Jump to the following topics:

1. What is an autoresponder?  
2. Advantages and disadvantages.   
3. Features of autoresponders.  
4. Resources.

What is an autoresponder? It is a system in which someone sends an email to the autoresponder's email address (to request a file of information), and then the autoresponder automatically emails the specified file. This is the same principle as fax-on-demand. An autoresponder is also called a mailbot, mail robot, or mail reflector.

Advantages and disadvantages.  

1. Advantages.
   • Many people use email but they do not have web access. An autoresponder allows us to send our information to those people via email.
   • An autoresponder allows us to give a quick response to an inquiry (before the customer loses interest). If someone writes to us via regular email, we might not be able to respond immediately. (We do sleep sometimes.) However, an autoresponder works 24/7 -- and the response is usually delivered to the person within several seconds.
   • It's easier for our customers to click on an autoresponder's email link than it is for them to click on a URL link, and then look around on a website for the information they want.
   • Autoresponders can be used for various purposes: sending information, confirming an order, saying "thank you," acknowledging a customer's email (e.g., "We received your email, and we will answer your question personally within one hour"), etc.
2. Disadvantages.
   • We can only give a limited amount of information. However, the autoresponder is a simple way to send our basic message to people; then they can be directed toward more information (at our website or phone number or postal-mail address).

Features of autoresponders.  

1. Cost. We can get autoresponders for free, from our website host, or from companies which provide free autoresponders (in exchange for the opportunity to put their own advertisement at the bottom of each autoresponder message). If we are paying for an autoresponder, the fees can include:
   • Setup fee.
   • Monthly fee.
   • A fee when we change our autoresponder message.
2. The number of outgoing messages. For example, we might want to have 10 autoresponder messages -- one for each of our 10 products. Each autoresponder would have its own email address; for example, book3@domain.com, book4@domain.com, etc.
3. The number of responses. The options are:
   • Unlimited hits. Some providers charge a flat fee regardless of the number of people who request our autoresponder's message.
   • A limited number of hits. Some providers charge a flat fee up to a particular number of requests (e.g., 20,000 requests); if we exceed that limit, we pay extra.
4. Message size. The options are:
   • Unlimited size. Our email can be 100k or more.
   • A limited size. For example, our message might be limited to 20k or less.
5. Ease of use. We need to be able to create new messages, and to change existing messages. We should be able to do this with simple commands -- or with an emailed message to the business which manages our autoresponder service.
6. Tech support. Via email or phone. Quick response. 24x7?
7. Logs. There should be logs which indicate the email addresses of the people who requested our autoresponder messages (so that we can send a follow-up email to those people).
8. Approval of text. Some autoresponder providers must approve our ad copy before we can put it into an autoresponder message. (They might want to be certain that our ad does not contain libel, copyright violations, etc.)

Resources.

1. Our ISP or website-hosting service. Some ISPs and hosts offer autoresponders.
2. Autoresponder providers. Search for "autoresponder" in a search engine.