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	<title>26-Week Internet Marketing Plan &#187; Week #4 &#8211; Data Capture &amp; Marketing Funnel</title>
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	<link>http://www.26weekplan.com</link>
	<description>comprehensive online marketing plan</description>
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	<itunes:summary>comprehensive online marketing plan</itunes:summary>
	<itunes:author>26-Week Internet Marketing Plan</itunes:author>
	<itunes:explicit>clean</itunes:explicit>
	<itunes:image href="http://libsyn.com/podcasts/purpleinternetmarketing/images/podcast.jpg" />
	<itunes:owner>
		<itunes:name>26-Week Internet Marketing Plan</itunes:name>
		<itunes:email>david@26weekplan.com</itunes:email>
	</itunes:owner>
	<managingEditor>david@26weekplan.com (26-Week Internet Marketing Plan)</managingEditor>
	<itunes:subtitle>comprehensive online marketing plan</itunes:subtitle>
	<itunes:keywords>internet,marketing,digital,media,management,online,marketing,digital,entrepreneur,entrepreneurial,plan,entrepreneurs</itunes:keywords>
	<image>
		<title>26-Week Internet Marketing Plan &#187; Week #4 &#8211; Data Capture &amp; Marketing Funnel</title>
		<url>http://26weekplan.s3.amazonaws.com/podcast/podcast.jpg</url>
		<link>http://www.26weekplan.com/week4</link>
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	<itunes:category text="Business">
		<itunes:category text="Management &amp; Marketing" />
	</itunes:category>
		<item>
		<title>What is a squeeze page and why do you need one?</title>
		<link>http://www.26weekplan.com/what-is-a-squeeze-page.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.26weekplan.com/what-is-a-squeeze-page.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:20:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>26weekplan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Phase #1 - Website Structure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Week #4 - Data Capture & Marketing Funnel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Week #5 - Conversion Rates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conversion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversion rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email form]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OptimizePress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[squeeze]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[targeted email list]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.26weekplan.com/?p=3011</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As highlighted in our OptimizePress review, you should be thinking of creating a page with just one call-to action &#8211; an email form field and a submit button. This is a squeeze page. It &#8216;squeezes&#8217; your visitors towards one call-to-action. You really want a squeeze page which produces a high conversion rate &#8211; and the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="first-child "></p>

<p><span title="A" class="cap"><span>A</span></span>s highlighted in our <a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/optimizepress-review.html"  >OptimizePress review</a>, you should be thinking of creating a page with just one call-to action &ndash; an email form field and a submit button. This is a squeeze page. It &lsquo;squeezes&rsquo; your visitors towards one call-to-action.</p>
<div id="attachment_1849" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 442px">
	<a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/optimizepress"  ><img class="size-full wp-image-1849" title="OptimizePress WordPress Theme" src="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/optimizepress.jpg" alt="OptimizePress WordPress Theme" width="442" height="153"></a>
	<p class="wp-caption-text"><a href="http://nanacast.com/vp/97647/95448/"   target="_self" rel="external nofollow" title="OptimizePress">OptimizePress</a> <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=198392&u=309483&m=24570&urllink=&aff"   target="_self" rel="external nofollow" title="WordPress Theme">WordPress Theme</a></p>
</div>
<p>You really want a squeeze page which produces a high conversion rate &ndash; and the way to do this is to use the individual elements it includes so that you can get the most out of the visitors to your site. Remember that if you want to grow your online business, the best way to do it is with a targeted email list, which is why a squeeze page is such a critical component of any marketing campaign online.</p>
<p><strong>Your squeeze page copy should be relatively short</strong></p>
<p>In the first place, make sure that the copy on your squeeze page isn&rsquo;t long, as it should be quite concise. It&rsquo;s senseless to post lengthy copy on your squeeze page. There is little need for extensive persuasion, because all you want is to get the emails of your audience. Your copy should be relatively short and you should also add an image of the free item you are giving away. Consider getting a cover designed by a graphic designer, if you are giving your subscribers a free report or ebook.</p>
<p>Even though this step might not look like it&rsquo;s necessary, it can help in improving the conversions. You can also ask your visitors to subscribe through an embedded audio message on your squeeze page. </p>
<p><strong>The main function of a squeeze page is to turn your visitors into subscribers</strong></p>
<p>You should avoid any frills and keep your squeeze page as plain as you can. The main function of a squeeze page is to turn your visitors into subscribers. You don&rsquo;t have to make your squeeze page fancy, but keep it basic and to the point. You can still be professional with a simple page. As soon as someone arrives on your page, they should be able to immediately understand what your message is. Don&rsquo;t confuse your visitors by having heavy graphics, blaring music or a design that&rsquo;s not pleasant. The design of your page should complement your copy in such a way that it not only helps your prospects, but also presents a professional image in front of them.</p>
<p><strong>Privacy is a major issue for most people</strong></p>
<p>Privacy is a major issue for most people and they aren&rsquo;t too happy about giving away personal info to scammers. They are scared of being spammed, which is why most of them are so careful about it. For this reason you need to provide your visitors with the reassurance that their data is extremely safe in your hands. Ensure that they understand very clearly that their private details will not be sold, rented or handed out to third parties.</p>
<p>You could also insert a link to your privacy policy beneath the subscription form. There are <a href="http://libbycollier.com/squeeze-page.html"  >many techniques and methods</a> available to make your squeeze page more effective. Traffic is precious to come by, and that is why you have to do all you can to convert them. What you do to generate your traffic also plays a role. If you&rsquo;re using ineffective traffic generation sources then obviously the performance of your page will be affected.</p>
<p>The best kind of visitors are the ones that you either get from the search engines or through pay per click advertising. You can obtain very high conversion rates when you take the time to test all you do on your squeeze page &ndash; we recommend <a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/optimizepress"  >OptimizePress</a> to get the best possible conversion rates.</p>

