Sometimes it may pay to instill a tad of humor in your email. There have been many instances when potential clients were so taken by a humorous gesture in mails that immediately decided to do some business with the marketer. Make some assumptions and apply them to your next campaign. It's all about getting potential customers over that hurdle and making that first commitment.

Considerable time and effort may be required to enhance Email responses. That said, the fruits such a process may bear over a period of time can be well worth it.

6.8.3 Should the message trick the reader or be honest?

Often, companies try to trick people into opening an Email to start a relationship with a prospective customer. From the customer’s point of view, this is certainly not the most brilliant idea. Almost all potential customers would not prefer to do business with someone who deceives them, not matter how good a product or service they offer.

As a marketer you must approach your direct mail and email marketing messages with the attitude that this may be the one and only opportunity to start a relationship with a new customer. For that matter:

  Messages should be honest and reflect the company’s credibility - Take the high road with your creative. Tell people who you really are and what you really do.

  Be clear and concise with the offer - Don’t make it difficult for the reader of your message to figure out what you are promoting.

  Test your message - Try your message out and ask for feedback. This will be the best way to assure you are not misleading.

  Know your audience - The shotgun approach to marketing does not work with direct mail or email. Sending your message to the wrong audience is wasteful spending of your advertising dollars.

Remember your message is a reflection of your brand, product or service and employees. Make sure your message is something you can stand behind with pride no matter how it is delivered.

6.9 Autoresponders

Automation of your Email marketing process is crucial for the success of your business. An automated system enables you to reply immediately solicited information, send follow ups to your prospects, and save lots of time. Automation can be achieved with tools known as "autoresponders".

The autoresponder is a program that automatically sends a reply with a pre-designed response to any email address that sends email to it. It is also often called infobot, autobot, auto-mailer, or responder. Autoresponders are great for confirmation messages as well.

Advantages of using an autoresponder

An autoresponder allows you to capture the email addresses of your visitors, so you can build your own opt-in targeted mailing list. This is a great tool to use for an Email or Newsletter. You can offer via autoresponder a free article that pertains to the subject of the newsletter to all of your new subscribers.

The autoresponder will automatically extract the prospects name and use this information in your follow-up messages. With this marketing tool you can send personalized follow-up messages. If you personalize an email message, your prospect is twice as likely to buy from you.

You can sell your products 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with the help of an autoresponder.  An autoresponder is a handy tool that automatically follows-up with a series of email messages at preset time intervals and works for you 24 hours a day. You will be able to develop your follow up messages and set reliable time intervals.

Following up with your prospects could mean a 50% increase in your sales. Your potential customers may simply forget about your initial message or they simply may have a bad day; for that reason, it is so important follow up with your prospects at preset time intervals at least five times after sending your initial message.

Autoresponders are great for sales letters. Suppose you posted to a couple of forums and newsgroups you can offer a free report about your industry and included in that you could have a sales letter. You then post the email address of your autoresponder and within seconds the user could be reading the free report and your sales letter. You don't have to do anything. Apart from these, autoresponders also allow you set up predefined answers to the most likely questions. This can cut up to 70% of your customer service requirements.