Your autoresponder series is one of the most important parts of your email marketing campaign. While it takes a bit of time and effort, writing a good autoresponder series shouldn't be very difficult to do. Simply send regular messages to your list that offer something of value. This might be a free ebook, it might be a question that is geared to get them to engage with you, it might simply be an article that you think your list will appreciate.

The tone of your email should be very casual. Write like you are sending an email to your best friend. The more you can create the feeling of natural dialog, the more your list will respond to you, trust you, and ultimately buy from you.

There are three main elements that your autoresponder should contain.

1. A welcome email. The first thing your subscribers should receive is a welcome letter. This should be short and sweet. Give them the information that they were promised and tip them off to whatever else they can expect for being on your list. The heads up on a soon-to-come free gift is always a good way to go. It is in this email that you will set the tone that you will have with your list so make it count.

2. Content emails. These emails are the relationship building portion of your autoresponder sequence. They should not sell anything - CONTENT ONLY. Build up trust and reciprocity with your subscribers for at least the first two or three messages. Get your subscribers looking forward to your emails. If you can get your subscriber to be looking forward to your emails, then you will have no trouble converting your promotional messages into sales.

3. Promotional Emails. As I've mentioned, these messages should come later in your series and less frequently than your content emails. Two content emails for every one promotional email - at the very - least is a good ratio. When you write these emails, don't hard sell. Again, write like you are writing to your best friend. If you would be uncomfortable sending the email to your best friend, it is likely that your list will be uncomfortable receiving it. The goal is to NOT set off your subscribers subconscious spam detector. You simply want to recommend a product, tell your list what is good about it, what is bad about it, and who the product can help. Be low key - but confident in the value of your recommendation.