Copyright 2006 Karl Stadler

Autoresponder is not the name of some cool dude or a new automatic device that can actually understand a woman correctly all the time. There might however be some faint similarities between women and autoresponders but this is not my place to say, neither would I ever dare. But what do women and autoresponders have to do with each other? Well read on and find out.

We all receive them daily, those pesky messages in our inbox. Most generated by an autoresponder. But still there are some that we open and read.

Now why do you think that is?

Let's turn back the clock and have a look at how exactly we got to this point.

Since the advent of the internet using it for sales and marketing has become more and more lucrative. It has now become highly evolved and competitive that everyone is looking for new and better ways to market.

There have been all sorts of different tried and tested methods but the one that has stood the test of time is email marketing. Based on this it is pure common sense that a list of email addresses and names are extremely profitable.

At first you had to send each mail yourself, and so it went on until the advent of the autoresponder.

It would be similar to the discovery of fire many years ago. Suddenly we had cooked food so we invented pots and pans, found India and wonderful spices, discovered coffee, which I think is the most important of all, steam driven power, electricity and so on. Subsequently all of these have been improved over time to make our lives easier.

So has the autoresponder.

We fill in a form on a page or popup and instantly we receive a nice message with our name neatly in the title and we feel honored. But that only lasts until we know about autoresponders of course.

The autoresponder is a fantastic tool and it allows you to get on with other work. It is the use of the autoresponder to build relationships with your clients that has lost its touch, and consequently for many marketers it effectiveness as a sales tool.

You opted in, so they are allowed to send you a message. The only problem is nine out of ten of these messages are trying to sell something. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with using opt in email to sell products, what is a problem is that every message from the same sender is a sales message.

I must be honest, if I subscribe to a newsletter or other form of opt in and the first three messages I receive from them are sales letters disguised as newsletters they all get added to the junk folder or I unsubscribe.

Good information and building a relationship with your subscribers is not selling to them with every email.

All over the internet software called autoresponders are bombarding their unsuspecting subscribers with sales letters. You get them too, and think for yourself, how much have you purchased from any of those letters?

It is true and proven that most customers will buy after about seven attempts, and this is also where the most sales will take place.

But will he buy if he has no relationship with you? You did promise him something of value when they subscribed didn't you? So what have you given in order to receive?

Many list owners do not want to make the effort to really build a relationship with their subscribers. They will all tell you that they do, but in reality it is actually really hard work. It is much easier writing seven or so emails based on a sales letter disguised as useful information than it is to write something of real value to your subscriber.

Let's turn back the clock a few thousand years. If you were a male you would have to go out and hunt, if you think writing is hard work, grab a bow and arrow and slog behind some animals for a few days and see which one you prefer.

If you were a woman you had to attend to the fields, kids, fetch water, cook food and so the list goes on. Except for fetching water from the river and tending to the fields I think women still do most of these chores. So on second thought you do have an excuse.

In view of the last statement, ladies you are excused, this is only applicable to lazy males. If you have a little time on your hands though, you should definitely give it a go.

Your autoresponder can considerably increase your sales and it should not seem that all of your emails are coming from some pre-programmed software. Just putting a name in the headline does not personalize the email you have to talk to your subscriber.

Make each email contain valuable information to what the subscriber opted in for in the first place. Each piece of information should be complete, meaning that he will be able to use it without having to buy a product or subscribing to a site. Add your personal touch to the mails and actually write them yourself, don't just copy and paste.

Make your headline interesting not the same old same old as you see on every second email. Once you give useful information that can actually be implemented you will find that your open rate for your emails will increase and subscribers will actually read your emails, whether they come from the autoresponder or not.

In this way you will build credibility and a rapport with your subscribers so when you do offer them a product or service they will be eager to buy from you.

The bottom line is that is you want to receive you will have to give. Women know how to do this men have to learn, sorry guys!