{Part 2} Email Marketing Tools – 4 Steps to Getting Your Private Salesperson for Next to Nothing

Step 3: Choose the right salesperson for your mission

There are many types of autoresponders on the Web. They range from Web-based programs to scripts or programs that run through your own computer or personal server. Basically, there are three major types of autoresponders that you can choose from: remote hosted, desktop hosted, and locally hosted.  Remote hosted autoresponders are hosted on someone else’s server or website. Locally hosted will allow you to install the software for your own web server. Desktop programs on the other hand, will allow you to work from your own computer.

Choosing the right autoresponder can make or break your online success. Therefore, my advice is that if you are serious about Internet marketing, choose a reputable remote hosted company for your email marketing. There are a few options to choose from, but the most popular are:

• GetResponse
• Aweber
• iContact

All three companies are considered reliable by many marketers, offer great costumer support and email deliverability. They all offer free or $1 trial accounts for 30-60 days. Prices grow as the number of your subscribers does, where mailing to a small list of up to 500 subscribers would cost you around $14-19 per month.

A relatively new player in the autoresponders arena is ListWire. They offer a free service (With less features than the paid services, though), maintained by Gary Ambrose, a seasoned marketer with an impressive track record in the industry. It could be a viable option if your budget is tight and you’re just starting out.

On the higher end, Infusionsoft seems to be the ‘gurus’ natural choice. It boasts advanced features such as multi-media tracking, an integrated shopping cart, affiliate management and more. Prices start from $199 per month.

Whichever way you consider it, an autoresponder can help you bring in profits while making your life a lot easier. They are pretty easy to use, and will work great with your website. Once you use an autoresponder – you’ll never look back.

Step 4: Drive hordes of visitors to your squeeze page

While this article is not about traffic, I will outline the process here for you:
Once you have your autoresponder, squeeze page and all the email messages (and products, if you have your own of course), you need to put all your focus, time and energy on driving traffic to your squeeze page. Your autoresponder will take it from there. The beauty here is that you’ve built a sales system and now you are free to really work on getting your potential buyers to that system, so you can start building your list and build a relationship with them.

Now there’s a squillion ways to drive traffic. The methods you choose really depend on how much time you have, on your budget, your skill set and your target audience. Common free traffic methods include *article marketing* and forum marketing. Both are very effective if used properly, and enable you to be very specific about the audience you are targeting.

Common paid methods include PPC (Pay per click) on search engines, Google being the most popular, and on Facebook. The advantage of using these methods is that they can get you traffic in a matter of minutes, which can help you test and tweak your squeeze page. Getting good results with these methods requires some training, otherwise you will lose your shirt before you know it. Google and Facebook both have great training resources and provide free webinars as well.

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