Six Tips To
Ensure Professional Autoresponder Messages
© 2004 By
Joe Reinbold
Being an online business owner
for over ten years has given me the opportunity
to see a multitude of email messages, especially
those from autoresponders. And as an owner of an
autoresponder service I have seen many messages
that can be classified anywhere from a disaster
to highly professional. I am not going to get
into evaluating the actual content of messages
but simply how they look, what image they
project and based on my experience of having
sent thousands of messages out over the years,
some tips to getting more of your messages read.
1. Format. This seems to be
one of the worst problems.
Many people just type up a
message, load it in the autoresponder and let it
go out. Some of them go out and look like one
big paragraph, others have intermittent lines
going all the way across the page and
automatically wrapping. Others are full of
spelling mistakes. They look very unprofessional
to say the least. Every autoresponder message
series that I make up, and I have over twenty
autoresponders working 24 hours a day, is
prepared offline in a text program, usually
NotePad. I format them to 55 to 60 characters
per line including spaces and use a hard
return(enter) at the end of each line and
paragraph. Then I copy and paste it into my
email program and send it to myself.
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This way I can see what it is going to look like and I can
make any adjustments it needs before I load it into my
autoresponder. This also gives me a chance to check the
spelling.
2. Don't Yell.
Typing words or entire phrases in caps has the impact of
seeming you are yelling and is used regularly in spam to get
your attention. Many of the spam filters use capitalized
words and phrases against you and may forward it directly to
the junk box. I see caps used the majority of times in the
subject line which is probably the worst place since the
filters will probably flag it very quickly.
3. Make Sure You Have Links To Your Site And That They
Work.
So many times I see messages where there is a lot of
information and I get to the bottom of message and there was
no link to the sales page or information site. In addition
many links, when clicked went to error pages because the
link was not correctly entered, especially those long
affiliate links. Remember to test the links. I always check
all the links after I email myself the draft message by
actually clicking on the links. I even do the link check
when I am preparing my weekly newsletter to make sure all
the advertiser links work properly.
4. Refer to The Subscribers Request.
In todays email world, users are getting deluged with email.
Many online surfers are out there requesting anything and
everything. So when they sign up for your autoresponder info
they might forget they requested it hours or days later when
they check their email again.
A good way to set up your message is to start your
initial message with a short statement referring to their
request. I usually use something like in the first part of
the message: "Hi Joe, thanks for requesting additional
information regarding our
autoresponder services." (refer to whatever type info they
requested)
I think it is even a good practice to have the subject line of the first
message refer to their request so that when they are scanning their email, it
catches their attention. I have used something like this: "Hi Joe - Here is the
information regarding home business opportunities you requested".
I think also that if you have a series of messages going out over many days,
that you should refer to the prior message. Something like "Hi Joe, two days ago
I sent you information regarding the benefits of joining xyz business and today
I wanted to highlight their great income plan."
It makes very good sense to tie the messages together, I think it is very
professional and can have a positive impact. You can even go the extra step of
ending a message with something like, "Well that is it for today Joe, my next
message will highlight
how we can work together to build your monthly income"
5. Use Personalization Tags
You will notice in the examples above that I used "Hi Joe". Most if not all
autoresponder services allow you to personalize your messages. Ours for instance
has over twenty different tags you can use to personalize messages. The standard
ones that I always use are the first name and I always like to put the date at
the beginning of the message text.
I believe that personalizing the messages will get more of them read and
makes it sound more like a human being is contacting them rather than strictly a
machine. Of course you have to make sure that you collect their first name when
you have them
subscribe to your autoresponder so that the first name is in the autoresponder
data base so it can be merged into each message.
6. Don't Write A Book
The best way to use an autoresponder is to highlight the benefits of your
service, business opportunity, product, book, etc. Don't try to sell everything
from your autoresponder messages. Tease the prospect by giving them a little
more in each message so that they will go to your web site and get the details.
You want them to
click through to your site. Let your site do the actual selling.
Nothing turns me off more than receiving a message that is four or five pages
long with huge paragraphs and goes on and on. Plus some ISPs restrict the size
of emails going through their system so your prospect/subscriber may not even
get all of it.
Remember that your mailings are a reflection of your professionalism
and can go a long way to contributing to your success.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Suzanne Falter-Barns' website,
The Self Help Salon
offers tips and tools that help you build your
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