Work Digital autoresponder article

Work Digital E commerce marketing article:

Autoresponders and their use in internet advertising and online marketing.

AUTORESPONDERS

An autoresponder is a computer program that sends a response to any email received at a specific email address. They can range from very simple to quite complex programs and scripts.

If you are going to be using the internet for your marketing efforts then an autoresponder will allow you to automate some of the more mundane email chores.

There are basically two types of autoresponder:

1. There is the outsourced autoresponder where you usually pay a monthly fee although you may find some that are free. These autoresponders are usually configured via a web based control panel and they are the easiest to implement by the end user.

2. Then there is the server side autoresponder which enables the user to install the autoresponder script onto their own server. Some technical skills are required to upload and set the script up correctly.

You may find you have access to a very simple autoresponder on your isp or email service. These autoresponders are normally limited to a single message that is sent in reply to your incomming mail. These are generally used to inform people you won't be answering your mail because you are away from your computer. If you have your own hosting you will probably have a simple single message autoresponder in your cpanel environment

For your marketing efforts you are going to need a sequential autoresponder. These allow you to post many messages at pre determined periods.

If you are using a server side autoresponder you will only be limited by your webspace and bandwidth.

When running a server side autoresponder you may come across some difficulties in sending to specific email addresses, in particular AOL. AOl seem to keep track of the number of emails you are sending to their members and once you reach the threshold your email ISP is blacklisted for the rest of that week/month. This problem does not occur when using the outsourced autoresponders as they are in constant contact with postmasters.

You may be able to get in touch with a postmaster yourself, but it is not going to happen immediately, and may take longer than you have got to establish your program

If you are using an outsourced autoresponder the number of messages per autoresponder and the number of autoresponders that you can run will be set by the company you rent the service from.

A word of warning here about using the free outsourced autoresponders. They will put an advert in every message you send out. This does not look very professional and others marketers will know you are using a free service. One large problem with the free services is they will be taking some of the impact from your sales message by mixing in their own sales pitches.