I donate a percentage of my profits to the Blue Cross each and every month
One of the perhaps the most important tools used in an internet-based business, whether it’s for a pure internet-only business, brick and mortar business or e-commerce site, is what is called an autoresponder.
An autoresponder is basically a piece of software that collects the contact details of prospects and website visitors for you. It also enables you to preload emails, newsletters and other communications so that you can keep in contact with the contacts that you have in your database.And if you have a special launch planned, a promotion on a particular product or a sale planned, then you can send an email to your entire list of prospects quickly and easily by using an autoresponder on your site.
There are several products on the market that are considered the best by many experts, names such as Aweber, Autoresponse Plus, Get Response and Email Aces to name but a few.
My personal favourite is Aweber, and you can visit their site here for more details. I use them because their service is easy to use, effective and renowned in the industry plus, you can track who opens the emails that you send and a host of other crucial data that is so very useful as a business owner.
Collecting names is SO important
To use an autoresponder to help you with your business, you need to have a little form on your home page that will help you capture names and email addresses from visitors. This is both very easy to do and extremely effective as a marketing tool.
The data that is collected in this form is automatically sent to the autoresponder, and so there is very little work for you to do, which is the beauty of this software.
The autoresponder then sends out a confirmation message (that you will have already pre-written) to visitors, welcoming them to your site and perhaps explaining a little bit about the business and how it could benefit your customers.
It is better to write your own message as it is more personal, and makes it more friendly and easier to be related to your website.
Although this sounds like quiet a basic thing to do (capturing the email addresses of prospective customers), do not underestimate how powerful this is, as most businesses I see do not even think of doing this.
Now that you have learned a little bit about the advantages of using an autoresponder in your online business, my next blog post will give you more details and elaborate a little more with some juicy tactics that you start using immediately.
