Overview
Autoresponders are email messages automatically sent to the subscribers in your contact list(s) with a specific purpose and within pre-defined intervals.
For example, you can design a welcome autoresponder to be triggered and applied to a contact list(s) 10 mins after someone subscriber to the list(s). You can then, maybe a week or 10 days later, set up another autoresponder to be triggered with a discount code for your product/service as a thank you. Two or three weeks later, you can have another sent as an invitation for them to follow you on social media and so on.
The possibilities and purposes are limitless!
The importance of autoresponders – what do they do?
We’ve all heard the saying “Time is money” at one point in our lives – be it professional or personal ones – and when you can save time, a lot of it, you can dedicate it to brainstorming for ideas to increase your revenue, or plan a holiday. It sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
Well, in an automated world – especially in the email marketing one – autoresponders do exactly that, save you time. If you’ve set up everything correctly, subscribers will receive key email messages from you without having to worry about manually emailing them out. It’s a great benefit!
There are numerous awesome possibilities of what you can do with autoresponders based on your subscriber’s online actions or what you know about them. We’ll list just a few. For example,
- you can use an autoresponder to wish your subscribers happy birthday or congratulate them on their work anniversary, send them a reminder prior to a flight or booking form on the anniversary of a vehicle service;
- you can use them to minimise unsubscribe requests, spam complaints and non-opened emails;
- you can use them as reminders about upcoming holidays and seasonal offers;
- you can use them to move subscribers between autoresponder’s groups after they’ve purchased a product or service (i.e., from a ‘prospect’ designed emails to ‘up-sell’ email series for clients);
- you can move them from one type of autoresponder group to another based on specific links they clicked in the email campaign they received; or
- you can send them an autoresponder a year after they subscribed to your contact list(s) to show them some love with a loyalty scheme or personalised promo code.
Overall, autoresponders can and will do whatever you want them to. We’ve just scratched the surface with the above examples. Once you’ve let your creative juices flow there’s no limit to what the autoresponders will achieve.
Why do I need them?
We won’t give you a long list of pros and cons. Instead, we’ll just outline a few key benefits and give you the time to make up your own mind about them.
- Autoresponders are automated which enables you to use the power of mass communication and still give your subscribers a personalised experience based on their behaviour and you’re pre-defined marketing road-map.
- Autoresponders can help you minimise unsubscribe rates, spam complaints and non-opened emails by giving you a way of providing useful, engaging content and amazing offers to your subscribers. As long as you make sure the unsubscribe link is easy-to-find and your opt-in and opt-out messages are correctly designed your subscribers will be happy.
- Autoresponders will deliver your best content, in the best possible order and at the best possible frequency. You just need to set it all up!
- Autoresponders don’t have sick days! They don’t need the weekend off for Independence’s day (or Autoresponder’s Day).
- Autoresponders create a great experience not only for your first subscriber but for you 1,000,000th one as well.
- Autoresponders are always taking care of business even when you’re sipping Margaritas on the beach!
So, what do you think?