Autoresponder Service

What an Autoresponder

An autoresponder is a mail utility that automatically sends a reply to an e-mail message. Autoresponders are used to send back information on a topic without having the requester do anything more than e-mail a particular address. They are also used to send a confirmation that the message has been received.

Autoresponders are often used as e-mail marketing tools, to immediately provide information to their prospective customers and then follow them up at preset time intervals.

Autoresponders are also incorporated into electronic mailing list software, to confirm subscriptions, posts and other list activities.

Sequential Autoresponder
A sequential autoresponder is a program that is designed to collect e-mail addresses and then send out a series of pre-written messages via e-mails to the list of subscribers at predefined intervals.

A well-known fact that is often quoted by internet marketers states that it takes an average of seven contacts to close a sale. A sequential autoresponder, if used correctly, can make your site 'sticky' by reminding your visitors to come back for more visits.

Advantages and Disadvantages of an Autoresponder

Although many web hosts (ours included) offer unlimited autoresponders, each autoresponder is only capable of sending one response. With the use of this autoresponders service you could, for example, send a seven-part e-mail course.

Building business relationships with our autoresponder service can increase your sales. Marketing experts generally seem to agree that a person needs to be exposed to your message multiple times before they respond or buy. If someone subscribes to your autoresponder because of their interest in a subject, you can then supply them with helpful information on a regular basis. Thus, you establish trust and a relationship with your prospective customers. When they trust you, they are more likely to act on your recommendations and buy from you.

The business model that many free autoresponder services use is allowing end users to use the system for free but getting paid through advertisements by third parties whose ad's are placed in your email messages. If those advertisements are not a distraction to you, then you get something for nothing. However, having a paid advertisement inserted into your message might be considered similar to having a sales meeting with one of your prospects and having someone else enter the room and try to pitch their product or service at the same time. Even if the product or service that they are pitching is not in direct competition with yours, it's still a distraction.

Because many paid services require your list to "double opt-in"* you may find it difficult or impossible to transfer a list you have built using a free service over to a paid service at a later date. Something to consider, if you think you may out grow your free autoresponder service.

*Double opt-in is where a confirmation message, that needs to be responded to, is sent to anyone who wants to subscribe to your subscriptions.

What we do for you

We will supply and install the autoresponder software and create your first autoresponders ranging from the simplest “I'm out of the office!” to automatic follow-up's sending out messages to your prospects at predefined intervals.

We will also setup your e-mail accounts with a web site signature allowing all recipients of your e-mail to click a link that will take them directly to your web site.

We can set up your autoresponder to send out weekly e-mails on a subject related to your products or services. All you have to do is simply create messages containing each part that the e-mails consists of. Your autoresponder software takes it from there. Anyone interested can now subscribe by sending an e-mail and each part is automatically delivered as scheduled until they cancel their subscription or the last part is sent.

This autoresponder software is compatible with all standard (POP3 and SMTP) e-mail servers available on the market today. We can set it up to be used with either with your own mailbox provided with your ISP or with your corporate alias mailbox hosted on your own servers. The choice is yours.

The Products

Using this autoresponder software you can send automatic follow-up e-mails to your prospects. You can create as many messages as you like and define the intervals between subsequent messages. For instance, you may want to send the first e-mail one day after the initial contact, next one a week later and so on..... Each message can be completely personalised to show that you care about your relationship with your customer.

Creating a new autoresponder or a new e-mail to your prospects is as easy as clicking the 'New' toolbar button. You have a choice of creating a simple one-off autoresponder or a sequential autoresponder, you can use to send a follow-up message from a predefined sequence, a click-through tracking link that lets you measure response to your e-mail campaigns and a broadcast message, all of which will be explained in detail after we have installed the software onto your computer.

The built-in message WYSIWYG editor lets you create really stunning content. The editor has support for any number of file attachments (Word documents, Excel spreadsheets etc.) and you can use mail merge to personalise and customise your messages.

Want to create a sequential autoresponder? You can create any number of automatic follow-up messages with user-defined delays between each subsequent one. For instance, if you create two messages, first with an interval of one day and the other with the interval set to one week, and add a prospect to the database, he or she will be sent the first message exactly one day after the addition and then the second one eight days since the addition (a week since the first message). Once again we will explain this in detail to you after we have installed the software on your computer.

The software has support for ‘opt-in’ and ‘opt-out’ including ‘double opt-in’ where a confirmation message is sent to anyone who wants to subscribe. Both requests by e-mail and web forms are fully supported.

Design Web Studio offer two versions of this autoresponder, a Standard Edition and a Professional Edition, details of both editions are listed below.

Standard Edition
Quick set-up,very easy to use
Unlimited autoresponders and messages
No banners or 'sponsor ads'
Full control; install on your machine
No monthly fees, one time payment
Fully automatic operation
Send Newsletters and ezines
Support for plain text and HTML
WYSIWYG HTML message editor
Mail merge
Stunning sending speed
Built-in SMTP server
Automatic bounce handling
Support for opt-in and opt-out by email
Advanced import of email addresses

Professional Edition (has all of the Standard Edition plus….)
Unlimited attachments
Sends in background
Smooth delivery of large amounts of emails
Support for any number of POP3 servers
Simple integration with web forms
Support for ‘opt-in’ confirmation
Measure click-through rates
Never again send to someone who says you are spamming them
Usage reports
Up to 64 custom fields per prospect
Looping protection
Integrated backup / restore

AUTORESPONDER (Standard) COSTS £130
AUTORESPONDER (Professional) COSTS £165