9 tips to accelerate & grow your brand with email autoresponders

We have all been the recipients of a message sent out by an email autoresponder without knowing it.

Email autoresponders are essential for any business, website or marketer. Although it’s a very beneficial tool because it sends emails to recipients based on specific criteria, some dismiss it as a method that doesn’t personally engage with subscribers and customers. As they say, phooey!

If used correctly, and “heroically,” as Copy Blogger notes, email autoresponders can be utilized to accelerate and grow your brand. On the other hand, if it’s inappropriately incorporated into your marketing strategy then you could very well lose out on customers and sales. Why? Because clients demand personalized attention. But who says autoresponders can’t be tailored to meet the needs of every single customer or subscriber you have? The truth is that it can.

Let’s face it: the autoresponder is an astounding, amazing and effective development. They can be simple or complex. They can be robotic or personalized. It’s up to you how you use it.

The email autoresponder can produce several benefits for your brand:

• Trust
• Sales
• Testimonials
• Referrals
• Gratitude

Unsure how to take advantage of it? Here are seven tips to accelerate and grow your brand with email autoresponders today:

Welcome your new subscribers

It’s always a good idea to welcome your new subscribers with a welcome note. This can be achieved with a single autoresponder email. But what’s also beneficial about installing this technique is that you can use it as an opportunity to provide relevant information, promote a free product or make them feel appreciated just for signing up to your newsletter or subscription list.

A list of autoresponder ideas

After you welcome your new subscribers, your very next message should be an intriguing one. The email should be something that’s compelling and insightful. Here are several ideas to utilize in your second email:

• A unique story about how you got involved in this industry.
• Providing a quick tip on something related to your niche.
• Offer a list of resources pertaining to websites, books and videos.
• Deliver a case study for your brand or espouse a success story.
• Why not ask a question that stimulates their gray cells?

Spend a year with valuable info

For the next 365 days or the next 52 weeks, you can spend an intimate year with your new subscriber or customer. This is achieved by sending them valuable information, whether it’s inspiration quotes, daily/weekly tips or industry news and updates.

Offer rewards & incentives

Want to increase the number of your email list subscriptions? Offer a reward or an incentive. Once the subscriber subscribes to your email list, you can deliver the reward – ebook, voucher or product samples – through an autoresponder.

Thank you emails on anniversaries

After the person has been subscribed to your newsletter or email list for a period of time, send them a quarterly or annual anniversary thank you note. It doesn’t have to be an extensive love letter, but it can just be a simple mention of thanks and gratitude for being a dedicated subscriber or client. You should outline how valuable they have been to the growth of the brand.

Follow-up surveys to new customers

Not all businesses can be in regular contact with each customer. On the other hand, you still value their opinions and insights on your products or customer service. How can you garner your clients’ input without personalized contact? A follow-up survey! These online surveys can be on a timed auto-send after their first or 20th purchase. They can also help you get more reviews and testimonials or both, which can then be used for your marketing materials.

Inquire about user reviews

Speaking of user reviews…

By using an email autoresponder, you can ask your customers to post reviews on your website, social media or on review websites after they have made their purchase. Be sure to include links to several important review websites. It’s a simple and neat way to increase testimonials.

Create answers to common questions

This may be the hardest part of the email autoresponder, but it’s well worth the time and energy.

When you have inquiries made by your customers, and they could dozens each day, you can have email autoresponders answer these questions based on keywords in the initial email.

In most cases, you can have a two-tier system: basic questions and critical support. The former can send out automatic replies with rudimentary information, while the latter can prompt you to provide dedicated customer support.

Growing your social media audience

Lastly, you can grow your presence on social media – Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest – through email autoresponders. You can contact your customers and inform them of the plethora of information they’re missing out on by not following you on a certain social network. You can also highlight the benefits of customers follow you on Facebook or Twitter, such as community support, various discounts and offers and corporate updates.

Now that you are aware of what you can do with email autoresponders, here are five things that you should never do:

• Do not clutter your subscribers’ inboxes with several autoresponder emails in one day.
• Do not oversell your brand or product in every single email you send out.
• Do not stop with your email autoresponders at the welcome message – expand it!
• Do not worry about how many people unsubscribed from your newsletter.
• Do not try to tailor your email to each customer; instead, think of that one perfect client you have (come on, we all have one!).

Final thoughts

Email autoresponders should never be frowned upon, either by marketers or by customers. If you have 10,000 customers, how could you possibly respond to every single inquiry or personally promote a specific product to each client? It’s not possible. This is why email autoresponders are so clever and useful for all businesses, brands and marketers out there in the open market today.

The email autoresponder can reward and thank customers, increase your social media audience and provide new subscribers with a free ebook or a white paper on something they’re interested in. Email autoresponders have become essential in today’s 24/7 global economy.

Remember, we have all been on the receiving end of an autoresponder. Let’s face it: it wasn’t terrible, particularly if you were unable to identify the fact that it came from an autoresponder.