yourself adding personnel in a much mo re efficient way. The autoresponder dashboard will summarize statistics and have any-time, allthe-time, real-time reports for you. And since autoresponders are so adaptable, they will expand with your needs.


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46. Big, Bigger, and Biggest Businesses Need Autoresponders As businesses grow, the need to manage parallel and interwoven tasks increases. Normally, this requires hiring many more people to handle diverse tasks. And of course, this model has worked well for many businesses for a l ong time. Today, you can make your new hires more precisely and use their skills to grow your business even further rather than have them bogged down in ever-important minutiae. They autoresponder will handle that. The autoresponder also helps prevent catastrophic disconnect between departments by allowing you to more easily share information. Imagine the chaos that ensues when one or several departments are off doing their own thing and not sharing data! In fact, Daniel Miller of Benchmark E-mail shared this disastrous scenario with me. Again, this is the sort of benefit that doesn’t make money for you upfront, but it may save you millions depending upon the super-hero rescue the autoresponder performs, ever so passively, at least from your point-of-view. Of course, it is up to personnel to respond to the autoresponder! You can plug anyone you wish into the dashboard data to ensure that everyone is, at least, reading the same page, frequently. You can, if need be, lock people out of seeing the data, as well. Larger businesses need to choose a software that supports multiple lists, and this requires simultaneous education and conversation campaigns.

47. Use Facebook Effectively, and Twitterize Most companies will allow you to automatically share your e-mails on social media and will give you the option of also adding Facebook, Twitter, and other buttons to each email. These are called “Social Media Sharing Buttons.”


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Most of you will have fan pages on Facebook, but I realize that social media may not represent a one size fits all opportunity for every company that uses autoresponders. Use these fan pages to your advantage by adding a subscription form to them. You want to create a good circle here with e-mail subscribers following you on social media, and social media creating more subscribers.

48. Hey! I Thought More People Would Be Opening My E-mails What’s Wrong? Since your headline is the first chunk of information that your prospective customer is seeing, look first at what are you saying there. Average to good e-mail open rates hover at around twenty-five percent, but as Mail Chimp reports these open rates can vary considerably by industry –and company size! Here are some of Mail Chimp’s findings (See link in Sources for the complete list): Open Rates by Industry 

Agriculture and Food Service: 26.06%



Business and Finance: 20.68%

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Creative Services/ Agency: 23.65%

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Daily Deals/ ECoupons: 13.2%

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eCommerce: 17.35%

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Education and Training: 22.49%

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Entertainment and Events: 20.93%

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Health and Fitness: 24.27%

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Hobbies: 30.71%



Mail Chimp’s findings on open rates by company size add interesting room for our own analysis of these figures. Companies with 1-10 employees had open rates of 22.1%; companies with 50 or more employees demonstrated the highest open rate


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at 23.4%, while companies sandwiched between had lower rates: 21.1% for companies with 11-25 employees, and 21.9 for companies with 26-50 employees. No reasons were given for these fluctuations. However, it is notable that all companies’ open rates fluctuate by no more than two points, with larger (and perhaps better known) companies demonstrating the highest rate Use your dashboard to track split-test e-mails. That is, segment e-mails in two at least two batches using different types of headlines. An obvious selection would pitch a very clear and direct one against one that might convey mystery. Mystery also entails writing something that adds creativity and ambiguity. Do a simple split test and see which approach works better for you.

49. Your Readers Have a Problem, and You Have Not Given Them Real, Executable Solutions First, when someone fills out a form, he or she needs to get a significant, “personalized” response that adds value to the relationship. Maybe your readers have a realistic desire that can be fulfilled; you have promised fulfillment but not delivered. In both cases, you need to evaluate the core pitches. Did these e-mails fail because readers became skeptical? Or worse, did they fail because the sales promises were fundamentally flawed?

50. Convey Urgency in Your E-mails Maybe some good things are eternal, but your e-mail offers need convey a genuine sense of a clock ticking, and a great offer vanishing. The limbic brain, that is our primitive lizard brain, is hardwired to respond to urgency, since answering the call of important situations quickly forms a critical part of our genetic make-up. In the past, our ancestors who responded in a timely way to important situations, survived. Even though we are not dealing with life/ death situations, it is legitimate to push prospects to respond in an opportune


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fashion to offers. Procrastination in the face of real opportunity rarely helps anyone. You can actually download and use clicking clocks to help use your time more ef fectively. And of course, your dashboard counts every second used in either the sending of a single e-mail, or an entire campaign.

51. Caution: Ads Piggybacking on Your Free Autoresponder E-mails May Alienate Customers You have been frugal, and maybe out of absolute necessity chosen a free autoresponder program. Well, as we know, nothing is ever really free. At the very least, you are spending your time writing and executing the autoresponders, just as prospects will be spending their time, reading. And so, someone has to pay for what you are sending out. Your free autoresponder e-mails will carry ads, the content of which you can’t control. If that makes you squirm, it is with good reason. While you wish that these e-mails do not annoy your readers (ideally, the ads might even add value to what you are delivering), there exists a good chance that the ads will alienate some. Such reactions will be hard to track, with lost customers likely lost forever. You may end up kicking yourself because you did not choose the $9.95 a month package, which may just require you to skip three lattes a month.

52. Heads Up: Video Autoresponders Are on the Rise Your autoresponders may be underperforming because people don’t like or want to read much anymore. The truth is that the days we are living in are have been labeled “postliterate.” This doesn’t mean that more people are illiterate, that is, unable to read or write. The distinction is interesting and important for us. While post-literates can read, they often choose not to, when an auditory or video alternative exists.


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The latest trend in autoresponders, and by no means the norm, is the video autoresponder. Video autoresponders convey messages with the use of minimal text and reading. There is no such thing as a completely video autoresponder, some text is necessary. However, there is a movement among some companies and users of autoresponders that may prove revolutionary because of fundamental premises underlying their projects. 1. Customers are noticing and rejecting typical autoresponder text. This is a subjective premise that has inspired such companies. The creators believe that readers are turning off to text they find canned or robotically written. They want to connect with humans, and this is done through a video presentation. 2. People can’t read or won’t read much. This premise reflects the reality that we live in a post-literate society. Perhaps people are too tired to read much, or they may lack the skill. This makes autoresponders in which actors or animations speak a desirable alternative. It may be difficult, at first, to distinguish a true video autoresponder from the big name offerings in the business. Of course, the latter also give you opportunities to imbed your autoresponders with video, and you, do this yourself. The true video audio responder company operates more like a film production company. You are outsourcing this, and providing the framework, but the company creates the end program for you. The video autoresponder will be word-poor, and videorich. Reading is kept to an absolute minimum. Modestly priced video autoresponders incorporate your homemade videos into autoresponders or autoresponder series. The services of these companies are priced to be competitive with the well-known traditional service providers such as AWeber. High-end companies write the scripts, set up the e-mails, orchestrate filming, and even hire actors for the spots. Expect to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for these! Autoresponder videos end up on YouTube, and as such, will carry any ads that the site deems necessary to pay for the space.


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Upgraded video autoresponders can be customized to play on your Website or even on social media. The video autoresponder may also work better to seize the exhausted prospect. This person can open an e-mail, but doesn’t necessarily have the energy to read it. Viewing is by far the more passive experience, yet visual and voice-delivered content will click with a certain percentage of viewers. Some companies marketing video autoresponders claim that their product works better than AWeber’s, the leader in the field now for many years. However, I have not been able to find reliable data to support this claim. Proponents of video audio responders contend that their products will be taking over the field in this century. That may be true, but we have a long way to go before this is the norm. Some may find their reasoning ironic, but nevertheless, compelling. They contend that there will be an eventual backlash against discernible automated communication, that is, autoresponders, as we know them: those recognized as generated rather than original communications. The faces in videos humanize the e-mail. If you opt for the new kid on the block, the video autoresponder, make sure to keep control of your script, and if possible, write it yourself. Companies that present nearly complete video autoresponders are new, and should not be confused with the big autoresponder companies such as AWeber, Mail Chimp, and Benchmark, for example. They offer more realistic video embedding solutions for most of us. All of these companies allow you to incorporate video into your e-mails; the premise that your prospects will be reading is intrinsic for these companies. Video autoresponder companies are coming from a different place, one that you may want to consider if you believe that your prospects are too exhausted to read, or may lack the skills to process complex messages. I consider that “place” to be a very extreme one today. These messages may present minimal text and really on video presentations to make sales. Video autoresponder companies are noted in the appendix of this book. Most of you will choose traditional autoresponder companies for your needs. Nevertheless, it is important to get a sense of other movements in the field.


