Auto-Responders: Your Key To On-Line Success

by Paul J Hanson

Well, another week goes by and more people have signed up to my email list. And the software I use to manage my email list is my auto-responder. Your auto-responder is one of the keys to the Internet marketing 'Success Equation'.

How and why is it so important? Leverage.

An auto-responder leverages your time. Meaning, instead of sending an email to 1000 people, one by one. You can create the email and send it once and all 1000 receive the email. OK, not too bad but we can do that with Outlook if we tried. An auto-responder takes things to a new level.

First. If you want to have someone sign up for your website, you give them a form on your site to fill out their details. They enter their name and their email address into the form and sign up for a newsletter. What they may not appreciate is that their details have been sent to your auto-responder. They are now on your mailing list, with no effort on your part to collect their information manually. A big time saver, especially if you have 100's of people a week signing up.

Second. Now they have entered into the auto-responder, the software can use a set of pre-written emails (by you) to send messages to the new customer at daily, even hourly intervals. This is great if you want to send a welcome message, followed by 7 emails, one per day, giving some hints and tips to your new subscriber. (Tip: It takes an average of 7 contacts with a customer before they buy, which explains why you see so many 7 part email courses, all sent out by auto-responder). Given people will be signing up all the time, it would be a nightmare to keep track of which email you should be sending to who. Much more time saved!

Third: It has been proven that if you put the recipient’s first name in the subject line of an email, you will have a higher chance of them reading the email. An auto-responder allows you to do this very easily. In fact, there are many ways to customise and personalise emails - just set up the parameters in the software and every email can be personalised. Yet more time saved allowing you to get on with further marketing or just relaxing as the auto-responder does your selling for you!

Fourth: If you haven't saved enough time already, an auto-responder allows you to send specific messages to specific customers. For instance, those who have yet to buy a product can be sent a low cost, amazing value offer while established customers can be sent higher value product offers (sometimes known as the back-end sale). It helps you keep track of what and when you have sent emails and makes sure it is all appropriate for you customers.

I can't overstate how important your email list is to your on-line business. Your auto-responder is the tool to manage the list. Learn it well!

The Internet Marketing Equation http://internetmarketingequation.blogspot.com/ Join Paul at The Internet Marketing Equation to find out more about the keys to on-line success.