However, the ONE thing that EVERY serious online marketer will also agree on is this … the real fortune is in the follow-up!

I’m sure you’ve already heard that surveys have shown that your customers need to be exposed to your marketing message up to seven times before they are willing make a purchase. Unfortunately, surveys have also proven that most marketers do not consistently follow up with their prospects.

Using follow-up marketing to build trust and credibility for your business are essential to your online success. Follow-up marketing will enable you to sell your products better and to introduce new products in the future.

One of the most widely used promotional tools on the Internet to accomplish the task of follow-up marketing is Autoresponders. Autoresponders are sometimes called mail bots, automatic email and email on demand. They have their origin from the very popular fax on demand and because they were designed to automatically respond to any email message received with an automatic response, they eliminate the need to manually answer every response. Now that’s going to save you several hours of your valuable time.

Autoresponder programs vary from auto response messages set-up within an email program to a script that runs on a server. This script may run a web-based Autoresponder system that utilizes a web page form or it may run with a pop email account on a server.

Autoresponders can assist you in automating many of your daily tasks including:

* Building Mailing Lists

* Customer Follow-up

* Order Confirmations

* Deliver Newsletters

* Articles for Publication

* Autoresponder Courses

In addition to the standard autoresponder systems, there are also autoresponders that can send an unlimited number of follow-up messages. These follow-up messages can be automatically sent out at predetermined intervals. In other words, you can set up your autoresponder to automatically send out a new message each day for as many days as you would like.

This powerful technology is currently being used by some of the top online marketers to reach thousands of potential customers. Like I mentioned, it may take up to seven contacts with a potential customer before a purchase is made. By setting up an autoresponder and offering a free autoresponder course, you can completely automate a portion of your marketing efforts.

You can massively increase your effectiveness in your follow-up marketing; using the hidden power of autoresponders and their ability to turn multiple prospects into many customers and then customers into repeat customers.

When selecting an autoresponder service, you need to take several factors into consideration to ensure maximum performance for the tasks you want to accomplish.

Here are some critical areas you should examine when evaluating any autoresponder system:

* Personalized responses - With this feature you can address the recipient by there name making them feel that the message was sent specifically to them.

* Automatic follow ups - Remember, you have to contact your Customers up to seven time before they make a purchase.

* Unlimited text length - Because you’ll most likely be using sales letters provide to you by the products you sell, you don’t want to be inhibited by the amount of text your Autoresponder may contain. This could ultimately cost you business.

* Free unlimited updating - You need to have a way to provide your customers with accurate, up to date information on your products and services. Some services charge additional fees if you exceed a certain number of messages.

* Sign-up form code generation - Can the system generate HTML code to provide you with a Sign-Up form to place on your Website?

* Subscription-modification - Your Customers need to be able to unsubscribe themselves or modify their user contact information. Also make sure that if someone wants to modify their contact information (most common change is an email address) they can do so automatically. This one feature will save you an immeasurable amount of time.

* Sending file attachments - Although this is not a critical point, it is sometimes convenient or useful to be able to send file attachments with messages?

* Tracking system - You should be instantly informed each time someone requests your information.

Although many web hosts provide their clients with one-time Autoresponders, if you’re planning on sending out follow-up messages, you’ll want to use a more advanced autoresponder.

Autoresponders come in all sizes, shapes and colours, but I would like to introduce you to four different ones that I can strongly recommend.

GetResponse, AWeber, AutoResponse Plus and Mailloop.

In closing let me ask you the following question: How much could you raise your salary with just one additional order per month? What about several additional orders? Several hundred? Maybe even several thousand? How much money are you LOSING every day because of ineffective follow up? Autoresponders can provide you with this possibility. The more you can automate your tasks, the more time you’ll have for more important things, such as making more sales.

About the Author
Terrance Wood is the founder and owner of “Terry’s World Internet” - A Collection of Internet Marketing and Home Business Tips and Tricks. You can visit Terry at http://www.terrysworldinternet.com