]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.26weekplan.com/what-is-a-squeeze-page.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Back End Marketing &#8211; Do You Have Back End Products and Up Selling Strategies?</title>
		<link>http://www.26weekplan.com/back-end-marketing.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.26weekplan.com/back-end-marketing.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 Feb 2011 10:44:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Bain</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Phase #1 - Website Structure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Week #4 - Data Capture & Marketing Funnel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Week #5 - Conversion Rates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backend]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drop ship products]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[End]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[good bait]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[product]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[selling strategies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.26weekplan.com/?p=2978</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you want to emulate the successful online businesses, then use your frontend product as (good) bait to bring people in for your back end marketing. This is something almost anyone can do, and it is not hard to put into practice, either. It&#8217;s all about getting your customers inside your sales funnel and selling [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="first-child "></p>

<p><span title="I" class="cap"><span>I</span></span>f you want to emulate the successful online businesses, then use your frontend product as (good) bait to bring people in for your back end marketing. This is something almost anyone can do, and it is not hard to put into practice, either. It&rsquo;s all about getting your customers inside your sales funnel and selling them more of your products. The only purpose of the leading product is to entice people to buy and then they are in your marketing machine. The real money comes later when you unleash your up selling strategies &ndash; remember that you can automate all of this by using a clever <a href="http://www.aweber.com/?222299"   target="_self" rel="external nofollow" title="autoresponder">autoresponder</a> like <a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/aweber"  >AWeber</a>.</p>
<div id="attachment_2981" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 400px">
	<img src="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/back-end-selling.jpg" alt="Is your back end selling persuading customers to add extra items to their shopping cart?" title="Is your back end selling persuading customers to add extra items to their shopping cart?" width="400" height="300" class="size-full wp-image-2981">
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Does your back end selling persuade customers to add more to their shopping cart?</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Build relationships with your list</strong></p>
<p>The thing to remember is that you must get your marketing messages out in front of your market. You do need to <a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/building-email-lists-video.html"  >build a marketing list</a> because that is the fundamental instrument for <a href="http://www.b2cmarketinginsider.com/b2b-perspective/optimizing-the-entire-sales-funnel-04908"  >optimizing your entire sales funnel</a>. You will build relationships with your list members, and when the time is right you show them your promotional offers. You will find that most people need more time to get to know you, etc. You always want to be working on your relationships and marketing your backend.</p>
<p><strong>Pre-selling can be an essential art form</strong></p>
<p>If you want your overall marketing efforts to pay off, make sure you balance your frontend offers with <a href="http://www.bnet.com/blog/customer-relationship/are-you-upselling-or-just-upsetting-your-customers/500"  >upselling</a>, so that your customers don&rsquo;t feel that they&rsquo;re being exploited. Pre-selling can be an art form, and when you can do it very well you can sell hot coffee in the desert. You will need to understand the problems of your audience so you can send them appropriate offers. When you give them what they want in terms of a product, then they will be happy and continue to stick around.</p>
<p><strong>Consider offering drop ship products</strong></p>
<p>You can still engage in backend selling even if you have nothing else of your own to promote. Well, one quick and easy solution entails making offers for drop ship products. You just need to sell drop shipped items and do nothing else because other businesses take over from there.</p>
<p>You can sign up for one of these <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_shipping"  >drop shipping</a> companies and promote back end products that are related to your niche. For instance, if you&rsquo;re selling an eBook about &ldquo;dog training&rdquo;, you can find products that are related to it and drop ship them to your customers through backend selling. Concentrate on marketing and making the sale, and all the rest will be taken care of for you. </p>
<p>You do need to do this because back-end selling can work like crazy when it is done right. This is truly powerful stuff here, and you can experience a solid business that continues to grow. There are three prongs: new leads, new customers, and marketing to current customers with your backend marketing. This is exactly what the hugely successful marketers have been doing for years.</p>

]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How to Create an Online Newsletter &#8211; What You Should Know</title>
		<link>http://www.26weekplan.com/create-online-newsletter.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.26weekplan.com/create-online-newsletter.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:39:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Bain</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Phase #1 - Website Structure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Week #4 - Data Capture & Marketing Funnel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[audience]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email service provider]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Feedback]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[information]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[information overdose]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[target audience]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.26weekplan.com/?p=2878</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Publishing an online newsletter can be great for your business, even if you&#8217;re in a niche that doesn&#8217;t have a big market. Having a newsletter provides the ability to contact your target audience with a mouse click and give them the right type of information on a constant basis. (Note: We recommend that you use [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="first-child "></p>

