7 Ways To Use Your Autoresponder to Get More Traffic And More Money

A lot of people I have worked with have experienced some confusion on what exactly to do with their autoresponder sequence. Some still don’t know exactly what it is used for.

In this post, I’m going to talk about some things you can do with it.

Implementing these things can increase your traffic and – yes – make you money. Before we begin…

To get a real actionable strategy for implementing your email followup engine and allow you to have your business literally operating 24/7, check out the brand new Action Plan: Building Your Email Followup Engine.

What Is An Autoresponder?

I don’t want to leave anybody out there, so let’s first define exactly what this is.

So, you sit down and you write a series of emails in advance. You then set these emails up in your email autoresponder system and you define a schedule for them. The schedule is usually defined by the number of days after the previous message to send. So, for example, if you wanted to send a welcome email, then a message every 7 days automatically, then your autoresponder schedule would be 0, 7, 7, 7… and so on. Day 0 is the day the person subscribes, then 7 days later they get the next message… then 7 days after that they get the next one. And so on.

You can still send one-off emails to your list whenever you please, but the autoresponder is specifically for pre-written emails sent on a pre-determined schedule.

How Can You Get An Autoresponder?

Most legit email hosting providers give you an autoresponder. I highly recommend Aweber to my readers and they have a very nice autoresponder system.

Mailchimp is also popular with bloggers because of the free account you can start with, however you do not get any autoresponder functionality with a free Mailchimp account.

What Can You Use An Autoresponder For?

OK, with all that out of the way, let’s dive right into what you can do with an autoresponder. Why bother with this?

#1 – Introduce new subscribers to your best blog posts.

One of the functional issues with blogs is that once a blog post is off the radar, then it sometimes gets buried back there in the archives. Some of us have some of our best writing back in our blog archives.

Well, the first thing you want to do with any new email subscriber is build the relationship with them. Deliver them some real value. One excellent way to do that is to use your autoresponder to highlight some of your best blog posts to them from the archives.

How do you balance out these types of emails with your promotional emails? All that is covered in the Email Followup Engine AP.

Also See: 7 Ways To Lengthen The Blog Post Lifespan

#2 – Learn what your subscribers want.

The first message of my autoresponder asks people what their biggest challenges are. When people reply to that message, I get them personally in my email inbox.

This allows me to keep my ear to the ground, so to speak. To see what my subscribers need and want so that I can provide it.

Also See: The 7 Word Question That Gives You Endless Content Ideas

#3 – Run evergreen promotional campaigns.

Whenever people run a promotion of some kind to make some sales, it usually involves a series of emails. Usually, those emails are being sent in real-time during the course of the promotional period.

But, what’s to stop you from building those same promo sequences into your autoresponder?

Answer = nothing.

You can run special offers and other campaigns to your list via autoresponder. In this case, people will receive these promos based on when they subscribe. Not everybody will be seeing it at the same time.

It is actually a great thing to do, because it leads to more consistent revenue rather than depending on these one-hit promotions for your business.

When is the best time to run these kinds of automated email campaigns? I lay it out for you in the Email Followup Engine AP.

#4 – Deliver training over time.

You can use an autoresponder to deliver a course over time. Whether the training is free or something people have paid for, you can deliver it via email.

One time I paid about $200 for a training course which was delivered 100% by email. I actually found it pretty convenient.

#5 – Replay past successful promotions.

Whenever you have done a promotional campaign which did pretty well, there is no reason why you have to rest on your laurels. Why not set that same campaign up as an evergreen promotion and allow it to “rerun” in your autoresponder?

Oh and BTW, you can do this even with affiliate products. These promotions do NOT have to be for your own products.

In the Email Followup Engine AP, I lay out how you can use an autoresponder to set up an evergreen launch. This is an extremely effective way to put a successful launch on automatic.

#6 – Upselling

When somebody buys something, you should put them onto a separate buyer’s list. Well, you can run an autoresponder to that buyer’s list in order to let them know about additional products.

#7 – Showcasing

If you are an offline business, you should still be doing the same kind of online marketing that I talk about here at The Academy. You MUST be building your email list.

And in this case, showcasing some of your best work is a great use for an autoresponder.

For example, let’s say you are a pool company. You get people to opt-in for some kind of advice guide on what they need to know about building a pool. Then, over time, you deliver (via your autoresponder) case studies of some of the past pool projects you’ve done for other people. You’ll be positioning your company as the “go to” company for your prospect whenever they decide to pull the trigger and have a pool built.

Take Action On This Now

These are 7 ideas. I’m sure we could come up with more together. Plus, within these 7 ideas could be any number of unique twists to make things really interesting.

If you have any cool ideas for an autoresponder that you’ve done or seen, post them below.

But, moving forward, it is all about taking action. So…

1. If you already have an autoresponder at your fingertips, then begin implementing one. Anything is better than nothing.
2. If you don’t yet have this capability, go sign up for Aweber now. You can get a 30 day trial for free and I highly recommend you take full advantage of it.

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