If you've reached the point of exhaustion, trying to keep up with answering the mountain of emails, that threatens to bury you alive, every single day, you're ready to learn about auto responders. The bad news is that people expect prompt replies, to their email inquiries. However, unless you can figure out how to work continual twenty-four hour shifts, or hire enough people to constantly monitor incoming emails, while they're eating up your revenue, you have a problem.

The good news is an auto responder. This is an inexpensive, or even free method, of quickly responding to emails. 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 auto responders. Auto responders are programs that automatically respond to your emails, without you so much as having to click on your mouse.

There are a number of good reasons why you need an auto responder, besides just answering your email. For example, auto responders 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 auto responder. Additionally, you can advertise your business and then build stable relationships with your customers, by using auto responders.

Auto responder programs vary, from software that runs with your email 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 email account. This kind of script is programmed to send out a standardized message, whenever an email is received. The message is sent to a particular script, or email address.

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

There are numerous companies, who offer auto responders free of charge. Your website hosting company often provides auto responders, 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.

To personalize your auto responder 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 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 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.

Another specialized use of auto responders, 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 of 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 it's 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 auto responder.

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 a special 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.

Auto responders 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 auto responder allows you to automate part of your marketing campaign.

An important point to consider, when looking for an auto responder, is the value of your list and your business. After spending a lot of time and energy, in building a list, do you want to lose it all? Of course not, so pay due diligence to the most important tool in your business arsenal. Free and cheap auto responders are not reliable. If they screw up, you are sunk. Get a decent, reliable auto responder and protect your assets.

I use Aweber Auto Responder. This is the most favoured auto responder available. Most of the well known marketers use Aweber. On joining you get 30 days free trial, before being billed. It costs about $19 a month, but is well worth it. On joining, you will receive a short tutorial on how to use it. Don't try to market anything without a good auto responder. It should be your first consideration. Your Aweber auto responder is hosted on their servers.
http://www.aweber.com/?22132 

Derek Robson has been a successful Internet marketer since 2003. He has a vision of empowering all fellow South Africans and other non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet, by finding solutions to the many obstacles facing them. He is a syndicated article writer. He and his wife Sally, have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. For informative articles on how to make money, Internet marketing, South African online business, list building, affiliate marketing, article marketing, blogging, seo, the law of attraction, rugby and other general topics, such as gardening and fitness, visit Derek and Sally at their blog, part of http://dersalsites.com/