An Auto Responder is one of the most important business tools, however it is also one of the most overlooked. Even if you have not heard of an Auto Responder the chances are you have seen one in action.

If you have bought a product online from the likes of Amazon, you will no doubt receive emails maybe every one or two weeks offering you information on the upcoming releases, latest special offers or personalized recommendations. These emails are not sent out by hand, they are generated and sent automatically using an Auto Responder.

Auto Responders make light work of looking after your existing customers, once a customer has made a purchase from you they will start receiving your emails. You can create these emails in two different ways, the first is to create a sequence of emails that will be sent out according to a preset time scale.

For example you might chose to send your first email a week after the initial order, it could read something like. “Dear Mike, Thank you for your recent purchase we hope everything is going will with xyz product. Please spare one minute to tell us what you think of our product and service etc.” You can supply a hyperlink to a survey page allowing the customer to give you a quick testimonial.

Now for the clever bit, in that example email we used the name Mike. An Auto Responder not only stores your customers email address but any other fields you require, so in this case the customers first name. This means that every time your Auto Responder sends an email it will be personalized. If your email is personalized you stand a much higher chance of the customer reading it and buying more of your products.

You may then send a second email out a week later, offering a special offer on add-ons or consumable products to go with their original purchase. The major benefit with this is that when you get a new customer they automatically begin this sequence with no interaction from you. Once you have created your initial sequence of emails you don’t have to worry about them.

But not only can you send out emails in a pre-planed sequence but you can schedule a one off email to be sent at a certain time and date. For example if you had a sale starting from Monday you could send out an email to all your customers on Sunday and then again maybe during Monday alerting them to this fact.

Not only are Auto Responders great for looking after your existing customers, but they can also be used to manage potential customers known as prospects. In the old days it was perfectly acceptable to put a form on your website that said sign up for our free newsletter, unfortunately things are no longer that simple. You have to give your visitor something in exchange for their details, this something can vary depending on the kind of products you sell. In the internet marketing world people give away something like a free report or ebook, maybe a video course or email course.

Why do this, in the visitors eyes you are giving them something for nothing but in reality it is a little different, you are getting their email address. Once this new prospect gets their free gift they are added on to your Auto Responder, you can then send them emails. These emails should not be cold pushy sales emails they should be information based, giving the prospect more information, recommendations or case studies. The idea is to build up a relationship with your prospect so that when they chose to make a purchase the will have more chance to buy from you.

Just remember the majority or people out there do not buy something the first time they see it. Keep in touch with them and reap the rewards. If you are currently not using an Auto Responder I recommend that you check out Get Response, its a fully featured web based service and costs less that $18 a month. Bargin.

You can get more information on Get Response Here