Internet Marketing & Home-Based Business

Posts Tagged ‘autoresponder’

Setting up an email newsletter on your site is pretty easy. Previously, I explained why you should put a newsletter on your site: here and here. Now I’m going to give you simple step-by-step instructions for doing it yourself. Don’t worry. If you have any trouble, there are plenty of freelancers who can do it for cheap.

Step 1: Sign Up with Aweber

When dealing with email newsletters, there’s a lot to keep track of. Spam laws, subscriber metrics, autoresponders, and so on can eat up a lot of your time if you try to do it yourself.

Sign up with Aweber, and they’ll take care of all the details for you. Aweber is the only newsletter service I use, and I’m very pleased with them. They take all the work out of managing an email newsletter.

Once you sign up, the very first thing you should do is read the Get Started Guide. Look for it at the top of the page, to the right.

Step 2: Realize That Your List is Your Friend

According to every single Internet Marketing guru I’ve ever talked to or listened to, email newsletters are the best thing you can do to grow your business. Fortunately, setting up a list is easy.

If you haven’t set up your Aweber account yet, do that before you continue: Aweber signup.

Step 3: Create a Web Form

Start your list by clicking Add New in the upper left area of your management page. Alternatively, you can just alter the default list, which comes with every Aweber account. Make sure you follow all the instructions and set up the return email address and such.

Then, hover over List Settings and click on Web Form. Click the button that says Create New Web Form, follow the on-screen instructions, and you’ll be ready to go.

Once you get it set up, you’ll get some javascript that you can insert into your page code to display the form on your site.

Step 4: Set Up an Autoresponder Series

The next step is to set up autoresponders. These are messages that are sent out to your subscribers. The first one will go out immediately after they confirm their subscription. Then, if you have more (which is highly recommended), they will be sent out automatically at intervals you choose. So, if you set up some messages to go out four days apart, they’ll do it. You can find the autoresponder creation area by hovering over Messages and clicking Follow Up.

I recommend a welcome email to be sent immediately, and then six or seven messages spaced out every three to eight days. These messages probably shouldn’t sell right away. They need to provide information of value to your readers so they A) don’t unsubscribe, and B) start to see you as an expert on the subject.

Step 5: Create or Acquire Your Free Sign-Up Bonus

To get sign-ups, you really need to offer something for free, like an ebook, report, or how-to guide of some kind. People don’t like giving out their contact information for no reason. Give them some incentive. You can upload it to your web server and link to it from your welcome message.

When people see a free bonus for signing up, they are more likely to do so. When you keep sending them valuable information, your prospects are less likely to unsubscribe, and more likely to buy from you in the future.

Step 6: Create Your First Broadcast Message

Once you have at least one subscriber, you need to start creating Broadcast Messages. These are going to be special announcements and your regular newsletter. Basically, anything that doesn’t qualify as an autoresponder should be sent out as a broadcast.

Broadcast messages are sent out at once — and just one time — to every member of your list, old and new. To set one up, hover over Messages at the top navigation area of your Aweber admin page. Click on Broadcast, and you’ll end up on your broadcast messages page. Here you will be able to view your past broadcasts, as well as create a new one.

Just click on the Create Broadcast Message, and make it. You can use just plain text, plain HTML, or you can use an HTML template to create some great-looking messages. Create it, save it, test it, and then send it out to your list.

Step 7: Test and Tweak to Maximize Sign-Ups

Having an email newsletter is all about creating a relationship with your readers, listeners, and prospects. Your goal should be to have as big a list as possible. The more people you have that want to hear what you have to say or offer, the more success you’ll find.

Just like any marketing efforts, you’ll need to test and tweak until your results get better and better. Never stop testing, and never stop improving. Some ways that you can test your sign-ups and list is to change the offer, change the way you ask for sign-ups, and change the location of the sign-up form.

If you find something that increases your sign-ups, stick with it for a while and then start looking for ways to improve it.

Bonus Info: How I Went From Zero to Several Sign-ups a Day

On one of my sites, I went from zero sign-ups to several a day. I have an online shop that sells outdoor and survival gear, and I was getting anywhere from 150 to 200 page views a day. Not much traffic for a shop, and I wasn’t getting anyone to sign up. So I made some changes and things started coming together.

First, I offered a free ebook with the purchase. The sign-up form was on the bottom of every page, and it didn’t get anything. No one signed up. I quickly decided to do something different. So I did some research and borrowed some strategies from more successful list owners.

Since I wanted to promote my shop, I decided to offer a coupon as the sign-up bonus. Everyone that signs up gets a 15% off coupon they can use once. I created a lightbox pop-over form (a lightbox is a cool effect…check out my shop to see it), and also kept the form at the bottom of the page.

I started getting sign-ups the first day. After a little while, I began to get three or four sign-ups a day, with about the same amount of traffic. I get at least one a day still, and my traffic is increasing, too. Additionally, those coupons have turned into sales…which is good. Overall, I’ve seen an increase in traffic and sales, and the only thing I’ve done is institute an email newsletter.

Do it now if you haven’t already. It’s worth a few minutes of your time.

Extra Bonus Info: Where to Find Help When You Need It

And if you don’t have any idea how to do this, or if you just don’t have the time, hire someone to set it up for you. Go to Elance or Guru.com and find a freelancer to do it for you. You should be able to find someone who can set it up quickly and for a reasonable rate.

If you don’t have an email newsletter on your site(s), you need to start now. Get a newsletter going, start collecting leads, and grow your business.

Aweber is the only service I use and recommend. Use them and you’ll be happy.