An essential tool

An autoresponder is one of the most valuable tools for an online business.  As subscribers or questions arrive, your autoresponder replies right away with a welcome message or the answer to that category of question.  The best autoresponders offer unlimited campaigns as well as list management capability.

You should have a campaign for your newsletter readers, one for prospects, one for prospects that have contacted you for additional information (warm prospects), and one for current and previous customers.  The campaign loaded with customers is literally a gold mine for you.  Many businesses do not make it a point to contact their prior customers on a regular basis - a huge mistake. 

A dirt world example of how prior customer lists are worth money to you -- Say you're running a dry cleaning business.  You find that Tuesday is your slowest day of the week, and want to pick up some extra business.  You go to your prior customer campaign, load in a message with a 15% off discount for business brought in on Tuesdays, and fire off the broadcast message.  All of your prior customers see the message, love the discount, and you instantly have a flood of business coming in on Tuesdays.

Make sure your autoresponder service gives you unlimited campaigns, subscribers, and list management capability.  There are only a few services that provide all of these benefits, and this one is among the best.