<p><span title="P" class="cap"><span>P</span></span>ublishing an online newsletter can be great for your business, even if you&rsquo;re in a niche that doesn&rsquo;t have a big market. Having a newsletter provides the ability to contact your target audience with a mouse click and give them the right type of information on a constant basis. (Note: We recommend that you use either <a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/aweber"  >AWeber</a> or <a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/mailchimp"  >Mailchimp</a> as your online newsletter software and delivery service.)</p>
<div id="attachment_2881" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 470px">
	<a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/aweber"  ><img src="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/aweber.jpg" alt="AWeber email newsletters" title="AWeber email newsletters" width="470" height="427" class="size-full wp-image-2881"></a>
	<p class="wp-caption-text"><a href="http://www.aweber.com/?222299"   target="_self" rel="external nofollow" title="Aweber">Aweber</a> email newsletters</p>
</div>
<p>A majority of newsletter publishers who possess a huge list of subscribers utilize their newsletters as real businesses in themselves. So if your plan is to create a newsletter, go ahead and do it &ndash; it will be worth it.</p>
<p><strong>Create an outstanding template</strong></p>
<p>Most importantly, you must remember the main guideline of newsletter publishing, which is to create an outstanding template&hellip;</p>
<p>Your purpose should be to make your email layout as easy as possible. Do not try to be too intricate or use a lot of HTML in your email newsletter, because your content is what really matters. Besides that, people are nowadays reading emails on portable devices such as their smart phones. This is why you should always go directly to the subject. In this day and time, internet visitors have to cope with information overdose. This can make things puzzling. So if you can <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/is-your-e-mail-marketing-in-line-with-industry-best-practices-2011-1"  >stick with best practice</a> and produce a easy and less confusing newsletter, that will be wonderful. Note that both <a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/aweber"  >AWeber</a> and <a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/mailchimp"  >Mailchimp</a> have lots of design templates, ready for you to use as part of your plan.</p>
<div id="attachment_2884" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 470px">
	<a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/mailchimp"  ><img src="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/mailchimp.jpg" alt="Mailchimp designer templates" title="Mailchimp designer templates" width="470" height="430" class="size-full wp-image-2884"></a>
	<p class="wp-caption-text"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bcuas"   target="_self" rel="external nofollow" title="Mailchimp">Mailchimp</a> designer templates</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Focus on content, consistency and email deliverability</strong></p>
<p>Be certain that your subscribers obtain your newsletter in a timely manner. This is why it so crucial that you choose the correct email service provider when you top to produce a newsletter. If your newsletter is having any problems, you will notice a decrease in subscribers. One of the reasons why many people continue subscribing to newsletters is because they expect their information good, and to be delivered on time. Remember to <a href="http://www.chrisbrogan.com/marketing-versus-connecting/"  >connect with your audience as well as &lsquo;market&rsquo;</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Get feedback from your subscribers</strong></p>
<p>Lastly, always look out to get feedback from your subscribers so that you can understand if their needs. Perhaps you could <a href="http://www.socialtimes.com/2011/01/94-of-companies-do-not-use-social-media-for-user-feedback/"  >use social media for feedback</a>? Make sure that you are giving them what they need. You will be surprised when your subscribers give you wonderful feedback. This will not only help you develop your newsletter further, but will also give you a good understanding of your target audience. This will make things better for you. You will be able to provide value for your subscribers in the best way, with the right material and ideal solutions for their issues. </p>
<p>This just offers a brief summary of how to create an online newsletter and succeed with it. There are numerous things that you have to get right when you are trying to produce a successful newsletter. But everything starts small. Once you focus on working on the many different areas of your newsletter, you&rsquo;ll be able to find that with time it becomes easier to manage your content and grow your subscribers, etc.</p>

]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.26weekplan.com/create-online-newsletter.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>#41: Building Email Lists Podcast Video – Week #9</title>
		<link>http://www.26weekplan.com/building-email-lists-video.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.26weekplan.com/building-email-lists-video.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Sep 2010 07:07:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Bain</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Internet Marketing Videos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Phase #1 - Website Structure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Week #4 - Data Capture & Marketing Funnel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing methods]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing plan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[podcast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[time]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video recordings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[week]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.26weekplan.com/?p=219</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The 41st edition of our podcast brings you week #9 from the original 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan. This video shows you how to go about building email lists. The recording is taken from our original 2007 seminar. At the time it sold for &#163;399 as part of our 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan home study package. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="first-child "></p>

<p><span title="T" class="cap"><span>T</span></span>he 41st edition of our podcast brings you week #9 from the original <em>26-Week Internet Marketing Plan</em>. This video shows you how to go about building email lists.</p>
<p>The recording is taken from our original 2007 seminar. At the time it sold for &pound;399 as part of our <em>26-Week Internet Marketing Plan</em> home study package. Now, for the first time we&rsquo;re giving it away for free via our internet marketing podcast.</p>
<p><strong>Why are we giving all this great video content away for free?</strong></p>
<p>Although these videos still offer a lot of great tips, internet marketing methods change over time. We&rsquo;re going to be launching a brand new version of the plan soon, and we&rsquo;re sure that by sharing these original video recordings for free, you&rsquo;ll be persuaded to jump on-board when the new paid-for version launches! Stay tuned to our <a href="#"   onclick="awf_Form_.showForm(); return false;" rel="nofollow">newsletter</a> to find out more.</p>

]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.26weekplan.com/building-email-lists-video.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
			<itunes:keywords>marketing methods,marketing plan,podcast,time,video recordings,week</itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:subtitle>The 41st edition of our podcast brings you week #9 from the original 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan. This video shows you how to go about building email lists. - The recording is taken from our original 2007 seminar.</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>The 41st edition of our podcast brings you week #9 from the original 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan. This video shows you how to go about building email lists.

The recording is taken from our original 2007 seminar. At the time it sold for £399 as part of our 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan home study package. Now, for the first time we’re giving it away for free via our internet marketing podcast.

Why are we giving all this great video content away for free?

Although these videos still offer a lot of great tips, internet marketing methods change over time. We’re going to be launching a brand new version of the plan soon, and we’re sure that by sharing these original video recordings for free, you’ll be persuaded to jump on-board when the new paid-for version launches! Stay tuned to our newsletter to find out more.</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:author>26-Week Internet Marketing Plan</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>clean</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:duration>9:52</itunes:duration>
		<rawvoice:embed>&lt;iframe class=&quot;youtube-player&quot; type=&quot;text/html&quot; width=&quot;530&quot; height=&quot;330&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/L-fW2Lrmx84&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</rawvoice:embed>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Autoresponders Presentation – Internet Marketing Pillar #4</title>
		<link>http://www.26weekplan.com/autoresponders-presentation.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.26weekplan.com/autoresponders-presentation.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:53:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Bain</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Internet Marketing Presentations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Phase #1 - Website Structure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Week #4 - Data Capture & Marketing Funnel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Autoresponders]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet marketing seminar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pillars]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[presentation internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[slideshare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[View]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.26weekplan.com/?p=719</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[View the entire Autoresponders Presentation below via the Slideshare website. This is an audio recording of the original 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing seminar added to the original slides. Autoresponders &#8211; Internet Marketing Pillar #4 View more presentations from 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="first-child "></p>

