On average it takes about 7 contacts for you to entice your client into doing business with you. That doesn't mean that a person has to come to your website 7 times before they will purchase, but rather it means that on average it takes multiple contacts to do business with anyone.
That contact may be in the form of a Pay-per-click advertisement that brings them to your website's home page where they then go to your product page and finally look at your FAQ, etc., etc. That might qualify as three contacts since the points of contact were different. However, rarely do you make a sale in the first pass.
One of the best ways for you to stay in touch with your client is using an Autoresponder system. There are several aspects that make this a perfect tool for you as a contact manager. Below are the steps you take to implement an Autoresponder contact system.
Step 1: Input or import your current contacts into the Autoresponder for validation. Any good AutoReponder will require that your contact list be validated once entered into your system. That is, to avoid the perception of spam, your contact must validate that they, indeed, do want to be on your list. Once imported, don't let your feelings get hurt if some of your contacts choose not to opt-in. Most of them will as long as your contact list is current and they know who you are.
Step 2: Create a subscription form that will be displayed on your website. This will give the website viewer an opportunity to sign up for whatever you are offering (newsletter subscription, free offer, announcement lists, etc.). An example of a subscribe form can be seen at:
http://www.computergoddess.com
This leads the subscriber to the next step.
Step 3: Once you have a new subscriber, they must (just like the initial imported contacts) validate that they meant to subscribe by clicking on a link listed in the email that their subscribe submission generated. The email that is sent to them should be edited by you to remind them that they subscribed to your mailing list and why. This is important in case they don't jump over to their email inbox immediately after subscribing and then wonder the next day what this email is all about. Be descriptive, thank them for signing up and assure them that you do not support spamming activities by redirecting them to your privacy policy or by stating your privacy policy very clearly in this email. Then instruct them to click on a link below to complete their registration process for your subscription list.
Step 4: Now for your offer. The subscription to your email list can be a series of lessons, tips & tricks or a newsletter as just a few examples. The nice thing about this process is that once you have written and posted the item you are sending to your subscribers, it works for everyone who signs up. The Auto
Responder will continue to send out your series in the order you define to everyone who subscribes. Post content once and it will continue to send the series out to your mailing list as long as it is active.
This is the simple explanation of an Autoresponder. In our next SEO SOS lesson, we will cover the various ways you can use this tool to actively market to your subscribers. The Autoresponder we use that is both popular and powerful is AWeber and can be found at: http://www.aweber.com/?210210 and you can go to the website and enroll for a 30-day free trial.
