An email autoresponder should come as natural to every business. Web surfers stopped looking at ordinary websites years ago. Now every internet visitor wants a website that is caring and will build a positive relationship with its visitors. It is for this reason that online companies are investing huge millions into Customer Relationship Management programs. But if you are a start up businesses without the huge capital outlay to put into customer relations, you can use auto responders to deliver an amazing warm reception and interaction with  their visitors.

To conduct a successful online business, you may want to be guided by available research on customers. Research has long established that, positive and timely responses are important ingredients that visitors use to judge how friendly websites are and how they would want to interact with them. And you may want to know that visitors are more likely to establish relationships with sites that provide excellent feedback and timely responses.

Auto responders therefore positively answer the call of website owners seeking automated interaction with customers at all facets of their customer relations.

An email autoresponder can securely perform 5 principal business boosting roles for every website which needs to get a high rating in customer relations and therefore enhance customer loyalty.

Acknowledgement:
Autoresponders can let people know you have received their emails and that you will soon respond to their enquiry. Even when you are not available to reply immediately, you will do so at some later time. You see, buyers are predominantly in a state of anxiety and it is a good marketing strategy to allay such anxieties.

People buy with several reasons; one of their being an urgent need to do something. So acknowledging their emails sets their minds at ease and then they are confident that a reply will be forth coming on their enquiry. If you have one thousand emails a day, there is no way you can efficiently reply to all these manually and that is where an auto responder comes in.

Notices:
Assuming you were out of the office for two days and a customer interested in bringing you a hundred thousand Dollar deal writes to you with the hope of receiving a response so business is transacted. It will be quite discouraging for him to wait and wait for no answer to come forth. If you have an email autoresponder installed, some preliminary email marketing messages can be sent to the sender; at least informing him of products/services available or explain your absence and when you will be back. If the sender wishes to wait, you can come back to respond appropriately and get the deal finalized.

Confirmation:
In this age of scam and fraud on the net, every buyer will want a confirmation of his purchase. An autoresponder confirmation serves two purposes – it assures the buyer that the goods will be forthcoming and it relieves him of the thoughts that he had transacted with a fraudster. An auto responder performing this function will make your customers happy and buy from you always.

Appreciation:
Buyers do businesses a great favor by buying. Although you are giving away a product or service in return, customers need to be appreciated for buying from you. At least they had other several options but they chose to buy from you because they like you or how you conducted your business. You can use an email auto responder to send follow up messages to customers thanking them for their business and assuring them of continued support.

Every business must make it a point to rely on an email auto responder to generate customer satisfaction and loyalty. Modern online businesses cannot afford to lose this part of everyday web-based transactions. There are many auto responders on the market available for free or a fee but the most versatile that can effectively perform the vital duties mentioned above can be found at TrafficWave.

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Over the past few years, research has continued to prove the benefits of e-mail marketing for business: low costs, high conversion rates and detailed tracking are all notable features. But e-mail marketing is becoming much more than just a tool for spammers and e-businesses. Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy on the differences between spam and permission-based emails, and more and more of them are accepting permission-based e-mail marketing as a positive replacement for direct mail.

The best news is that the majority of people who receive permission-based e-mails open, on average, 78% of them.

Jupiter Research reports effective email marketing campaigns can produce nine times the revenues and 18 times the profits of broadcast mailings. But crafting an effective business email is both an art and a science. Here is a list of factors, potential problems and effective solutions to keep in mind:

<b>1. Spam! Spam! Spam! I don’t need any Viagra!</b>
The average consumer receives more than 300 emails a week, 62% of which are spam. No wonder there’s such hostility towards the industry. But spam filters, bulk folders and “report spam” features are helping consumers become more at ease about the perils of spam. While 89% of users cited spam as a major concern in 2003, that number dropped to 85% in 2004, proportionally to an increase in the use of spam-fighting tools.

So as a permission-based business email marketer, what can you do? One tip is to remind your subscribers to add you to their “safe senders” list. The second, and most important, tactic is to make sure your email marketing service provider has a good relationship with ISPs. This will ensure that your email marketing campaigns go into your subscribers’ inboxes, not their junk mail folders. When choosing an email marketing software, make sure the company has strict anti-spam policies and complies with the guidelines of Can-Spam.

<b>2. Images and formatting: Why do my emails look broken?</b>
Broken email campaigns are an increasing concern among email marketers, especially since several companies and web-based email providers now block graphics as a measure to combat spam. In fact, according to ClickZ, 40% of email marketing messages delivered to inboxes are “broken.”

