An auto-responder can be used to merely reply to the query/order of a prospect or customer. That is what the name implies. An experienced marketer, however, knows that these tools can be much more powerful when employed as a series.
A correctly designed series of auto-responders can do more to build your brand, establish credibility, and captivate your prospects, all at a more effective cost, than any other online marketing.
Trickle your message into your client’s subconscious
You can use auto-responders to trickle various aspects of your marketing message into a client’s subconscious mind. This is done over a relatively short period of time, and is an excellent means of branding. When done properly, auto-responders accomplish the following:
- Get the prospect to feel comfortable. Give a little, get a little. By not going for the hard sell, and by providing something useful to the prospect, your auto-responder emails make you more likable. This creates a far better probability that your subsequent emails will be opened.
- Build trust. The prospect begins to trust you, and you become an expert in their minds without them realizing it. You sprinkle them with short snippets of useful, engaging content. Soon, whenever they see your email in their inbox, they want to open the email, to find out what comes next.
- Truly lead your prospect to an inevitable conclusion: that you possess the product or service they need (and that they want to buy it from you as soon as they can).
- Continue to engage the prospect-now-turned-customer, to encourage follow up orders or up-sales.
Plus, the technology of an auto-responder also saves your company time and money. You don’t need a room full of inside sales people knocking the dust off old customers, trying to get a new sale. You will stay engaged with existing customers. New prospects will get the attention they need in order to advance along the sales ladder.
Powerful Marketing Psychology
To appreciate the effectiveness of a well crafted auto-responder series, you need to understand the psychology of their effect. Here’s an analogy of mine, drawn from a recent camping trip:
Prospects are wary, hardened, skeptical creatures. Everybody is trying to sell them something.
You need to approach your prospect in a non-threatening manner, as if you were approaching a wild animal. No hype. You should be calm, casual, conversational, informative. Take your time, be patient.
Gently toss a few berries their way (a minor, but desirable offering). Wait for them to sample. Repeat – to get them accustomed to your presence.
After some familiarizing repetition, you can put some granola (a better offering) in the hand you extend. Let them sniff, then tentatively taste, your offering. Allow their barriers and innate defense mechanisms to naturally fall away.
After a while, the wild animal, er, prospect, will be eating out of your hand.
Now you can slowly raise your other hand in order to give a short pet. Don’t force the effort. Once the creature doesn’t flinch at your touch, you can move closer. Just a little at first.
Then move even closer, close enough that you can pose for a photo with them. There you go, you gave some snacks, and you got a photo.
Now you can give them an even larger offering, and watch as they begin to follow you around, hoping for more.
Your prospect is now coming to you to get what they want.
The prospect now knows who you are and what you have (brand). The prospect now trusts you (credibility). The prospect now wants to hear from or see you more (engagement). Now you can pitch the product or service you want, and the prospect is truly attentive (captivated). This prospect is much easier to close (sale). And it didn’t cost you somebody’s annual salary (cost effective).
In addition, you can continue to engage the customer after the sale with further auto-responders. Perhaps you send a post-sale satisfaction follow-up, or even future product offers. By keeping top of mind with that one-time customer, there is a much better chance of them becoming a repeat customer.
If want us to craft an auto-responder series for your company, send us an email, and we can schedule a phone call or video chat to go over the possibilities.