One of the most important components, and perhaps the most important part, of your online home business is your autoresponder. It works 24 hours a day 7 days per week helping to build your venture on the Internet. According to Tech Terms online: “An autoresponder is a program or script on a mail server that automatically replies to e-mails.”
“Though it is run from the mail server, an autoresponder can usually be set up by the user through a Web-based interface. For example, a company might set up an autoresponder for their support e-mail address to let users know they have received their support requests.”
Your email autoresponder will follow up with your customers and your potential customers as often as you want and when you want, it’s up to you. However, there are other ways you can make your email automatic response system work for your home business and here are 5 techniques you can employ to get the most out of your website lifeline:
1. On a daily basis you may get 3 or 4 or more queries from customers and potential clients about your products and services and your business in general. Instead of replying to each one individually upload a frequently asked questions article to your responder which can be emailed en masse to your list at different times during the year, perhaps every 2 or 3 months. This will save you a lot of time each day which you can devote to other areas of your enterprise such as marketing your products.
2. Draw up a master list of your merchandise including prices and any discounts you may be offering as well as any services you provide and publish it to your list on a regular basis. You can also upload your sales materials, order forms and product descriptions to your email response system. Remember not to inundate your list with this information. Space out these deliveries, allowing enough time to pass between each mailing, so as not to offend your customers and your potential clients by sending too many offers.
3. Try to make things more convenient for your list by including the terms and conditions of your sales as well as your return policies, refund terms and purchase arrangements in autoresponder format so they can read this at their leisure.
4. If you publish an ezine for your members some of your list may not have received certain issues because of having joined after publishing began or for other reasons. Because of this it may be a good idea to publish back issues in autoresponder format which would provide easy access and allow them to catch up on their reading.
5. Upload a customer response or client feedback questionnaire to your responder and publish it at regular intervals throughout the year. Always stay on top of your customer’s wants and needs and make it a habit to ask for their opinions on what you can improve upon, what needs to be eliminated and what’s working. This can be accomplished by adding your feedback form in autoresponder format.
These are 5 email autoresponder techniques you can use to help improve your home business while at the same time give you more time to dedicate to the daily operation of your enterprise.