The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to their e-mail inquiries. However, unless you can figure out how to work continual 24-hour shifts, or hire enough people to constantly monitor incoming e-mails (while they're eating up your revenue), you have a problem. The good news is an autoresponder is an inexpensive—or even free—method of quickly responding to e-mails. What these programs do is automatically respond to incoming e-mails as soon as they are received.

E-mails are essential to your business for many different reasons. Most importantly, these invisible e-mail voices give you their feedback about your website—for free! However, if you spend all your working hours answering these e-mails, how are you supposed to run your business?

The answer is simple: use autoresponders. Autoresponders are programs that automatically respond to your e-mails without you so much as having to click on your mouse.

There are a number of good reasons why you need an autoresponder besides just answering your e-mail. For example, autoresponders can be used if you need a way to send information about your services or products, price lists, or if there are repeated questions asked across large numbers of e-mails. Maybe you want to offer your site visitors a special bonus of some kind, such as advice or relevant articles. All of this can be handled by an autoresponder. Additionally, you can advertise your business and then build stable relationships with your customers by using autoresponders.

Autoresponder programs vary from software that runs with your e-mail program to a specialized script that runs on your web hosting company's server. This kind of script may use a web page form or simply operate with your e-mail account. This kind of script is programmed to send out a standardized message whenever an e-mail is received. The message is sent to a particular script or e-mail address.

Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out standardized messages. They can send out an unlimited number of follow-up messages sent at predetermined interval of time. For example, you can set your autoresponder to send out a new message every day for as long a period as you desire.

There are numerous companies who offer autoresponders free of charge. Your website hosting company often provides autoresponders as a free service. If this is not the case with your web hosting company, there are numerous companies who offer this service for a small fee, or free of charge, providing you attach an advertisement for their company to your e-mails.

To personalize your autoresponder messages, you can attach a signature. Signatures in this case are much like business cards. You can include your name, company, all your contact numbers and addresses, and a brief message.

It's a good idea to attach a signature to every e-mail that is sent out. This works as a repeated reminder of your business identity every time a customer sees it. The more they look at your signature, the more likely your company will spring to mind when your particular service or product is needed.

You can create a standardized signature that every employee in your business uses, or you can go wild, and let every staff member create their own personal signature. Of course, like everything in life, there are some rules and guidelines to creating a personal signature.

Keep the length of your signature between four to six lines of text, with no more than 70 characters in a single line. Make sure that your e-mail program does not cut off your text! The content should include your name, your company name, your e-mail address, fax number, and any other contact details, such as 800 numbers. Lastly, always include a short personal message about your company. It should be a subtle sell of your services or your products, and possibly your company's reliability and longevity.

Another specialized use of autoresponders is to create courses that you can then offer your site visitors for free. You must choose a topic in which you are an expert and that precisely targets your potential customers.

Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into a number of different sub-topics. Then offer your site visitor a free 10 or 15 day course, each day offering a different sub-topic. The first topic should always be a welcome message to your site visitor and an explanation about what is to follow. Your explanation should be enticing, getting the point across that you are offering free, quality information that your target audience will find of great value.

With every lesson, include the number of the lesson, the topic title, information about your company and its services or products. At the end, include a few blurbs about the next lesson to entice the subscriber to continue on.

Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable information, and leaves the visitor lusting to know more. Otherwise, you may lose them in the very beginning.

Of course, you have to write up your course before you can offer it. Once you have done this, and gone over the material carefully, employing a professional writer or editor if necessary, you must transfer your text to your autoresponder.

There are a number of quality autoresponders you can try out for a free or low-priced trial. Just go to Google and search 'autoresponders', then sign-up for your chosen autoresponder. Once you do, you will receive instructions as to how to set it up and transfer your text.

E-mail is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and it is fast. Use it to advertise your business by choosing your e-mail address carefully. Your website should contain different e-mail addresses for different contact requests. For example, use info@yourdomain.com for information requests, or sales@yourdomain.com for questions about sales. It's a good idea to set up one for the owner, such as president@yourdomain.com. This presents your company in a personal, approachable light and insures that direct contact is provided.

Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing tool, allowing you to make contact with thousands of potential customers. This is an invaluable asset considering how many potential customers you usually have contact with before you make an actual sale. Essentially, an autoresponder allows you to automate part of your marketing campaign.

Email marketing is also very cheap, if it costs anything at all, and its much less expensive then other forms of marketing. Email marketing also allows you to a convey your message to a highly targeted audience over and over again building a relationship of trust in your product all while pre selling them and then finally driving them to your website for the close. This is ideal as customers need to see your marketing message at least 3 to 8 times before the decide to make a purchase and this will give you a nice soft sell without being personally pushy besides if they don't want to get your emails they can merely opt out or delete them so keep sending them. I have personally had people call me months later after receiving my emails and say "Tracy I have been religiously getting your emails for some time now, I'm finally ready. What do I need to do to sign up?" This is a great feeling and I didn't have to do anything but keep emailing them. This can work for you also.

You will find that email marketing has some great benefits for the affiliate marketer such as… Giving you a targeted audience, it builds relationships of trust in your product, it increases sales conversions, it creates repeat customers, it allows you to cross promote your product and  it allows you to up sell your customer.

If your not presently using an email marketing campaign, "Your losing money!" Set up an email campaign ASAP and keep your product in front of perspective customers until they buy or opt out. Its a must in today's business.

I usually read mine briefly every morning, just a quick scan to note the contents, and then, later in the day I’ll look at the important and interesting ones more closely.

Do you have a spam filter? I have one that allows me to look at my emails on the server before deciding whether to import them to the inbox on my computer or delete them. This saves me so much time.

Most of the direct email marketing I receive arrives in the evening or early morning which suits me, but how can you decide when’s the best time to send out emails to your mailing lists?

Tip#1
You can take some of the guesswork out of your email marketing, but with a global audience, it’s not an exact science. People in the UK are in a different time zone to those on the east and west coasts of America, in Singapore and Thailand and Australia.

Go to the traffic logs in your back office and note the times when your website is busiest and plan your email marketing strategy around these times.

Tip#2
A good autoresponder like Aweber will allow you to segment your lists by region so that you can deliver your email promotions at different times.

Tip#3
Why not ask your list when the best time is for them. Simply insert a message on the email or newsletter to contact you. This is OK if you have a relatively small list, but a massive task (and probably not worth the effort) if you have a large list.

Only do it if it is manageable.

In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and your sale is dust – unless you have had the foresight to utilize an autoresponder that has captured her email address. If you have installed an autoresponder, you can then follow-up with her, and in all probability, make the sale when the poor woman has finished repotting her precious bonsai.

Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do so much more than just automatically answer your email. Here are a few ideas that will help you to creatively and productively use your autoresponder to transform the casual visitor into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponder to:

1. Publish a newsletter

Certain quality autoresponders will manage subscriptions and follow-up with interested prospects. Your newsletter can keep your visitors informed about your services or products, while building your reputation as a credible expert in your particular business.

2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates

Inform them of current sales you are running and of promotional material that your affiliates can use themselves to increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and techniques that your affiliates can use to successfully go out and promote your business.

3. Write reviews

Cover books, software, music, e-books, movies, etc., and put each review in an autoresponder. Review your affiliate programs, using a link to your affiliate's page in your autoresponder.

4. Distribute your articles.

Writing and distributing targeted articles is a powerful tool to build your business credibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase your sales potential. If your articles contain valuable information, many editors will print what is known as a resource box for you. A resource box contains your bio and a brief description of your service or product. It can also contain your autoresponder address. Let's say you've written fifty articles. Put them on separate autoresponder accounts and create a master list that contains the titles of each article, the autoresponder address, and a brief abstract. Then promote your master list. Additionally, include your publishing guidelines so your affiliates can add their articles to your list, increasing the number of writers who are represented in your article list.

