Have you ever wondered how some of your colleagues and competitors are able to make more money yet still appear to have plenty of time to do the things they love? Does it feel like there are secrets to growing an online business that doesn’t stretch you and your resources so thin that there’s nothing left for fun?

One of those “secrets” to growing an online business is learning to harness the power of autoresponders. If you have ever heard of them and that they can help make your business run easier, but you don’t quite understand what they are or how they work, read on.

Autoresponders can increase your income by making your marketing efforts more effective and efficient. At its simplest, an autoresponder is software that automatically stays in touch and builds relationships with your prospective clients to increase the odds that they will become your clients. Would you like to know more?

Permission: Using autoresponders is a type of permission marketing. That is, people will give you their okay to receive emails in exchange for your sending them free information that they believe holds value for them.

Interested visitors to your website may respond to your free offer by completing an opt-in form, providing you with their name and email address. Although there is a temptation to ask for as much information about these visitors as soon as possible, it’s best to keep things simple at this point.

Another very normal temptation for those who want to build their list quickly is to add everyone they know to it. This is a huge no-no, in violation of CAN-SPAM laws. The safest way to build a list is with a double opt-in process.

Personalize: People are generally more responsive to others who use their name. Autoresponders allow you to personalize your messages and begin the process of building a relationship with those who, by virtue of having opted-in to hear more from you, are now your prospective clients. You can begin the “know, like, trust” process of relationship building by clearly stating your privacy policy on your opt-in form.

Prewrite: Autoresponders allow you to send prewritten messages to people on your list. This saves you time and makes you more productive because using the power of batching like activities together to work on them increases your focus. The odds improve that you will be able to get more done in a shorter amount of time.

Preschedule: Talk about a dream come true for those who are challenged by the process of following up with their contacts! Prescheduling a series of follow-up messages makes staying in touch with the people you serve much easier.

Perhaps you’ve read that it takes seven “touches”, or follow-ups, with a prospect to turn her or him into a client. You can set autoresponders to automatically send emails out to your prospect list. They can be sent while you’re sleeping soundly or even on the beach in Hawaii.

You might, for example, create a seven-part email course. By setting the intervals for each part of the course to be released once every two or three days, you will not be tied to your computer.

Can you imagine the freedom and peace of mind that results from writing the emails one time and still growing your business? Anyone can join your list at any time and automatically be sent those emails beginning with the first one in the series. You are released from the need to track mind-numbing details about who gets sent what and when. What a relief!

Preferences: Visitors to your website were initially interested enough in your free offer to give you their email address. They became prospective clients when they subscribed to your list through your opt-in form.

Attention spans are short these days, and most of your prospective clients will never buy anything from you. They simply prefer to continue learning from the information you freely share. Since there is no way to determine who will buy from you, you must have a strategy.

In order to convert your prospects to paying clients, you must hold the interest of all of your subscribers–maintaining and building a relationship with as many of them as possible. A great way to attract clients from your list to your offer of products or services is to continue educating everyone on your list for free, based on their preferences.

To do this effectively, you need to learn as much about them as possible and what they are most interested in learning from you. You must then develop content that appeals to the subscribers to the various segments (“special interest groups”) of your list to continue holding their interest so that you can continue to demonstrate your expertise.

Autoresponders make it easy to collect additional information about your readers, so that you can focus your energies on drilling down and providing more and deeper information to the segments within your list. This is one of the best parts about using them and using them well can help you become recognized as an expert!

Power: There is power in knowledge, and autoresponders allow you to get powerful results if they are properly set up by tracking what people do with and within your email messages. Do not underestimate the importance of this.

If the results of your email campaigns are carefully monitored and responded to, using autoresponders as part of your marketing strategy can increase your sales with little effort.

Possibilities: By now, I hope that you’re excited about the possibilities of using autoresponders to build your online business. They are many. Autoresponders can distribute information regarding email courses, teleseminars, live events, new products, and much more.

Chances are good that you’re currently leaving money on the table by telling your visitors fewer than seven times about you and the wonderful products and services that you can provide. If you are you ready to take your business level, autoresponders can help.

Instead of letting most of the visitors to your website disappear forever, wouldn’t it be great to retain some of them by enticing them to sign up for free, valuable content from you? You could then stay in touch with them, beginning what could develop into a beneficial relationship for everyone.

Why not begin today by researching the autoresponder program that will best suit your needs? I suggest you start with AWeber.