Auto Pilot Your Customer Service and Marketing Communications

You might think you can manage requests for your brochure, current flyer, and offline newsletter by simply replying to the emails from your customers and visitors. That might be right if you expect to get only 2-3 requests each week. But can you afford to be wrong?
What happens when word-of-mouth and your superbly executed marketing campaigns take off? Are you really up to spending half a day sending out the same information over and over and over again? Maybe you have an assistant (or even a volunteer!) who can handle this for you. If not, you'll want automation to pick up the slack.
A Smart, Automatic Way
Autoresponse is the new smart system for your brick-and-mortar's online business activities. It's better to put an autoresponse system into place and let it do the heavy lifting for you. It will be easier to manage email marketing campaigns, newsletter subscriptions, and capture contact information so you have a way to keep in touch with customers and visitors.

You have several options for ownership, too. Own it outright and let your webmaster or the company you purchased from install it, then train you on how to use it. Or go with a highly respected monthly service where all you do is sign up, sign in, and get down to business.
Either way, having an autoresponder system is not optional for your local brick-and-mortar business. And if your entire business effort is online, you should run -- not walk -- to the nearest service provider and get it going today.
Are Hosted Services Better Than Do-It-Yourself Solutions?
There are always differences in services, but the truth is, with the demand being so high, all the services are forced to raise the bar and over-deliver on what you get for your fee.  The biggest factor to consider is whether you want a hosted service (one that is maintained by an outside company and where you pay a monthly fee) or do you want to own the software (where you install it on your website and maintain it yourself).
I've tried both. Being a bit of a geek, I own my own autoresponse software, keep it updated, and maintain the server stuff myself.  However, I generally recommend a monthly service to my clients if they balk at hiring someone to maintain their system, especially if they don't have the expertise to do it themselves.  Either way, you'll have an excellent Control Panel from which to manage your inquiries, subscriptions, and subscribers. And with most services, you'll have unlimited autoresponders to work with.
Can You Fit It Into Your Budget?
There's never any reason to be coy when talking about the tools and systems that help you do what you went into business to do. Your goals and your bottom line are what's important. When it comes to knowing and having what puts you head and shoulders above the competition, once you know, you shouldn't let anything stop you from having. In the case of automation, especially autoresponse systems, cost is not a barrier.

The services remain inexpensive because the demand is high. For example, in most cases, for less than $20 a month you can increase your ability to stay in touch and professionally manage your communications with clients, visitors, and newsletter subscribers. (Because this capability is so low-cost, your colleagues, peers and competitors are already using these tools to their advantage.)
What To Look For In A Provider
The top email marketing services will give you all kinds of help. They will provide lots of tools to make your life easier. You will have access to stats, analytics, and myriad ways to measure the success of your email marketing campaigns.

Your provider's help system will include, or should include, videos that give you an idea of just how easy it is to create and manage your newsletters, subscribers, and email marketing campaigns. Additionally, consider these tools:

A phone number, preferably toll-free, where you can reach a living, breathing, knowledgeable human being during regular business hours.
A live chat system for those quick questions so you can avoid going into a customer service queue or holding for long periods of time.
A blog, or some other way to push timely information to customers.
A good-looking, easy to navigate website with a FAQ area where you can easily find answers to any frequently asked questions.
A trial or demo period so you can test out the system, with your own real, live data.

Don't stay on the fence any longer. Automatically handling inquiries and staying on top of communications is not optional for brick-and-mortar local business. You can easily start using this smart system in your business today.