Automation - The Key To Success Online

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Automation - The Key to Success Online
Izzy Camacho
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If you've been looking into selling products online then you've
probably heard some "expert" somewhere recommend that you create
a web site that is fully automated and helps you make money 24
hours a day. While that might sound great, what they often forget
to tell you is HOW to do that.

Well, I'm going to tell you right now, in this article!

First, what IS a Fully Automated Web Site? A Fully Automated Web
Site can be defined as one that is equipped with an integrated
suite of both e-commerce and internet marketing tools in a
fashion that will allow you to be the most profitable with the
least amount of effort.

Most e-commerce systems are equipped with the following
essentials:

- A shopping cart.
- Acceptance and processing of credit cards.
- A maintenance system that allows you to add/change products.
- An order-retrieval system that enables you to fulfill orders.

However, what most of them are lacking are marketing
tools. If your website hits it big and you don't have the proper
tools in place, then you will be a slave to e-mail and order
processing. I'm sure that's not what you intended.

There are several marketing strategies that are essential in the
creation of a successful e-commerce web site:

- Email marketing (broadcasting) of prospects/customers
- Effective use of autoresponders (generate automatic email
messages)
- Online Newsletter
- Online Form / Survey to capture your prospect's email address
- Electronic Product Delivery (if you sold a digital product)
- Advertisement (Ad) Tracking
- Back End Sales
- Affiliate program

Now, if you had a system that would support the integration
of ALL of these marketing tools in addition to the
necessary e-commerce essentials, then you would have a Fully
Automated Web Site. After all, it has been shown that it often
takes 7 or more ad exposures before prospective customers
actually make a purchase. Consider the following scenario:

A prospect clicks on an advertisement in an online magazine.
This action increments a counter for this particular ad to
help you determine how well it's working. They don't decide
to buy as of yet but join your newsletter. They are now
considered a prospect. You begin to send them a monthly
email newsletter. Additionally, an autoresponder kicks in
to thank them for joining the newsletter as well as
scheduling them to get email twice a month for the next 90
days reiterating your product benefits and inviting them to
purchase.

Upon sending them one of your "juicy" offers that they
couldn't refuse, they finally purchase. They will
automatically be removed from your prospect list and added
to your customer list.

Based on the particular product or service they've
purchased, they will receive a series of emails every two
weeks for the next 6 months offering complementary products.
This will be the engine that will drive your back end sales
and keep your customers coming back to your web site.

Being able to play out a scenario such as this using one
integrated system would be pretty impressive don't you think?
The internet big boys do this with expensive e-commerce platform
suites produced by vendors such as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.
Having your system automatically perform these follow up tasks
frees you up to spend more time on your business, your health or
your family!

=====> What can you do to create a fully automated web site?

Fortunately, there are ways that you can automate your website in
much the same way that the big boys do. The best and most
cost-effective way would be to sign up with one of the handful of
Application Service Providers available on the internet which
provide a shopping cart integrated with a full suite of marketing
tools. Normally, the shopping cart and tools are very flexible
and can be incorporated into any website.

=====> Are there any other ways to automate your business besides
working with a total solution provider?

You can accomplish some level of automation without an integrated
shopping cart system, however, it will require manual
intervention and of course it would be incomplete. I believe that
the most important asset of your e-commerce business is your
email lists. Therefore, concentrate on the implementation of a
good autoresponder/list server system to "enhance" your present
e-commerce website. There are several good ones on the market.
Look for providers that allow you to:

- Create multiple lists.
- Add prospects via a web form, email, or manually through a
management console.
- Send out an unlimited number of autoresponder messages.
- Send out an unlimited number of email broadcasts.
- Set up and distribute a newsletter.

When setting up your autoresponder system, create one list for
your "prospects" and another one for your "customers". Now,
here's where you come in: when a person orders your product, you
will have to perform the extra task of logging into your
autoresponder system and manually remove them from the prospect
list and add them to the customer list. This action will then
trigger your customer autoresponder series of messages to be
sent.

Remember, the key to building a successful e-commerce web site is
to automate your marketing engine as much as possible and drive
your prospects and customers back to your web site. This will
certainly create a money magnet e-commerce web site for you!

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To learn more about website automation and to download the
complimentary ebook, "Easy Ezine Marketing", visit Izzy Camacho
at http://www.internet-marketing-made-easy.com/Automation.htm.