Disclaimer: I am an affiliate of the product I mention at the end of this article.

One of the problems a lot of businesses have when implementing any web marketing strategy is getting people to take action. We may have fans or friends on Facebook, followers on Twitter, or subscribers to our blogs, but does this necessarily translate into actual customers or clients?

The answer is, of course, not always.

Unless we can get our friends/fans/followers/subscribers to take action, to actually DO something, we can build all the trust and credibility in the world and still go broke. A lot of us, myself included, make the fatal error of not asking for the order.

I am basically a soft-sell kind of guy. I was drawn to social media marketing in the first place because I would rather develop relationships (and even honest-to-goodness friendships) online that to put someone on the hot seat and ask them to give me money.

But in truth, if you or I have something really valuable to offer, are we not doing our friends/followers etc. a disservice by not encouraging them to actually buy the quality products or services we sell?

The solution is simple. We must continue to position ourselves as trusted advisors to our intended clients so that they will regard us as providers who deliver excellent expert solutions, and at the same time, ask our friends/followers to take action.

Asking For the Order

I once heard a sales trainer read what he described as the World's Greatest Book on Selling. He built up the anticipation about this greatest book for quite a while, promising that this book would change our business lives.

When the time came for him to reveal this Greatest Book Ever Written on Selling, it was Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham.

If you are like me, and have read this book to your children so many times you have it virtually memorized, you will probably get it right away.

The main character, Sam-I-am, is trying to get the other character (I can't remember his name, so I'll call him "The Customer") to try green eggs and ham. At first
the customer does not like Sam and says he does not like green eggs and ham.

When the customer says no, Sam does not give up. He asks if he would like them in a box or with a fox.

This goes on until the customer finally tries green eggs and ham and, surprise, actually learns that he LIKES them. And he likes Sam as well.

Does this mean we should all start badgering our prospects and make pests of ourselves trying to get them to buy? Absolutely not.

Autoresponder Email Marketing Systems

But we can use and autoresponder system to gently offer our green eggs and ham in a variety of creative ways. And with each email they receive we can give value and offer them a solution to a problem they may be desperate to solve.

Both the lesson of Green Eggs and Ham and the mechanics of autoresponders work because most people will not buy something the first time they are exposed to it. No matter how good the product or service is, no matter how perfectly it fits the customer's needs, people need to be asked to buy multiple times before they will take action.

The reason autoresponders work so well is that the person warms up to the idea a little bit more with each message. Additionally, it increases your likelihood of reaching the person at just the right time in their lives. They may have been considering what you sell for a while but for whatever reason, the time was not right before.

But as effective as they are, there is a right way and a wrong way to use autoresponders.

• Absolutely never just start sending out emails to people who do not know who you are. You can funnel people to your autoresponder who have already come to like and trust you through your blog or through Twitter and Facebook. But let them opt in. It is a trust and relationship game and you can't make it work by spamming people.
  
• Give value with every email. Make your emails something they can look forward to. I am a big fan of Marcia Yudkin, whose Marketing Minute newsletter comes out every Wednesday. Each email does have something to sell, but before that, she has a short, very helpful article that gives value.
  
  Don't misunderstand my Green Eggs and Ham example. Yes, Sam persistently asked the customer to try green eggs and ham. He did not give up and he asked for the order again and again. But he also tailored each offer differently. "Would you like them in a car? Would you like them in a tree? Could you eat them on a train?"
  
  
• To get your emails opened, I have learned that "How to" subject lines work best. Make sure your subject line promises valuable information that they will want to read. And make sure your newsletter delivers on that promise.
  

If you aren't already using an autoresponder, I recommend RatePoint. As I mentioned before, I am an affiliate of this service so here is my blatant sales pitch:

I like RatePoint for a variety of reasons. Primarily because it is much more than just an autoresponder. In addition to helping you manage your email list and schedule your messages, it also comes with a survey system that is really great.

You can send out short surveys to the people who are on your list that can give you a lot of valuable information about what your prospects want and need.

Additionally, it has a feature that makes it easy for people to give your business a rating and review. Few things on the web are more compelling than having a number of really good reviews online. Ratepoint makes it easy to invite customers to give you a review or rating.

Additionally, RatePoint can be fully integrated with your Twitter and Facebook efforts. It is practically seamless in the way it allows you to build relationships on social media and move these relationships to your email list.

