What is an eMail Autoresponder?

If you know how a fax works, you already know how an email autoresponder works. The latter is none other than the digitized version of the former, only better. (Haven't you noticed that what is offline is being brought online, only better?)

An autoresponder is a software that you access via an interface. The cheaper but unreliable way is to make a one-time purchase of the software (usually a script) and have it installed in your own website server. The recommended way is by subscribing to a web based service for a (usually) monthly fee.  

An autoresponder is email automation at its best. 

Someone can send an email to your autoresponder address and receive an instant reply that you have preloaded into the autoresponder. And that is only one of the addresses that you have in your autoresponder. 

That someone can send you the email by writing you an email from her email client (i.e gMail, Hotmail,Ymail, etc.) or by filling up a form that you have embedded on your website, and clicking 'submit'. You embed this form through inserting a little code that you are provided with. This code is linked to your autoresponder software of course.

Voila! This person has taken the first step to trigger your autoresponder and she is now one of your subscribers of that particular email campaign that you have set up, until she unsubscribes.

This is where your email autoresponder starts to be magical as your marketing campaign runs on autopilot. You will have preloaded a number of messages that are automatically delivered to your subscribers' email addresses at the interval predetermined by you.

Each campaign equals a salesman who warms up your prospects and gradually converts them. You can have any number of salesman running and any number of prospects to each salesman, all at the same time. (In regard to the amount of subscribers, you may refer to the payment plan if you are on a web based service. This works out to a cheaper rate as your subscribers increase.)  

Basically, if you want to follow up with your readers/subscribers, an email autoresponder is a must. And this is just the tip of the ice-berg.