5. Create mailing lists

Inform subscribers to your articles when you've written new ones that they may want to publish in their own newsletter or website.

6. Automate your sales process

Use an ad to insure repeated exposure of your message, which has been proven to effectively increase sales. In your ad, put your autoresponder address where a visitor will be exposed to numerous marketing materials. This multiplies the chances of converting visitors into customers. For example, if

you're selling a particular product, put testimonials about how spectacular it is on your autoresponder, and add a detailed, enticing description of your product.

7. Distribute advertising

Let's say you sell advertising on your website or in your newsletter or e-zine. Set your autoresponder to send the information about rates and how to place an ad automatically to all prospects' email addresses. Then have your autoresponder follow-up. It can also send notification of any special deals you are currently offering.

8. Distribute an email course

Each day, have your autoresponder send out another lesson. Just be sure that each lesson has quality content – not a sales pitch. Your content will do the selling for you, and will do it much more effectively. You can include tips centered on a different topic for each lesson, illustrating how your product will benefit the reader. Include the tangible benefits the visitor will reap by purchasing your product.

Make sure to include a paragraph or two at the end of each lesson enticing your prospect to consider making a purchase.

9. Automate a reminder

Automate a reminder about your service or product after a visitor has completed your course. This will increase the possibility of sales from visitors who have taken your course but are dragging their feet about actually making a purchase. You can also use these reminders to promote new products or services, and the products and services of your affiliate programs.

10. Distribute free reports

This gives your visitor an idea of the type of information you can provide and the quality of your product or service. Make sure these reports are not sales letters or you will more than likely lose a potential customer than gain a sale.

11. Create trivia quizzes on your site

Create trivia quizzes on your site and place the answers in an autoresponder. Your visitor will then be motivated to request your autoresponder, and you will have a record of the visitors' email addresses who took your quiz. Or create a contest and have any visitors that enter send their responses to your autoresponder. Your autoresponder can be set-up to send them a confirmation of their entry.

12. Offer a trial version of your product

Give your prospects a sample of your ebook, course, software, membership, etc. People who are exposed to a little taste often end up wanting the whole pie. You can also capture their email addresses when you offer them a free trial from your website. Set up your autoresponder to give instructions on how to obtain their free trial, and then make sure to follow-up to try and close the sale.

13. Link to hidden pages on your autoresponder

For example, a hidden page could be your affiliate page that contains graphics, promotional articles, and text links that interested affiliates can make use of. Inform visitors that they may have free access to your affiliate page by simply requesting your autoresponder. You will then gather a list of visitors who may be interested in becoming your affiliates.

14. Use an autoresponder on your order page.

Post a request form for visitors to be notified of special offers or discounts in the future. This creates a very effective mailing list that contains the names of people who are already your customers.

15. Put your links page on your autoresponder

It should contain up to fifty links that would be of particular interest to your visitors. Make sure to add your own promotional copy at the top or bottom of this page.

Now that you have proof that autoresponders can be used creatively, see if you can come up with some brilliant ideas of your own!

Well, I'm here to tell you that there are some simple steps you can take now to help your business for the long term and an Autoresponder is one of those ways. An autoresponder is actually an online program that takes a prewritten email message or series of messages that you've created and sends it out automatically when someone signs up at your landing page or squeeze page.

That sounds a whole lot more complicated than it really is. It's actually pretty easy, let me give you examples that might work in various aspects of your direct sales business to help you see how easy this really is:

1. Follow Up On Leads And Tracking

Do you advertise either online or offline? Now with an autoresponder you can put an email address into your advertisement so when one of your potential customers or prospects emails you to find out more about your company, they are automatically sent your initial packet of information instantly. You can even put a different email address into each ad, making it easy to track which ads are producing results and which are not.

