How to Make AutoResponders Work For You?
If you have been using email for some time, or if you currently run a website, you'll probably be familiar with autoresponders. Autoresponders are those canned messages that you receive when you email someone. They are commonly used to automatically reply to people who email you that you have received their message and will get back to them in person. Some people use autoresponders for vacation notices, telling their correspondents that they are currently on holiday and will not be responding to the email anytime soon.
Autoresponders are useful to webmasters in a few ways:
- They can be used at your technical support email address to tell your users that you have received their message and will get back to them soon. Such messages are important because it reassures your customers that their support request has arrived at its destination and will be attended to when you are available.
- It can be used to send prospective customers information like the price list of your products, your FAQ (frequently asked questions) and other fixed information. People emailing that address will automatically get that message in reply.
- It can be used to send email course modules. For example, if you have a three week course, with course information or documents to be sent to your students once a week, you can simply request your students to send their addresses to your autoresponder. The autoresponder will then reply to your students with the course package at the scheduled times.
- A variation of the above is used by some webmasters to sell their courses. They advertise a particular address by which customers can receive a free sample of their courses (or book). The autoresponder then sends (say) 3 chapters from the course or book to the customers over three successive days. On the fourth day, the message asks the customer to sign up for the rest of the paid course or book if they wish to continue. Since the customer has sampled three segments (or chapters) of the course or book, he/she is able to decide whether or not to continue. If the course or book was particularly good, the autoresponder segments can be an effective sales gimmick to draw the customer to buy that product.
Where to Get Autoresponders
If your autoresponder needs are simple, such as merely sending a single message reassuring your customers that you'll get back to them, you can probably use the free autoresponders that usually come as part of your web hosting package. The procedure to set up these autoresponders vary from web host to web host, but it is usually trivial, involving a visit to your web host's control panel to activate it.
If you need an autoresponder to send more than one message, or if you need to schedule messages to be sent at certain intervals over a period of time, you will either need to program your mail system on your domain, or use one of the free (or commercial) autoresponder systems around (some of which are listed below).
The free autoresponder services listed below are third party services: that is, I do not run them nor do I have any control over them. In general, the services are provided free in exchange for advertising - that is, many of them place advertisements in your autoresponders (usually at the beginning). Visit the sites listed below to find out more details.
- SendFree provides statistics on the performance of your autoresponders and advertisements. You also get to place free targeted advertisements on other people's autoresponders. For example, for every two advertisements published in your autoresponder, one of your advertisements is published in someone else's autoresponder.
- FreeAutoBot sends an unlimited series of follow-up messages in an interval you decide. You can personalise the message to include the recipient's name and email address. Unlike most free autoresponders, no advertisements are inserted into your message (at the time I checked them out).
- GetResponse gives you an unlimited number of follow-up email messages of any length. You may attach files to those messages, view the list of email addresses that requested the autoresponders, view statistics on your autoresponders and configure the autoresponders so that replies will be sent to you.
- MyReply allows you to personalize your messages with the recipient's name and email address as well as schedule up to 9 follow-up email messages. As with most of the other services, you can view the statistics on your autoresponders and configure replies to the autoresponder to be sent directly to you.
- FastFacts allows up to 10 follow-up email messages, forwards replies to the autoresponders to you, and provides statistics on the performance of your autoresponders.
Update: Cautionary Note
When I first wrote the above article a few years ago, spam was not as serious a problem as it is today, hence the article has a more optimistic view of sending correspondence courses and sales pitches through email.
Today, sending anything by email to people you do not know always involves a risk. Basically, you risk people sending in others' email addresses to your autoresponder and when those people receive your messages, they will accuse you of spamming them.
As such, I recommend that you evaluate your needs before you blindly rush off to implement an autoresponder for your courses or sales pitch or the like. Of course simple autoresponder messages like "Sorry, I'm on vacation" and "I'll get back to you" type of messages for support email addresses are probably okay since it's pretty obvious it's not spam.
Furthermore, if you use autoresponders to send a series of messages, you might also want to include some sort of note at the beginning of the autoresponder to remind your subscribers why they are receiving this. There must also be some way for them to stop receiving those messages.
Frankly, I think the use of autoresponders to send a series of messages nowadays is not a good idea. If you're thinking of using autoresponders to send correspondence courses, you might consider using a mailing list or newsletter instead; the latter allows you to make sure that the recipient confirms he wants the course before he even receives anything, thus protecting you from false accusations of spam.
10 Ways To Effectively Use Autoresponders
1. Use your autoresponder to publish an ezine.
High quality autoresponders will automatically manage your subscriptions for you, follow up with your prospects at intervals you decide upon, and allow you to broadcast personalized messages to your subscriber base.
These features make autoresponders a perfect and low cost solution for creating your own newsletter that keeps your visitors informed about your products or services while also building up your credibility as an expert or resource in your field.
2. If you sell advertising space in your ezine make your price list available by autoresponder, and include this autoresponder address along with your website details within your ezine and when sending out solo ads.
3. Create your own e-mail courses that you give to your visitors by autoresponder.
Your email courses can be a series of tips that center on a topic that relates directly to your product or if you write articles you can use your articles to form the basis of your course.
Promote your business throughout your course by showing your readers how your product can benefit them (i.e., automate a tedious task, save them time, money, work, or increase their sales).
Also make known to your visitors the different features of your product, but translate these features into tangible benefits your visitors will get for purchasing your product.
4. Use your autoresponder to continue to remind your visitors of your product after they've finished your course. This will help you successfully obtain sales from people that for whatever reason put off purchasing your product.