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I believe it’s important to recognize a market for video autoresponders; however, I will be sticking with the traditional types for the foreseeable future, and perhaps imbedding them with some video clips. If however, you deal with consumers that are either too tired to read, or lack skills, the video autoresponder may be your ticket to engaging those consumers, who might otherwise be turned off by the traditional, gold standard type, that is, the types of autoresponders that are the major subject of this book.

53. Crafting Winning Autoresponder Content/ Scripts Autoresponder e-mails are “canned”–but in the best sense of the word, and absolutely must sound subjective and spontaneous. Let’s explore succinct tips for crafting better autoresponders.

54. Capture as Much Information as Possible about Your Prospect, Over Time: Begin with the Squeeze Page A good autoresponder program will do this almost automatically, and gradually , so as not to overwhelm. You will have to provide opportunities to obtain important information, however. If you are writing an autoresponder about a new cyber school, and assuming that your business deals with education, you can ask questions in specific e-mails, over a reasonable period of time. For example, would you be interested in homeschooling your ch ild via an Internet school?

55. Are You Really Giving Your Prospects Valuable Information? Before you start writing, make sure you are providing valuable information. Consider where you have attained your data and how you have shaped it, or re -purposed it. This is


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very important since a chunk of plain information that may be almost common knowledge, let’s take for example that the fact that all autoresponders give you the tools to segment your list –becomes more valuable when you add details or somehow cast the information in a new light. It takes the human mind to take old information and breathe life into it, yet much of what we see is re-purposed information. Consider taking very difficult information, if it applies to your business, and making it accessible to a layperson. You may want to consciously rate the value of what you are conveying using a scale from 1 through 10, with 1 representing information that the prospect will easily discard, and 10 representing information so valuable that your prospect will forward it. Strive to always send out e-mails that rate a 6 or above, in terms of usefulness and interest. If you consistently and persistently send out e-mails of lower value, you may be dubbed a pest and sent into the junk folder, that dungeon, and ultimately, that abyss.

56. Content Is King Perhaps you are tired of hearing this slogan. For many it is more than that: it is the mantra of a way of conducting business based on delivering useful information. Contentbased businesses now actually hire journalists to write articles rather than sales pitches. These articles come with links to purchase items or services, and articles certainly link purposes. But when content marketing is the purpose of your campaigns and autoresponders, and if you are writing these e-mails, you will be wearing at least two hats, one of the journalist/ researcher, and another one, that of the marketer.

57. Situate Copy Using an “F” Pattern To engage your readers, situate the important information using an “F” pattern. What does this mean?


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The first line of your e-mail should convey critically important information. And while the second line does the same, it should be j ust a tad shorter. Chances are that your prospect will read these two lines fully. However, a study reveals that readers tend to scan the lines afterward, reading perhaps just a word or two of each line. In 2006, Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group revealed this research. The group completed an eye tracking study using 232 participants. Heat scans involving the eyes revealed that most people read horizontally the first two lines, and then continue to skim content vertically. Nielsen tells us that we must convey the most important information in our first two paragraphs, which tend to be short. We should then make sure that we begin additional information/ sentences/ paragraph with information carrying words to attract the readers’ attention. Unfortunately, Nielsen tells us, prospects will not read what we write, word for word. Thus realizing that they will read using the F pattern gives us a better sense of where to position strategic information.

58. Use Plain Language Plain language can be colorful, beautiful, and powerful. Ernest Hemingway wrote with a limited vocabulary and won a world audience and the Nobel Prize . Beyond this, sentence structure should be clear and direct. Millennia ago, Aristotle gave wise advice on writing. He told us to think like a wise man but deliver our messages using the language of the common man. Talk about evergreen advice! One should keep the tone of the e-mails natural and conversational. (And this in fact, is great advice for most Web writing.) Jargon, grandiose vocabulary, and stilted diction turn off most readers who long to feel comfortable. When we keep the tone light and clear, we transmit that precision to the reader who is probably tired and has a hundred other e-mails to read. It is important to pity the reader. If the reader is exhausted after reading the e-mail,


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failure is on the horizon. In fact, the best writing is not only diamond-vibrant but also energizing. If the reader feels eager and enthusiastic after reading the e-mail, you have done things right. Here’s the quintessential process: Write one e-mail to one customer using a friendly, no –nonsense conversational tone. You provide key important content (and in your series, you continue doing that.) Using the autoresponder organizational keys and this simple approach, the great e-mail that you have written for one reader can serve thousands. One customer becomes the prototype for many who will share similar interests and desires. So, it’s not magical at all.

59. Extra! Extra! Your Subject Lines Are Your Headlines There are a number of easy techniques you can use to improve the power of your subject lines, while always keeping it real and honest. Consumers respond to a feeling of urgency, and marketers use this capture greater consumer focus, and hopefully, to push them to act –or lose out on an opportunity that may never be repeated. So, express urgency in your e-mails when appropriate. You can do this in several ways: 

Create deadlines. This is your prerogative. You are selling the product/s. Sometimes they can be holiday or season-oriented. But the parameters are yours to set as you choose. Imagine: “Just two days left until Groundhog’s Day–Act fast on our early February sale!”

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You can also create urgency by noting a scarcity of product. “Only 25 Bottles (of your product) Left, So Act Now!”

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Offer a discount in the subject line. You will be giving prospects a look at potential real value savings. You can do this through offering a coupon. Subject line: “Summer’s Ending; Get Seventy Percent Off Coupon on Select Swimming Suits.”


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Announce a Free-bee. If you are giving away something, announce that with a trumpet in your subject line. “For three days only, get a free 2 oz. size “Lime Paradise” perfume with any Green Tropics Purchase!” And yes, you can exclaim this.

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Create Direct Simple, Subject Lines. I am a creative person and love to experiment with language. However, subject lines may not be the best place to try this. An AWeber split test of creative vs clear subject lines delivered startling results The A/B split showed a 35% to 50% increase in click through rate; CTR can be achieved just with a different subject line. So, use your subject line to tell your reader exactly what he or she will get upon opening the e-mail. E-mail Audience.com reports some interesting findings about e-mail subject line

length, and shares finding in B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) communications. These findings are worthy of our current and long-term attention. The Group reports that subject line changes can increase open rates and click throughs ten to twenty percent. These changes may even double those rates. Much of what we do in e-mail marketing points an ever-present need for concision. E-mail Audience’s findings tell us that in B2C e-mails longer subject lines perform much better. A 20-word subject line performed best showing a 115 percent boost in opens, and similarly impressive 85 increase in click throughs. In this same test, subject lines with three to five words absolutely bombed with performance coming in forty percent below average in both opens and click throughs. Ultimately, E-mail Audience witnessed important increases in opens and click throughs with subject lines over sixteen words. B2B findings also suggest that longer subject lines drive e-mail opens with six to ten words causing the rate to surge. This increase may be due to the extra words’ elaboration of e-mail content, giving the reader a better sense of what exactly is inside. Interestingly, the Group reports that subject lines of over 130 characters, in B2B, caused a decrease in opens, while at the same time, there was large increase in click throughs by those who opened.


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Too vague and general. How many words in a subject line are optimal? What makes for a strong subject line? How much can a new subject line improve click through rates?