<p><span title="V" class="cap"><span>V</span></span>iew the entire <strong>Autoresponders Presentation</strong> below via the Slideshare website. This is an audio recording of the original 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing seminar added to the original slides.</p>
<div style="width:425px" id="__ss_3391073">
<strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/13pillars/13-pillars-newcastlebelfastnewautoresponders"   title="Autoresponders - Internet Marketing Pillar #4">Autoresponders &ndash; Internet Marketing Pillar #4</a></strong><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=13pillars-newcastle-belfast-new-autoresponders-100310183357-phpapp01&amp;stripped_title=13-pillars-newcastlebelfastnewautoresponders">
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always">
<embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=13pillars-newcastle-belfast-new-autoresponders-100310183357-phpapp01&amp;stripped_title=13-pillars-newcastlebelfastnewautoresponders" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
<div style="padding:5px 0 12px">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/"  >presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/13pillars"  >13 Pillars of Internet Marketing</a>.</div>
</div>
<p><!-- ckey="0176FC1E" --></p>

]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How to Use Autoresponders Video – Internet Marketing Pillar #4</title>
		<link>http://www.26weekplan.com/how-to-use-autoresponders.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.26weekplan.com/how-to-use-autoresponders.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:15:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Bain</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Internet Marketing Videos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Phase #1 - Website Structure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Week #4 - Data Capture & Marketing Funnel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Autoresponders]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet marketing seminar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pillar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pillars]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[video internet]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.26weekplan.com/?p=715</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This video on how to use autoresponders is the fourth pillar in our series of internet marketing videos which were recorded at an early version of the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing seminar. Enjoy!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="first-child "></p>

<p><span title="T" class="cap"><span>T</span></span>his video on <em>how to use autoresponders</em> is the fourth pillar in our series of <a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/videos/"  >internet marketing videos</a> which were recorded at an early version of the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing seminar. Enjoy!</p>
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		<title>Autoresponder Software – Internet Marketing Pillar #4</title>
		<link>http://www.26weekplan.com/autoresponder-software-pillar-4.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.26weekplan.com/autoresponder-software-pillar-4.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:07:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Bain</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[13pillars]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Phase #1 - Website Structure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Week #4 - Data Capture & Marketing Funnel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[automatic email]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email response]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[form]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mail machine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Website]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.26weekplan.com/?p=701</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Autoresponder software isn&#8217;t just an automatic email response delivered by your email software when you are out of the office. Autoresponders can be an extremely effective part of your internet marketing arsenal. Among other things, autoresponders can deliver personalized broadcast e-mails and newsletters to your entire email list &#8211; at a predetermined time. Pillar #4 [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="first-child "></p>

