Autoresponders are the key to
freedom from the burden of emails
Copyright 2005 Chris Stirling
In today's business world emails are essential to the success of any
business. As your business grows so will the number of emails you
will receive. The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to
their email inquiries. 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. Before you reach the point of
exhaustion trying to keep up with answering the mountain of emails
that threatens to bury you alive every single day, you need to learn
about autoresponders.
What is an autoresponder? It is an inexpensive - or even free -
method of quickly responding to emails. Autoresponders are programs
that automatically respond to your emails without you so much as
having to click on your mouse. The way these programs work is they
automatically respond to incoming emails as soon as they are
received.
There are a number of positive was you can use 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 using autoresponders.
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 several Autoresponder programs available from ones that
will run with your current 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.
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.
Once you have your autoresponder chosen make sure to set up your
website to contain different email addresses for different contact
requests. Each address can then be set up to different autoresponder
series of emails to answer the specific request of the inquiry. 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.
If you are finding out more of your time is spent answering emails,
how are you supposed to run your business? The answer is simple: use
autoresponders.
About the author:
Chris Stirling is the owner of
http://www.stirls.comand his internet marketing website is
designed to help other people achieve their goal of having their own
work at home business. To sign up for his newsletter "Marketing
Strategies that Empower Success" visit
http://www.stirls.com/newsletter
Circulated by
Article Emporium
Article Index
AllAboutAutoresponders.info home
|