January 22, 2008
A Broad View of Autoresponders
Wikipedia defines autoresponder as a computer program that automatically answers e-mail sent to it.
Autoresponders can be very simple or very complex.
Earliest autoresponders were created within mail transfer agents. These were kind of bounce messages when they were not able to deliver the mail.
You must have come across a mail that bounced and says something like “your e-mail could not be delivered because…”.
Many mail services today provide an option of automatic reply when you are going on vacation etc. That is also an example of autoresponders.
But autoresponders are much more than that. Autoresonders are marketing tools that are used to build list, provide content to email subscribers, offer automatic downloads and launch email campaigns.
When used as an e-mail marketing tool, autoreponder immediately provides information to their prospective customers and then follow-up with them at preset time intervals.
Autoresponders can be broadly divided into two categories.
First category are the autoresponders that operate on the provider’s infrastructure and are usually configurable via a web-based control panel. The customer pays a monthly usage fee and is provided access to the features of autoresponders. Advantage of this kind is that everything related to maintenance is on service provider’s head. It is easier to implement and quite popular.
SPAM is also a danger with autoresponders and service providers are better in dealing with this issue.
Hosted Autoresponders — In this kind, the user installs the autoresponder system on their own server. This requires technical knowhow. Everything related to administration is on the head of user. He would also have to deal with SPAM issues.
Autoresponders are also part of some electronic mailing list software. They are used here to confirm subscriptions, unsubscriptions, posts, and other list activities.
Autoresponders are valuable tool in internet marketing and online business. They have become an indispensable part of arsenal that marketer would carry to succeed.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Got A Tip, Idea or Suggestion. Share It Here