<p><strong><span title="A" class="cap"><span>A</span></span>utoresponder software</strong> isn&rsquo;t just an automatic email response delivered by your email software when you are out of the office.  <a href="http://www.aweber.com/?222299"   target="_self" rel="external nofollow" title="Autoresponder">Autoresponder</a>s can be an extremely effective part of your internet marketing arsenal.  Among other things, autoresponders can deliver personalized broadcast e-mails and newsletters to your entire email list &ndash; at a predetermined time.<br><em><br>
Pillar #4 Autoresponder Software</em> looks at the best autoresponder software available; how to build a responsive and worthwhile list of recipients; as well as building relationships with your contact list so that you improve your email conversion rates over time.<br><strong><br>
What exactly is autoresponder software?</strong></p>
<p>Autoresponder software enables messages to be delivered by email automatically at a predetermined time that can be partly personalized for the recipient.</p>
<p>Because these emails often include people&rsquo;s names, the recipients commonly think that they are receiving personal emails from you, rather than an automated e-mail machine!  </p>
<p>An autoresponder sequence can be set up so that e-mails are delivered on a set day of the month or over intervals of time after somebody subscribes.</p>
<p>Autoresponder sequences can be as long or as short as you want &ndash; when people subscribe to your updates, you can decide if they should receive an email after 2 days, 10 days, 21 days, or even as much as 5 years.<br><strong><br>
Other uses of an autoresponder service</strong></p>
<p>But autoresponders don&rsquo;t just have to be emails or email newsletters. They can also be used to deliver a step-by-step email course.  You could perhaps encourage your website visitors to subscribe to a short email course delivered over a few days with a view to upselling a better, more informative email course after building a trusting relationship with the prospect over the free course.</p>
<p>You can also use autoresponder software to deliver a free product, and use this to build an opt in list. For instance, if you have a free PDF report that you want to offer you can deliver it via your autoresponder, and get people to automatically subscribe to your newsletter or email updates when they request the free report.  Once they have subscribed or opted-in to your list, you can then market to them at any point in the future, either by using an autoresponder sequence over a period of time or by using broadcast emails. (Unless they decide to opt-out.) </p>
<p><strong>Broadcast emails</strong></p>
<p>Broadcast emails are an important part of using an autoresponder service.  Not everything can be built into sequence in advance &ndash; some items are timely in that they are focused on products or events that maybe sold out by a certain date.  By sending broadcast emails to people, you are sending them offers or providing information that is pertinent to a particular date.</p>
<p>By using a decent autoresponder, if you have a list of 1 to a million people, you can send a personalized broadcast email on a particular issue to your group of subscribers within an hour.</p>
<p>If I were sending an email for the first time to a list that is business to business, you can perhaps send one email introducing yourself, your product and/or your services, without an unsubscribe option. (Please check your own country for legislation appropriate for you.) However, you should not send emails to private e-mail addresses who haven&rsquo;t already agreed to receive an email from you.</p>
<p>A good autoresponder service will automatically include an unsubscribe option in all of your emails, to allow recipients to easily remove themselves from your mailing list if they decide that they do not want to hear from you again in the future. As you do not want to have your email address flagged as a SPAM sender, this is wise to do.<br>
Newsletters</p>
<p>Email Newsletters are generally a little bit more formal, but can be built into an autoresponder process as well.  You can load newsletters into an autoresponder, so that they will be delivered either on a certain date or within a certain period of time after people have subscribed to that sequence.</p>
<p>If you have a period of time available (perhaps a quiet time in your business year) you can complete the work of writing a series of newsletters for the whole year.  These can be uploaded to your autoresponder, and the recipients will automatically get the newsletters at specified times throughout the year.  </p>
<p><strong>Email marketing software</strong></p>
<p>Which autoresponder should you use? One that I recommend, probably the most popular one available, is called AWeber, (Figure 4.1) which is probably the world&rsquo;s most popular autoresponder software service.</p>
<div id="attachment_704" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 300px">
	<a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/aweber"  ><img src="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/4-1.gif" alt="AWeber" title="AWeber" width="300" height="144" class="size-full wp-image-704"></a>
	<p class="wp-caption-text">AWeber</p>
</div>
<p><strong>The disadvantage with using your own server to deliver email</strong></p>
<p>If you are using your own server to send emails to your list at the moment then you&rsquo;re at a serious disadvantage. Your servers will not be trusted enough by other email programs to get the kind of delivery rate that as service like AWeber can give you. If you&rsquo;re currently sending emails from your own domain, you may be struggling to deliver up to half of your emails without knowing it. This is probably partly due to your domain&rsquo;s IP address not being trusted enough by SPAM filters.</p>
<p><strong>Advantages of using an experienced email marketing company&rsquo;s server</strong></p>
<p>Because an experienced email marketing / autoresponder service has been established for many years, this has given them an opportunity to build a trusted relationship with many email providers. This means that services like Hotmail and Gmail will know that when an email is sent through a service like AWeber, the person who is receiving the correspondence has requested to receive it.</p>
<p>This is just one of the reasons why if you are thinking of building up an email list, then I advise that hosting that email list on an on an experienced email marketing company&rsquo;s server, and sending e-mails out from that server is the best approach.</p>
<p>Emails being sent by such as service can still look as if they are being sent from you.  They can still appear to come from your email address, and you can still receive replies to your own email address.  However you are using someone else&rsquo;s more trusted server to ensure that the vast majority of emails reach the person they are intended for.</p>
<div id="attachment_705" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 300px">
	<a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/aweber"  ><img src="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/4-2.gif" alt="Writing an email using AWeber" title="Writing an email using AWeber" width="300" height="293" class="size-full wp-image-705"></a>
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Writing an email using AWeber</p>
</div>
<p><strong>More about AWeber</strong></p>
<p>AWeber provides autoresponder software and newsletter functionality.  It supplies HTML templates for newsletters as well, so you can easily design your own newsletter, upload it, and deliver it whenever you want.</p>
<p>Another thing you can do with AWeber, which is worthwhile considering if you have or are going to have a blog, is to import RSS feeds into the service, and automate the delivery of these posts as a newsletter. Many people prefer to subscribe to email updates rather than an RSS feed, and AWeber can provide you with the functionality to give your subscribers this opportunity. Of course offering this service also encourages people to join your email list &ndash; and provides you with a bigger subscriber list for future marketing campaigns.</p>
<p><strong>Personalizing your automated emails</strong></p>
<p>After you create an account and login to AWeber, you may wish to write your email content in your normal word processer before copying and pasting it into AWeber&rsquo;s text editor.  (Figure 4.2) Here you will have the option to include personalized fields such as the names of people you wish to send your emails to.  You can use a greeting e.g. &ldquo;Hi,&rdquo; or and then a variable for their name, which will automatically insert their name from your email list. </p>
<p>The variable that you use in order to automatically include a subscriber&rsquo;s first name within the email is {!firstname_fix}. This variable will include a subscriber&rsquo;s personalized first name in each email, but also ensures that a capital letter is used at the beginning of the name after it is inserted.<br><strong><br>
Sending HTML newsletters</strong></p>
<p>AWeber lets you send HTML email newsletters as well as plain text newsletters.  A HTML email allows you to use more color and create more visually attractive designs.  However, it&rsquo;s very important that you test deliverability rates and the actual design that your subscribers see in different types of email reading software. (E.g. Outlook, Entourage, Gmail, Hotmail etc.) Just because something looks good on your computer, don&rsquo;t assume that it looks just the same on other people&rsquo;s computers.</p>
<p>An important rule of thumb is to always send a plain text version of the newsletter as well as the HTML version. This means that if the HTML version gets stuck in SPAM filters &ndash; or for some other reason isn&rsquo;t able to be displayed &ndash; then the plain text version should reach your subscriber.</p>
<p><strong>Setting goals for your newsletters</strong></p>
<p>In addition to being useful and informative, the content and format of your newsletter should relate to the action you wish your subscribers to take after they read your newsletter.  If you wish them to browse through your website navigate through your items for sale, you should consider including a mini navigation menu in your newsletter which replicates the selection of choices available in your website navigation.</p>
