Auto-responders, as the name suggests, are meant for making an automatic response when someone sends an email message to a particular address. Although on an individual level it is not much required, but a company should use it to show professionalism and punctuality in responding to customer queries. Usually the companies will set up the system to let the sender know that his message has been received and the query will be considered and acted upon quickly.

In the recent email marketing era the auto-responders are playing a vital role in making or breaking a business. If done properly, email marketing can be one of the most powerful weapons in the online marketer’s arsenal. He can use it to send various and repeated messages to the customer without any cost of bringing fresh traffic to his site. Moreover, if he knows that some of the subscribers on his list are ready to purchase products he can make sure that he sends them many promotional messages and make them purchase through his links.

A third party auto-responder account will give you various functions like setting up future messages to be sent automatically. Usually all the auto-responder systems today have an in-built feature of double opt-in. Since there is a lot of spamming going on these days, the system double checks whether the email address entered on the contact form really requires the information or is it just a joke. The user is required to confirm that he really wants to information and the email addressed on the form was not a mistake of some sort. Therefore, when he clicks on the confirmation link he is added to the database of subscribers.

The email marketing system can also be used by loading it with various email messages which will be sent sequentially to the new subscribers. The messages can be formatted as an email tutorial spread over a few days or weeks or general news about the latest things on the website or community on which the subscriber is listed. This feature can be best used to develop relationship with your subscribers.

Since the subscribers don’t know you, they are quite skeptical to purchase anything which you recommend to them on their first encounter with your website. Therefore, it is important that you develop some email course or a newsletter so that they get to know you and your expert status in the community. When you establish yourself as an expert, people will naturally follow your advice and invest in whatever you recommend.

Email marketing through auto-responders has been known to create massive amounts of cash flow in the shortest periods of time. Drafting an email will usually require only a few minutes. But if you have developed a good relationship with your list and they are responsive to your emails you can make the best use of this system. A simple promotion of a particular product will create a cash flow of thousands of dollars within a single day. But to get to this level, you have to be consistent in delivering quality and rich content to your subscribers so that they look forward to receiving your emails and not tag you as a cheap marketer.

The auto-responder systems which are integrated into the email marketing system also have a very dedicated tracking and analyzing system. It helps the marketers to know the click-through-rate of the emails which they send to the subscribers. The analytics function helps in knowing how many people opened the email and how many of them clicked on the links given. This gives the marketer the feedback to draft better subject lines and email content.

It will aid in further testing the effectiveness of emails and fine-tuning them to suit different markets. Hence, making the utmost use of all the features will help you in earning good income from online business and not just cover the cost of hosting your website.