It's also a good way to introduce new products, sales, promotions, and the products of affiliate programs you've joined to your subscribers.
5. If you write articles, make your articles available on your site by autoresponder along with your publishing guidelines.
In addition, make a list of all your articles along with their autoresponder addresses available by autoresponder, and post this address on your site and when posting your articles to article announcement lists.
This will give your visitors a handy resource to get your articles in the future, and increase the number of publishers that run your articles.
6. Use your autoresponder to create a mailing list that tells your subscribers when you've written new articles that they can run in their ezine or publish on their website.
7. If you provide a resource site for your affiliates filled with your marketing material, make your articles available by autoresponder within this site, and increase your profits by getting your articles published in your affiliates' publications and high traffic web sites.
8. Publish an affiliates only newsletter with your autoresponder.
Increase your sales by using your newsletter to tell your affiliates of any new sales you have running, of any new promotional items your affiliates can use to increase their commissions, and of any tips and techniques your affiliates can use to successfully promote your services.
9. Generate more repeat traffic by using your autoresponder to make a mailing list your visitors can subscribe to that tells them when your site is updated with new content such as new articles, resources, or ebooks.
10. Ask your visitors on your order page if they would like to subscribe to be notified of any special offers or discounts on your products in the future.
This will create a very responsive mailing list because everyone that is on it is someone that has bought your products or services in the past.
Mailing List Software
Mailing list software stores and manages your subscriber and customer email lists, and sends out periodic and broadcast newsletters and mailings.
Here are some popular mailing list software programs and services, with more coming soon.
Last Update: Wednesday, May 11, 2005.
| Screenshot |
Description |
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Mailloop, by Cory Rudl, is a downloadable software program for receiving and replying to emails, managing email contacts, sending custom autoresponders, managing subscription mailing lists, and publishing newsletters. |
| Format |
Free Trial |
Cost |
| Downloadable software |
N/A |
$379(4x$94.75) |
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| Screenshot |
Description |
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MailerMailer is a professional opt-in email mailing list management service provider that handles text and HTML newsletters. |
| Format |
Free Trial |
Cost |
| Web-based application |
Yes |
Free-$349.95/month |
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MailerMailer
| Overview: |
MailerMailer is a professional opt-in email mailing list management service provider that handles text and HTML newsletters. |
| Last Update: |
Thursday, September 27, 2005. |
| Screenshot: |
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| Features: |
Send up to 500,000 messages, or more, per month.
Send up to 100kb messages.
Unlimited number of subscribers.
Web-based system - no downloads or plug-ins required.
Target your subscribers based on interests, demographics, or custom questions.
Option to ask new subscribers to enter general contact info (email, first name, last name, title, company, address, city, state, zip code, country, phone, fax, and email format preference), plus up to 7 custom fields.
Option to personalize messages with subscriber information, such as their name.
Automatic formatting and delivery of HTML or text email.
Templates to create and preview email newsletters.
Option to fetch HTML message from your web site.
Option to schedule messages in advance to be sent at a later date and time.
Single or double opt-in.
Import existing mailing lists.
Live click tracking report tracks each link in your messages, including who clicked on each link and when.
History of every user's subscription info to protect you against spam accusations.
Free version available.
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| Benefits: |
Automatically manages subscribe and removal requests, and bounced emails.
Manage all your mailing lists with one easy-to-use, web-based interface.
You can manage a number of mailing lists with just one account.
No need to set up or install software or scripts.
Does not tax the resources of your server.
Template helps you create HTML messages easily and quickly.
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| Review: |
MailerMailer is an excellent mailing list management service.
Over the last 5 years, I've used a number of mailing list service providers, including MailerMailer.
Their system is the best I have used so far. It offers all the basic and some useful advanced features, and a simple-to-use interface.
I especially like the option to schedule messages in advance to be sent out at a later date. It's great for when you go on holiday.
It's also easy to create HTML messages with their template system. It takes you step-by-step through the entire creation process.
One of the main reasons why I chose to use MailerMailer for my business was because of their excellent pricing structure. The pricing structure is based on the number of messages sent each month, rather than on the number of subscibers you have in your list.
The basic package costs $29.95 per month and includes up to 20,000 messages, which is probably enough for most businesses.
With that particular package you have the flexibility to send one message per month to 20,000 subscribers, or 2 messages per month to 10,000 subscribers, or even 4 messages per month to 5,000 subscribers. The choice is yours.
So long as you don't send more than 20,000 messages in a one month period, you won't be charged extra. And even if you do go over your limit, you only pay an extra $0.70-5.00 per thousand messages, depending on the package you have subscribed to.
MailerMailer offers all of the features you could want in a professional mailing list management system, at a very attractive price. You can see why I chose this service for managing my mailing lists.
I highly recommend MailerMailer, if you're searching for a professional mailing list management service provider! |
| Accolades: |
"Very user-friendly... makes the lay-person look like an expert in managing email lists."" - Jeffrey Kaplan.
"... one of the most user-friendly services I have come across. I had our account up and running in a matter of minutes" - Mark House.
"The live reporting, especially the 'Who Clicked' report, gives us instant feedback on what our subscribers are interested in." - Doug Allston.
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| Format: |
Web-based application. |
| Require: |
Internet connection. |
| Size: |
N/A |
| Free Trial: |
Yes |
| Costs: |
Free - 200 messages per month.
$29.95 - 20,000 messages per month.
$49.95 - 50,000 messages per month.
$79.95 - 100,000 messages per month.
$349.95 - 500,000 messages per month.
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Visit the MailerMailer web site  |
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