<p>There is no definitive answer on whether an HTML or plain text email campaign will work best for you business &ndash; the only way to know for sure is to test, and good email software like AWeber will have an inbuilt <a href="https://touchstone.infusionsoft.com/go/43st/a1550/"   target="_self" rel="external nofollow" title="split testing">split testing</a> capability build into its program.</p>
<p><strong>Set an objective</strong></p>
<p>When sending out emails you should have a certain target or objective in mind.  You need to consider your intention behind sending that email when creating and formatting the content. Do you want them to click on a link?  If you wish them to visit a certain page on your website, you should mention the link at least twice within the email &ndash; and feature it prominently, describing the benefit for your subscriber to click on the link.</p>
<p><strong>More reasons to communicate with your audience on a regular basis</strong></p>
<p>You can use regular email contact with your subscribers via an autoresponder for virtually any reason &ndash; email is a great tool to build relationships.</p>
<p>Many long-term, successful email marketing campaigns often send out two or three emails in a row which have no end-goal to &lsquo;sell&rsquo; anything. The primary purpose of these emails is to build a relationship with the subscriber by offering good, solid, reliable information. The advantage with offering such valuable, useful content is when you do decide to recommend a particular product or service in a future email, your subscriber is much more likely to trust your recommendation and make a purchase decision.<br><strong><br>
Build relationships first</strong></p>
<p>A significant advantage with using autoresponders is that they give you the ability to build relationships people on with your email list &ndash; without having to make personal contact with them. An autoresponder sequence can increase the level of trust that your subscribers feel for you. This increased level of trust, in turn, greatly improves the likelihood of that subscriber converting to a customer in the future.</p>
<p>An important tip is to get started on building your email subscriber list at the earliest opportunity. Even though you don&rsquo;t have a future email marketing strategy, by building up a bank of subscribers, you&rsquo;re safeguarding your business&rsquo; future.</p>
<div id="attachment_706" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 300px">
	<a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/4-3.gif"  ><img src="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/4-3.gif" alt="An AWeber opt-in form on www.26weekplan.com" title="An AWeber opt-in form on www.26weekplan.com" width="300" height="346" class="size-full wp-image-706"></a>
	<p class="wp-caption-text">An AWeber opt-in form on www.26weekplan.com</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Installing an opt-in form on your website</strong></p>
<p>AWeber (and other autoresponder and email software services) will supply you with some code to paste on your web pages. This code displays a simple opt-in form (Figure 4.3). You can personalize the text used to suit your needs. In this example I&rsquo;ve chosen to use &lsquo;Free Tips &amp; Updates&rsquo;.</p>
<p>Having this type of form on your website will let your visitors subscribe to your future updates &ndash; assuming they like your present website content. They can simply enter their names and email addresses. This in turn allows you to start to build an opt in list.<br><strong><br>
Double opt-in or single opt-in?</strong></p>
<p>AWeber insists on something called a double opt in, which means that when people enter their name and email address into your form, they are not automatically subscribed even when they select &lsquo;submit&rsquo;.   Instead, your want-to-be subscriber gets an email back to their email address saying something like, &ldquo;We want to make sure that you did actually request to subscribe to this list, so please click on this link to confirm&rdquo;.  Your intended subscriber has to click on that link before they are added to your list.</p>
<p>The double opt-in not only decreases the risk for AWeber that their servers are being used to send SPAM email. It increases the quality of your own email subscribers. A double opt in is not legally necessary, but it is advised by many because you can demonstrate that your recipients have definitely opted-in to receive your email updates.  </p>
<p>There are, however, pros and cons with using single or double opt-ins when collecting subscriber data.  If you use a single opt in, you&rsquo;re probably going to get more subscribers &ndash; and you will be able to import subscribers from previous campaigns to your new email software. If you&rsquo;re using double opt-in, your list won&rsquo;t be as big &ndash; but it will be of better quality.</p>
<p>Which ever way you choose to go (double or single opt-in) will have its benefits and drawbacks. If you are particularly good at managing data, and send regular updates to your subscribers like clockwork then single opt-in may well be best for you. However, this is where it&rsquo;s probably best to seek the advice of a professional internet marketing consultant before making the decision on what&rsquo;s the correct choice for your business.<br><strong><br>
How to build a bigger subscriber list</strong></p>
<p>Just having the one opt in box on your site is not going to maximize your number of subscribers. By solely relying on the one opt-in box on your website sidebar you&rsquo;ll be lucky if you get more than one percent of your website visitors who choose to subscribe to your updates &ndash; but there are much quicker ways to build an email list.</p>
<div id="attachment_707" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 300px">
	<a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/4-4.gif"  ><img src="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/4-4.gif" alt="13 Pillars of Internet Marketing pre-launch screenshot" title="13 Pillars of Internet Marketing pre-launch screenshot" width="300" height="220" class="size-full wp-image-707"></a>
	<p class="wp-caption-text">13 Pillars of Internet Marketing pre-launch screenshot</p>
</div>
<p>Start by focusing on an individual market segment. If you are a reasonable-sized business you are likely to have a range of products and services within your portfolio.  You should aim to focus on niche markets within your portfolio by targeting individual pages and offer an incentive for people to receive for information about the subject matter that interests them.</p>
<p>Figure 4.4 is a screenshot of what the <em>13 Pillars of Internet Marketing </em>website looked like before this book was released. It was just a single-page website which had one main purpose &ndash; telling people to subscribe to updates if they wanted to be made aware as soon as the book launched. Because there was just the one requested action &ndash; and because the incentive was significant (a big free ebook), a significant percentage of people who visited this page decided to opt-in to the subscriber list.</p>
<p><strong>Optimizing your opt-in request</strong></p>
<p>There are many different on-page aspects that you can improve in order to increase the likelihood of somebody deciding to submit their personal details into one of your forms.</p>
<p>Firstly, you need to ensure that your persuasive reason to opt-in is targeted at exactly the right audience. Secondly, you need to ensure that the reason to enter their details in your form is as compelling as possible.</p>
<p>If building an emails list is important to your business model &ndash; and it should be &ndash; then you should be prepared to test every aspect of your opt-in page or page section in order to maximize your conversion rates. This topic is reviewed in much greater depth in the 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan newsletter.<br><strong><br>
Increasing double-opt-in conversion rates</strong></p>
<p>If you&rsquo;re using a double-opt-in autoresponder service like AWeber, your sign-ups will reach a page after they complete the form. And you have the option of personalizing this page in any manner that you see fit.</p>
<div id="attachment_708" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 300px">
	<a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/4-5.gif"  ><img src="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/4-5.gif" alt="Increasing double-opt-in percentages" title="Increasing double-opt-in percentages" width="300" height="174" class="size-full wp-image-708"></a>
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Increasing double-opt-in percentages</p>
</div>
<p>Should you wish to, you can use this &lsquo;space&rsquo; to try to sell a product or service, or direct your interested parties towards the best free content on your website. Alternatively, what I would recommend if you are running a double-opt-in process is to tell people to go to their email service and click on a link in an email that you have just sent them. This confirms the opt-in. (Hence double opt-in)</p>
<p>Figure 4.5 shows a screenshot from a page which attempts to maximize double opt-in conversion rates. This is an example of a page that people might see once they have completed the first stage of the double-opt-in (filled out the form) but have yet to click on the link in their email to complete the joining of the list.</p>
<p>By now you should know that if you do decide to use a double-opt-in autoresponder then there are prod and cons. One of the cons in that you are never going to be able to get everyone who completes the first stage of the double-opt-in process to complete the second stage. Some people have an inherent distrust of clicking links belonging to website domains that they don&rsquo;t know. All you can do is try to maximize the percentage of people to go on to complete the double opt-in. It&rsquo;s never going to be 100%.</p>
