Auto responders, A Powerful Marketing AutomationTool for All Businesses!

By: Jim Newell

One of the more powerful marketing automation tools for online marketers is the auto responder. Many “brick & mortar” business people are not aware of this amazing tool, however it is just as useful and powerful for them as well.

Read that first sentence again slowly…did you see “powerful marketing automation”, think about that for a moment, what could it mean for your “brick & mortar” business? Automation of repetitive tasks is one of the keys to running a successful business, either online or “brick & mortar”, especially when you have a small staff.

Auto responders first came into use as a way of alerting e-mailers that their message bounced, or did not get sent. Have you ever sent an email message to someone and got an immediate reply that they are on vacation?  Those messages are sent by a basic auto responder system included in their email system.

As people saw how useful these auto responses were, and how quickly they were delivered, it just became natural that they be adapted to marketing. What is somewhat amazing however is how few businesses make full use of this automated and and very useful message delivery system. If you are reading this article in the one of my newsletters, that newsletter was sent to you via an auto responder, which points out another great attribute of this great tool, that being the ability to deliver specific communications on a predetermined schedule.

The real power of an auto responder is the users ability to preload the communications you want to send, and when you want them sent, ie; message number 1 could be sent immediately, then number 2 a few days later. number 3 two weeks after number 2 and so on.

When your subscriber signs up for your list, or when you enter them on your list the schedule stars, so that no matter when someone starts on your list they receive the same messages as everyone else and on the same schedule. You would also have the ability to send a special message to all subscribers at any time, without changing the original schedule. Some auto responder users have their communications scheduled a year or 2 into the future, kind of a set it and forget it procedure.

This is all part of the making money while you sleep magic that you hear about, you are marketing to your subscribers on auto pilot, all of the time, are you beginning so see the possibilities?

There are 3 basic ways to set up auto responders, the amount of work done by you and the amount done by the auto responder varies quite a bit depending on which method you choose.

• Auto responder software on your site – a lot of work for you
  • Pros
    • Open source software available, no cost
    • No monthly charges
  • Cons
    • You handle subscriptions
    • You set up messages and schedules
    • You email messages as per schedule
    • You handle subscription cancellations
• Auto Responder Service – some work for you
  • Pros
    • They take care of subscriptions and cancellations
    • They send all emails, on your schedule
    • Easy set up of messages and schedule
    • Most guarantee all subscribers are double opt-in subscribers
  • Cons
    • Charge a moderate monthly fee to manage
• Full service email marketing management services
  • Pros
    • More than just auto responders, they handle all of your email marketing
  • Cons
    • Can be expensive

In my experience, most auto responder software loaded on your site, is to much work. It is very easy to get busy and forget to email messages on time, add subscribers to your list, remove cancellations from your list, not insure that all subscribers are double opt-in, etc.

Auto responder services offer excellent management of your list or multiple lists, they handle the double opt-in procedure, they all have tutorials to get you up and running quickly. Once you get your campaigns are up and running, they run on autopilot, occasional changes or tweaks are easy to make. My service costs me less than $20 per month and is worth every penny.

Full service email management services are well suited to larger businesses, do a fantastic job of handling all of your email issues, however cost can be higher.

Whichever method you choose remember than communicating with your prospects and customers on a regular basis is one of the best ways to increase customer retention and one of the easiest ways to add sales.

I recommend Aweber, for your Auto responder needs

 You have gone to the effort to attract subscribers, if taken care of and offered information and the occasional product, these folks will stick with you and even be profitable. That said some people do very well with this method.