2. Generating Leads

Everybody loves free things. Do you have a coupon or e-book that you can probably give away to potential new customers or recruits? Set it up in your autoresponder and create a web form (all free with most systems) that you can place in your blog or on your website. Then you just add a quick statement like, "Get information and get free gifts, like it?" sending interested prospects to your autoresponder where the gift and the information are sent to them automatically!

3. Motivation With Contests

Set up a series of contest emails for either your customer base or your downline. For instance, have a "scavenger hunt" through your catalog and use the autoresponder system to create the excitement over a series of days.

4. Newsletters For Your Downline

If you've built a team of distributors under you, you'll want to stay in touch with them regularly. Now an autoresponder can do that easily. You can set up a first email with a "Welcome to my team" and then you broadcast your team's newsletters through the list.

You can also greatly boost your team's production by helping your new consultants get off to a great start in their new business with a series of email training messages geared toward those days when they are waiting for their products to be delivered to their home. Enthusiasm during the first days are really important.

And also it can be used to solve general problems, is there a specific area or problem in your direct sales business that seems to have all the members asking the same question on that specific problem? Set up another series of emails specifically for that problem's topic and set up your team members there as the questions come in.

5. Newsletters For Your Customers

You can also stay in contact with your customers by using an autoresponder email series just like you do with your downline. Make an automated welcome message is way better than no welcome message at all.

6. Leadership Communication

As your direct sales business grows, you'll need to have leaders on your team. You can to things like setting up a series of emails congratulating them on their promotion, success and encouraging them in their new role as leader. Many people in direct sales have no idea what it means to lead a team of their own because they have the habit of being led all the time and you can set up a system to get them trained, mentored, and equipped as well and have it work for you continually while you're doing your things, it's completely automated.

I'm guessing that most of you, unless you're brand new to direct sales or a home business, already have much of the information for many of the above idea. With an autoresponder, it's just a matter of action that uses the information to the system where it can work for you, even when you're off doing other things. You should really give it a try and almost all autoresponders have a free trial offer so you can check out how they will greatly boost your business before you decide to do it.

It takes an customary of four to seven points of call before a visitor to your website will choose to make a acquire from you. This means you basic to holiday in drop using your visitors and assemble a relationship using them! One of the best behavior to do this is by early an Internet marketing transmit selling.

An Internet transmit marketing selling allows you to:

1. assemble your credibility
2. confirm that your an veteran in your field
3. win your visitors over by providing open, important    information

Once your visitors feel more certain in your harvest and the merit of ritual you organize, they will feel more comfortable naive you — and the forte you invest in revolving visitors into customers will honestly pay off, because onetime idol has bought from you onetime, they are FAR more flat to make a acquire from you again.

An Internet transmit marketing selling also allows you to holiday in drop using your free customers — you'll be able to market more to them using besieged follow-up offers. And this is one of the best behavior to grow your custom.

When you're early an Internet marketing transmit selling, it's important to mechanize right from the plus by choosing a good Internet marketing transmit encode.

Your software should be able to:

1. automatically supervise subscribes and unsubscribes
2. locate and delete facsimile addresses
3. data the time and court of every subscription, so if idol accuses you of spamming you can confirm they opted in to your list
4. personalize the issue line and other rudiments of your messages

By automating your transmit campaigns, you'll economize manually a ton of time, which you can consume on emergent your custom, fairly than managing it.

Whether you're with an Internet marketing transmit selling to boost your credibility using your visitors and corner them into buyers, or to keep in drop using your free customers, this is one Internet marketing stratagem you won't want to skip.

In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and your sale is dust – unless you have had the foresight to utilize an autoresponder that has captured her email address. If you have installed an autoresponder, you can then follow-up with her, and in all probability, make the sale when the poor woman has finished repotting her precious bonsai.

Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do so much more than just automatically answer your email. Here are a few ideas that will help you to creatively and productively use your autoresponder to transform the casual visitor into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponder to:

1. Publish a newsletter. Certain quality autoresponders will manage subscriptions and follow-up with interested prospects. Your newsletter can keep your visitors informed about your services or products, while building your reputation as a credible expert in your particular business.

