If you’ve reached the point of exhaustion trying to keep up with answering the mountain of emails that threatens to bury you alive each day, you’re ready to learn about autoresponders. What is an autoresponder service and how do they work you may wonder?

The bad news is that most people expect prompt replies to their email inquiries. People are generally impatient by nature and want instant help and answers.

However, unless you can figure out how to work continual twenty-four-hour shifts, or hire enough people to constantly monitor incoming emails (and you will need to pay them), you have a bit of a problem. This is where an autoresponder service will come in handy. So what is an autoresponder service you ask?

What Is An Autoresponder Service?

An autoresponder service is a service that allows you to email many contacts at once or send broadcast messages to all your contacts with the click of a button, thus saving you a lot of time and money.

The good news is some autoresponder services are inexpensive – or even free.

What these programs do is automatically respond to incoming emails as soon as they are received.

Emails are essential to your business for many different reasons. Most importantly, these invisible email voices give you their feedback about your website – for free!

However, if you spend all your working hours answering these emails, how are you supposed to run your business?

The answer is simple: use an autoresponder service. Autoresponders are programs that automatically respond to your emails without you so much as clicking on your mouse.

There are a number of good reasons why you need an autoresponder besides just answering your email.

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 emails.

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 the use of autoresponders.

Autoresponder services vary from company to company, and there is a learning curve involved, but the effort will be worth it in the end.

Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out standardized messages. They can send out an unlimited number of follow-up messages sent at a 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 emails.

Try 12 Second Commute or even Mail Chimp. I also like Sumo which is a WordPress plugin that builds your list and you can send emails from this platform.

List Building

The main purpose internet marketers use an autoresponder service is for the purpose of list building.

The marketer places a script on his or her website that invites people to leave their email address in order to get more information or even a free e book.

In this way, the marketer builds his list on autopilot, as once the visitor leaves his or her details, the autoresponder will kick in and send out automated messages as preset by the marketer.

Here you can find out more about how to build a list from scratch.

Signatures

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 email 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 for 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 email program does not cut off your text!
• The content should include your name, your company name, your email 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.

Other Uses For An Autoresponder Service

Another great use for 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 reading your content.

Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable information that leaves the visitor wanting 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, you must transfer your text to your autoresponder.

Email is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and it is fast. Use it to advertise your business by choosing your email address carefully. Your website should contain different email 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 ensures 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.

I trust that I have fully answered your question of what is an autoresponder service. Please feel free to comment below if there is anything else you would like to add.