60. Power-pack the First Sentence of Your E-mail An important message for the writers I’ve worked with has involved writing a “hook,” that first sentence that compels the reader to, in fact, read on. For most of us, writing an effective hook takes extra effort and attention. When we are lucky, the hook just falls into place, and voila, we land the reader like an awesome trophy fish. The hook is applicable to all writing, I believe, from fiction through writing autoresponders. You triumph when both your subject line and first sentences are memorable, or make that, unforgettable. The following are examples of genuine hooks: 

Experience an urban version of the fire-roasted snack from the street carts of Mumbai!

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Finished writing your book? Now What?

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Organic producers: Stop funding the outrageous anti-GMO labeling lawsuit.

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Do you miss fitting into that little black dress?

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Make your passion your profession.

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Earn a franchise and work from home.

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Learn 10 Secrets to Gluten free cooking today.

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If your summer garden is fading fast, read on to save it right now.

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Our tutoring center can turn a report card of Fs into a celebration of As.

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Join our weight loss cruise of the Caribbean, and lose ten pounds –we guarantee it!


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61. Share Some Treasure Offer your readers hard to find and valuable information, as a gift. This free information has to carry some real importance. Free reports that have real world worth make friends fast. You may also offer subscribers access to free videos and generate appreciation. Customers may also react very positively to randomized coupons, and / or limited time offers, and special offers. This act of gene rosity is also a great way to solidify trust. What is the free report about? How long is it? Tips for writing, designing, and delivering?

62. Remember, Subscribers Want to Protect Their Privacy In a pinch, this might be easy to forget, but make sure that you don’t. While you may not want or need to write an entire e-mail explaining how you will protect their information, you should make this plain from the get-go. If you aren’t protecting their privacy, you are likely to lose subscribers, and maybe your reputation, too. When you get your prospect to the squeeze page, get what is necessary to build a healthy relationship over time. Don’t squeeze too hard. Ask for too much information, and you will scare them away, as they will consider their privacy, and perhaps even more than that –endangered. You want them to feel safe. For each additional field of data you require them to fill out on the squeeze page, conversion rate drops 10%. Solution: make most fields optional, only name and e-mail address mandatory.

63. Get to Know the Experts in Your Field You should be enriching your content, regularly, with the insights and wisdom of experts. Make a list of the top twenty experts in your field and reach out to them for interviews. Compose a list of pertinent questions, relating to the past, present, and future of your product or service. And then ask for a bit of their time.


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An incredible amount can be accomplished during a fifteen minute to half hour phone call. And most experts are generous with their time, to a degree, as long as they know it is being used wisely. Set your tape-recorder to record, and give your questions wings. Transcribe and bank the responses and use them for “expert e-mails.”

64. Testimonials: The Golden Words of Ordinary People As with experts, the words of ordinary consumers who have had a positive experience with your product or service are priceless. Ask for customer feedback; monitor, and save it. Design e-mails that feature honest testimonials. Ideally, these testimonials will reflect your experience with most of your customers and help build a bridge of t rust between you and those coming on board soon. Integrate these, along with expert content into your autoresponder campaigns.

65. Less Is More Diamonds and coal are both carbon-based. Coal is very useful, but only a f ool would not recognize the concentrated splendor and power of diamonds. So, don’t even risk blathering on: write diamonds. If I offer you a hunk of coal or a minute diamond, we know which one you will choose! We will live a world of exhausted prospects, so don’t over-write!

66. Consider the Look of Your E-mail and the Effect You Want to Make Autoresponder companies offer an array of preset templates and the tools for you to build something customized. Opt for a clean and professional looking e-mail, rather than something red hot, with busy or Times Square-like graphics. It’s just too easy to turn off your prospect by causing sensory overload. And since most people today find themselves


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overloaded and overstressed, you would do well to offer something refreshing. The e-mails in this book offer excellent, elegant guidelines. At the same time, take advantage of customizable options that the autoresponder offers to make the e-mails uniquely yours. You can add your logo, photos, and other designs, always remembering to proceed with a light touch. After all, in an autoresponder campaign, you have breathing room: space and time to add more later. Don’t be tempted to cram everything to you want to the prospect to see into one ultra- overstuffed e-mail. If your mind tends to gravitate toward extremes: let’s say you see your choices as plain or over the top. When it comes to the graphics, opt for plain. While you think bells, whistles, and fireworks will capture your prospect’s attention, it won’t work . Trust your message. On the other hand, adding simple, sophisticated design to e-mails will wo rk! Again, refer to examples in this product. Lastly, ponder how your all- important copy and graphics come together. Again, you are seeking harmony between words and background. Use colors sparingly. Think about using diluted primary colors (colors that are mostly white with a dab of color, and soothing neutral hues like ochre and beige.) Are you tempted to add some animation? I suggest you return to your copy and judiciously assess its quality. Animation is a “hot” tool. Depending upon your audience, it can enchant or dishearten your prospects. The urge to add layers of busyness to an e-mail reflects a lack of confidence in the words. On the other hand, perhaps your words need a boost from a more inventive presentation. Most marketers are playing it safe with presentation leading to the vanillalization of autoresponders. A little daring is probably a good thing, unless you are marketing to funeral home directors. So venture to add a pinch of spice! This approach keeps your work classy. People remember this rare quality and appreciate that you did not trigger a migraine, but yet you did some quite memorable. Remember when the whole world is shouting, the perfect whisper can rise above the din.


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67. Your Readers Hate Green Eggs and SPAM Today, the definition of SPAM has expanded to work against marketers. If a prospect does not want or find what you are sending relevant or welcome, even if it is legitimate marketing, it can fall under the dark under umbrella of SPAM. In a permission-based, market; therefore, potentially an e-mail can die as SPAM. Thus, we are talking about SPAM as a perception. It is your job to avoid that, at all costs. Maybe you don’t think you are writing SPAM, but it is always good to put your writing to the SPAM test. SPAM filters are particularly sensitive to certain keywords that identify a message plump with hype and probably thin on value. It is wise never to use the following phrases and keywords in your subject lines:

*FREE *Buy now! Fast Cash! *Fast cash, fast bucks! *Wassup? (or other unprofessional sounding greetings) *Earn money fast, no risk *Be Your Own Boss *Buy Viagra Cheap *$$$ *Cure baldness! *Stop snoring! *Lose seven pounds this week! *Remove wrinkles! *Collect child support


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*Free grant money *Serious cash *Look ten years younger *Reverse aging *Dig up dirt on friends *Winner or You’re a Winner *Free casino games *Pre-approved *Pre-approved loan *Pre-approved credit card *Can’t live without it *Say good-bye to cellulite *Pick up women without trying *Give men what they want *Earn millions *You will not believe your eyes *Instant credit approval *Get your pay day loan today *Beat the lottery and become a millionaire *Your Billionaire Buddy share secrets with you *Pay pennies for your prescription drugs


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*Increase your penis size *Increase your breast size *Forget about plastic surgery. We’ve got your crème! *Bad credit! No problem! *No credit! No problem! *In trouble with the law? *The government is giving away free money –get in line! *Miracle vitamins don’t have to cost a fortune! *We promise you a good night’s sleep *Become a millionaire in a month/ or overnight How many of these phrases make you squirm? Even using these phrases in a legitimate offer/ subject line carries significant risk. SPAM filters will pick up on too good to be true offerings in subject lines, and ultimately you risk being tagged an obnoxious SPAMMER, which could result in your address ending up on a black hole list. If your subject line sounds as if you are selling snake oil, or free tickets to paradise, SPAM filters are going to get you. By the way, SPAM is illegal, and even if someone gets away with it, the whole enterprise alienates potential customers, so why slum around? Everyone has been spammed. It’s one of those initiation rituals of life on the Internet. Think about how you feel when that happens. Annoyed, surely. Completely vexed? So, walk in the shoes of the person receiving your e-mails. Follow the Golden Rule. It’s the devil sitting on your shoulder –not the wise marketing angel that is urging you to go for broke and SPAM it all.


