How To Stay In Touch With Your Ebay Customers 24/7. Yep, Even While You're Asleep!

What's the one great thing you can do for your Happy eBay Customers? Sell them something else of course, give them a great deal and make them even happier. But how do you keep in touch with your eBay customers on a regular basis for various different products and various different deals. Use an Autoresponder as part of your eBay business, that's how. AUTORESPONDERS What they Are and How to use them? You have to know this. They will become your 24/7 sales teams. What is an Autoresponder? Why do I need one? How do I get one and How do I use it? WHAT IS AN AUTORESPONDER? An Autoresponder is a bit like Fax On Demand, whereby you dial a certain code into your Fax Machine and receive back a specific document, except in the case of an Autoresponder you send an email to an Autoresponder Address and receive back a pre written email message. SEQUENTIAL AUTORESPONDERS A Sequential Autoresponder, as it's name implies is an Autoresponder that can send out a series of pre-written messages. When someone sends an email message to a Sequential Autoresponder, they will receive back a series of messages spread over a period of time. Sequential Autoresponders can be set up to send a pre-written message every day - every week - -every month etc. In fact, any combination of time intervals that suits. WHY DO I NEED ONE? Can you imagine the power that your eBay sales campaigns would have if you could automatically contact your prospective customers on a regular basis virtually for free? It's awesome. In a recent study, "Sales And Marketing Executive International" found that 81% of sales are closed after the fifth contact. I have seen it reported on other marketing Websites that "on-line" customers may need to see the same sales information between 7 and 12 times before they make a decision to purchase. You can achieve this via an Autoresponder, something that it is important for you to understand whether you're selling a product or service on or off-line. So lets suppose that you have a Website promoting a product or service and that you get visitors to your site. Some of those visitors will purchase straight away but most will not. This is quite normal, as most people need time to make a buying decision. However, once they have left your Website the chances are you will have lost them as a customer. The most common reason for people not purchasing immediately is that they need more information to enable them to make a buying decision. This can range from more information about the product or service to more information about the company or individual selling the product or service. Or it might be the case that you have a list of happy eBay customers and you want to inform them of a new product or special deal. In both of these cases the prospective customer needs more information in order to feel comfortable with their decision to purchase. THE ANSWER The solution to the above is to create a way for your prospective eBay customers to have access to that information, and this can be done via a Sequential Autoresponder. Do you have a database of eBay customers who have purchased from you? If you have, there is a very good chance that they will purchase from you again "if" you can enable them to remain happy with the purchase they have already made and can keep them informed of new products and special offers. The bigger your eBay customer database, the harder this is to do. Once again the answer can be found in using a Sequential Autoresponder. Of course, once your prospective eBay customer has digested enough information to make a positive buying decision they will join your customer database and you can follow up with re-assurance of their purchase and your other products and special offers. HOW DO I GET ONE There are many Autoresponder Services on the market, some are free, some you pay for. FREE VERSUS PAID I do not recommend the majority of free autoresponder services for one main reason. In order to generate an income the providers of free autoresponder services will place advertisements within the email messages that your customers receive. These advertisements will bear no relationship to the product or service you are offering, losing you sales and annoying your customers into the bargain. Some bargain! There are other reasons. For instance, it is rare to find a free autoresponder service that will allow you to "personalize" your messages. The one exception that I know off is FreeAutobot.com I've used FreeAutobot for a long time and they serve me very well. They do not place advertisements within your messages. You can use personalization tags, you can open as many accounts as you wish and the service is entirely free. I recommend that you visit their Website at http://www.FreeAutobot.com and have a good look around. While your there, why not open an account and take an Autoresponder on a test drive? It's quite straightforward; everything you need to know is explained on their Website. HOW TO USE AN AUTORESPONDER When someone sends an email to your Autoresponder address not only does it send your pre-written message to them but it also captures their name and email address. In this way your Autoresponder will build up a database of prospective customers for you. What if you already had a database of prospective customers that you wanted to include in your FreeAutobot Autoresponder's series of messages? You could import the information into your FreeAutobot Autoresponder, but only one lead at a time. Remember, you get what you pay for! PAID AUTORESPONDERS If you need an Autoresponder with that kind of flexibility, you will have to pay for it. One of the problems with most paid Autoresponder Services is that a limit will be put on how many leads you will be able to import into your Autoresponder. This may not seem like a problem initially, but it can soon become one. There is a perfectly good reason for this, SPAM or Unsolicited Commercial Email. Many Autoresponder Service Providers have had their knuckles severely wrapped and some have even been closed down because of individuals using their Autoresponders to send SPAM, resulting, perhaps unjustly, in the Autoresponder Service Provider being blamed. That is why any Autoresponder service worth it's salt will have worked very hard to build a reputation of not allowing their service to be used for SPAMMING and require their service users to be in possession of the following specific criteria for any email address that they wish to import. Email Address First Name Last Name Address City Zip Code Phone Number IP Address Date Time Stamp of IP Logging Clearly, this does not present a problem to the honest user. HOW TO USE AN AUTORESPONDER cont... You may recall that we discussed the possibility of providing your prospective and existing customers with more information to assist them in reaching a buying decision or to make an additional purchase. And the best way I know of achieving this is via a Sequential Autoresponder. You make it clear on your eBay Sales Page and your eBay AboutMe Page that more information on your product or service can be obtained by filling out a opt-in form. Visit: http://javascript.internet.com/forms/validation.html for an example of a web based opt-in form and how to create it. The form will have "boxes" where your visitors or readers can enter their Name and Email Address, and a Send or Submit button. Once your prospective customer has entered their details and clicked on Submit, your Autoresponder will be automatically triggered to send them your pre-written information. This might be a series of emails telling them more about your eBay auctions, your products or services or more information about you and your company or both. This is a fantastic way of selling the "benefits" of you, your company and your products or services. You might send your existing eBay customers a series of messages asking them if they are happy with the purchases they have made from you and informing them of any Special Offers and additional products. Remember that these messages can be sent daily, weekly or monthly and to as many people as you wish. An Autoresponder is your 24/7 Customer Service and Sales Team. You would be wise to use one, even while you're asleep. CopyRight 2005 Ian D.Major