Autoresponders and Shopping Cart Integration

When people place orders through your website, it
is always a good idea to immediately acknowledge
the purchase. One way to do this is with the use of
an autoresponder that can be integrated with your
shopping cart. In fact, many shopping carts that are
available today have their own autoresponders built
into the system.

When you set up your autoresponder to send a
message to someone that has placed an order,
there are several things that should be included in the
message. This is an opportunity to ‘speak’ to your
customer, and to let them know about other deals
that you have or special items that you have available.
You should not miss this opportunity.

Do not try to get your ‘thank you’ sales message on
the same autoresponder as the customers email
receipt. Putting the sales message on an email that
is automatically sent to grant the customer access
to their purchase is also a bad idea – that would go
better with the receipt. Make sure your ‘thank you’
sales message is a message that is sent out all by
itself, so your customer can focus solely on that!

Thank the customer for their recent purchase. Tell
them how much their purchase will help them, and
then tell them about other available products that
work well with the one that they just purchased, or
that are similar to the one that they just purchased
in some way. For instance hair conditioner works
with hair shampoo. Vacuum cleaner bags or carpet
powder works well with vacuum cleaners. Just let
them know about the various products that you offer
that will compliment their purchase in some way.

The important thing is to not let your customer get
away without further contact! Think about being in a
brick and mortar store. When you go up to the
counter to pay, there are many items there for sale.
These items are meant to be picked up as last
minute purchases, or impulsive purchases. Your
‘thank you’ sales letter serves the same purpose.

Don’t make the mistake of bombarding your
customer! You can usually send them periodic
information about your specials after they have made
a purchase through you, but emailing them on a
daily basis with your offers is not good business!
Use your autoresponder responsibly! Make sure that
your autoresponder is set up to handle automatic
remove requests, and make sure that the information
that you are sending your customers is of value to
them.

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