Autoresponders

An autoresponder is simply an email address, owned by a unique user that can, when sent emails, auto-reply with one, or a series of emails scheduled to be sent out over a number of days. This can be done either when someone specifically sends you an email to this autoresponder email address, or when someone fills out a form on your website. If you are building a database of prospects I recommend the latter because this way you get more information about the subscriber, which will help in the rare cases of you being wrongfully accused of spamming. 

If you want to email your subscribers with various offers you can of course do all this manually, but once you get a decent sized list this will take forever. Therefore autosponders will literally save you hours of time. If you want to send maybe a series of emails spread out over several weeks, then you can schedule them using the autoresponder software. All you need to do is enter the different email copies that make up the series, and enter it into the system. Therefore the autoresponder will completely automate both your email collection process and the sending out of emails.

As well as this you can also enter individual email addresses, or even a whole database of leads, into the autoresponder. This will then enter them into the system and they will start receiving your series of emails as per the schedule you've preset.

Writing a series of emails and scheduling them with an autoresponder is very common amongst internet marketers, but there may be times when you simply want to send out a single email to your entire database, maybe details of a new product launch, for example. Autoresponders will also allow you to do this, commonly referred to as a broadcast email, so they really do cater for every possible requirement.

One thing you need to be very wary of is spam. This is why you should ideally collect some information about the subscriber, usually through a form, when they sign-up. It's also very important to make sure that all your subscribers have double opted-in. A single opt-in is simply when a subscriber has filled in a form one time only, before receiving emails from you, whereas double opt-ins have filled out a form, but have also been emailed a confirmation email, for example, asking them to click a link to confirm that they have signed up.

This applies to any leads you may purchase as well. If you have purchased a large database of leads to enter into your autoresponder system and start sending emails to, make sure they are well-qualified and double opt-in leads. These are often more expensive than single opt-ins, but are definitely worth paying the extra for. 

You should also include in every email an unsubscribe link, so email recipients can opt out at any time. Don't bombard your subscribers with emails either, as this will only upset your recipients who will eventually opt out. Emails should be spread out at least three days apart.

There are numerous autoresponders available, some even being free, but these cheaper ones are usually poor quality, that maybe receive a lot of spam complaints, or their email delivery rates are poor. The one that I, and the majority of other marketers that I know, use and can recommend is Aweber.

They boast an excellent delivery rate of over 99%, and offer all the features that you could possibly need from an autoresponder, such as a double opt-in system, scheduled preset email delivery, unsubscribe option, ability to import lists of email addresses or leads, etc. Overall, just a very professional service.