Autoresponders

Autoresponders are messages the sending time of which is dependent on the date of subscription. Autoresponders are designed to familiarize your customers with the brand and your messaging in order to start forming brand loyalty.

With the help of autoresponders, you can easily create a chain of welcome messages. For example, the first message will be sent immediately upon subscription, the second after two days, and the third after a week. In the settings of the autoresponder you can specify the intervals at which the messages will be sent.

To create a new autoresponder message, follow these steps:

Preparation#

1. From the left-hand navigation, select Email Messages > Autoresponders.
2. Click Create autoresponder.
3. There are two types of editors in which you can compose your message, the Regular Editor and the Drag & Drop Editor. Select the one you prefer.
   
4. Fill in the From name field with the name which you want to appear in your subscriber's From column. In the From email column enter the email address from which you intend to send your message. You may also add another name and another email address for your subscribers' reply emails — in this case, fill in the Reply-To name and Reply-To emailfields.

   What sender name should you choose?#

   The sender name entered in the From name field is typically the name of your company. We recommend using the same name and address in all your emails, as consistency helps with brand recognition. Furthermore, email messages from known addresses are more likely to be placed in the inbox folder, and any pictures included in them are more likely to be displayed.

5. Enter the Subject of your message.
6. Optionally, you may add a Preheader — a short description which follows the subject on the list of messages in the inbox. Preheaders are an effective tool for drawing your subscriber's attention to your email and improving open rates.
   
7. Please note that you can also use a personalization tag in any of these fields. To insert a personalization tag, click on the  icon next to the relevant field and select the appropriate item.

Composing your message#

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Polish, test and preview:#

1. You should see the content of your message in the content window. At this point, there is a number of additional options which you can explore:

   Headers and footers#

   You may add a header or a footer to your message. Usually this contains a company logo, contact data or similar content. In order to insert a header or footer with this option, you need to prepare it earlier as a template. Go to Templates to learn how to prepare header and footer templates. Once you save it under a specific name, you will be able to access it here under that name.
   

   However, remember that you can also use the editor in the message wizard to create a header and a footer for each message individually.

   Google Analytics#

   If you use Google Analytics, you may integrate it with your ExpertSender messages in order to gain access to the insights offered by this tool. Simply check Enable Google Analytics and fill in the fields. To learn more about Google Analytics integration, read Use Google Analytics with ExpertSender.

   URL integrations#

   URL integrations enable you to add custom information to the URLs in your message. For instance, you may include a personalization tag or any other variable. Later, you may use this information to carry out statistical analysis. To learn more about URL integrations, click URL integrations.

   Add an attachment#

   You may add attachments to your message. Click Manage attachments and select the files from your hard drive. The size of all attachments cannot exceed 400kB. 

   Blacklist check#

   When you select Blacklist check, our system scans the entire HTML code, derives all domains from URLs, but also from all redirected URLs and checks each domain against major blacklists, such as SpamHaus, SURBL and URIBL. We strongly discourage sending any creatives containing blacklisted domains or URLs that redirect to any blacklisted domains.

   Send to seed list#

   Seed lists are designed to store either test email addresses or 3rd party seed email addresses. Test email addresses are usually used by our clients to test creatives (their deliverability and rendering) before the actual message is launched. Best practice is to first test a creative by sending it first to your test email addresses at major ISPs like Yahoo, Outlook.com, Gmail or AOL. 3rd party seed email addresses are usually used for estimating the percentage of inbox placement. To learn more about seed lists, read Managing lists.

   Email test#

   Email tests are a useful tool to verify how your message will be displayed in various clients. Our email test utility offers previews for all of the most popular desktop, web-based and mobile clients.

   Live preview#

   With the Live preview utility you may verify how your message will be displayed for a specific email address. Live preview is particularly useful if you want to test your Dynamic Content. For example, you may check if a subscriber will receive a message with their name displayed properly.

2. If you are not satisfied with the result, continue editing your message. Otherwise, click Next.

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Add recipients

1. Select the subscriber list (or segment) you want to send your autoresponder to.
2. Click Next to proceed.

Choose delivery settings#

1. Specify the period of time (in hours or days) that will elapse before a new subscriber receives the message.
2. The option Override delivery cap refers to the limit on the number of messages which may be sent to one subscriber within a given period of time. Delivery capping by default prevents your subscribers from being flooded with too many messages and it is advisable to set a sensible cap for each list (see Managing lists for more information). However, if you need to send more than one message to a subscriber within a short period of time, allow the cap to be overridden so that your message will not be blocked even in case it reaches the limit.
3. Select the IP channel configuration which will be used for sending the message. If you select Standard, your message will use the default configuration. To adjust IP number usage to your needs, select Custom and determine the email load associated with each IP.
4. You may also add some tags to your message, such as "discount" or "special offer". Later on, you may use a tag to find a specific message more easily, or to create a segment of subscribers who, for example, have already received a "special offer" email.
   

You're almost there!

1. Carefully analyze the summary. If you would like to make any changes to the message content, selection of recipients or delivery settings, feel free to return to any of the previous steps.
2. If you are ready, click Finish! Your message will be activated shortly.

Your autoresponder is ready#

Autoresponders are automatic messages, which means that they will be sent each time a new subscriber is added to the list.

To deactivate an autoresponder message, find it on the list of autoresponder messages (Email Messages > Autoresponders > Active) and select the Deactivate icon in the Actions tab. 

To edit an autoresponder message, make sure that it's inactive (or deactivate it). Then, go to the Email Messages > Autoresponders > Inactive tab and click the Edit icon.

To create an autoresponder chain, you need to create each message separately. You only need to remember to set appropriate intervals for each chain message (e.g. the first message — 0 hours, the second message — 1 day, the third message — 5 days).

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