Choosing An Email Automatic Responder

Every successful Internet marketing guru says you should have use an email automatic responder. You’ve probably researched deep into them and decided to get one but… which one? Forums are full of people asking this question and the answers you get are so wide and varied, although you will soon begin to see a few that are championed by the majority, how do you know it will work for you?

In my experience managing email automatic responders for others as well as my own business, I’ve discovered a few essential features an automatic responder should have which I’ll share with you in a minute. Before we go there, let’s quickly tackle the different types of email automatic responder systems.

Email automatic responders come in two flavors. A straight basic one which can only reply to the sender when it receives an email. This is often used for feedback thank you emails, contact forms, request for a price list and the likes. The other type is sequential email automatic responders. It can follow up with a customer several days, weeks or months after purchase, it can send email courses daily, weekly, every other day and so on. In short, it is a ‘smarter’ system. The sequential email automatic responder is the one we will focus on.

So let’s get started. What does one look for in an email automatic responder system?

Deliverability
No point if your emails don’t get through. This is why you need to choose a reputable service, one who understands the challenges of email marketers and works hard to keep their customer base ‘clean’ if you will. You may end up paying a little bit more with them but it will be well worth it.

Tracking
Metrics is what makes your marketing more effective right? So you definitely want to have some kind of tracking tools. The ability to track different sign up points is definitely top of my list. This can tell you which pages you are getting your subscribers from and if you should work on them or leave them alone.

Tracking clicks is a nice addition especially if you do not have any other tracking system in place. This tells you what interests your subscribers enough that they are willing to click through to look at.

Split Testing Capabilities
This feature is one of the first things to look for because it can tell you which web copy brings you more subscribers, split testing the emails itself can also help you decide what to say in your email so you know at a later date what language you should use and what appeals to your list.

Editing Thank You Pages
Thank you pages can be highly rewarding real estate. You want to put offers to sign up for other newsletters or check out an affiliate product here so the ability to send people to a special thank you page is important. If you are building a double opt-in list, ideally the email automatic responder system allows you to edit both the sign up thank you page and the confirmation thank you page.

Sharing Email Automatic Responder Sequences
This can be such a powerful tool. If you create a 7 day email course, you could share it with your affiliates or resellers, let them build their own list based on your content as well as promote your products. If you are in direct sales, this is a wonderful way to share content with your down lines. This helps them get up and running quickly and still look professional.

The ability to copy your content to another list also helps lighten your work. For example, if you have created a 10 day course and want to create a new list based on that first one, surely, you do not want to re-write or copy paste the whole sequence all over again.

Integrating With Shopping Cart
Some people ask why do this when you already have the ability to contact customers within the shopping cart? The answer is – follow up automation. After purchase follow up helps reassure the customer of their wise purchase, it keeps the communication flow open so you are right there at the top of mind when they need something else you sell.

Scheduling Emails By Date And Time
Many email automatic responder services can handle both automatic response and regular newsletters. When it comes to regular newsletters, the ability to schedule your emails is definitely a plus point. Some days we are more productive and have the motivation to write out several newsletters ahead of time. If you can schedule them, you don’t have to remember to publish your newsletter; you can even go off for a month long holiday and your newsletters continue to mail out as if you never left. I’ve also found this takes away a load of stress from me come publication day every week.

Personalization
You want to be able to address your prospects by name.

Automatically Move Subscriber Upon Event
Useful so your customers don’t end up in the pre-sale list. This feature allows you to automatically move them to a special customer’s only or special list.

Use Your Own ‘From’ Address
You definitely want to be easily recognizable, it also helps build trust and relationship

Reports
Although this isn’t that high on my list but I do look for it. The ability to generate reports especially in graphical formats that tell you which days is popular for sign ups, which time of day are your emails read most can be quite useful.

Knowing this, you might be thinking what do I use? I’ve personally chosen Aweber, an unlimited email automatic responder service for their deliverability track record and commitment to keeping their customer base spammer free. I’m very happy with their service. If your budget does not permit $20 a month, you might want to review this automatic responder service comparison chart.

Why Not Use A Software or Script?
Firstly, many desktop based software require a SMTP email address. If you run your own dedicated web host, it could work but most people don’t. Never ever use the email your ISP gives you because it could get you banned quickly as this could be a violation of their terms of service so check with them.

As for scripts, this is even more complicated because you have to maintain the script and the integrity of that data. I’ve found maintaining my own email automatic responder scripts caused me to lose a lot of sleep. Here’s more information about email automatic responder scripts.

Your next steps, keep this article and the automatic responder service comparison chart handy and use it as a checklist as you review the different automatic responder services. Best of luck in your search.