Write A Good Autoresponder

Author: Alyice Edrich

Help market your business and keep your website at the forefront of your potential clients' minds with an autoresponder. Simply put, an autoresponder is a series of emails connected by a common theme and sent via an automatic email program, like GetResponse.com.

Help Your Business With Autoresponders

Autoresponders help you stay in touch with your site visitors automatically! Once you write your message series, you place the content in an autoresponder program, then place the email address provided by the program on your website with enticing copy. Such as, "Click here to receive a Free X day course by email. Learn how to...." or "Click here to get your free e-book on..." or "Click here for articles you may freely reprint in your publications." If you plan to write a series of free autoresponder courses, you can have a link on every page of your website that says, "Free Courses".

Pick A Topic

The first step is to pick a topic related to your website or business' theme and write about it. You'll want to write your series using a conversational tone so your readers feel more like friends and less like someone you want to pull the wool over.

Your autoresponder can be a interactive course in which you ask questions or it can be a simple series of information-based articles. If your autoresponder course is free, you'll want to include questions with multiple choice or true/false statements and include the answers at the end of the free course.

Use Good Formatting

You can format your autoresponder anyway you like, but the simpler the format, the better. After all, it's an all text message and you don't want to confuse the reader, thus causing him/her to hit the delete button!

Include The Right Content

If you're using your autorepsonder as a sales tool, use the format below.

Company Information
Thank you for requesting this autoresponder message
Address customer's needs and concerns
(establish the needs by showing "What's in it for me?")
Identify how the product/service will meet those needs and concerns (actual use of product)
Emphasize the benefits
(use emotional reasons that say "Your product is the only one I want"... "it provides me with"...more time, more money, better health, provides independence, reduces weight, etc.)
Show Case Studies
Give Actual Testimonies
Last Chance Call To Action
Reiterate Your Message
Company Contact Information
(contact name, email, phone, website)
Copyright Notice
Unsubscribe Information

If you're using your autoresponder as an information-based course, pick one central theme and base your course off that theme. Each email in your course should flow from beginning-to-end and use the following format.

Company Information
Thank you for requesting this autoresponder message.
Article
Numbered questions sprinkled through-out the article or at end of article.
Call to action to purchase your product or service.
Company Contact Information
(contact name, email, phone, website)
Copyright Notice
Unsubscribe Information
Answers to all the questions you asked can be given at the end of the course, or at the beginning of the next email in the course.
Your very last email in the course should be a sales letter about a product or service you offer that is related to the course you just gave.

Make It Easy To Read

Use all caps in your headlines.
Use sub-headlines when appropriate to pull your reader into the body/meat of your topic.
Keep line length at 65-70 characters.
Paragraphs should be no more than 5 - 7 sentences.
Use bulleted lists when possible.
Use lots of white space.
Don't cram information together.
Don't forget warranties, guarantees, or highlight special offers using ----SIDE BARS----.
Put a hyperlink to your offer in the beginning, middle, and end of your autoresponder.
Always have your contact information and copyright notice on every autoresponder message.

Advertisie It

Once your autoresponder is written, you'll want to use that email address in your tag line and print ads with a caption that says something like, "For more information, send a blank email to (autoresponder's email address)."

But whatever you do, never send unsolicited emails (known as spam) and don't sign up for newsgroups, forums, or message boards using your autoresponder email address! Not only is it rude and unethical, it's a HUGE turnoff! Instead of gaining new clients/customers, you'll lose them!