Whether you choose to go with this service, or prefer Aweber or Constant Contact, the main point is to let an automatic system ask for your friends/followers to take action while still giving them valuable solutions and information.

A system allows you to be informative and be persistent without ruining the relationships you've worked hard to build.

What are your thoughts? I am very interested in hearing about how you get your Twitter or Facebook followers to take action. Is anyone having success converting contacts into customers? I would love to hear your success stories.

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----------------------------------------------------COPYRIGHT © 2009, Charles Brown Add to Onlywire

Whether we like to think about it or not, all business people are sales people. We have to sell our ideas, our services, our capabilities and our solutions to certain problems.

But let me pose a question: Do you close every person you have a sales presentation with?

Of course not.

No one, not even superstar sales people, can close every qualified prospect. There are many reasons for this:

• Some prospects are just not ready to take action. It could be the money is not in the budget for now, they are still in an information-gathering phase, or the “pain” of their problem is not yet acute enough to make a change.
  
• Sometimes you have just not built up enough trust and credibility with this prospect yet. Trust and credibility takes time and several contacts for people to develop.
  
• In some cases, the key benefit(s) that the prospect is most receptive to are just not clear in the prospect’s mind. Even though you have already given information about these key benefits, they need reinforcement.
  
• You have not yet built a relationship with this prospect. Again, relationships take time and nurturing. My favorite way to build relationships is to give away free information that solves problems and helps prospects reach their goals.

Most Sales Are Not Made Until AFTER
The 7th or 10th Contact

Depending on whose statistics you read, most sales are not made until after the seventh or tenth contact with the prospect. But how many business owners or salespeople have time to make that many follow up contacts?

The answer is 100% - if you use an autoresponder.

An autoresponder is an email follow up program that sends out pre-written, pre-scheduled email messages to opt-in subscribers.

How can an autoresponder work for the typical sales person or business owner?

1. An autoresponder will automatically send information to anyone who requests it from you, and add that person to your email list.
   
2. It can also send out sales letters or newsletters to your list on a pre-determined schedule. If you want prospects to receive one email a day for the first seven days after they request your information package, and then change it to once a week afterwards, the autoresponder can do that for you.
   
3. An autoresponder can track how many of your recipients open their emails and how many click through to any link you put on an email. You can use this data to refine your marketing system.
   
4. An autoresponder can spoon feed your prospects with one benefit at a time, so that they can absorb and understand what your product or service can do for them.
   
5. An autoresponder can get you in the door in the first place. A sequence of emails addressing problems your prospects face and offering viable solutions can go a long way to moving a prospect’s interest level from luke warm to hot.
   
6. An autoresponder can keep you in touch with the people you don’t sell at first. It allows you to stay on their mind while they “think about it” or while they shop around with other providers.
   
7. An autoresponder allows you to keep putting new prospects into your pipeline and do the follow up “grunt work” for you. It can gradually increase their interest level with sequential emails until they are ready to make an appointment with you.
   
8. In addition to giving you the ability to send out pre-scheduled or sequential emails, an autoresponder can also enable you to send out “broadcast” emails to your entire list when you have a special offer, announcement, reduced price, new product, close out or any other information you want to get out.
   
9. An autoresponder helps you avoid even the slightest hint of spam because it documents the fact that your subscribers “opted in” and give them the ability to opt out if they no longer want to receive your messages. While this may not sound like a positive, isn’t your time better spent communicating with people who have at least a modest level of interest in what you offer?
   
10. All buyers have a buying cycle. Most sales people try to jump into a prospect’s awareness right when they are hot and ready to buy. Autoresponders enable you to get on their radar further upstream when they first begin considering a purchase. By the time this prospect is ready to make a decision, you can be miles ahead of your competition because they have received numerous helpful, informative emails. You already have established trust and credibility with her.

I personally use and recommend Traffic Wave (Disclosure: you should know I am also an affiliate of their program). Traffic Wave’s cost is lower than most autoresponders, gives you one price for unlimited campaigns, emails and subscribers.

You can see a price comparison of the top autoresponders by clicking here.

If you like this article:

• Follow me on Twitter.
  
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• Join Me on LinkedIn
  
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COPYRIGHT © 2009, Charles Brown
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