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Unfortunately, all you will end up with is a broken relationship, and probably one that that could have been profitable in handled with professional finesse. Take the time to do things right and reap the benefits of your investment. Use the double optin to solidify your relationship with prospects. Send a welcome message, or preferably series of welcome messages to begin an enduring and preferably content-based conversation with your prospect. Consider this a courtship that announces “I am for real,” and “I AM No Spammer.” Early on, you need to send a strong request for whitelisting. This means that you get into the prospect’s address book. Getting whitelisted is generally not that easy. However, if you have delivered some value early on in your introduction to the prospect – let’s say that he or she has gotten a great coupon or a free eBook– your chances increase. Each time you send an e-mail, make sure that your brand appears in the subject line. This is your calling card. Ideally, your prospect recognizes and remembers your brand because you have delivered value early on in this great conversation.

68. Avoid Embedding Each E-mail with a Hard Sell Message The autoresponder series gives you an opportunity to execute your campaign with finesse instead of oppressive gravitas. Consumers are bombarded with hard sell messages wherever they turn, and it’s exhausting. You can distinguish yourself from the crowd, by instilling your messages with respected content that is theirs, no matter.

69. A Sample Autoresponder Series I have chosen to write my fictional autoresponder series about an equally fictional cyber home school opportunity. (As a long time educator, I know a lot about the subject.) My goal in this series is to convince parents to sign up their children for the cyber school rather than sending them to distant and far more expensive private schools. Of course, the product offered will have to surpass what local public school currently offer.


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Each e-mail comes with an explanation of what I am trying to accomplish with correspondence.

First E-mail: Introduction Goal: To get our fictional customer-to-be, Alice, to open the e-mail and consider our product. To let Alice know that the Hazel Cyber High School exists, and that he has an alternative to public schools and expensive private schools.

Subject Line: Are You Afraid to Send Your Child to Public School? Hi Alice: Your first child is ready to enter high school this year, and like most parents, you are feeling very nervous. It’s not that you are a helic opter parent, or a worrywart. No. In fact, you have raised a great kid and you trust her. But the fact is, kids face significant dangers in most open school populations today. These range from drugs to gang activity to epidemic bullying. Most likely, you have considered home schooling your child, yes, all by yourself, but there are many problems associated with that huge task . You may be a chemistry whiz, but writing great English papers was never your forte . You want your child to be bilingual, but that is not going to happen if only you are providing the educational experience. You have also thought about sending your child to one of the fine old private schools located in your area. But the cost makes your head spin. The average private school today costs twenty thousand dollars per year! We are here to tell you that you need not despair. An affordable solution exists: The Hazel Cyber High School. Through the Hazel Cyber High School, your child will receive quality homeschooling, delivered via her computer. She will participate in real-time classes with expert teachers. Her classmates will include local students and other students from around the United States –and around the world! Center for Technical Communication. ©2014

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The Hazel Cyber High School offers the same quality education as the very best private schools that you probably can’t afford. This quality education is delivered in the safety of your own home. Of course, you are worried about the cost. On an average, our tuition comes to one third of what the best private schools in America charge. When it comes to your child’s education, you really can have it all. Call me now for more details: 555-444-1111. Best, Martin www.hazelcyber.edu

Second E-mail: The goal of my second e-mail is to introduce expert testimony on the efficacy of cyber high schools. I’ve created the fictional character of Dr. Joseph Wayne, Ph.D . My subject line will reflect the presence of this expert and convey some genuine urgency.

American Education Author Sends His Kids to Cyber High School Today! Hi Alice: Maybe you have heard of Dr. Joseph Wayne, the foremost expert in ways to transform American education and make it functional again. Dr. Wayne is the author of five best-selling books outlining the major problems facing American education. These are the same problems our kids must process every day when they wake up and board that yellow school bus. Dr. Wayne’s finding have made headlines and touched thousands, particularly in his documentary: Finding Education in the American Classroom. While some think his findings are pessimistic, what they really point to is a need for sweeping change in our schools, starting with more parental choices.


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All four of Dr. Wayne’s children attend cyber schools, while studying at home . Recently, spoke to me about some of the positive outcomes of this experiencing, noting the following. 

He and his wife spend plenty of quality time with their kids. Cyber schooling has brought the family closer.

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His kids are more relaxed. They are not always rushing to catch school buses.

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Dr. Wayne and his wife are more relaxed. They feel more in control of their children’s safety–and education.

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After just two years of cyber learning, Dr. Wayne’s daughter Emily is speaking conversational French!

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Dr. Wayne’s son, Clifford, who is a senior in high school, is working on his first novel, and he has just been accepted to three of the colleges of his choice, including Princeton. They are awaiting more good news in the mail!

Best of all, Dr. Wayne is now considering transferring his kids to the Hazel Cyber High School because of some of the new innovative programs we offer, which include supervised travel abroad programs! You can take a deep breath and feel great about giving your child an affordable private school education in your home. Call me for more information! 555-444-1111. PHONE RESPONSE OPTION ONLY? NO RESPONSE TO CLICK TO A LANDING PAGE? Best, Martin www.hazelcyber.edu


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Third Sample E-mail: Testimonials By this time, Alice wants to hear from other parents who educate their children through using the cyber high school. The e-mail should fulfill Alice’s desire to know more. At the heart of this e-mail is the notion of building trust. Alice needs to know that now that her kids are safe in her home, they will also be getting the best education possible.

Parents Online Support Each Other 24/7! Hi Alice: Parent and Teacher organizations have always been the backbone of great schools, well, forever. We at the Hazel Cyber High School recognize this and have brought the organization into the 21 st century, with our 24/7 PTA access. Because of the large size of our online high school –we currently enroll ten thousand students –we get parents involved in talking to other parents about any issues they may be having through our professionally moderated chat room. Even if you logon with a question when no other parent is in the room, a professional education counsellor waits to answer your questions. The counsellor can also be invited into parent-to-parent conversations to answer questions and solve any problems you might be having. Listen to what our parent participants say about this service: “I am always connecting with other parents online . We share our triumphs, plan trips, and offer input on curriculum. I never feel alone. And it’s great to meet other parents who care about their children’s best education!” John F., New York, New York “Several weeks ago, my son hit a wall and just wasn’t making any progress with Algebra 2. I discussed this problem with fellow parents in the chat room. Now our kids have formed an online study group, mediated by one of the Hazel Cyber School tutors. My son is making great progress again!” Penelope V., Kodiak, Alaska


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“The parents’ chat room i s great! Every two weeks, a group of parents from the NYC area meet in the Big Apple and take our children to a great museum, zoo, or botanical gardens. The kids get to meet many of their friends from cyber classes! We get the best of all worlds.” Jessic a S., Bayonne, New Jersey

As you can see, parents help create their children’s educational experience . And we appreciate them. Call me today to sign up your child for the Hazel Cyber High School, and take advantage receive $1,000.00 off one’s year’s tuitio n of $13,000.00. Use coupon code EDCTE1. We also offer abundant financial aid to those who qualify. But call now! As placement slots are vanishing quickly! 555-444-1111. Best, Martin www.hazelcyber.edu

Fourth E-mail In my fourth e-mail, I want to brag about the product, while of course keeping it real. What could be better for a cyber high school than news of fifteen of its graduates being accepted at Ivy League universities? I will announce this while imbedding the e-mail with an affiliate offer.

Fifteen Hazel Cyber High School Graduates Accepted at Ivy League Universities! Hi Alice: Today, I’d like to share with you the most astonishing proof that Hazel Cyber High School graduates can compete with high schools anywhere in America for admission to top universities!


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In front of me, on my desk, shines the proof: fifteen letters of acceptance to Ivy League universities! Let me just share a few of them: 

Joel Carpenter of Jersey City, New Jersey accepted to Harvard to study engineering!

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Samanda Summers of Mount Shasta, California, accepted to Princeton to study creative writing!

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Dennis Story of Roswell, New Mexico accepted to Columbia University to study business!

