Your mailing list needs to consist of people in your niche who want to hear from you, who are interested in what you have to say and what you have to offer. Because of this, the most important list to grow is your own. You can buy lists, share lists, promote to other people's lists, all of which are extremely valuable, but your list is made of people who have raised their hands to hear from you personally, and will be your most responsive list to what you have to offer, especially if you communicate with them regularly with information that interests them.

Newsletters and regular email and/or postal mail contact are major and necessary building blocks to grow your business. Because of this, you'll need to set up systems to maintain regular contact with your potential clients. The best tool for systematizing email contact is a sequential autoresponder.

What is an autoresponder service?

An autoresponder service is a service that sends out your newsletter and announcement emails for you. Once you write an email and tell the autoresponder when to send it, that's it. It sends out an email to each person on your list, according to whatever schedule you decide.

Why use an autoresponder?

1. An autoresponder will keep track of who got which email when, with no need for any assistance from you. This can be an incredible time-saver.

2. Sending out a bulk email from your own computer or server looks suspicious to many internet service providers, and could get blocked from reaching the intended recipient. A good autoresponder service will have a great reputation with internet service providers, and large numbers of emails will get through to intended recipients.

3. If someone hits the "this is spam" button on their email account, your emails to other recipients at the same internet service provider will often get blocked too. You then have to contact the internet service provider and clear your name. If you have an autoresponder with a great reputation, they will do this for you-- another incredible time-saver.

4. Sending out an email with everyone's email address viewable is not only unprofessional-looking, but it sets up a situation for those addresses to get copied and pasted onto a spammer's email list somewhere. By using an autoresponder service, each recipient receives an email addressed only to them.

How to choose an autoresponder service-

The best autoresponder services have great reputations with internet service providers, and will keep track of everything for you. All you have to do is write the emails and paste the sign-up boxes for your newsletter on your website.

Your autoresponder should offer an unlimited number of lists, as well allowing fairly big numbers of people on each list for one flat monthly fee, or at least a reasonable scaling of price according to the size of list.

Your reward for staying in touch...

By building your list and staying in contact with them through a service such as an autoresponder, you will create familiarity, friendship, and trust. Since people buy from people that they know, like and trust, you'll reap the benefits of greater income, as well as doing business with people who like and trust you- a winning formula all around.