One of the cool things about digital technology is that you can reach out to prospects and customers while in the middle of your REM sleep cycle. Well, not you, per se – but the autoresponder email that was crafted and scheduled in anticipation of prospect activity on your website any time of day or night.
Let’s say someone takes a few minutes in the evening to search for the services a nice contractor like you would be happy to provide. He finds your site and wants to arrange for your free estimate, get your free report or schedule a service. So, he enters his info, including email address. With an autoresponder email, he can hear from your company right away, and you don’t even have to rouse yourself out of bed and hit reply.
The autoresponder is a message or a series of messages (also known as drip marketing) that is sent in a sequence and frequency that you have predetermined. The most common use is the Welcome email.
This Welcome message is a second first impression, so make it a good one. These should be scheduled to be sent right after someone submits a request, downloads a report, gets through a squeeze page or otherwise takes an action that signs them up for your marketing email.
Use this opportunity to express your company’s personality. Be interesting. And avoid the dull, dry “Welcome. Thank you for your request. Someone will be in touch shortly.” If the next step is on you, tell them what you will do. If the next step is on them, tell them what they should do. Also, remind them why they are receiving the email in case it’s a while before they check their inbox.
And even with autoresponder, be sure to use a strong subject line. Seven in 10 people will view an email as spam just based on the subject line.