• You may be thinking of setting up a system to send potential clients information about your coaching services, resources or special offers linked to your website. If so, it is worth finding out about auto responders.
  
  An auto-responder simply sends your messages out by email when you want them sent - automatically. If you have used Microsoft Outlook on your computer, you may have used the out of office message, which is an auto- responder.
  
  Auto-responders like this are very simple - for instance, allowing you to send one message to a big list of people at a set time. But if you have a large mailing list, a good auto responder can save you a great deal of time and be a really powerful tool in communicating with potential clients.
  
  Lots of things are possible with a good auto-responder system:
  
  Personalizing your messages with people's names
  Setting up a series of messages to be sent out automatically
  Setting up messages to be sent out with attachments
  Tracking of who has opened your messages and downloaded the attachments
  
  One thing is certain - you do need to use a system that allows people to opt in and out easily of your mailing list. Otherwise you will be breaking spam laws. So, make sure you familiarize yourself with spam laws before starting your email list!
  
  How to choose an auto-responder
  
  There are two main choices:
  
  1. Use a mailing list management script that works on your own website server f you host your mailing list on your own server you may be labeled as a spam source. So you need to take some professional advice from a web developer.
  
  2. Use a hosted system
  Here you pay a company who specializes in running an auto-responder system to use their services.
  
  The main advantages of this are that these companies work very hard to stay up to date with deliverability issues so more of your email reaches its intended destination. These companies often offer a range of different ways of presenting your messages to your clients - including HTML - which can make your messages more appealing.
  
  Do a quick search for auto responder on any of the search engines and you will get a list of relevant companies.
  
  Identify the functions you would like to use in your auto-responder and then look at what is on offer from each company.

Some examples are:

It helps to think about exactly you want to use the system - is it for a newsletter or product sales? Are you looking to bring people back to your blog or website?

It's also a good idea to test drive a couple of different systems and see which best meet your needs before making up your mind. Why not do some research today and sign up for some free trials or speak to your web designer for some advice on using your own web server?

Sonia Thomas is the Editor of Coaches Plus, the online resource centre for coaches, http://www.coachesplus.com

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