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Elizabeth Freeland, of Scranton, Pennsylvania accepted to the University of Pennsylvania for pre-med! Ninety-five percent of all of our graduates will be attending some institution of

higher education! And that tells you that we are doing many things right. Hazel Cyber High School is so successful that educators are studying how we make education work so efficiently and affordably. Parents interested in enrolling their children in our program should read this title, from Golden Owl Press, just released this month: The Hazel Cyber High School Success Story by Charles Faust, Ph.D.:

www.goldenowlpress.com/hazelcyberschool success. you would NEVER do this in selling –a very BAD idea. If you have always dreamt about sending your child to a top university, but live in a school district that does not support your child’s optimal education, we can offer you affordable payment plans to make this a reality. I’m waiting for your call: 555-444-1111. Can’t I learn more and enroll online with a credit card? Include a link to a landing page Best, Martin www.hazelcyber.edu


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In this e-mail, e-mail, I want to enrich Alice’s A lice’s knowledge about cyber schools, in general.

I Cyber High Schools Succeed When Traditional Schools Fail Hi Alice: I don’t need to remind you that it’s a tough world out there . You already know this. You are reading this because you are a concerned parent who wants the best for her child. So, let’s look at some indisputable reasons why you should enroll your child in the Hazel Cyber High School now. First, let’s take a look at our curriculum . It’s so cutting-edge cutting -edge that books are being written about it. Traditional high schools offer maybe forty courses. But we present that number cautiously, since these numbers are falling every day because of rising classroom populations and budget cuts. We are proud to offer over two hundred courses that include seven foreign languages, art, and music courses. Traditional courses? We have them! There is no substitute for competency in English, math, and science. But does your school offer Latin? Economics? Philosophy? Does your school offer onsite AP classes, leading to college credit? (And even if they do, check out how many kids from these courses actually perform well enough e nough to get college credit? The answer to this may astound you.) We also offer many cutting-edge and hard to find courses, such as instruction in Chinese, Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew. And if you worry about your child becoming a couch potato, we engineer a half hour of Phys. Ed. into your child’s program every day to prevent this from happening . Our brand new classes include yoga and Tai Chi. Amazing, right? Don’t you wish you had had so s o many choices when you were in high school?


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Cyber schools offer education customized to your child. In fact, studies show that kids who have needed extra help, as well as those who require greater academic challenges, get what they could not in regular brick and mortar schools. Class sizes are small, and teachers are experts in their fields. In addition, supercomputer literacy is an automatic benefit of our style of education, given your child yet another advantage when he or she enters the workplace. Let’s talk today about how we can make the best happen for child come September: 555-444-1111. Best, Martin www.hazelcyber.edu

E-mail Six: More Content I want to keep the content brief in E-mail Six, as I continue to deliver to Alice more important content about cyber schools.

Race Ahead of Take Your Time: It’s Your Choice with the Hazel Cyber High School Hi Alice: Our enrollment period for the Hazel Cyber High is nearing an end. With just two weeks to go before we must close our lists for f or the new academic year, I’d like to talk to you about our high school’s flexibility, and what this can mean to your child. Traditional brick and mortar schools can tie down a student. Many of our students are actors, dancers, and Olympic hopefuls. We offer module- learning that students can complete when they are free, allowing them to learn optimally, and work on dreams that require odd or extended hours to complete.


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We all feel better knowing that flexibility is built into our lives. Our school allows your child to speed ahead, if that’s the desir e. Some of our students take take advantage of our special summer study programs, and graduate in two years. Other students take five or six years to master material for graduation – graduation –but but they graduate with a mastery of it! Can your local high school make these promises and deliver? If not, call me: 555-444-1111. Best, Martin www.hazelcyber.edu

E-mail Seven: Closing the Deal In this e-mail, I will sum up the offer and its benefits, as the deadline to enroll in the cyber school becomes a fast reality.

Hazel Cyber School Enrollment Ends Friday Hi Alice: The deadline for enrollment in the Hazel Cyber School is just four days away . Take advantage of this fast-closing window to enroll your child in the very best private cyber high school in America. We are happy to inform you that a limited number of scholarship and financial aid packages still remain! But of course, they are disappearing fast. Join the Hazel Cyber School and take control of your child’s safety . No metal detectors are needed in your home! And I’m sure you don’t let any bullies through the front door.


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Claim peace of mind for you and your child, while providing a flexible, rich education that can take can make your child a 21 st century leader! Whether you live in Alaska and just have access to a computer –or in one of America’s large cities, you will experience the best home education possible! Come learn with us: 555-444-1111. Best, Martin www.hazelcyber.edu

As with most technology, autoresponders will remain moving targets, evolving throughout our lifetimes. That is why, when you choose an autoresponder software company, you need to look for features that will help you t o learn with great ease over a long period of experimentation. The preceding campaign, which is not a welcome campaign, was design to run over a period of seven weeks, with one e-mail mailed out each week.

70. Frequency of Autoresponder E-mails and Varying Content While we search for hard numbers about when to send out autoresponders –and in fact, the number of autoresponder to include in a campaign –we need to consider variables. Copywriter Sherice Jacobs speaks about her experience, underscoring the need to keep dashboard data with comparison and contrast of efforts. She tells us, “There is no concrete "best time" or "best number" of autoresponders since it depends heavily on the industry and audience receptiveness.” Jacobs’ comment makes sense since industries and their needs are constantly evolving. Keeping our own campaign data, and writing about the results, helps us to work more effectively. We can also only hope that fellow marketers share their findings in blogs and through other channels of communication.


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Kathryn Aragon has charted these territories successfully and used autoresponders to build great relationships and campaigns. She divides campaigns into three phases and begins by sending out daily autoresponders. Consider this a Welcome or “Establishing Trust Campaign) plan. During Phase 2, they become semi-weekly, and then weekly. The first stage, according to Kathryn represents the road for the prospect getting to know us, and yes, it’s somewhat intense. This phase last five days. Phase two is content-laden and meant to build trust. It lasts from day 8 through Day 11. On Day 15, Kathryn introduces Phase 3, of a campaign that will last 39 days . At this point, e-mails focus on getting the prospect to the Website and making a sale. Kathryn’s model, is of course, not the only one out there for autoresponders, but it is a patient and well-designed one. It gives prospects ample opportunity to get to know the company, while establishing trust and building a deep, layered relationship. There are no hard sales punches, but rather a gentle wooing of the prospect through delivering great content. If this campaign seems a bit lavish, it is. The focus is on enveloping your prospect in a whole lot of gold (great information), and then beckoning a sale. You may also send out autoresponders every day in a seven day campaign, or every other day in a two-week campaign. In the end, you will need to judge your prospects. How much do they read? The frequency in sending out e-mails will become individualized. I, for example, am turned off by ceaseless, every day pitches. And I receive them daily. They make me feel stressed and badgered. Yet, I am sure that my antithesis exists at the other end of the spectrum. As to my own personal approach to configuring campaigns –I’m going with Kathryn’s take on it. Even when running a more concentrated campaign, let’s say a two -week crunch of seven e-mails, leave the space of day between each. You will be giving your prospects a chance to breathe and think about what you are selling.


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Jay White is one of the stars of the autoresponder industry. He recommends not sending out e-mail every day. He writes online: “Make sure the first message is your strongest... send your welcome message right away. The next day, send the first (and best) message in your series. Then start spacing the rest out every 3 days. This tends to work for me, and I think it will work for you too.” It is interesting and quite striking how the theme of moderation comes up again and again when we consider how we connect by e-mail to our prospects. Begin any e-mail campaign with copy that trumpets your arrival. Be classy, but don’t be shy. You have to get noticed, and this e-mail gives you “your moment.” Subsequent e-mails should not blare but continue to build and reinforce that first critical message. As in a great movie, as you move closer to the conclusion of your campaign, begin to add more dramatic elements, such as a heightened sense of urgency. You want to reach a powerful crescendo, culminating in a sale; at the same time you don’t want to s e nd your prospect into a stress mode. Always keeping it honest, add elements of unmistakable emotional appeal.

71. Choosing an Autoresponder Company and Software As with most technology, autoresponders will remain moving targets, evolving throughout our lifetimes. That is why, when you choose an autoresponder software company, you need to look for features that will help you t o learn with great ease over a long period. The following set of questions should help you to make an informed decision. 