<p>However, selling the double opt in process to the people that complete your form (as in the page seen in figure 4.5) should hopefully mean that 85% of these people go back to their inbox and click on the link in their email.</p>
<p>Remember &ndash; this double opt-in process is protecting you as well as your subscribers. It means that you won&rsquo;t be in any danger of a competitor trying to list you as a SPAM sender by subscribing people to your list who haven&rsquo;t asked to be subscribed. It also means that you won&rsquo;t be trying to send emails to fake email addresses.</p>
<p><strong>More ways to encourage people to opt-in</strong></p>
<p>The more that your opt-in focus is targeted towards a niche market segment, the higher your conversion rates should be. However, it&rsquo;s good practice that you should also consider having lots of different methods of encouraging your visitors to subscribe to the same list.</p>
<p>For example, you can give away a free eBook as an incentive to join your list. This can be delivered in the form of a PDF and the whole delivery process can be automated through your autoresponder software.</p>
<p>An addition or instead to a free eBook how about a free email course, delivered on a daily or weekly basis for a set period of time? Again, once you set this up with your autoresponder the whole process is automated. An email course has the added benefit over an eBook of continually reminding people about you &ndash; and thus automatically building a better relationship with your subscribers.</p>
<p><strong>What to do after people opt-in</strong></p>
<p>It&rsquo;s one thing building an email list and another thing entirely continuing a relationship with that email list over a period of time. It&rsquo;s imperative to determine a long-term newsletter or email content strategy for your correspondence with your subscribers.</p>
<p>You need to decide on your message, your communication style and your message sending schedule &ndash; prior to starting a campaign. It&rsquo;s a big mistake to alter any of these 3 areas significantly after you start. One of your aims should be to try to be dependable and predictable for your subscribers.   </p>
<p>It&rsquo;s impossible to say that you should only send so many emails per day, week or month to your list. Some people are quite comfortable receiving an email every day if it is good, free information and if it is appropriate to the particular market segment you are aiming at. If you train your list to expect one email per week, then that is what you should send. If you train your list to expect one email per day, then that is what you should send.</p>
<p><strong>Building automated relationships and minimizing &lsquo;unsubscribes&rsquo;</strong></p>
<p>Once tool I always make use of when giving away free eBooks via an autoresponder is the automation of a few messages in the days and weeks that follow after the free eBook has been delivered.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s all well and good to get people to fill out the form, perform the double opt-in if appropriate, receive your eBook and then be subscribed to your updates. However, if your new subscriber receives an email that isn&rsquo;t much to do with his free eBook shortly after subscribing, there&rsquo;s a very good chance that this new prospect &ndash; a prospect you&rsquo;ve worked very hard to obtain &ndash; will instantaneously decide to unsubscribe from receiving future correspondence.</p>
<p>You need to remember that the people who have just decided to fill out a form to receive your free eBook probably haven&rsquo;t heard of you before &ndash; and almost certainly haven&rsquo;t subscribed to your email updates before.</p>
<p>Because of this, in order to try to minimize the likelihood of your new lead deciding to unsubscribe immediately, you should deliver some email correspondence initially that relates directly to the eBook &ndash; or adds value to the eBook. For example, a week after delivering the eBook you may want to automate the sending of an email that covers the common questions that people have from the eBook. A week after that perhaps you may wish to deliver a follow-up chapter. Perhaps after that you could ask your new subscriber for some feedback on the eBook. All this communication continues to build a relationship with your new prospect while training them to expect good, relevant information from you on a weekly basis.</p>
<p><strong>Building Relationships by Surveying </strong></p>
<p>As per the previous paragraph I suggested that you may be able to request some customer feedback as part of your autoresponder sequence. In other words, you can continue to build relationships with your list of subscribers by surveying.</p>
<p>For example, you may wish to send out a survey to your longer term subscribers saying something like, &lsquo;We are thinking of offering these products in the future and we are considering between these three or four different widgets to include as part of the product features &ndash; which features would you prefer?&rsquo;</p>
<p>This is fantastic tool for market research as it targets your existing customers. Not only is it market research, it&rsquo;s a great way of building relationships with your list at the same time.<br>
Perhaps you want to consider building a monthly survey into your regular email communication with your subscribers. This will provide invaluable information and the whole process can be automated through your autoresponder. The only caveat I&rsquo;d put on implementation of this is not to do it too often &ndash; perhaps a maximum of one in every four emails.</p>
<p><strong>Survey software</strong></p>
<p>Another method of starting to add surveys to your online marketing strategy is to publish them as a blog post &ndash; this has added value because you&rsquo;re displaying &lsquo;social proof&rsquo; when you demonstrate to other readers that you have many people who are interested in participating in the vote. If you use WordPress then you can add a survey as a plugin. One of the most popular WordPress survey plugins is called SurveyGizmo.</p>
<p>By adding a survey as part of your website interaction, it encourages your users to become a little more &lsquo;sticky&rsquo; &ndash; that is, a little more likely to stick around for longer. People will be more likely come back to your websites in the future.  If you wanted to add a survey to a stand-alone website, (where there isn&rsquo;t a WordPress blog installed) there is a good free service called SurveyMonkey (Figure 4.6) that you should consider using.</p>
<p>Note: SurveyMonkey also offer a paid service as well, which will let you create everything with your own branding as well as receiving more survey results. However, the free version is great too.</p>
<div id="attachment_711" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 300px">
	<a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/surveymonkey"  ><img src="http://www.26weekplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/4-61.gif" alt="You can use survey monkey to easily create online surveys" title="You can use survey monkey to easily create online surveys" width="300" height="175" class="size-full wp-image-711"></a>
	<p class="wp-caption-text">You can use survey monkey to easily create <a href="http://www.surveygizmo.com/?ap=25277"   target="_self" rel="external nofollow" title="online survey">online survey</a>s</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Why building a list of interested subscribers is so important</strong></p>
<p>If you build a list of relevant, interested subscribers it means you won&rsquo;t have to rely on the search engines in the long term for your Internet marketing.  And like any business, if you have just one customer, or you have one source of customers, and that source suddenly dries up, then your business will suffer.</p>
<p>If you are fortunate enough to be able to drive lots of visitors to your website from search engines, then take advantage of that by preparing for an uncertain future &ndash; just in case. </p>
<p>Convert those website visitors into leads by using autoresponder software to deliver additional content that isn&rsquo;t available elsewhere. By doing so you&rsquo;re reclaiming greater control over your website visitor traffic.<br><strong><br>
Pillar #4 &ndash; Autoresponders Summary</strong></p>
<p>&bull;	Autoresponders are a great way for you to build relationships with your customers.  They can deliver virtually anything by email on an automated, pre-meditated and usually personalized basis.<br>
&bull;	Broadcast Emails are informal emails which are usually personalized to the receiver. They are great for sending up-to-date news and building better business relationships.  When creating the text for e-mails they should be as personalized and relevant as possible to cement the relationship.<br>
&bull;	Newsletters are a more formal, professional method of keeping in touch with your client list and are a great reason for regular communication with your customers.  A newsletter can be sent immediately, or pre-loaded into you autoresponder to be delivered on a certain date. They can also be part of an autoresponder sequence, delivered so many days, weeks or months after the initial sign-up.<br>
&bull;	The autoresponder software which I recommend which is specifically built for email marketing is called AWeber.<br>
&bull;	Building a list of relevant subscribers is an essential aspect of successful internet marketing, and you can greatly speed this process up by offering free bonus content or a PDF eBook as an incentive for people to subscriber to your newsletter or email updates.<br>
&bull;	Having a large, responsive email database will take the onus off relying on search engines for traffic in the future. It&rsquo;s never good to have total reliance on something that brings in a lot of business which you don&rsquo;t control.<br>
&bull;	By building a thoughtful, relevant autoresponder sequence into your new subscriber process you will be automatically building business brand loyalty without having to speak to your subscribers personally.<br>
&bull;	Use autoresponders to survey your subscribers. This is a great way of conducting market research in addition to continuing to grow the quality of your subscriber relationships.</p>

