Answering emails can take up a significant portion of the time you have to do business. Many times the same set of questions are being asked over and over again. Haven't you ever wished that you could have a simple and easy way to respond to your customers automatically? Email autoresponders are the answer!

If you study the name 'autoresponder' you can guess that we are talking about something that can respond automatically. At its most basic level, an email autoresponder is a script that is programmed to respond automatically to an email message with a pre-arranged email message.

There are all kinds of ways to use this. You could setup a free report that you send to someone when they send you a blank email at the address of your autoresponder. As soon as they send an email to the autoresponder, the script sends them a response automatically, without you having to lift a finger. You write the email once, it can get sent out hundreds or even thousands of times. You now have more time for other tasks. That's the beauty of autoresponders.

Not all autoresponders are created equal

What we've described above is a basic autoresponder. Advanced autoresponders can send your customers and prospects multiple email messages over a specified time period. This can be used to send an email based course over so many days. It can also be used to expose your prospects to the benefits of your product over some time thereby building trust in you and your offerings.

Advertising studies have found that people are more likely to buy a product or service the more times they are exposed to it. A rule of thumb in the industry points to at least seven exposures. One of the keys to getting a better response rate from your advertising efforts is to get your message in front of your customer over and over again.

Free autoresponders versus paid autoresponders.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with a basic, one message autoresponder. For more advanced solutions, you'll need access to a suitable service or script. There are free autoresponder services out there. Many are pretty good but almost all free autoreponders will tag an advertisement to the bottom of all your outgoing messages. If you run a business, this looks very unprofessional.

There are a number of paid autoresponder services out there. Their prices generally vary from as little as $5 per month to as much as $30 per month. They also provide varying levels of features and benefits. A search in Google or Yahoo for email autoresponder will turn up a whole list of companies.

The two longest serving email autoresponders out there today are Aweber.com and Getresponse.com. Both of these companies offer you lots of bang for your buck. I would suggest you visit both sites and make comparisons before settling on one.

Email autoresponders can be your best friend when used properly. They can automate a boring and repetitive task like responding to the same questions by email over and over again. Free up more of your time today by setting up your very own autoresponders.