It is often a good idea to set up two or more autoresponders to handle initial enquiry. The first autoresponder will be in reply to your ad, and will give some details about your product or service. It will also ask recipient to reply to a second autoresponder if s/he wants more information. The second autoresponder can include some advantages that you only hinted at in first reply, and then follow up with remaining messages. This has aroused your prospects' interest and is part of sales process.

In one of your follow up messages you will need to make a call for action. If you don't ask your prospects to buy, chances are they won't. One of best ways to do this is to let them know that for a limited time they will receive a certain discount or that offer will only be available at a certain price for a limited period.

Some people argue that autoresponders don't allow you to deal with each prospect individually. However it is easy enough to set your autoresponder to personalise replies to address your prospects with their first name for example. You set up your autoresponder so that if a prospect replies to message, email will come to your own email address and you will be able to reply personally.

If your business revolves around sending and receiving a lot of email, autoresponders are an essential tool.

1) They drastically reduce amount of work. 2) They reduce possibility of making mistakes sending out wrong reply or to wrong address. 3) They do not rely on a person being at work at a certain time to send out email. 4) They allow you to make follow-ups efficiently. 5) They give you more time to concentrate on promotion and marketing.

If you are hosting your website on a full-service web host, chances are they will provide you with an autoresponder. However you don't need a website to have an autoresponder. You can use an autoresponder service. If your business needs more than one autoresponder or autoresponders that send out more than one reply at intervals, we have listed some good services here: http://www.thewebseye.com/autoresponders.htm .

Autoresponders have already become an essential marketing tool, and their use is likely to increase as more and more businesses realise necessity to automate.

If you don't have many articles written yet, approach someone who has written many articles and strike up a deal. Offer to turn his old articles into a free e-mail workshop wherein you can both promote your products, services or affiliate links.

Tip # 5: Create a Mini-Course Based on Your E-book

Have you written an e-book? Do you want to drum up some sales? Create a free mini-course based on your e-book and then put it on autoresponder. Your mini-course can be based on one or a few chapters in your e-book. In between lessons, insert promotional texts -- endorsements, excerpts, blurbs -- that can convince people to buy your e-book.

Tip # 6: Offer Free-to-Try Modules

If you offer a fee-based e-mail workshop, consider making available one or two modules as free-to-try modules. This way, people will be able to decide if they want to take entire workshop for a fee.

In your free-to-try modules, insert promotional texts for your fee-based e-mail workshop. You can even promote your sites, e-books, e-zines and other e-mail workshops. Even if they don't sign up for fee-based e-mail workshop right away, you can put them in your contact list -- they are your leads -- and you can later contact them about your products and services.

Remember Tip # 3? Yes, you can add these people in your list of solid, targeted leads.

Tip # 7: E-mail Workshop Today, E-book Tomorrow

Create an e-mail workshop first, offer it for free or for a fee, then compile it into an e-book later. You'll have two products to bring you profit. Offering something in two different formats, an e-mail workshop version and an e-book version, will give people two options.

Not everyone can devote time to an e-mail workshop so an e-book version of it will work for them. And there are those who like to take advantage of receiving feedback from other people in an e-mail discussion setting so e-mail workshop will be a better option.