A Detailed Overview of a Autoresponder

Regardless of the approach you’ve taken for your email marketing campaign, the reality is that a strong email marketing campaign always leads to increased sales, higher lead conversions and brand awareness for the business organization.

Due to this, most online marketers ask you to pay a lot of attention to why email marketing campaigns are important for your core online marketing strategy.

This allows you to focus on developing an effective campaign, and use the right kind of tools to support your strategy. An email autoresponder is one of the most effective tools you can use to strengthen your email marketing campaign. Choosing an email autoresponder can be tricky. In this post, we have explained everything about an email autoresponder, and the key features you need to look for in an autoresponder.

What is an Autoresponder?

An autoresponder is a very simple, yet effective email marketing tool that allows you to send a specific set of scheduled follow up mails to shoppers. These mails are sent on the basis of specific parameters you choose to apply.

For instance, you may need to send a standard follow up email to all the customers who purchase a particular item. This follow up email may contain a coupon you want to send to specific customers. It is also possible that you just want them to gather information about products and accessories. An autoresponder can be applied in many such situations.

Most autoresponders are designed with two individual components that work together. These have been discussed below :

• Autoresponder - An automated email-marketing campaign contains a set of messages that are sent to shoppers when certain actions are triggered.

• Automation Rules - Rules are a set of situational actions and triggers you specify. They determine when and where autoresponder messages are applicable.

In the last few years, autoresponders sending sequential follow up messages have been used more and more by professional internet marketers. When it comes to getting an autoresponder, there are two different options.

One options is to buy professional autoresponder software that you want to install. You can even install a professional to hire the software on your system. If you have technical knowledge, you can handle software installation without any problems. It won’t take long before you’re changing email protocols, managing bounces and other technical issues.

On the other hand, if you want to focus on your actual purpose of marketing, run your business operations and create messages, it is important to use a hosted autoresponder service. When you choose a hosted autoresponder service, you will receive some special benefits. The autoresponder seller or company will make sure that all kinds of software and hardware issues are quickly resolved. Moreover, the company will also make constant efforts to keep the software updated with changing market trends.

Most online marketers choose to pay a monthly fee so that technically proficient professionals can focus on various technical requirements, while marketers focus on business operations. Once you have chosen a specific autoresponder service, the next step is to create specific messages that will be sent by the autoresponder.

It is always better to create 5-7 follow up messages. Many different marketing studies have proved that it can easily take about 7 contacts before the customer decides to purchase anything from you. It is worth mentioning that a follow up autoresponder can help you maximize profits by capturing valuable visitor information, and helping convert leads into customers.

Features You Need to Look for

An autoresponder needs to have some basic features. It should give you some abilities to strengthen your marketing campaign. For instance, it should :

• Manage and Create unlimited mailing lists

• Send numerous emails via Amazon SES, Client’s Host, Gmail, SMTP, SendGrid and more

• Create unlimited autoresponder sequences for exceptional profit and power

• Instantly allow you to see data and statistics for who clicked, took desired action and opened the emails

Other features an email autoresponder should include: Advanced Abilities
The tool you use should be able to pull Facebook demographics. Such a tool will allow you to focus on certain clients while targeting their gender, age, location or whatever you prefer. This provides numerous benefits including :

• You are not added to the junk list.
• You never lose someone on the basis of age, gender or location.
• You can easily strengthen your relationship with existing clients and build a relationship with prospective clients.

Social Media Opt In
 It should allow you to opt in by a single click of the button to your social media account. The autoresponder should also support Google and Facebook accounts. You should be able to add your clients on various social media accounts and connect with them wherever they feel comfortable.

Open API
With an open API, you can easily have customized applications and integrate them with the email autoresponder. Moreover, you can also integrate the autoresponder with your own systems.

QR Codes Opt In
The tool should allow you to scan a QR code with a smartphone or tablet. This allows you to eliminate all psychological barriers related to traditional methods. You can easily step up your game.

Import Lists
If you are currently using another autoresponder service and have a contact list, you should be able to import it to your new account. This will make sure you don’t lose your current email list. When you import lists from your old service, the demographic settings and social media profiles should stay intact.

Training Videos
Every feature of the email autoresponder should be described with a training video on the respective page. You shouldn't have to hunt for information all over the internet. You should be able to straight away get started as soon as you sign up.

These are some of the features you should look for in an email autoresponder. You need to look for all these features to make sure you’re able to strengthen your email marketing campaign. These days, you can find a lot of autoresponders in the market.

Some of the best ones include GetResponse, Aweber, and GVO. They have been designed by marketing experts to make sure your email marketing campaign benefits, and gives great returns.

For more about autoresponders, read the blog post titled, "What is an email autoresponder?"