How to Set Up an Autoresponder

If you've been online for more than 15 minutes, you have no doubt heard that "The money is in the list." Building an email marketing list is the single-best thing you can do for your business.

Why?

With the vast array of choices available to consumers today, it is important that you establish a relationship with prospects and customers right away, at the very beginning of your mutually beneficial relationship.

As you know, acquiring a new customer is very expensive. On the other hand, getting existing customers to be repeat-buyers is incredibly easy.

Building an email marketing system will ease the burden of getting new customers, while it also makes converting existing one-time buyers into repeat customers.

Here's how: When a person visits your website, make it easy for her to sign up to your email list. Make a compelling case for her to hand over her first name and email address; often, you will see savvy internet marketers offering a useful newsletter or a free report in return for this contact information.

Now, you can certainly build your list system in-house and rely on a team of administrators to maintain, patch, upgrade, and monitor your list server.

Or, you can simply invest in an autoresponder service. Most are set up to take monthly fees, or subscriptions, in return for giving you rock-solid performance, very little downtime, if any, and very high email sending rates.

It is this last factor that may be the most critical. Imagine writing the perfect email, sending it out with your very own server, and having a substantial number of emails be undelivered. (By "delivered" I mean that the email actually winds up in your prospective recipient's inbox.)

There are 5 critical factors that you must get right in order to establish an effective email marketing program.

1. We have already talked about this one: Get yourself a reliable email marketing service like Aweber, GetResponse, or MailChimp. Any of the major ones will do.
2. Create as many lists as necessary to accomplish your marketing mission. At the very least, set up 3 lists to begin with: Prospect, Customer, and Partner.
3. Create a compelling reason for somebody to give you his contact information. Make a really good offer.
4. Make GREAT "thank you" and "confirmation" pages. Sell something there or build even more trust by giving something away. Remember, this is "permission-based marketing." Folks don't have to subscribe.
5. Set up your autoresponder series. This is a series of emails that are sent, on a schedule, to everybody on your list. You set it up once and then you forget it for the most part, only refining it as necessary. You can also do "broadcasts" for time-sensitive or topical subjects (like product launches).

There are many factors you must consider when setting up an email marketing list. I have covered the basics. Now, dig in, choose a service, and learn how to use it!

For more expert articles written by the author, Bill Davis, check out Internet Marketing Muscle.