“Please opt-in with your first name and email address.”

You know what happens next… a series of emails working to build up a relationship so that you feel comfortable enough to purchase the product or service.

This has become standard practice (and rightfully so!) - nurturing prospects to the point of becoming customers. Where the ball is most often dropped is the nurturing of customers into evangelists.

Not many folks take the time to create an autoresponder series for their customers. Considering the fact that getting a customer is possibly the most expensive activity a business has, it’d make sense to nurture the ones you’ve got.

Here’s a surefire strategy…

7 Ways to Use a Customer Autoresponder

1. Consumption. Get your customer to consume the product they’ve just purchased from you. Put their nose back in the book (video, audio, whatever). Help them get value from their purchase - if they don’t get value from it, they’ll never buy from you again.
2. Collect testimonials. Your business is only as good as your testimonials so put an email in your autoresponder sequence soliciting them. You can even offer a bonus if they do. Testimonials are great for your marketing, you know that. For your customer who has given you one… they’re now a raving fan and will stick by you.
3. Recruit affiliates. They best candidates for your affiliate program are the folks who have purchased your product, used it and found value in it. Your customer follow-up should invite them to become a part of your team and help promote the product.
4. Make the next offer. You’ve got it, make the next offer. What would be a complementary purchase? My wife and I purchased new living room furniture… a great complementary purchase were rugs and throw pillows and such. Heck, this could even be an affiliate recommendation.
5. Reduce support requests. In your customer follow-up, include a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) email about the purchased product. This alone will can cut down your support requests and will also reduce returns and chargebacks.
6. Add value. A way of reducing returns is to offer additional or unadvertised bonuses. This enhances the value of the product they’ve just ordered and are less likely to return.
7. Get new product ideas. Survey your customers to find out what else they need and ways to improve the current product. This can provide some great info on what folks are ready to buy next.

Your customers have committed to at least initiating a relationship with you. It’s after their purchase where they decide whether they’ll continue to do business or not.

Provide value, support, and continue to build on the relationship and your customers will eaily become your biggest evangelists.