Yesterday I wrote about some tools to help grow your network marketing business including mailing lists and email autoresponders.

I wanted to take today to go into a little bit more depth on how I actually use those tools and how you can use them to grow your MLM business.

As I mentioned yesterday I use Aweber for my mailing lists and email autoresponders.  Aweber is a great service that allows me to create an unlimited number of mailing lists.  I can then associate a series of automatic emails with that list, create broadcast (sent only one time) messages, or even connect it to my blog to automatically update my list every time I write to my blog.

Most people think of network marketing and they immediately think of a lead capture page on the internet that leads to an autoresponder series.  Usually these lead capture pages offer something for free like 5 tips on getting more traffic to your web site, 10 tips on making money from home, etc.  The “tips” are nothing more than a series of emails.  The emails are setup so that day 1, you get the first email with a “tip”. Day 2, you get the second email with a “tip” in it.

When they join your autoresponder this is really nothing more than a mailing list which has some pre-configured emails that go out.   You setup how many emails you want to go out and how often they are sent.

One of things I wanted to do with this series of articles is to get you thinking outside of the box.  There are a lot of other ways to use the autoresponder.

I do a couple of things with autoresponders that you might want to copy.

1. I use a greeting card system that works like an email autoresponder but sends a physical greeting card in the mail.  I can set it to send a card every couple of days or once a month or whatever.  I can also send postcards using this system.
2. I send a follow up series to every customer.  I first send them a thank you.  A little while later I send them a “just checking in” to make sure they are happy with their purchase.  Then I occasionally send them reminders about other features and products and I always remind them that I am here to answer any questions they have.  I want to build a relationship with each customer because they are really the backbone of our business (and some good distributors come from customers who upgrade.)
3. I send a follow up series to every new distributor.  The fact is some distributors like to go slow.  Some distributors like to go fast. My goal is to find the ones that want to go fast, but I don’t want to leave out the ones that want to go slow.  So I get all of them onto  my training series.  Either an email autoresponder series of 14-15 trainings or a series of greeting cards (usually both email and cards).  Each mailing tells them about a different training tool or important aspect of the business. My goal is to give everyone the tools they need to succeed and I don’t want anyone to say I wasn’t willing to help.  In each autoresponder/greeting card is my personal information so they can get in touch with me, when they are ready.

When you are thinking about implementing autoresponders in your business, don’t be afraid to think outside of the box.  You might use a tool like Aweber to do email autoresponders but also use a tool like a greeting card autoresponder to send physical cards. You should also use these tools, not just for prospects, but for people who are actively involved in your business.  They can be a great resource and training tool for current customers or distributors.

- Ben Fitts

PS. Mark mentioned I should talk about anti-spam laws… so that’s what I’ll talk about next.  Thanks Mark!

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