An autoresponder is a program that automates a series of emailing, name capture, and list management tasks that you would otherwise need to (but likely could not) do "manually". It's pretty easy to see why you need an autoresponder if you just imagine yourself with a list of 1000 email addresses.
Don't worry for now how you got them, but let's say you're ready to send an email to all 1000 names. Can you see yourself sending out 1000 separate emails, after copying and pasting each separate email address into a separate copy of your note? Suppose your list was 10 times larger? See the problem? It isn't really
manageable any other way but with an automated program.
The better autoresponder services give you an easy way to set up a name and email capture form. You can literally drag and drop entry fields and type text into your capture form and click a button or two and get the HTML code to drop into your web page. You don't need to know HTML at all to build a name capture form. Further, the more sophisticated autoresponder services let you choose from a wide variety of styles and form presentation options.
When a lead enters his/her name and email address into your form, the script that is invoked by the autoresponder stores the information as another entry on your list. You should also be able to easily
display the names and email addresses on your list, via a report screen provided by the autoresponder service. In fact, there should be a wide variety of reports available to help you track the growth of your list and to see how frequently leads leave your list.
The point of collecting leads is to communicate with them with follow up messages and at some point persuade them to buy something from or through you. These follow up messages that you use to build rapport with your leads can be written once and stored in your autoresponder and sent automatically, on a schedule you determine, to the leads on your list.
As you can see, a lot of the steps involved in collecting leads and sending follow up messages can be automated - once it's set up - that's it! Leads sign up, get added to your list, and receive your follow up messages automatically. Your follow up messages will, of course, at the appropriate point, contain a call to action that results in your prospect buying what you're selling.
There are a couple of autoresponder services out there and more than one good one. I've used Aweber
for a couple of years now and am very satisfied. Aweber is reliable, fast, reasonably priced, and the support staff is very responsive whenever I ask a question. There's a bunch of tutorial material available on their site too.
So, don't let technology stop you! Get yourself set up to gather leads, build a relationship with useful content, and start building your business.
