Email Autoresponders: The Ultimate “Set-It-And-Forget-It” Marketing Strategy

It seems everywhere you look online, you see the phrase “the money is in the list.”

The list in question is your email marketing list – that wonderful list of people who voluntarily sign up to receive regular updates from you about your products or services.

An “autoresponder” is an email message that gets sent automatically in response to an incoming message or as part of a series delivered at specified intervals. We’ve all used or received autoresponders on occasion, even if we didn’t know it at the time.  Any time you’ve set an “out of office” message on your work email – you’ve used an autoresponder. Likewise, anytime you’ve received a message along the lines of “I’m on vacation right now, I’ll contact you when I get back” – you’ve received an autoresponder.

You can also use autoresponders to automatically send messages to every one who subscribes to your newsletter or site updates. In fact, with email services like aWeber, the first welcome message your subscribers see (assuming you’ve set one up!) is sent out through an autoresponder.

Yesterday, I set up an email autoresponder for one of my clients. Previously, they had been giving away something of value without tying it to their opt-in list. Of course, this was a missed opportunity to connect with their site’s visitors – and was counter to the overall purpose of their web site.

It didn’t take me very long to set it up – less than a couple of hours, in fact. As I was working on it, I realized this would be great information to share with you here. So for the next several days, we’re going to take a look at some of the basic steps to getting your own email autoresponder ready to go.

Here are the Basic Steps to Setting Up an Email Autoresponder – (I’ll cover each in more detail over the next several posts).

1. Set up an account with an email service such as aWeber. (Note: I personally use aWeber – so these directions are specific to that service. If you need a service, you can sign up for a $1 trial in the sidebar to the right).
2. Once your account is set up, you will need to set up a list within it. One thing I like about aWeber is it allows you to have multiple lists within a single account – which works really well if you have a number of sites or want to otherwise segment the messages you send.
3. Use their web form generator to create the opt-in box for your site and install it on your site.
4. Create and set up your first follow-up message. This is what new subscribers will receive once they confirm their subscription to your list.
5. Set up a  “Success” page on your existing site. This is where you’ll readers will land after they have successfully subscribed.
6. If you are offering a giveaway or other incentive to get readers to sign up – you will need to upload it to your public_html folder so you can send a link to your readers for immediate download.  (You definitely should offer some type of valuable incentive for signing up to your site!! – and yes, this site is currently a sad example of the cobbler’s kids running around without shoes… I am working on fixing that asap!! )
7. After the initial follow-up message is set up – it’s time to begin working on your first series of value-added messages!

Okay – so this quick overview is meant to show you “what” to do – check back tomorrow for more detailed instructions on “how” to do it!

Til Next Time,

PS Don’t hesitate to contact me directly if you need help getting your email autoresponder set up asap. Use the contact form under “contact” – or email me directly at trish [at] webcopyresults.com.