This was actually something that came up during Eliteweb’s beta-testing phases, as we had a client in the Canadian Government whose recipients were mostly using highly secure email programs. The solution we came up has now become one of our key competitive advantages.

What Eliteweb does is it publishes every single email marketing campaign sent to a secure location on the web (a location only original recipients of the email can access, thanks to encrypted technology that automatically authenticates the user). The technology also ensures you can track your users’ behaviors, even if they are reading your email campaign at the secure web location.

<b>3. Personalization and relevant content: In a business e-mail, one size does not fit all.</b>
In a recent study by DoubleClick, email users were 72% more likely to respond to a business e-mail if its content was based on the interests they had specified. That number points out the absolute importance of allowing users to choose their own interest groups and have control over which business e-mails they receive. The most popular interest categories, according to the study, are coupons and household goods.

But your coupon is no good unless the user opens the email. Users in the study said the most compelling reason for them to open a business email is the name in the “from” field. So it’s a good idea to make sure your company name is clearly stated there. Another major factor is the “subject” line. Users cite discount offers and interesting news as the most compelling subject lines, followed by new product announcements and free shipping offers.

<b>4. Click-through and conversion: Show me the money!</b>
So the user has opened your email and read the content. Great. But where’s the sale? There’s good news here. For one, consumers are increasingly likely to make purchases as a direct result of a <b>business email campaign</b>. One-third of users in the DoubleClick study had purchased something by clicking a link on an email. Another 42% clicked on an email link for more information, then purchased the product at a later time. Second, online couponing is booming: 73% of consumers have redeemed an online coupon for an online purchase, and 59% have redeemed an online coupon offline.

In terms of industries, the top performers are travel, hardware/software, electronics, apparel, food, home furnishings, gifts/flowers and sporting goods. All companies sending business emails in those categories said between 71% and 80% of recipients have purchased their products because of an email campaign.

There’s no need to fret if your company doesn’t fit in to one of those industries. The overall landscape for email marketing conversions is looking brighter every day. The average click-to-purchase rate has increased nearly 30% since 2004 and the average orders-per-email-delivered rate has increased more than 18% since last year.

<b>5. Stats tracking: who are my real consumers?</b>
E-mail marketing is an increasingly popular tool in effective CRM, and it’s about time more businesses recognize that. First off, if your provider’s email services for business do not include detailed, real-time tracking, you’re getting a raw deal. Real-time tracking is now an industry standard, and it’s highly valuable, as it allows you to see the exact moment a user opens your campaign, clicks on your link and makes that purchase. Studying your users can help you improve your communications efforts, so each campaign performs better than the last (several email service providers also let you compare the performance of your campaigns).

But many marketers are still in the dark. According to a recent WebTrends research, only 5% of marketers are very confident in the measurement of their online marketing efforts, while 26% admit they’re “flying blind.” WebTrends says the low confidence comes from a lack of knowledge when it comes to measurement, which means there’s still a lot of work to be done.

In <b>email marketing</b>, a blind shot won’t take you very far. But if you aim properly by following these essential rules of play, you should soon be reaping the same major results as so many online and offline businesses.

Get started on the right track with a 30 day free trial with TrafficWave and take your email marketing to a higher level.

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1. Offer an email course.

Write up a course or use your articles to create a course that you can offer to your visitors.

You’ll be able to educate people about your product, and increase your sales by showing them the benefits they’ll get from purchasing from you.

2. Send excerpts of your ebook.

Increase your sales by showing your visitors firsthand the valuable information you have to offer them.

Simply string together excerpts of several or maybe just one chapter of your ebook, and then offer your autoresponder series to your visitors.

If you have an affiliate program, increase your sales by making this autoresponder series (as well as any email course you offer) available to your affiliates.

3. Publish an ezine.

With broadcast capable autoresponders, you’ll be able to double opt in all your new subscribers and send out your issues on the schedule you want.

Promote your ezine on your site, and submit it to ezine directories and ezine announcement lists.

If you write articles, you can also get more new subscribers by using your resource box to promote your ezine.

You can also promote your ezine in your signature file and get more new subscribers through your day to day emails and also from your posts to discussion lists and forums that you’re a member of.

4. Offer a sample issue.

Make one of your best, current ezine issues available by autoresponder.

Then offer it on your site, and also, when you can, include it along with your other ezine information when you submit your ezine to ezine directories.

5. Publish an article announcement list.

Get more ezine publishers and webmasters to publish your articles on a regular basis by creating a list that announces when you’ve written a new article or articles.

You’ll be able to keep in touch with people that enjoy your writing, helping you to get your articles published more often and increase traffic to your site.

