Now, with a little strategy and effort up front, you can set up a system of automatic, triggered communications that send almost one-to-one type messages to customers. Saving you time, money and energy, these help you stay in touch with your customers and can maximise conversions, sales and customer satisfaction.
Here are 10 ways you can make autoresponders work for you:
- Take time up front to plan a strategy. When planning your campaigns, identify all the possible actions a customer might take and create messages to address them. Use a decision tree to map the interaction paths a customer may choose. Each touchpoint is a chance for you to provide useful content and reiterate your messages – and provides an opportunity to maximise conversions and improve customer retention. Taking time to plan this will deliver a higher ROI for your campaign.
- Sequence campaigns for brand recognition. It takes up to seven exposures to your message for a customer to recognise and remember it. Use autoresponders to push a constant but relevant drip-feed of brand messages as your campaign progresses to interested customers. They will eventually take an action like a purchase or registration, or they’ll opt out.
- Combine email with text messaging (SMS). Autoresponders don’t just have to be emails. Use text messages too, or combine text and email messages to keep things interesting for the recipients. You’ll be able to see which platform customers engage on most. And they’ll be happy to have the choice of which devices they can get your messages on.
- Add a personal touch. There’s no need for autoresponders to be generic – the more you can personalise them, the better. Make sure yours include the recipient’s name in the salutation and tailor the content based on how they interacted with your company previously. Many autoreponders are based on form data (e.g. registration or subscription forms) but when this is combined with behavioural data (e.g. what pages they visited on your site), your messages can be even more accurate. Delaying when you send a follow-up message also helps to humanise your communications and increase customers’ propensity to purchase.
- Generate and validate leads. Offer something of value for free on your site (e.g. a white paper, ebook, or other free download) and request that people submit their email addresses in order to access it. Once they’ve done this, you can issue an automatic message thanking them for their interest and asking them to click a link to download the item. This is a useful technique if you don’t want sensitive information or intellectual property too freely available publicly, plus you get to validate the visitor’s email address.
- Convert from second chances. When a customer abandons an online shopping cart or fails to complete a form, triggered communications can prompt them to go back and finish the transaction. This makes the customer feel like you value their business and is a second opportunity for you to make a sale. Timing is important here – you want to follow up while the thought of a possible purchase is still fresh in the customer’s mind.
- Cross-sell related products. If a customer has asked for a quote, made an online purchase or even failed to make an intended purchase, there’s an opportunity to promote complementary or alternative products. Online book and music retailers do this well when they tailor ‘you might also like…’ messages on email newsletters and web landing pages. ‘Thank you for your order’ emails can also include related products from your company or your affiliates’.
- Streamline your customer service. Many companies use autoresponders to help improve their customer service. Triggered messages are used to acknowledge support requests and send links to related FAQs so that the customer can find the answers him/herself. A great way to reduce call centre costs and resolution times, and to improve customer satisfaction levels.
- Create a warm welcome. A series of triggered and delayed communications after someone registers on your site or signs up for your newsletter will encourage them to explore your offering and complete specific goals. For example, ‘welcome’ and ‘thank you’ messages can encourage people to register for a trial, fill in their message preferences, sign up for a paid service or upgrade, and more. This approach can also help reduce the length of your sign-up form, which can increase signups (long registration forms can be off-putting).
- Event management. Once attendees have submitted an online RSVP, it’s easy to send those who are attending further information about the venue, accommodation, agenda, etc. Example: Delegates attending international conferences who require airport transfers, special meals, etc. You can also use autoresponders for follow-up communications and future, related events, sales messages and other campaigns too.
Find out how autoresponders can boost sales in the insurance industry.
Because your triggered messages are in direct response to requests and actions that customers have taken when interacting with your company, it is likely that they will be well-received and even welcomed by your customers. A good idea is to create a preference centre, where customers can choose what information they’d like to receive from you in future, and how often. Give them the option to opt out too.
Autoresponders are easy with Ensight
You can use Ensight’s eCRM Suite to set up user profile types and a variety of pre-set auto-response messages. Tailor these according to past behaviour and time them so that they are sent at various intervals. If you’d like some help setting this up, or have any questions about how your business could use autoresponders effectively, just give us a call and we’ll be happy to help!
