An interested visitor who has been strolling through your

site has finally come to just what she is looking for and

is about to make a purchase. It's a sunny afternoon, and

her cat, who happens to be sitting on the moss under the

visitor's large fifty-year-old snow-rose bonsai tree,

suddenly jumps down, and the priceless tree topples over.

In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and

your sale is dust - unless you have had the foresight to

utilize an autoresponder that has captured her email

address. If you have installed an autoresponder, you can

then follow-up with her, and in all probability, make the

sale when the poor woman has finished repotting her

precious bonsai.

Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do

so much more than just automatically answer your email.

Here are a few ideas that will help you to creatively and

productively use your autoresponder to transform the casual

visitor into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponder

to:

1. Publish a newsletter. Certain quality autoresponders

will manage subscriptions and follow-up with interested

prospects. Your newsletter can keep your visitors informed

about your services or products, while building your

reputation as a credible expert in your particular

business.

2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates. Inform

them of current sales you are running and of promotional

material that your affiliates can use themselves to

increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and

techniques that your affiliates can use to successfully go

out and promote your business.

3. Write reviews. Cover books, software, music, e-books,

movies, etc., and put each review in an autoresponder.

Review your affiliate programs, using a link to your

affiliate's page in your autoresponder.

4. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing

targeted articles is a powerful tool to build your business

credibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase your

sales potential. If your articles contain valuable

information, many editors will print what is known as a

resource box for you. A resource box contains your bio and

a brief description of your service or product. It can also

contain your autoresponder address. Let's say you've

written fifty articles. Put them on separate autoresponder

accounts and create a master list that contains the titles

of each article, the autoresponder address, and a brief

abstract. Then promote your master list. Additionally,

include your publishing guidelines so your affiliates can

add their articles to your list, increasing the number of

writers who are represented in your article list.

5. Create mailing lists. Inform subscribers to your

articles when you've written new ones that they may want to

publish in their own newsletter or website.

6. Automate your sales process. Use an ad to insure

repeated exposure of your message, which has been proven to

effectively increase sales. In your ad, put your

autoresponder address where a visitor will be exposed to

numerous marketing materials. This multiplies the chances

of converting visitors into customers. For example, if

you're selling a particular product, put testimonials about

how spectacular it is on your autoresponder, and add a

detailed, enticing description of your product.

7. Distribute advertising. Let's say you sell advertising

on your website or in your newsletter or e-zine. Set your

autoresponder to send the information about rates and how

to place an ad automatically to all prospects' email

addresses. Then have your autoresponder follow-up. It can

also send notification of any special deals you are

currently offering.

8. Distribute an email course. Each day, have your

autoresponder send out another lesson. Just be sure that

each lesson has quality content - not a sales pitch. Your

content will do the selling for you, and will do it much

more effectively. You can include tips centered on a

different topic for each lesson, illustrating how your

product will benefit the reader. Include the tangible

benefits the visitor will reap by purchasing your product.

Make sure to include a paragraph or two at the end of each

lesson enticing your prospect to consider making a

purchase.

9. Automate a reminder about your service or product after

a visitor has completed your course. This will increase the

possibility of sales from visitors who have taken your

course but are dragging their feet about actually making a

purchase. You can also use these reminders to promote new

products or services, and the products and services of your

affiliate programs.

10. Distribute free reports. This gives your visitor an

idea of the type of information you can provide and the

quality of your product or service. Make sure these reports

are not sales letters or you will more than likely lose a

potential customer than gain a sale.

11. Create trivia quizzes on your site and place the

answers in an autoresponder. Your visitor will then be

motivated to request your autoresponder, and you will have

a record of the visitors' email addresses who took your

quiz. Or create a contest and have any visitors that enter

send their responses to your autoresponder. Your

autoresponder can be set-up to send them a confirmation of

their entry.

12. Offer a trial version of your product. Give your

prospects a sample of your ebook, course, software,

membership, etc. People who are exposed to a little taste

often end up wanting the whole pie. You can also capture

their email addresses when you offer them a free trial from

your website. Set up your autoresponder to give

instructions on how to obtain their free trial, and then

make sure to follow-up to try and close the sale.

13. Link to hidden pages on your autoresponder. For

example, a hidden page could be your affiliate page that

contains graphics, promotional articles, and text links

that interested affiliates can make use of. Inform visitors

that they may have free access to your affiliate page by

simply requesting your autoresponder. You will then gather

a list of visitors who may be interested in becoming your

affiliates.

14. Use an autoresponder on your order page. Post a request

form for visitors to be notified of special offers or

discounts in the future. This creates a very effective

mailing list that contains the names of people who are

already your customers.

15. Put your links page on your autoresponder. It should

contain up to fifty links that would be of particular

interest to your visitors. Make sure to add your own

promotional copy at the top or bottom of this page.

Now that you have proof that autoresponders can be used

creatively, see if you can come up with some brilliant

ideas of your own!