Will An Autoresponder Help My Business? How Do I Set It Up, And Use It Effectively?

An Autoresponder is a tool that enables you to send a message to multiple users at the click of a button, and allows you to track what percentage of emails are opened and by whom.

It also is a very valuable tool to utilize because it will allow you to cut down on your workload, and see how effective your email campaigns are.

Who wants to cut and past an email to 100 people via Outlook?

The Program I use is icontact because it is reliable and relatively inexpensive, and also the program has great extra features.

Please open this link http://icontact.pegahorn.com and take advantage of the 15 day free trial.
If you are unable to click onto this link, copy and paste it to your web browser or website address bar.) During the 15 day trial play with icontact and see what sort of things you are able achieve with it.

You will be able to address your prospects by their first name etc.

Remember Autoresponders are very easy to use and they are an extremely valuable tool, especially when building a relationship with your list.

Below are instructions on how to add contacts, send a message, and set up your autoresponder messages.

1. Adding contacts to your icontact list:

Go to my contacts, then click on to create a list.
(You can import a list from a file or add them one at a time).
Complete the details, then click save and add contacts, and then click import contacts from a file, or the add one at a time button.

How to add to your list one at a time:

a. Click the “My Contacts Tab”
b. In the box that says: “Add Contacts” click on “One at a time”. You can now add the details of your prospects. At this stage whilst you are still learning add them one at a time, later on you can learn the export method once you are getting more than 10 leads a day.
c. Once the “add a contact page” is open complete all the details and then add them to the appropriate Autoresponder list or lists.
d. DO NOT CLICK THE BOX THAT SAYS “Require Confirmation”. Then hit the “Add Contact” button. To find them go to the “Browse Contacts list” tab.

2. Entering a Message in icontact:

Create a message that you want to send to your contacts in a Word Document.
The reason for this is that your icontact Autoresponder only allows about 30 minutes on one page before it times out. So type your message first in a Word Document and then copy and paste it in to your icontact message.
a. Highlight the message that you have saved in your word document then click copy.
b. Go back to your icontact page and right click on your mouse in the text box and a new box will then appear with the words “paste from word...” written in it. Select that.
c. A box will appear, and in that box paste the message from your word document, and then hit “Insert”. This will now show up in the message text box. You can now play with it and fix it up and so now it is ready to go. Use their name in the document by using the code [fname] etc. You can also insert a photo if you like by hitting the little picture on top of the message text box.
Make sure you highlight your websites and email addresses in the document by clicking the Link button on the top of the document to create all the appropriate links.
d. Once in the Text box go through it and make sure all is ok and fix up anything that may look incorrect, click the quick save button on the top, scroll down a little and hit the “Copy Text” button and it will copy all the text into the 'Text Only Version”.
e. Then click quick save on the bottom of the page.
f. Then click the “Spam Check” button to ensure your message will not be picked up as spam. A new window will appear and give you a spam rating.
You must score a points value under 5. So it will read something like 1.3/5.0 which means you have a reading of 1.3 out of 5 and so your email should not be picked up as spam. The lower the rating you can get the better.
g. When this is done send a test email to yourself to check that you are happy with the format and that the links work.
h. Once you have completed this press “Choose Destination” to sent to your list, and then you can go on and add your second message, so on and so on.

3. Putting a message into your Autoresponder:

a. Log into your icontact account.
b. Hit the “Create” Tab.
c. In the box that says;”My Autoresponders” Click the “Create an Autoresponder” Link.
d. Name Your Autoresponder e.g. New MS Contacts, Training etc.
e. You can put in a description in the description box if you like but it is not necessary.
f. Then choose a list that you would like to use for this series of messages to be sent to.
g. Then place your name or your business name in the senders details and your business email address in the address that will appear as the return email address e.g. david@pegahorn.com
Then hit “Save and Add a Message”.
h. In the email subject place your subject line eg: Their name, Welcome to My New Business. (Use [fname] code if you want to use their name.) on the days to be sent out select Day 0 if you want it to go out on the day that they have first signed up to Your Business or as close as possible to that day. (The message will go out as soon as you have added them to the contacts and as long as you have enabled your Autoresponder, which I will show you how to do shortly)

4. Enable Your Autoresponder:

Before your messages are sent out you must enable your autoresponders by clicking on the “Send” tab and then click the link that says: “Enable My Autoresponders” and then by clicking the blue circular arrows on the page that loads up your message which will enable them to be sent.

Once again, if you have any questions regarding this training please contact me at david@pegahorn.com and I will help you.

If you find this information helpful please recommend this post. D !