Does your autoresponder company provide free downloadable sales manuals? L ook for a company that provides generalized and specialized sales manuals. You will need general guidelines when formulating your autoresponders, but also very specific supporting strategies when it comes to crafting your business-specific autoresponder series.



Does your autoresponder company offer Webinars? Sales manuals and guidebooks are essential, but there will always be a need to reach out to experts in a professional


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setting. Webinars provide classroom- style learning over the Web; they should also serve to update changes in the software or market demands, more quickly. Does the company offer a low-cost or no-cost trial? There is a fair amount of

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controversy in the industry about this particular issue with the oldest companies with the most accessible track records discouraging free trials. Earlier in this book, I have described the two main potential disadvantages of free trials. I, on the other hand, believe that free trials are worthwhile for those new to autoresponders since they allow no-risk, or at least low risk experimentation with autoresponders. 

How sophisticated is the company’s list building mechanism/s? Whether you are beginning, intermediate or advanced user, your autoresponder company should provide easy to use and effective list building software. Compare and contrast based on your needs and price range. Each autoresponder program will contain a section dedicated to list building and segmentation, which are simply software.

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Will the company provide cookie-cutter or creatively customizable options for my emails? Of course, there is an aspect of the “cookie cutter” with all autoresponders. If that were not present, they would not be autoresponders. However, if the program does not allow you to take those “molds” and vary them according to your needs, which may be next to infinite, don’t sign up. There is no such thing as a one size fit all autoresponder that is going help you realize your very personal goals. Best case scenario: You should not be adapting to the autoresponder; the autoresponder should be adapting to you. A top notch should provide HTML templates/ builders that allow you quickly design autoresponders.

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Choose an autoresponder that allows you to see what finished e-mails will look depending on the system of their delivery. Some may consider this a small point, yet the visual appeal of your e-mails is extremely important. Good autoresponders show you how your e-mails will look in Yahoo, msn, Gmail, and other systems. Better, yet, should you not like the way an e-mail looks in one, you should be able to customize.


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

Are you comfortable with the level of tech provided and over-all user friendliness? A customer service representative can walk you through the entire set-up process. Don’t expect to be an expert after what amounts to a quick indoctrination. However, if after several months, you are still not fluent in using the features, return to Customer Service for what might be a last hurrah. This process is not supposed to be difficult, and if, in your estimation, it remains so, you have probably chosen the wrong company and need now to make a timely switch.

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Okay, you have been using autoresponders for some time now, and you want to optin to one of the new programs/ companies with the most dazzling features. Before doing this, of course you are considering cost/ benefit analytics. Like any good student, you have been taking comparison/ contrast notes on several companies. Clearly track your results and analyze. I’m somewhat old-fashioned when it comes to this and like putting my findings on a big whiteboard to problem-solve.

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Can I count on this company to provide program for optimal deliverability? Choose companies that can guarantee rates of deliverability approaching one hundred percent. Ultra-high rates of deliverability are now possible; however, one hundred percent deliverable e-mail remains not quite honest or realistic, for now . Nonetheless, a promise of deliverability in the high ninetieth percentile is desirable and imminently possible, so demand it. Beyond this, check into the company’s spam complaint rates, and bounce rates. Customer Service is obliged to provide this information. And while companies are not keen about sharing this information, they understand their responsibility in sharing it when you nudge them. Please also remember that this type of information is highly fluid and constantly changing.

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I’m not a tech genius. Will I have the customer support to see me through this? Autoresponders are not rocket science; however, they are becoming more and more sophisticated. The challenge of companies is to make their product user friendly enough for quick and successful usage on all levels of product interaction. This involves simplifying the easiest as well as the most difficult aspects of the program. Additionally, I advise talking to customer support representatives of your top four to five choices. You will need to interact with these people, so look for honest rapport.


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When you are narrowing down your companies and looking at this all important Customer Support issue, you may want to consider the following. 

Is Customer Support based in the United States? This may be important to you, especially if you don’t want to deal with f oreign tech support.

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If not, are you comfortable with a foreign-based service? Y ou may be speaking to a representative who has a heavy accent, and sometimes, still foreign connections remain iffy, and sometimes scratchy-sounding, or otherwise poor.

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Does the company offer live support? If you get a recording with a call back number, this is not a good sign. Walk away.

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Is your customer service available 24/7? Many of us work from home now, which means that we can work odd but convenient hours, based working as we deem necessary or simply prefer. Make sure that customer service works when you do.

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How quickly can I have my service up and running? With proper customer service support, you should be able to have your system functioning in a day, or maybe several hours. Some companies contend that their services should take minutes to set up!

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I want to preset a hundred messages; will the program allow me to do that? In theory, there should not be a limit on the number of messages you can preset. No matter the number of messages that you preset, you will need have the ability to jump in edit and amend as needed, whenever. But yes, if you want to, you should be able and set up a year’s worth of daily messages, with no lag time.

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I have a small start-up with just one small list. Do I really need this? Today you have one small list. If you are using an optimal program at its maximum power by next year you may have four or more lists. So maybe you should be asking, can this company support the quantum growth of my lists?

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I want to buy a huge list, and just plug it into to the program. That’s no problem, right? Many programs will not allow this, and they are really watching your back. You may wonder why. It all relates to a deepening sense of good business practices.


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Buying a list is quick and involves some significant expenditure and other potential risks that I’ve already discussed. Since large lists can be so generalized, the chance of e-mails ever being seen may amount to one percent. Maybe you don’t have a problem with that. However, when people receive e-mails that they don’t want, annoyance builds. The e-mails end up in the SPAM box, for sure, but the experience also leaves a bad feeling in the customers who were annoyed, maybe chronically. Cumulatively, this experience diminishes the professional presence of the brand. 

Remember: Legitimate lists cannot be bought. They can only be rented for one time use. Copywriter Kelvin Parker recounts a story of a potential client wining and dining him, lavishly, in London, only then to reveal that he wanted to sell him a list! Welcome to the underworld of Internet marketing, and may you never set foot in it in real time. While Kelvin declined politely, he realized that he was getting a view of the dark side of our business. Chances are that most of us will get offers similar to Kelvin’s during our careers ; his approach to the matter was wise, practical, and timeless.

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I want to schedule my e-mails for six months and have them sent out on the exact day and at the exact hour that I schedule. Can I count on that? Some companies are struggling with that level of exactitude, so you may need to challenge them about being upfront about this. If such minute scheduling is of utmost importance with you, discuss this issue with customer service.

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What kind of analytics should I expect from a top- rate company? Analytics should be easily and prominently accessible with constant real-time updates available. There should be no lag time. A dashboard or similar feature should allow you to track subscribes, unsubscribes, e-mail opens, and simple clicks.

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Autoresponders need great content. I’m a marketer not a writer, and I don’t want to go through the expense of hiring a writer. Is this really for me? Just do the math. It may take an experienced copywriter a week to write your dazzling autoresponder series. You may invest in a copywriter, and in some cases a copywriter/editor, for just a week and run a campaign for a month or more. You


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set the parameters. Unless your campaign is ultra-sophisticated, a week is probably all the time you need to get this down. Of course multiple or entwined campaigns may take somewhat longer. Equally, you need to factor into your cost analysis the fact that you are hiring a copywriter for a short period of time; you are not enlisting another full-time employee. I asked several top copywriters what they charge to write single autoresponder emails and autoresponder series, which typically comprise three to seven e-mails but can vary widely. According to Kathryn Aragon, “The market does not bear much more than $200 each. And if it’s a long series, you end up getting paid about $75 to $100 each.” She considers this range as average. Copywriter, John Rugh, gives ballpark ranges of $125 to $300 for single e-mails, noting the price may change, depending upon whether the client is investing in more extensive services. ” Kelvin Parker charges $300-$700 per e-mail, with campaigns coming in around at around $1500, making autoresponder series more affordable than single e-mails. How much can a good e-mail really cost? And what is a good e-mail worth? The answer to both questions is: A LOT. Copywriter David Williams writes: “Purchasing a professionally written e-mail campaign is expensive. I can reveal to you –19 e-mails for $12,000, written for an Amway connected person. Don’t gasp. That’s a fair price for REAL serious network marketers.” In this case, each e-mail cost around $640, which puts us very near the high-end estimate that Kelvin Parker gives us for single e-mails versus campaigns. 

