Have you ever heard of the expression "A diamond is a girl's best friend?" Well an auto-responder is a marketer's best friend! So what is an autoresponder and how is it a marketer's best friend? An autoresponder is a program that allows you the ability to send out emails to a large group of people all at one time. In addition, it allows you to pre-program those emails in advance so that the recipients receive them in set intervals (i.e. every 7 days, etc).

Why is an autoresponder a marketer's best friend? There's a saying that goes as follows..."Exposure is everything but the fortune is in the follow-up." You can expose a prospect to your web site and they may buy what you have to offer. However, if you really want to significantly increase the chances of getting a sale, then you need to follow up with as many people that visit your web site as possible. An autoresponder allows you to be able to do just that.

When you receive a visitor to your site, you need to convert them from being a prospect into a subscriber to your autoresponder. This will allow you to email them with follow up emails and other promotions they may be interested in. One of the best ways to get a prospect to subscribe to your autoresponder is to offer them a "bribe" or a "free gift." In exchange for the prospect providing you with their name and email address, you can provide the prospect with a free e-book, a 7 day e-course or even a free audio or video. The prospect subscribes to your autoresponder to get the free gift and you now have the ability to follow up with the prospect.

"But email marketing is dead" you say? "No one is getting any of my emails because of the SPAM filters." This is nonsense. UNWANTED email marketing is dead, but the bottom line is if people WANT your email, they will get your email. The key is you have to sell people on wanting to receive your emails.

You might possibly choose to send the free gift as an attachment in an email so that they must provide you with their valid email address to get the gift. You might choose to provide additional information via email to individuals so that they will want to ensure they receive your emails and you are not in their SPAM list. In any case, people will receive your emails if they want your emails.

Most people who have email accounts are already familiar with the concept of a SPAM filter or folder. As part of their email routine, they scan their SPAM filters to see if there are any emails that they want to receive. If you are providing information of value to a targeted prospect, even if your email gets blocked through a SPAM filter, the prospect will unblock your email and read your email.

Yet another benefit to utilizing an autoresponder in your email marketing is that they provide they ability to email your entire list at one time through sending out a broadcast email. This is a very useful and valuable tool for many email marketing strategies. For instance, maybe you might want to offer a monthly newsletter to your subscribers. Perhaps you are using affiliate marketing and you are making an offer to your list. All of these techniques require the use of an autoresponder. Therefore, if you are not using an autoresponder in your email marketing strategies and techniques, you are missing a vital component to your marketing funnel. Remember, an autoresponder is a marketers best friend!