One of the most powerful ways online businesses communicate without spending a lot of time is through auto-responders.
This is essentially a series of pre-programmed email messages triggered when someone puts their email into a form on your website.
My guess is that you have experienced one of them yourself through a mini course or automated response to a registration.
However rarely do people explain how these are actually set up. This is a great “under the hood” video on how many savvy online marketers automate their online businesses.
http://youtu.be/NTUs1hGxRk4