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Autoresponders are one of the most simple to use yet most effective promotional tools created in recent times and are an essential requirement for any online business. You may hear the terms, automatic emailer, email responder, autobot or mailbot. Whatever the term, the important point is that an autoresponder will automatically answer incoming email messages on your behalf and once set up, will continue to do so indefinitely, without further intervention from you.

No matter what task an autoresponder is performing, the biggest benefit it offers is that of saving you time. Autoresponders never take a break, they tirelessly work 24/7 all year round and for no extra pay, they very rarely get sick...(as long as you have a reliable service provider), they never question your decisions or the tasks you have set them and they follow your instructions to the letter.

If you've noticed that I'm using the plural 'autoresponders' that is because even though you will opt for one autoresponder service provider, every campaign you run will need a separate autoresponder sequence, which is simply a series of response messages concentrating on one specific issue. For example; you may have an autoresponder set up to welcome new subscribers to your newsletter and maybe follow through with a short series of related messages. You will also need to set up another one to send out chapters of your e-course over a predetermined time span. You will need yet another to follow up with customers who have bought your ebook or special report and so on. Therefore you will be dealing with one autoresponder service provider account with which you can run multiple campaigns, each one being known as an "autoresponder".

We all realize that the Internet is growing day by day and will continue to do so with thousands of new users coming online in a never-ending stream. This means that you have an expanding international marketplace at your disposal. Naturally, competition is fierce...especially in certain markets (such as internet marketing;-). There are many thousands of companies vying for attention and business so you must do whatever it takes to get an "edge". The last thing you want to happen is that you gain that edge, attract hundreds of visitors to your site every day and then fail to capitalize on the advantage you have worked hard to win.

Internet companies and marketers know full-well that bringing in visitors is only the very first step in doing online business. What you must do next is convert visitors into paying customers. They know from experience there is no way they will convert every visitor, they also know that very few visitors buy anything on their first visit. It's statistically proven that it takes an average of five to seven visits before a person will pull out the plastic and make a purchase online. Therefore it follows, to succeed on the Internet you have to bring back those visitors time and time again until they like and trust you enough to do business.

That is where autoresponders are indispensable. Successful online businesses understand that to bring back potential paying customers they need to use the autoresponder process to stay in touch with visitors. The most effective technique is to offer visitors something as an incentive to return, which could be something like additional information relating directly to the site's theme (niche) in the form of an ebook or a free report.

If your website or blog already contains lots of useful information and/or you produce a regular newsletter, your offer could be for free notifications of new updates or a free subscription. Anything of quality will do as long as it's about, or closely related to, the subject in which your visitors are interested.

Your autoresponder will generate code for you to cut and paste into your website or blog. This creates a subscription form that you can place just below your offer for visitors to provide you with their name and email address. You will then need to write a generic response to your subscribers' requests and load it into your autoresponder for immediate response when they submit the form.

Something like this may be appropriate: Hi (name), and thank you for requesting more information about XYZ. You will receive the first part of the mini-course as soon as you confirm your details by clicking this special link http://www.1234abcd (not a real link) - Your details will never be disclosed to anyone else and you can unsubscribe at any time "guaranteed"... Regards, (your name).

This is what is known as double opt-in because your visitor has to confirm their intention to be part of your subscriber list before then can receive the first release of information. The information, in this case a mini-course, would be a series of say, seven short reports about the subject in which your subscriber is interested, each one pre-set to be released by the autoresponder to your subscriber at specific intervals after their first contact (e.g. Part 1 - released immediately, Part 2 - released on day 3, Part 3 - released on day 5, Part 4 - released on day 7 etc.).

This high level response will show that you are serious about providing quality information in a professional manner and will also cement your relationship with subscribers who will feel increasingly more confident in you as a person with which they can do business. The great advantage of using this method of contact and delivery is that is provides a personal service to individual clients on a scale that would otherwise be impossible for a solo operator to achieve.

To most people, customer service ranks higher than price point and other purchasing factors. Autoresponders help the individual business person to provide that service in an easy and affordable way. Although your main objective in business is to make sales, your first priority online should be to offer top-flight information and thus capture as many names and email addresses as possible. This is the absolute bedrock of any successful Internet business.

Put your autoresponders to work and establish a sense of total trust within your visitors...the sales will follow. Your autoresponders will help to keep your customers and leads happy and up to date with your information. Most of all, they will feel special because you are sharing and taking good care of them.