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		<title>#05: Autoresponders Podcast – Internet Marketing Pillar #4</title>
		<link>http://www.26weekplan.com/autoresponders-podcast.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.26weekplan.com/autoresponders-podcast.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:47:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Bain</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Phase #1 - Website Structure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Week #4 - Data Capture & Marketing Funnel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[automatic email]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[autoresponder software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Autoresponders]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[best autoresponder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[podcast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.26weekplan.com/?p=684</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This fifth episode of our internet marketing podcast looks at Internet Marketing Pillar #4 &#8211; Autoresponders. Remember, if you haven&#8217;t done so already, before going any further make sure you download the free 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing eBook which accompanies this autoresponders podcast. Click here to listen or subscribe for free using iTunes Click [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="first-child "></p>

<p><span title="T" class="cap"><span>T</span></span>his fifth episode of our <a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/podcast"  >internet marketing podcast</a> looks at Internet Marketing Pillar #4 &ndash; <strong>Autoresponders</strong>.</p>
<p>Remember, if you haven&rsquo;t done so already, before going any further make sure you download the <a href="http://www.26weekplan.com/13pillars"  >free 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing eBook</a> which accompanies this autoresponders podcast.</p>
<p align="center"><strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=360781572"   rel="nofollow"><img style="border: 0px solid; width: 60px; height: 60px" alt="iTunes" src="http://26weekplan.s3.amazonaws.com/images/aweber/ituneslogo.jpg"></a><br><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=360781572"   rel="nofollow">Click here to listen or subscribe for free using iTunes</a></strong></p>
<p align="center"><strong><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/26WeekPlanPodcast"   rel="nofollow"><img style="border: 0px solid; width: 80px; height: 80px" alt="iTunes" src="http://26weekplan.s3.amazonaws.com/images/aweber/podcastlogo.jpg"></a><br><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/26WeekPlanPodcast"   rel="nofollow">Click here to go to listen or subscribe using other software</a></strong></p>
<p>Autoresponders aren&rsquo;t just an automatic email response delivered by your email software when you are out of the office.  They can be an extremely effective part of your internet marketing arsenal.  Among other things, autoresponders can deliver personalized broadcast e-mails and newsletters to your entire email list &ndash; at a predetermined time.</p>
<p>Pillar #4 Autoresponders looks at the best autoresponder software available; how to build a responsive and worthwhile list of recipients; as well as building relationships with your contact list so that you improve your email conversion rates over time.</p>

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			<itunes:keywords>automatic email,autoresponder software,Autoresponders,best autoresponder,podcast,software</itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:subtitle>This fifth episode of our internet marketing podcast looks at Internet Marketing Pillar #4 - Autoresponders. - Remember, if you haven&#039;t done so already, before going any further make sure you download the free 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing eBook wh...</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>This fifth episode of our internet marketing podcast looks at Internet Marketing Pillar #4 - Autoresponders.

Remember, if you haven&#039;t done so already, before going any further make sure you download the free 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing eBook which accompanies this autoresponders podcast.


Click here to listen or subscribe for free using iTunes

Click here to go to listen or subscribe using other software

Autoresponders aren’t just an automatic email response delivered by your email software when you are out of the office.  They can be an extremely effective part of your internet marketing arsenal.  Among other things, autoresponders can deliver personalized broadcast e-mails and newsletters to your entire email list – at a predetermined time.

Pillar #4 Autoresponders looks at the best autoresponder software available; how to build a responsive and worthwhile list of recipients; as well as building relationships with your contact list so that you improve your email conversion rates over time.</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:author>26-Week Internet Marketing Plan</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>clean</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:duration>43:15</itunes:duration>
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