There is often some confusion about the well used phrase 'Autoresponders'.
Whilst an automated response to a new lead enquiry say from your website is an 'auto response', it is not really the same as an 'auto responder'.
Autoresponders are basically a sequence of pre formatted emails that can be sent to leads or contacts over a stipulated period of time.
The emails can pull personalised information such as name, company name, potential sale information and other fields if you use a CRM system to store such information.
The autoresponder function in Zoho CRM for example, allows you to automate marketing efforts to help streamline the process of sending series of personalised email messages at predefined intervals to leads and contacts.
Autoresponders will allow you to send automated replies and follow-up emails to the leads that are coming in through your website, or indeed other channels.
Once you receive a lead, they would receive a predesigned set of follow up emails over a predetermined number of weeks.
These auto responder templates could be an initial welcoming email or two, or a whole series of lead nurturing emails, it is up to you.
One thing we would advise though is to be sensitive to the fact that they are templates emails and therefore some thought should be given to the frequency and content of the emails.
One kind I personally find really annoying are those SEO emails that you get, the first offering services when I did not even contact them for such, and then a second and third email saying "Hi, I thought I would touch base with you as I have not had a response from you on my previous email..."
"Er... no, of course you haven't, because I did not ask you to send me a sequence of emails in the first place! Now where's that 'Mark as Junk' button?"
No.... That method is spamming using autoresponders, a very different strategy to using autoresponders on leads that contact you out of an interest in your product or services.
Autoresponders, when used sensibly and intelligently, can be very effective in minimising the mundane kinds of initial sales email one often goes through yet at the same time giving the recipient a genuinely personalised sequence of emails.
Autoresponders – by their nature – do not involve the sales person, so they would involve fully automated email content but you can combine use of both manual email templates and auto responder templates in your lead follow up process if you wish.
One scenario then might be if a lead replied to one of the auto responder emails, the sales person could then update a custom field in the CRM to show they have replied, then they would be excluded from the autoresponder mailing list moving forwards and therefore not receive any more fully automated emails.
From then on the sales person could switch to more specific manual email templates, phone call logs, meeting logs and so on. That is, you can use autoresponders in many ways to do the initial nurturing of the lead.
Some of the popular business scenarios are listed below:
• Nurture leads
• Provide email ‘knowledge transfers' regarding your product
• Send introduction emails to customers
• Automate emails as payment reminders to customers
• Schedule Newsletters
Contact Us
For more tips and trick and a free consultation on how CRM can benefit your business, please contact us here.