I’m not sure about hiring a copywriter; I think I will try it myself . Is this very risky? You will be investing your time and creativity in this effort, and of course, all of that translates into money, plain and simple. If your English writing skills are shaky, errors may make the product look sloppy and unprofessional. If you are a creative dud, the copy will be flat and unengaging. Thus, if you are not absolutely confidant in your skills, there is an element of Russian roulette in this approach. So, my advice is to proceed conservatively, and when in true doubt, hire a copywriter. Remember: pennywise, pound-foolish. Your autoresponder company should be able to assess your copy, upon request, and in the case of video autoresponder companies, they


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use their own copywriters to develop and edit scripts. A very good autoresponder program will let you know if you have written very bad or catastrophic copy. 

Should I opt into an annual contract with an autoresponder company? You will save some money by doing this but you also lose the flexibility to change your provider at will without incurring penalties. If your provider is satisfying your needs beyond a winky dink of a doubt, the annual contract makes some good sense. If not, the savings you are getting through this contract may simply be devoured by the lack of flexibility when you want and need to change the service provider. I tend to favor flexibility, as entrepreneurs in particular need to be nimble and able to switch gears immediately when the moment is ripe for change.

72. Select Autoresponder Features That Will Add Hours of Leisure to Your Day Look for any or all of these features to add depth and ease to your autoresponder experience. A great autoresponder will allow you to access these, immediately. Most of these features involve your autoresponders ability to integrate with other important programs. A secondary question is, of course, even if your autoresponder allows integration, how easy is it?

73. Affiliate Programs Integration While I have already delved into the depths of affiliate programs, it is important to stress one intrinsic point. Most autoresponders will allow you to automatically add affiliate links, but not all do. Most notably among the heavy hitters, Mail Chimp does not allow this. Of the integration sites I list here, some may not apply to your particular business. They are presented because of their general utility. For each I will share why you may want to consider this integration; however, if you choose to integrate, it should be as easy as pressing a button to add.


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Batchbook Integration aids you in transforming spreadsheets into a clear and easy to process customer database. It is an organizational tool that supports CRM, Customer Relationship Management. Etsy is useful if you are selling handmade or vintage items. You can market these through ETSY. The company takes a fee for posting and another when items are sold. Freshbooks provides Cloud-based accounting software. Highrise (originally known as Sunrise) is another CRM tool. It collates images, notes, and contact detail, resulting in better organizational access of critical information. Salesforce is Forbes’ most innovative company at the time of this writing, and includes the Sales Cloud, The Custom Cloud, the Service Cloud and Work.com, all CRM enterprises. Survey Monkey is a cloud-based data collection tool, allowing you to collect and analyze data for brand management to better serve consumers. It is possible and even likely that you will seek program integration beyond those appearing on this list. Only the Customer Service representatives of your autoresponder company can let you know if such integration is possible at this time.

74. Cost of Autoresponder Programs The costs of autoresponder programs vary widely –and wildly. Some companies offer free software, and then services that range from as a low as $9.95 a month, with little or no set-up fee. The other side of the spectrum can be daunting, with set-up fees averaging several thousand dollars and monthly maintenance fees well into the hundreds of dollars. If you opt for the golden packages, you can expect to invest thousands of dollars over the course of a year. Why are some free, some cheap, some expensive? Is there a difference? Which should I go for? These are, of course, questions everyone asks before signing up for a company’s services. Free autoresponders are meant to bait you to buy the company’s product. They are fine for short-term use, but may not fit all your needs, especially as your


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list grows. And as mentioned earlier in this text, with free autoresponders, you will need to judge how the ads that accompany them may impact your sales. Make sure to choose an autoresponder program that allows you to send unlimited emails. You do want to have to pay extra to add e-mails or e-mail campaigns. When all of a sudden, your traffic doubles, you want to have the room to grow engineered into your original agreement.

75. Industry Leaders’ Price Comparisons The following is a select price analysis of the current heavy hitters in the autoresponder market. AWeber: www.aWeber.com A Weber

500

Autoresponders

1,000

2,500

5,000

10,000

20,000

Subscribers Subscribers Subscribers Subscribers Subscribers Subscribers 19.00

29.00

29.00

49.00

69.00

149.00

Benchmark E-mail: www.benchmarke-mail.com Benchmark E-mail

600

1,000

2,500

3,500

20,000

30,000

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

11.95

18.95

28.95

39.95

120.00

179.95

Constant Contact: www.constantcontact.com Constant

500

1,000

2,500

5,000

10,000

20,000

Contact

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

15.00

30.00

30.00

50.00

75.00

150.00


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GetResponse: www.getresponse.com GetResponse

500

1,000

2,500

5,000

10,000

20,000

Autoresponders Subscribers Subscribers Subscribers Subscribers Subscribers Subscribers 9.95

18.00

25.00

45.00

65.00

145.00

iContact: www.icontact.com iContact

500

1,000

2,500

5,000

10,000

20,000

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

10.00

19.00

29.00

47.00

109.00

149.00

Mail Chimp: www.mailchimp.com Mail Chimp

500

1,000

2,500

5,000

10,000

20,000

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Subscribers

Free

Free

30.00

50.00

75.00

150.00

5,000

10,000

20,000

Vertical Response: www.verticalresponse.com Vertical Response

500

1,000

2,500

Subscribers Subscribers Subscribers Subscribers 10.00

28.00

46.00

72.00

Subscribers Subscribers 120.00

150.00

76. Resources: Selected Autoresponder Companies AWeber: www.aWeber.com Recognized as the leader in autoresponder companies, AWeber does not provide a free trial. Customer Service is provided through the Chalfont, Pennsylvania headquarters. With more than 120,000 users worldwide, aWeber is the name that usually rises to the to p of any discussion of autoresponders. AWeber’s service provides all the basics of what is


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expected in autoresponders, and is notable for its excellent user manuals, many of which are free. The company’s blog also delivers real news about innovations and provides insightful tips to make the most out the autoresponder experience. Benchmark E-mail: www.benchmarke-mail.com A company that offers amazing customer service, Benchmark prides itself in being “affordable, friendly, and stylish.” The company states its mission as follows: “Build relationships. Make sales. Promote your goods. Benchmark's marketing tools can expand small businesses beyond the kitchen table, aiding in branding and user engagement for both startups and corporations alike. We strive to be the most user-friendly, support-ready e-mail marketing available.” Benchmark E-mail has service available in seven languages. Benchmark offers a free autoresponder program. E-mails sent with this program will feature a Benchmark E-mail logo. Customer Service is based in the U.S. Bombbomb.com Video e-mail: www.bombbomb.com BombBomb has been a video company since day one. The company proclaims: “Adding video to your e-mails allows you to share your face, your voice, your personality, and your message in the inboxes of your prospects, customers, colleagues, and community.” The company, which is based in Colorado Springs Colorado, offers a free trial . The software is adaptable to traditional e-mail applications, also. Their vision is to provide round the c lock video messaging on any platform. Customer Service is provided through the Colorado Springs office. Campaign Monitor: www.campaignmonitor.com Campaign Monitor is a specialized e-mail company based in Sydney, Australia. Its mission is “To send beautiful e-mail newsletters.” The company distinguishes itself as “Built from the ground up by creative professionals.” The company’s materials put particular emphasis on the importance of creative design. Campaign Monitor’s Customer Service is very personalized and helpful. Customer Service is available in Australia, the U.S., the U.K., and through Europe.


