Automating Your Internet Business - Part II
-- Marc Golman
In the last column, we covered the beginning step of "Automating Your Internet Business" with credit card processing. In this issue, we will address the second most important automation tool that you should implement. This tool is called an auto-responder. Basically, auto-responders are computer programs designed to automatically send a document, or documents, to anyone in response to a request made via e-mail or via an online form. The document usually arrives in the requester's inbox within minutes. Because auto-responders handle requests 24 hours a day, 7 days a week practically on auto-pilot, they are extremely powerful Internet communication tools. They can be utilized with or without a Web presence, and they can be integrated with other online and offline communication tools as well.
Putting up a Web site is not the "be all and end all" of Internet Marketing. It is a focal point, a retail store if you will, or even your office. The point is to get people to come into your store or your office. You should do many things to get people to come to your store both offline and online. Sometimes, people will contact you about your offerings. They may see your post on a forum, they may have seen one of your classified ads, or they may have heard about you from a satisfied customer. The point is, they will contact you for more information. Nine times out of ten when you are doing business on the Internet, they will contact you via e-mail. It is very important that you follow up these leads and using an auto-responder to do these follow-ups can make your life a lot easier.
Many times you can get bogged down answering or responding to e-mail. It is difficult to answer every question, especially the ones that get asked over and over again. This is an area where an auto-responder becomes all the more important. If you begin to notice the same questions being asked over and over again, why not use an auto-responder to do your work for you? Create a file that answers these "Frequently Asked Questions" and have prospects who want more info request a file from e-mail. You can set up a plain auto-responder that handles these tasks for free.
Auto-responders can work great if all you need to do is send FAQ information or if you are trying to send a sales letter by e-mail (another very popular use for auto-responders). How about an even better use for auto-responders by utilizing an automatic e-mail follow-up system? Before I get into the particulars of this system, I may need to explain a Direct Marketing principle: The Rule of Seven.
The Rule of Seven states that statistically, your prospects must be exposed to your offer seven times before the customer seriously considers purchasing. Can you imagine that? Seven times! Sometimes it is less, sometimes it is more. Traditionally it has been an average of seven times. In any successful marketing business you can usually expect a lot of leads. It would be extremely profitable if you could contact everyone who raises their hand and says, "I am interested in what you are offering." However, due to time constraints, that is downright impossible for any of us. Personally, I can barely get back to leads one time, so seven times is really pushing it. Most importantly, if you do not follow up on them, it's good-bye!
In the traditional offline direct marketing world, follow-up is carried out by mail or by hiring sales people to conduct outbound calls, also known as cold calling or telemarketing. This is a very expensive, albeit worthwhile, business practice. On the Internet, however, you can utilize technology to simulate this follow-up and make it even simpler for yourself through automation.
An "Automatic E-mail Follow-up System" does the job of dozens, even hundreds of commissioned sales people. It handles hundreds, even thousands of leads for you. I highly recommend getting this automation tool set up from the start, so your follow-up is not left to other less reliable methods or worse yet, not done at all.
We will finish this article next week with the final steps of "Automating Your Internet Business."
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