What if I said that for every 100 visitors to your site you could make $240? That’s $2.40 per visitor! Would that change the way you think about your online activities?

Visitor Value

Knowing the value of first-time visitors is often something overlooked by new bloggers and internet marketers.

Have you been trying to market or directly sell to first time visitors who find your blog or website? Have you been experiencing less than ideal conversion rates? Maybe it is time to invest in an autoresponder.

Special Offer

Because I believe so much in the value of using an autoresponder, I am offering to pay your first month autoresponder fee, in cash, to encourage you to personally experience the benefits of autoresponders.

An autoresponder is without a doubt one of the most powerful marketing tools you can add to your business toolkit. They are used extensively across practically every type of online business and most big businesses simply would not exist without them.

When do people buy?

Many first-time bloggers shy away from the concept of paying for anything until their blog is making a decent income. This decision to keep it low-cost can be one of the biggest sources of frustration, slow business growth and lost income. What is not fully understood when this decision is made is how first-time visitors think.

It has been recognized for a long time that regular contact with prospective customers is one of the most reliable means of turning people into loyal and long-term customers.

Contrary to popular belief, not all buyers are impulse buyers. Research has shown that less than 15% of those who visit websites are impulse buyers. Yet many websites focus on getting visitors to buy but buyers need time to think about a product or offer before they will purchase it.

Most buyers wont buy immediately, simply because they may not be familiar with the product or know what it can do for them or they may need time to get to know the person or company behind the product.  Therefore, they will learn all they can about it before deciding to purchase it.

First-time visitors are often turned off by the direct selling approach. If your blog is full of posts promoting products with banners screaming out for people to “click me”, and you are still yet to cover the costs of your web hosting service, then do yourself a favour and read on.

Benefits of using an autoresponder

Autoresponders, as the name suggests, automatically respond by email to a variety of visitor interactions on your website. The number of responses, the sequence and the timing can be tuned to match the needs of your visitors. Contact could be in any of these forms:

• filling in a form to request a free gift
• subscribing to an update service (eg. on your blog)
• signing up to a short email training series, article or report
• distribute paid courses in response to a customer purchase
• provide information about your products, maybe a sample chapter
• sending thank-you notes, special discount offers or one time offers

Whatever the nature of the interaction, autoresponders make it easy for you to interact with potential customers in a personal way while giving you the power to “set and forget” a lot of the otherwise tedious follow-up activities associated with customer interaction.

Don’t get me wrong, autoresponders are not designed to replace the human element of any business, far from it. They are there to enhance the perceived responsiveness of that business and to automate tasks that used to require the hiring of one or more additional staff.

Recruit first-time visitors

You should attempt to get every new visitor to your site added to an autoresponder list. The idea is that each list holds the name and email address that was entered by the visitor on the signup forms on your website. Most autoresponder services have tools to help you design and publish those forms. Each facet of your business can be linked to a different email list.

Adding a new twist to your current method of direct selling may end up earning you more money that straight selling alone. One example could be that you have written a great article on how to put together a brilliant newsletter. Stop trying to sell it and consider offering this as a free gift to encourage people to sign up to your blog notifications.

You want visitors to get on a list, any list, so that you can set up a sequence of follow-up emails and build their trust in you. For the vast majority of visitors to your site, it is only when they trust you are they likely to buy from you.

Biggest cause of online business failure

Failing to get first-time visitors on a list is perhaps the biggest cause of slow, or nil, business growth, and not just for bloggers but anyone who is serious about making money online.

Now, getting back to your article that you are trying to sell, this could be broken into 7 parts, for example, and delivered 2 to 3 days apart over a few weeks.

You would start by writing the first contact email, usually called a “follow-up email” welcoming your new visitor to your blog and include the first of the 7 parts of the tutorial.

You would also let them know that the 2^nd and subsequent parts will be following a few days apart to help them not only get time to read it but to put the theory into action. Show people that you care and they will take the time to check out what else you have to offer.

This 7 part series of emails is called a follow-up sequence. Depending on your niche, your personal style and your business model, you might also include some marketing material towards the end of this sequence.

I have heard it said that for some people it takes up to seven different contacts from a company before they trust that company enough to consider making a purchase.

Keep on delivering value

Given this idea, you may want to keep your 7 part tutorial free of marketing material. Then, after you have completed the 7 part series, you might continue with another free training series or a couple of teaser emails, a few days apart, relating to one or more of your paid products.

If your list subscriber enjoyed the first series they will stay subscribed. Now is the time to start talking business and offering a paid subscription to another of your services or a discount on one or more of your products.

Whatever you do, keep on delivering small amounts of free and valuable content, or discounts to these valuable subscribers. You know your audience, I hope, so give them a small taste of some of the other material you are offering for sale. A sample chapter, for example, might be just enough to turn them into a paying customer.

If you change instantly from sending a free 7 part series to hitting them hard with sell, sell, sell, they will quickly hit the unsubscribe link. You don’t want that.

Click tracking and data

Another feature often overlooked when considering paying for an autoresponder service is the tracking. All clicks, subscriber statistics and trends can be tracked.

You will know very quickly if one of your follow-up emails was not well received. There will be a spike in your unsubscribe figure a short time later. Conversely, you will also know if a tweak of one of your site headlines or free offers was successful as you will see a spike in the number of sign-ups to your list.

Once you have some tracking data you are able to do some amazing things with it.  For example, you might discover that for every 10 first-time visitors to your site you get one signed up to one of your lists.

Of those who sign up, your data might show that 60% eventually buy at least $40 worth of your product and services in the first 6 months. So, put another way, for every 100 visitors, 10 sign up to one of your lists. Of those 10, 6 will pay you $40 over a 6 month period.

100 visitors = $240!!!

Each and every new visitor to you site is now worth $2.40 – not bad, heh? Would that energise you into building more traffic? Knowing the value of first time visitors can be very enlightening.

So, while you are busy researching and writing content for your blog, and once you have the free reports, tutorials and follow-up sequences written and set up on several autoresponder lists, you can then concentrate on building traffic to your blog/site knowing the true value of each and every new visitor.

My offer to you

Isn’t it about time you considered the hidden benefits of adding an autoresponder to your business toolbox? I use Aweber and I have access to a deal they’re offering where you get a no-risk, no obligation test drive for 30 days.

I want you to seriously consider my offer where I will pay for your first month, in cash, to encourage you to sign up and experience the benefits of an autoresponder first-hand.

All you have to do is sign up using the form below. You will get the 30 day test drive directly from Aweber, offering you a 100% refund if you are not happy after 30 days, with absolutely no risk to you. Once you see the incredible value to your business you will want to continue with the service. This test drive is currently being offered for $1 by Aweber, but this may change over time. The offer was valid at the time of this post.

Once the 30 days is up, extend your subscription to Aweber using the quarterly deal (currently $49) and submit a ticket on my help desk, include your Aweber invoice number and your Paypal address. Once it is confirmed I will deposit the equivalent of a month’s fees (currently $19) directly into your Paypal account, so be sure to include your Paypal email in the support ticket.

Do it today – sign up below for the 30 day no-risk trial – and kick-start the next phase of your online business activities and fully realise the value of each and every visitor to your site. You will not look back, I assure you!

Related posts:

1. 5 Ways Businesses Can Use Blogging to Get More Visitors and Gain More Followers
2. Try on your visitor’s shoes
3. How many visitors do you need to make a decent online income?