Outsource Autoresponder Setup

Autoresponders are great helping tools for marketers and business people who communicate a lot through email. They are special programs used for delivering automated email responses for routine signups and inquiries, and for automated sending of newsletters, ads and special offers.

Employees who either have gone on vacation or have tons of email sent to on a daily basis also rely on auto-responders to instantly return a response to their clients in those times when they can not attend to them immediately. Autoresponders will assure their clients that their concerns - no matter how trifle or urgent - will always be welcome.

There are two kinds of autoresponders that you can set up. One is a simple auto responder which will not send a copy of the email that generated the auto-response email. This is advantageous when you want to set up something like a coupon which can only be accessed through an autoresponder. By sending an email to a specific email address, your customers will get the coupon which you have set up through the autoresponder. This way you don’t have to be bothered by email requests for the same reply email that carries the coupon code.

Another kind of autoresponder is the one which sends an autoresponse AND sends you a copy of the email which generated the autoresponder. This way you can track down the number of requests and the corresponding responses. Also good for checking whether the responses were delivered as intended and on time.

Here are some tips on how to set up a SIMPLE AUTORESPONDER:

1. First, log into your cPanel. Then go to the Mail Menu and then select Auto-Responders. At the bottom of that screen, click “Add AutoResponder”.

2. Type in the specific email address which you want to “trigger” the autoresponder. Try to make this specific and different from your catch-all email address. For example, “coupons@yourdomain.com” or “download1@yourdomain.com”. TAKE NOTE: Autoresponder email addresses are CASE-SENSITIVE.

3. Type in the “From” name which you want to appear in the From line when the recipient receives the autoresponse email. This can be Support or Admin.

4. Type in the Subject which you want to appear in the Subject line when the recipient receives the autoresponse email. This depends on the nature of the auto-response, such Inquiry, Confirmation or Special Coupons.

5. Character set: Leave as is unless you know what you’re going to put into this.

6. HTML: Check this box only if you want to send HTML email. (Note: This is not advisable because a lot of people have disabled HTML email in their email programs to avoid malware and viruses.)

7. Body: Type in the email message which you want your readers to see in your autoresponder message body. For great tips on writing autoresponder messages, read Miles Baker’s post “Six Autoresponder Tips.”

8. Click the “Create” button under the Body window.

Tips in Setting Up an AUTORESPONDER WHICH SENDS THE ORIGINAL EMAIL:

1. Set up an autoresponder in your cPanel as described above.

2. Now go to Mail Menu and select Forwarders. At the bottom of the Forwarders window click on “Add Forwarder”.

3. Add a forwarder from your autoresponder “trigger” email address to the email address where you usually receive mail. For example, coupons@yourdomain.com ==> info@yourdomain.com (this is if you usually receive your email at “info@yourdomain.com) This will forward the trigger email to you at info@yourdomain.com so you can see the actual email sent by the person who triggered the autoresponse. PLEASE NOTE: Forwarder “from” email addresses will automatically be converted to all lower-case. Therefore your Autoresponder, which is case-sensitive, must be all lower-case.

4. Test your configuration by sending yourself an email and waiting for the autoresponse. If possible, send from a different email address than your domain email (say, your personal email or a free temporary email address, if you have one) so you can tell the emails apart better when they send and receive for testing purposes. This will also tell you how well the autoresponse works when senders use different kinds of emails from different providers.

These tips will help you in setting up an autoresponder using the client already in place in your hosting account. Check your cPanel for the service. If it’s not activated and you want to use one, you can choose to install a free service online like Aweber.

Creating pre-made email messages that are professional and well-formatted and choosing which messages to send to certain people or criteria is one of the important tasks for setting up an auto-responder. Testing to make sure that it works and maintaining it can be the least of your worries when you have someone to watch it for you even when you are out of the office.

Outsourcing your autoresponder setup process is cost-effective and highly recommended for beginner webmasters and bloggers. It’s simple and can be managed by one person; two if you want to enjoy your life more and not be held down in front of the desktop 24 hours a day. Agents of Value specially offers this service for a very affordable price. Please contact us today for more information.