Auto-response emails don’t seem very important or glamorous. They’re emails that are automatically sent the moment after someone fills out a form on your website. However, there are several simple, effective ways you could use auto-response emails. You can of course use each idea by itself or combine two or three of the ideas into one auto-response email.
You can set up an auto-response email with any HubSpot form by clicking “Edit Form” and then click on “Configure Form Actions” at the top of the next screen. Then scroll down to the auto-response email section. You need to decide who the email will come from, the subject line and the email's body.
1. Send Content Offer
This one is pretty simple. Send visitors the piece of content they just downloaded. I recommend you also provide them with the content right after they click “download.”
2. New Content Offer
Send people a relevant piece of content that's related to what they just downloaded or requested. This will provide people with additional value and show them you’re trying to help educate and answer their questions. It’s not about the sale.
3. Set Email Expectations
People are always afraid that they’re going to get a lot of emails from you now that they downloaded something off of your website. An auto-response email is a perfect time to be very transparent and tell them how many emails you’re going to send them per month and what the emails will be about.
4. Send Some Blog Articles
Recycle, recycle, recycle! It’s so easy to recycle some relevant blog articles into an auto-response email. Craft a compelling subject line and provide three to five links to different blog articles in your email.
5. Personal Message from the CEO/Owner
You could send people a message from the CEO/Owner of the business. Better yet, link to their personal website page and include a video of them explaining how and why your business can help them.
6. Survey
I love surveys. Survey people that download your content about their experience on your website or about the piece of content they downloaded. Provide them with an incentive to take the survey so you get a higher response rate. I recommend the survey be no more than five questions. Here are two free survey tools: Survey Monkey or Zoomerang.
7. Thank Them and Connect
This one is pretty obvious, but why not just thank them? Granted, I do recommend you offer something other than just a thank you, but it shows that you appreciate their actions. Give people some reasons why they should also connect with your business on facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
How else could you use an auto-response email? What did I miss?
To learn more about how to send great emails, register for our free Email Marketing Certification course.
