Starting An Internet Business – We Make it Simple

In the Internet business there’s a tool called an Autoresponder. It’s probably one of the least expensive tools, yet one of the more important tools you can use.

An autoresponder is basically a way to collect emails and names of customers. This is more commonly know as Opt-In.  From there you will hear marketers just call them lists or opt-in lists.

A lot of junk email has caused the Internet business to refine it’s email marketing, so autoresponders do there best to correct this. The way this is done is by requesting a double opt-in.

You may already know this, but for the people who don’t, a double opt-in is simply requesting a person who signs up for an offer to confirm they actually did it. The prevention here is, what would keep me from using your name, email and go around signing you up for all sorts of things. This would be a form of spamming and your the victim.

The autoresponder prevents this, a second email is sent to your box for verification. If you don’t click on that link within 30 days your name will be dropped from the list. It’s a protection device for both the marketer and the customer.

Lets List a Few Autoresponder Uses

1. Opt In – we mentioned the protection part. The service you use also save your list and allows you to communicate via email future mailings. Will cover more on this in the service section.
2. Newsletters – you can send newsletter. This is used to entice a customer to give you their name and email.
3. Scheduling – you can schedule future emails for various reasons. This can be scheduled well past a year depending on the autoresponder service.
4. Auto Sequencing – when a customer signs up for your list, you can already have a sequence of messages made which automatically get delivered.  This feature is really cool, your on vacation and everything runs on autopilot.
5. Social Automation – if you use twitter or have blog posts and your service has this feature, you can have them all linked to your list. This means you make a blog post and it automatically gets sent to your list, twitter works in a similar manner.
6. Relationships – this is what it’s all about. The autoresponder lets you communicate and build a relationship with your customers. Were not talking about dating, were talking about trust.

This little autoresponder service handles quite a few tasks and automates them too. That’s why this is one of the best deals in Internet tools around.

Autoresponder Services

I’ve tried two services, Get Response and Aweber. It came down to one thing, customer service.

The prices are similar and the features for normal daily routines are also similar. It was just a matter of customer service.

The big thing about autoresponder services is getting your messages out and what is called the bounce back. If you join a service that doesn’t adhere to good practices, complaints to email services like Yahoo and Google can result in your emails being returned.

This is the reason for the double opt-in, it’s the best proof that a person really did authorize you to send them emails for a particular subject. The three things that really matter are:

1. Delivery Up Time
2. Bounce Rates
3. Message Completeness

What we mean by the last point is, did the entire message make it in tact to your customer.

If your autoreponder service doesn’t test their templates then it’s possible that your email messages can get scrambled. The services we mentioned are well tested and the completeness rates are very high.

You have to understand that your emails are the lifeline between you and your customer. The internet makes it very easy for a person to opt-out from you list too.

Until you build a good relationship with your list, they can easily go elsewhere. That’s why you’ll hear “Take care of your list” and marketeers take this seriously. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it costs your money if you don’t.

This is why a good autoresponder service is vital if building a list is part of your Internet business plan.

It’s always good to reverse the tables, put yourself in your customers shoes. You wouldn’t like to get half a message or messages that you didn’t subscribe to. Wouldn’t you think a customer of yours would feel the same?

Take a look at Aweber, I’ve been with them several months and really like the whole operation. You can try the first month for a dollar (as of 11-19-09).

There’s another cool thing they did for us, the non-techie, they added a new selection of templates for the opt-in forms.

Take a look………………….

As you can see an autorseponder is a great tool as well as automates a lot of back end work.

Most services provide the basics, other provide Value Added services for the same price.

The time and effort youspend to build a list is valuable, you don’t want to lose that list because you tried to save a few bucks with such a vital tool.

You’ll see the normal monthly fee of $19.00 is minimal compared to what autoresponders do.

Check out Aweber, they have a lot more information you can digest.