6. Make a training course available to your affiliates.

Offer a generic email training course that your affiliates can use to learn how to successfully promote your products and earn commissions.

Your affiliates will have a handy resource that they can print out and go back to again and again, and you’ll be able to increase your profits by helping your affiliates get started on the right track.

Take advantage of the 30 day free trial that TrafficWave is offering to build your list and provide valuable information to your customers.

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The success of your email marketing campaign is often based on a set of complex factors.  However, a number of these issues can be proactively managed to ensure an optimized response.  When developing your next email campaign, consider the following guidelines.

1. Your list.
Certainly one of the most important aspects of any email marketing campaign, your list is directly correlated to your success.  Are your names recent?  Have they agreed to be marketed to?  Have they shown an interest in products or services similar to your own?  Make sure that you are using a house list (names you collected on your own) or have been purchases from a reputable broker.

2. Your subject line.
Getting a user to open your message is paramount any email marketing campaign. The best way to determine the subject line that works best is to break your emails into three random yet equal groups.  Measure the response to each email and use the highest producing one as your control.  In follow up emails, try to beat the response rate of your control email.

3.  Your sender information.
What information appears on the sender line of your email?  Will your prospects recognize it?  Do they want to hear from you?  Often times, emails are deleted without ever being opened due to an indiscernible sender name.  Your sender name should be brief and easily understood.

4. Track your results.
Tracking allows you to determine who opened your message and clicked on a link or multiple links within your email.  By determining what worked and what didn’t, you can replicate success on your next email.  As described above, tracking is particularly important when testing subject lines, imbedded links, and other direct response vehicles.

5. Make sure your unsubscribe method is in place and working.
The CAN-SPAM act of 2003 requires that all email messages contain clear directions on how to opt-out from subsequent mailings. Provide an unsubscribe mechanism that allows those receiving your email to send you and email and indicate their desire to opt-out from receiving further emails from you or your business.  If recipients no longer want to hear from you, it’s in your best interest to remove them from your list.

6. Your images are correctly referenced and you’ve used alt tags in each image.
Improperly referencing your images can cause them to appear broken when you send your message – the dreaded red x. To insure the image is referenced correctly it must appear as, img src=”http://www.yourdomain.com….” rather than, img src=”/images/picture.jpg”. Alt tags are another important part of your images. The new security features on almost every email client these days disables images automatically. Having alt tags in place allow your reader to identify the image and determine if it is safe to enable.

7.  Test, Test, Test!
No matter what your involvement with email marketing happens to be, it is essential that you follow the guidelines above for successful results.  In addition, the key is to test, test, test! After each email campaign, measure your opens, click-throughs, and purchases.  Document the specific date, time, list, subject line, and content used to produce your results.  Refer back to your documentation prior to your next campaign.

Email doesn’t have to be a complex form of marketing.  There are many best practices you can follow and some simple rules that ensure effectively delivery, open and conversion. By following the simple rules presented in this article, you’ll not only deliver and effective email campaign, you’ll discover a consistent method for generation revenue for your business.

Using TrafficWave gives you the effective tools you need to build your Email marketing platform.

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If you decided to use email marketing to promote your business, then let me congratulate you on this very wise decision.

You might have read over the internet the buzz created by this type of marketing, and I’m sure you have already learned that “The money is in your list” – this is 100% true.

Even though email marketing is a very powerful way to transform leads into hungry buyers many people are discouraged to use this technique because of the time they need to invest in it. A recent study has showed that about 75 % of people who use email marketing need between 15 and 50 hours per week to handle it.

If you’re like me, then you’re a very busy person who can’t afford to spend that much time just on email marketing. So this is why I decided to make a list of the great advantages brought by TrafficWave, the best email marketing software on the net.

1. You get an opt-in form template which comes with full instructions so you can easily add it to your site.

2. It automatically stores every email saving you precious time and headaches.

3. It e-mails new subscribers a welcome message just moments after opting in. No more preparing and sending e-mails to hundreds, even thousands of subscribers manually.

4.TrafficWave gives you attractive looking templates to use for your newsletter so that it looks friendlier to your subscribers.

5. It keeps your e-mail safe from spam complaints, blacklists or filters so that it doesn’t get trashed.

6. You can schedule your promotions so that you can go on your vacation without worrying about interrupting campaigns.

7. You can use as many autoresponders as you need, create as many campaigns, write as many emails as you wish … the sky’s the limit.

8. Manage all of this from a complete user-friendly control panel.

Start saving time and money with your free trial to TrafficWave!

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