Rod Larrivee's Blog

Well, the title says it all folks.  Again, “THE MONEY IS IN YOUR LIST”.  Do not forget this.  To build any successful Internet Marketing Business, you must have an autoresponder, and you must capture your prospects email address as they visit your site.  Your customers may not buy the first time.  You need to be constantly in contact with them, encouraging them to return to your site and buy.

This is no different than an offline business.  These business usually keep in contact with you by mail. Have you ever shopped at Sears?  Well, you are probably receiving Sears
Catalogues by mail, their way of encouraging you to return to their business to buy more.

If you already have an autoresponder, you can skip ahead here.  If you need one, here is one that have have used for two years, and I highly recommend.  Response Magic, by Platinum Synergy.  A great autoresponder, affordable and a high email success rate. 
CLICK HERE to sign up to Response Magic.  Select the Home Edition with is less than $20 per month.

After you are registered and logged into your account, the first thing you need to do is edit your personal settings.

Now complete the following fields with your information and click on Update.  

 

Now that you got that set up, Its time to set up your List and your Welcome Message.  To set up your list, after logging to Response Magic, click on Settings, List Settings, then Add a
List.  You will be promoted to enter a Title for your List.  This will become the List’s Name.  Enter your new List’s name and click Add List.  Your List has now been created.  Pretty Simple hey?  With Response Magic you can have as many lists as you want.

Now that you have your List created, we need to add a Welcome Message.  From your Home Page in Response Magic, Select your List From the Drop Down Box near the bottom of the page.

Now click on Email Management.  This Welcome Message we are about to create will be the automated message your Visitors will receive after opting into your site – I will show you later how to create that opt-in form to place on your web site. Click on ADD HTML, see where I am pointing to in the picture below.

Now in this screen, is where you write your Welcome Message.  Note the use of ~~firstname~~ which personalizes your letter with your Visitors First Name.  Try not to make this a Sales Letter, but more of a Personal Welcome and some information on your Product or Service.  Be sure to have your contact information at the bottom, including a link to your web site, the Preview and Save your message

After you Save, click on Close and you are brought back to the messages screen.  Here you can add a bunch of sales letters that can be sent out to your visitors every few days, totally automating your email marketing.  Remember though, do not sent them too many emails, a couple a week encouraging them to come back to your web site is enough.  When you want to create a new message, click on ADD HTML MESSAGE.  You will see the field “Days from last message to send this message”. So if you want to send them a message every 3 days, you would put 3 in this field. 

What I like to do, in the beginning, right after they have opted in to your list, is to send them a message 1 day after the Automated Message, then about 3 messages every 2 days, then start spreading them ut a bit.  Like maybe 4 days, then 6 days.  Just enough to keep them interested.

Your messages can be informational or sales orientated, do a mix of both.

As you list begins to grow, make sure to make use of the Broadcast Feature.  This is great if your company is having a Sale.  All you have to do is click on Broadcast, at the top of the page, then Send Broadcast.  Select the list you want to broadcast to, write your message, and click on Send.  This message will immediately go out to everyone on the list(s) you selected.

Now you are asking, I have my list set up, I have my messages set up. how do I get people on my list.  Great question.  Look to the left of this page, you will see “Join My News Letter” and under it a place to put your Name and Email.  This is an opt-in form created in Response Magic and added to my page.  This is one way to build a list.  Another way to to build a capture page.  This is a page, with only a small amount of information about your company, but an opt-in form the visitor must fill out to continue further.  You will have to decide which way is best for your web site.

To create the opt-in form so it works with Response Magic, log into your Response Magic, click on Tools, Generate Signup.  Now, select the List that you want to use for this form.  This will be the list that the Visitors information will go in to.  The Form Title, is what you will see at the top of the Opt-in Box.  The From Address will be your email address.  Now, check off which fields you want on the form, in addition to their email address.  My personal experience here, is the less information you ask for the better.  Only if you are selling an high end product, and you intend to personally call each Visitor, should you be requesting their Phone Number.

The most important part of the Form is the URL.  If you are using this form on a Capture Page, the URL should be the web address that you want the Visitor to be directed to after filling out the form.  This will be your main web site.  If you are putting the form on your Main Web Site, then you can do two thing here.  Use your Main Web Site address, and the Visitor will be brought right back to your Main Web Site, or create a Thank You Page, that your Visitor will arrive on after completing the form, and this page will thank them for joining your list.  

There are two other options to fill out, then click on Create Form.  See the picture below to clarify.

After you click on Create Form, Response Magic will create the HTML code for you to place on your web site.  Once you place this code on your Web Site, you can edit the size and colors of the form with your favorite HTML editor.

If you are marketing an Affiliate Program, and do not have access to change your Web Site, you can still build a list by creating your own Capture Page with your opt-in form on it.  You will need your own domain name, and web hosting to do this.  This is not expensive, or really that difficult.  I suggest going to GibSales and registering a domain name and choosing one of their inexpensive Web Hosting and Web Site Building Packages.  You can visit them HERE (If you are already a GibLink Member, make sure you purchase Domains and Web Hosting from your own GibSales Site.  If you are not a GibLink Member, you need to check it out HERE)

There it is, the first of the Twelve Steps to Internet Success, and the beginning of your Internet Marketing Journey.  Its time to move on to Step 2 – Traffic Exchanges

Rod Larrivee
© 2007, all rights reserved

 

written by rodl13