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Constant Contact: www.constantcontact.com One of the major players in the world of autoresponders, Constant Contact is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Constant Contact serves small organization and business giving them trademarked tools for e-mail. Also a marketing consultancy, the company refers to these tools as Engagement Marketing™. Constant Contact’s Customer Service is based in the U.S. iContact: www.icontact.com Based in Morrisville, North Carolina, iContact holds an impressive number of awards and markets its work based on ease of use. The company presents this mission statement: “To create value for our customers, employees, community, and shareholders while having fun and serving as a model for what a high-growth venture-backed company can become in terms of social and environmental responsibility.” iContact has Customer Service based in the U.S. and in the Philippines. GetResponse: www.getresponse.com According to the company, GetResponse is “the world’s easiest e-mail marketing platform” It targets both newbies, experienced e-mail marketers, and underscores the power of its Customer Service. The company emphasizes the high visual and creative quality of its templates and now serves over 300, 000 customers. InfusionSoft: www.infusion.com InfusionSoft markets itself uniquely to small businesses and emphasizes its care about this niche the company states:” We help entrepreneurs rethink how to get organized, grow sales and save time. Our extensive ecosystem of products, services and local partners is focused on simplifying sales and marketing so that entrepreneurs can spend more time doing what they love.” There featured products include those to organize and automate sales campaigns, close sales and sell online. Their information suggests that their company is particularly entrepreneur-friendly. All of InfusionSoft’s Customer Service is based in North America.


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LeadPages: www.leadpages.net LeadPages tells you that it does everything that the rest of the autoresponder companies, while offering a unique array of cutting-edge services. Some of Lead Pages next generation innovations include: 

Ability to borrow the “best of” customer templates

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Instant page regeneration upgrades

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New grouping and labeling options to aid in organization of campaigns

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Quicker template access with bookmarklets

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Welcome Gate technology to increase optins

Customer Service for LeadPages is based the U.S. and Canada. Mad Mimi: www.madmimi.com Mad Mimi markets her e-mail based upon two keywords: “simple” and “lovely.” The company started in response to displeasure with the big the names out there in the market . The words “rebellion” and “semi-rebellious” are notable on the company’s site and sp eak to the company’s mission. It works against outdated promos and any feel of spamminess in pre-made templates, with the one absolute alternative to spam, originality. For what appears to be a small company, the features on its Website appear to rival the big guns. The Website itself has an extremely youthful feel and projects lots of unique energy, and particularly sass. Mad Mimi offers a free trial. The company has customer service representatives throughout the U.S., Ireland, Israel, and in South Africa. MailChimp: www.mailchimp.com Mail Chimp was founded in 2001 with the motive of making e-mail “more fun.” The company boasts free limited autoresponders and six million users worldwide. Mail Chimp also offers next generation products that they claim are unique. Mail Chimp promises to provide a “fully responsive app,” allowing you to send e-mail “anytime, anywhere.” Mail


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Chimp offers clear and detailed subscriber profiles, send time optimization, and an e-mail genome project. Send Pepper: www.sendpepper.com Send Pepper is unique in that it supports both e-mail and direct mail marketing. The company advises using both e-mail, and direct mail in the form of postcards, to create effective campaigns. The company offers a fifteen-day free trial. SimplyCast: www.simplycast.com SimplyCast markets itself as the “Number #1 Customer Flow Communication Platform.” The company provides daily live demos of products. In attention to an autoresponder program, the company many services that are related to autoresponders including list management, marketing automation, and Web tracking. The company is headquartered in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Vertical Response: www.verticalresponse.com Vertical Response is a subsidiary of the Deluxe Corporation and has more than one million users worldwide. Vertical Response’s Customer Service is based in San Francisco.

77. Conclusion Today has been a typical day for e-mails. I began this book by surveying autoresponder in my inbox on a typical day. Today my Inbox has seen about a hundred autoresponders, and I’ve opened and read my typical share. I am happy to report that most are well written and address their subjects with solid subject lines and competent content. They are workmen-like in their execution and mostly delivered in bland plain text. The plain text works for many autoresponders, but overall, I sense that so many of them could have been taken to the next level. Autoresponders are about form and function, but increasingly, autoresponder companies are giving you and me opportunities to create Center for Technical Communication. ©2014

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visually memorable e-mails. We are not talking about brass band e-mails! The newest, cutting edge e-mails represent a whole new breed of attention-getting elegance. Today, some are exhibited in galleries, suggesting yes, that they may border on being works of art. I look forward to getting e-mails that look as good as they sound. And I also look forward to creating them. We are all collectively awakening to the possibilities of autoresponders. I believe the next frontier will have much to do with design, adapting templates and creating new ones, as well as imbedding traditional autoresponders with video and animations. Do people really not want to read e-mails anymore? Perhaps after a long day when one opens up e-mails that are all grey and plain, this is true. They are bored and tired. Ironically, I believe we will get people to read more of what we write when we offer them dazzling layout. The days of plain vanilla, that is, plain text e-mails, are numbered. Best of luck in your adventures with autoresponders!

78. Sources Aragon, Kathryn. E-mail Interview. www.kathrynaragon.com . 18 May 2014. Aragon, Kathryn. E-mailology. DeSoto, TX: Kathryn Aragon Copywriting, 2013. Autoresponder Geeks. “Autoresponder Price Comparison.” http://autorespondergeek.com/autoresponder-price-comparison. AWeber. www.aWeber.com AWeber Communications. “How to Brainstorm Content That Converts.” http://docs.aWeberstatic.com/e-mail-marketing-guides/brainstorm-content.pdf . 2 July 2014. Bachus, Rich. Greatoutdoorscopywriting.com


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Benchmark E-mail. Best Practices and Trends. http://www.benchmarkemail.com/resources/manuals/e-mail-marketing-best-practices-2011/future.

BombBomb. www.bombomb.com Campaign Monitor. www.campaignmonitor.com. Constant Contact. www.constantcontact.com . E-mail Audience. “The ideal subject line length. Size does matter, especially in B2C.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khrx-zrG460 “E-mail Marketing Benchmarks.” Mail Chimp. http://mailchimp.com/resources/research/email-marketing-benchmarks/. E-mail Marketing Glossary. Elite E-mail. http://www.elitee-mail.com/learningcenter/glossary/unsubscribe/; http://www.elitee-mail.com/learning-center/glossary/clickthrough-rate/ Gagnon, Amanda. “The Subject Line Strategy That Gets 541 Percent More Response.” 18 Aug. 2014. http://www.aWeber.com/blog/e-mail-marketing/the-subject-line-strategy-thatgets-541-more-response.htm “How to Get Higher E-mail Opens by Split-Testing Subject Lines.” www.aWeber.com. http://www.aWeber.com/blog/e-mail-marketing/how-to-get-higher-e-mail-opens-by-splittesting-subject-lines.htm 1 July 2014. iContact. www.icontact.com Jacobs, Sherice. E-mail interview. September 10, 2014. Mad Mimi. www.madmini.com


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Mail Chimp. www.mailchimp.com Marrs, Megan. “The 9 Best E-mail Subject Line Styles to Increase Your Open Rates.” 31 March 2014. www.wordstream.com. 3 July 2014. Miller, Daniel. Interview. Benchmark E-mail Representative. 5/8/14. Nielsen, Jakob. “F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content. www.nngroup.com. 17 April 2006. http://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-Web-content/ 21 July 2014. Parker, Kelvin. The Copywriter’s Café. Interview. 18 May 2014. Rugh, John. www.johnrughcopywriting.com. Send Pepper. www.sendpepper.com Simply Cast. www.simplycast.com Swayze, Rebecca. “3 Ways to Build Urgency in E-mail Subject Lines.” 8 Aug. 2014. http://www.aWeber.com/blog/e-mail-marketing/subject-line-urgency-3-ways.htm Tatango. www.tatango.com The Orchard. E-mail. The New Zealand Red Cross. E-mail. Vertical Response. www.verticalresponse.com. Video Spot Studios. www.thevideospot.net


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White, Jay. “E-mail Copy Made Easy –How Often Should You Send Out Your Follow-up Emails?” http://ezinearticles.com/?E-mail-Copy-Made-Easy---How-Often-Should-You-SendOut-Your-Follow-Up-E-mails?&id=2069820 Williams, David. MLM Autoresponder Messages and Network Marketing E-mail Messages: Financial Woes Pack. Network Tools Publishing, 2013.


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