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Posts tagged Autoresponder
How To Set Up Your First AutoResponder Account (Videos)
by Steve Hawk
in Productivity
I know that a lot of new marketers realize that they need an auto-responder account to build a list online but have no idea how to use one or set one up. I have recorded 3 videos that will walk you through the initial set-up process. The videos are specific to Aweber, since that’s what I use, but I am sure that all of the autoresponder services are pretty similar.
PART 1: Log-in and Create Your First List
PART 2: Create Your New List Settings
PART 3: Creating and Publishing Your Webform/Opt-In Box
I hope this helps. Please comment if you like or if I have left anything out that needs clarification.
The Basics Of How To Build Your Own Opt-In List
It seems pretty obvious, with all the talk of “The Money’s In The List” and how you need to build your own list of opt-in subscribers to survive online, but it is amazing to me how many network marketers do not do this? I’ll admit that I did not when I first started out. I was just so excited and desperate to recruit people into my business that I just pitched my company replicated website. Besides, I didn’t know how to build my list…I just knew that I had to! I see too many people marketing this way. I think they do it partly because they do not know how to do it any other way and partly because they do not want to spend the necessary couple of bucks that are required to minimally set up your business the right way (keyword being “Business”).
If you are in a network marketing business or are an affiliate marketer and you are not currently building your own list but you want to…this article will explain how to set yourself up with the basic but necessary tools required to get started.
AUTO-RESPONDER: It is absolutely essential that you subscribe to an auto-responder service. I use AWeber which is considered by most to be the premier service, but there are others. It is not recommended that you use a free service. You need an auto-responder to capture your leads “name” and “email address” (and “phone number” if you choose). Once a lead is subscribed to your auto-responder, you will be able to automatically email market to those people until they either buy, join your business, or unsubscribe.
SETTING UP YOUR AUTO-RESPONDER: It can seem confusing at first but setting up your auto-responder is pretty simple. These are the steps to get you up and running:
- Create Your List: You will first need to create your list. If you are marketing Pyxism like me,you can create a list called “StevePyxism” (all list names must be unique within all of Aweber). The site takes you through the necessary steps to create your list.
- Follow-Up Messages: This is not required but a good idea. You can create a series of follow-up emails that will go to everyone who signs up to your list. Once you write these and set them up, the emails will be sent automatically to your list at the intervals you select (i.e. daily, every 2 days, weekly, etc.).
- Create Your Webform: The “webform” is the opt-in box where your prospects will enter their contact information and become your lead. There are many designs to choose from. After you create your webform, you will be given html code of the form that you need to copy and paste into your lead capture page or blog.
LEAD CAPTURE PAGE: Another essential tool. Whenever you join a business or affiliate program, you are given a company replicated website and an affiliate ID. You can just market your affiliate url and get sign-ups. The problem with this approach is that you will be marketing the same site as everyone else AND you will not be capturing the information of the people who see your site but do not sign up. With a lead capture page, which is tied to your auto-responder, you can design a unique page that is not being marketed all over the internet PLUS your prospects will need to enter their information first to see your replicated site and decide if they want to sign up. You can either buy lead capture pages and have them hosted for you OR you can create your own (like I do…I use AcademyTeamSolutions lead capture pages since I’m a member) and host them yourself (you can also host with ATS) which is the less expensive way to go if you want to create multiple lead capture pages.
- Creating Your Own Lead Capture Page: To create your own lead capture page, you will need an html editor. I am self-taught so don’t get scared off by html…besides the editors are have WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) so you can just design the page how you would like it to look and the editor takes care of the html for you for the most part. There are plenty of free html editors online. I use Kompozer. After you create your capture page, you will need to save it and upload it (as “Index.html) to your server (I use both Viral Hosts and ATS, but you can also host with your domain company). Any images that you have on your capture page should be contained in your “images” folder on your site’s server. That’s it!
YOU WILL NEED YOUR OWN DOMAIN: Buying your own domains is required. I purchase mine from GoDaddy, which I have found to have the best customer service of the different domain companies that I have purchased from. You can purchase “.info” domains for $1.07 for a year. “.Com” domains will run you about $10 a year. After you purchase your domain, you will need to point the “nameservers” to your hosting company (unless you use GoDaddy for hosting). That process takes a few minutes.
Here is an example of a lead capture page that I created for Pyxism. The domain I purchased from GoDaddy is dominateyourbiz.info, the page is hosted at ATS: CAPTURE PAGE SAMPLE.
NOW…all you have to do is market your lead capture page or blog to start building your very own list (that’s the more difficult but fun part of our business!).
Your Partner in Success,
Steve Hawk
Opt in MLM Leads – What Are They Really Good For?
Email marketing can still be a very effective means for MLM lead generation providing you are dealing with a reputable leads retailer. Opt in MLM Leads are great for sending out small targeted email campaigns and scrubbing the “Opt in” list against your very own company specific lead capture page.
The term Opt in means that the prospect has filled out a form on a website and have agreed to receive offers via about a home based business via email. It’s important to make sure that you receive an IP address and time stamp for any opt in MLM leads you decide to purchase. If you can’t get this important information from the lead retailer then you should deal with a different outfit because the leads are probably not legitimate.
You’ll need an autoresponder such as Aweber.Com in order to load your lists of opt in MLM leads. Many autoresponders will limit the amount of opt in MLM leads you can add to the autoresponder daily. Because most autoresponders will limit the amount of leads you can upload often you can only load 2500 – 5000 per day. If you have a decent number of leads you can supply yourself an extremely steady trickle of fresh real time leads for your opportunity on a daily basis.
For campaigns like this I think it’s wise to start small and slowly build up as you start to generate a response and some profit from your efforts. The larger scale of email campaigns you run the greater risk of receiving Spam complaints you have. Make sure when you are sending out emails you are not using a deceiving subject line and that you have included your contact information and your physical address within the email. You’ll also need to include a removal link so the prospects can unsubscribe from your list at any time. Most autoresponders will provide all this information for you as well as they want to make sure your mailings remain Can-Spam compliant.
When you have loaded your list of opt in MLM leads into your autoresponder it will begin sending out the series of follow-up messages you had either written yourself or grabbed from your team websites and entered into the autoresponder. It’s important that you make sure you have a link to your company specific lead capture page in your email series that is being delivered to the Opt in MLM Leads.
What we are trying to do is essentially “Scrub” the list of Opt in MLM leads against our company specific lead capture page knowing that only the people that are interested in our opportunity will fill out our lead capture form. This leaves you with real time red hot prospects and often for under $1.00 a piece if you can get a good price on the leads. The opt in MLM leads that didn’t reply or were not deliverable you can either save and market to at a later date or simply discard them and get a new list.
In your search for Opt in MLM leads you’ll probably come across vendors selling “double” opt in MLM leads. These are leads that have submitted their information to a lead capture page and then actually confirmed their email address and subscription by clicking a verification link within an email they are sent immediately after their form submission. These are very good quality leads but can also be very pricey for just a simple autoresponder campaign.
Small lists between 10K and 20K will usually work quite well providing the leads are relatively fresh and you have your email advertisement leading to a well designed lead capture page. This simple strategy could easily generate someone 5 – 20 or even more real time leads everyday.
Written by Carl Sorensen, the owner of http://www.ezleadcapture.com. He is a Google Adwords lead generation professional and also has developed a complete lead capture page solution for marketers looking to generate their own real time leads online.
