In internet marketing, one of the sayings you hear again and again is “The money is in the list.” Well, the money is in a list that is trained to respond to you and to buy. In order to “train” your list, you have to build a relationship with them. You do this online by developing a consistent message about you and your products or services.

The Field of Dreams notwithstanding, if you build it, people probably won't come. Vying for attention on the internet is somewhat akin to searching for one particular water droplet in the ocean. Once someone has found you, you need to make sure you stay in front of your prospects. Use an autoresponder to create an effective marketing campaign. Your autoresponder series serves several purposes. Let's go through them.

1. Become familiar to your list.

People do business with people they know, like and trust. So the first thing that your autoresponder series needs to do is help the people on your list get to know you and trust you. You do that over time. You also let them in on a bit of your life and what you are doing. Things that show you are a real person. Mention your family, but do it in generic terms, especially if you have small children. If you have a pet, mention the pet. It's a fine balance and how much you reveal to your list is up to you. However, if you are a single female living alone, you probably don't want to have your home address in your emails. I use a nearby bigger city for my return address or for when I make references to places I've been. It's a little paranoid, yes. But it just takes one whacko to justify your paranoia and there's no shortage of those. Remember that you're creating a public persona. You don't want to lie to people, but it doesn't mean that you treat your prospect list like a member of your inner circle. Share, but be discreet.

2. Stay in front of your list.

Here is the mistake I made with my first autoresponder list: I didn't stay in touch with them after the first seven letters that I had loaded into the autoresponder were sent out. So my list heard from me for the first two months, then once during the third month and then, well… not so much. I sent out broadcast messages from time to time but I really neglected my list. So when I sent out an email to my list after not being in touch with them, people couldn't remember who I was or why I was talking to them. To say that they did not feel any reason to buy my latest product or tune into a webinar would be an understatement.

3. Entice your list to buy your products.

Think about the people who have come to your website but have not yet bought. You want to create a series of a minimum of seven follow up letters that will give them good information, let them get to know you better and create the desire to buy your product.

All three of these things have one single goal in mind: That's to help the people on your list get to know, like and trust you. Autoresponders are an efficient and effective way to build relationships with your future customer base.