2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates. Inform them of current sales you are running and of promotional material that your affiliates can use themselves to increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and techniques that your affiliates can use to successfully go out and promote your business.

3. Write reviews. Cover books, software, music, e-books, movies, etc., and put each review in an autoresponder. Review your affiliate programs, using a link to your affiliate's page in your autoresponder.

4. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing targeted articles is a powerful tool to build your business credibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase your sales potential. If your articles contain valuable information, many editors will print what is known as a resource box for you. A resource box contains your bio and a brief description of your service or product. It can also contain your autoresponder address. Let's say you've written fifty articles. Put them on separate autoresponder accounts and create a master list that contains the titles of each article, the autoresponder address, and a brief abstract. Then promote your master list. Additionally, include your publishing guidelines so your affiliates can add their articles to your list, increasing the number of writers who are represented in your article list.

5. Create mailing lists. Inform subscribers to your articles when you've written new ones that they may want to publish in their own newsletter or website.

6. Automate your sales process. Use an ad to insure repeated exposure of your message, which has been proven to effectively increase sales. In your ad, put your autoresponder address where a visitor will be exposed to numerous marketing materials. This multiplies the chances of converting visitors into customers. For example, if you're selling a particular product, put testimonials about how spectacular it is on your autoresponder, and add a detailed, enticing description of your product.

7. Distribute advertising. Let's say you sell advertising on your website or in your newsletter or e-zine. Set your autoresponder to send the information about rates and how to place an ad automatically to all prospects' email addresses. Then have your autoresponder follow-up. It can also send notification of any special deals you are currently offering.

8. Distribute an email course. Each day, have your autoresponder send out another lesson. Just be sure that each lesson has quality content – not a sales pitch. Your content will do the selling for you, and will do it much more effectively. You can include tips centered on a different topic for each lesson, illustrating how your product will benefit the reader. Include the tangible benefits the visitor will reap by purchasing your product. Make sure to include a paragraph or two at the end of each lesson enticing your prospect to consider making a purchase.

9. Automate a reminder about your service or product after a visitor has completed your course. This will increase the possibility of sales from visitors who have taken your course but are dragging their feet about actually making a purchase. You can also use these reminders to promote new products or services, and the products and services of your affiliate programs.

10. Distribute free reports. This gives your visitor an idea of the type of information you can provide and the quality of your product or service. Make sure these reports are not sales letters or you will more than likely lose a potential customer than gain a sale.

11. Create trivia quizzes on your site and place the answers in an autoresponder. Your visitor will then be motivated to request your autoresponder, and you will have a record of the visitors' email addresses who took your quiz. Or create a contest and have any visitors that enter send their responses to your autoresponder. Your autoresponder can be set-up to send them a confirmation of their entry.

12. Offer a trial version of your product. Give your prospects a sample of your ebook, course, software, membership, etc. People who are exposed to a little taste often end up wanting the whole pie. You can also capture their email addresses when you offer them a free trial from your website. Set up your autoresponder to give instructions on how to obtain their free trial, and then make sure to follow-up to try and close the sale.

13. Link to hidden pages on your autoresponder. For example, a hidden page could be your affiliate page that contains graphics, promotional articles, and text links that interested affiliates can make use of. Inform visitors that they may have free access to your affiliate page by simply requesting your autoresponder. You will then gather a list of visitors who may be interested in becoming your affiliates.

14. Use an autoresponder on your order page. Post a request form for visitors to be notified of special offers or discounts in the future. This creates a very effective mailing list that contains the names of people who are already your customers.

15. Put your links page on your autoresponder. It should contain up to fifty links that would be of particular interest to your visitors. Make sure to add your own promotional copy at the top or bottom of this page.

Now that you have proof that autoresponders can be used creatively, see if you can come up with some brilliant ideas of your own!