Autoresponders are an extremely powerful way to streamline your business. By automating your business, you will decrease your work load while increasing the impact of your marketing campaign.

I can’t stress enough how important this is to do from the very beginning! It can be overwhelming to suddenly have dozens of prospects needing answers immediately. The good news is that most prospects will ask the same questions and an effective autoresponder can easily respond to them.

So, what exactly is an autoresponder?

An Autoresponder is simply an email address that automatically answers requests with a message that you create.

Your visitor gets the information he or she wants right away – there is no waiting for you to answer your email. This is very important on the internet because people expect immediate results.

There are many Autoresponders floating around the internet. Many are offered for free. Obviously these are a popular choice but the vast majority of them have one big drawback. They're offered free because other advertisers pay to have their own message added to each message YOU send out. That means in addition to seeing YOUR sales message, the recipient also sees an advertisement for someone else's product or service.

So, what should you look for in an autoresponder? Some key features are:

QUICK RESPONSE

Your autoresponder should reply to a request within a few minutes. Be careful with this one. Many autoresponders *claim* to answer emails within minutes, but few actually do.

INSTANT ACCESS TO YOUR MESSAGE

You want personal control over your autoresponder documents You need to be able to change your autoresponder message at any time, and have it take effect immediately. You also want a user friendly system for both you and your prospects.

ABILITY TO SEND UNLIMITED FOLLOW-UP MESSAGES

It usually takes 7 or more exposures to a message before you can close a sale. You need to make sure you have the ability to stay in front of your prospect for at least that long.

NO LIMIT ON THE NUMBER OF REQUESTS

You don’t want to be limited to the number of people you can reach with your autoresponder. This will substantially inhibit the growth of your business.

NO CHARGE FOR CHANGES TO YOUR MESSAGE

Success on the Internet depends in large part on experimentation, testing, and more testing. That means you'll be continuously trying to improve your autoresponder message; and you don’t want to have to pay for it.

ABILITY FOR PEOPLE TO "OPT-OUT"

This gives the recipient the option of removing him or herself from your mailing list. If you don't do this, you could be accused of spamming and end up in a whole lot of trouble!

ABILITY TO PERSONALIZE YOUR MESSAGE

Addressing your prospect by name is a very powerful rapport builder. You want your prospects to feel like you are talking directly to them. Make sure your auto responder has this capability.

Take the time to carefully choose the right autoresponder. Keep in mind the most important features YOU need and make sure your autoresponder has that capability. For instance, the autoresponder I use now Aweber gives me unlimited message size, unlimited number of autoresponders, and excellent response time. Of course it has a lot more than that ... but those are the ones I was most concerned with.

If you don’t have an autoresponder, I'd suggest getting one now. The right one can save you time ... and increase your sales!