Finding the Right Autoresponder

Finding the right autoresponder can be a time consuming task as there are many choices available in the market, each with different features and price range.

So it is important that you consider your budget and requirements when deciding on which autoresponder to buy.

The purpose of this article is to give a balanced and objective review of the issues involved in choosing an autoresponder.

Following are the most important issues to consider when choosing an autoresponder:

1. What are your needs and the features you required?
2. What are the types of autoresponders available in the market?
3. Which type of autoresponder is right for you?
4. What are the available brandnames in the market?
5. Comparison of different brandnames including features, price range and licensing restrictions.

What is an Autoresponder?

An autoresponder can be defined as a program that sends out a single automatic reply in response to an email to a specific email address.

Many of us have either received an autoresponder message or used one before. Examples are messages like: "I am on vacation" or "I received your email."

Most web hosts offer this type of single-reply autoresponder free in the email accounts that come with their hosting package.

The problem with this type of autoresponder is that it is designed to send out only a simple one-message reply to whatever emails it receives.

This is often not enough to maintain the continued contact or to deliver the content you want to offer your visitors.

Besides, it also lacks some important features needed to do proper follow-ups.

For example, it cannot add prospects to a subscriber list and then send them a series of personalized, follow-up messages.

This brings us to another program known as a "sequential" autoresponder.

What is a Sequential Autoresponder?

A sequential autoresponder is a program that is designed to collect email addresses and then send out a series of pre-written messages via emails to the list of subscribers on a predefined intervals.

A well-known "fact" that is often quoted by internet marketers states that it takes an average of seven (7) contacts to close a sale.

A sequential autoresponder, if used correctly, can make your site "sticky" by reminding your visitors to come back for more visits.

Since most people often refer to a "sequential autoresponder" as an "autoresponder" (by omitting the term "sequential"), we shall adopt the same naming convention here. So the term "autoresponder" used hereinafter refers to a "sequential autoresponder".

Types of Autoresponders

There are many different types of autoresponders in the market, from web-based autoresponder services to proprietary programs or scripts that run from your own web server or computer.

Since an autoresponder is likely to be a central part of your online business, it is worth your while to do some research to find the type of autoresponder that meets your major requirements. This will save your a lot of time and money in the long run.

The types of autoresponder in the market can be broadly classified into three types as follows:

1. Remotely-hosted autoresponders i.e., those hosted on and work from someone else's website.
2. Locally-hosted autoresponders i.e., programs that work from your own web server.
3. Desktop-hosted autoresponders i.e., programs that work from your own workstation or computer.

It is important that you understand the advantages and disadvantages of different types of autoresponders before deciding on which one to choose for your online business.

Keng Hong Quek

Dr. Daniel Keng Hong Quek, a consulting civil engineer by practice, is the principal of the engineering consulting firm Dr. Quek & Associates. He graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering, Master of Engineering Science and Ph.D. degrees from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia in 1986, 1987 and 1991, respectively, and has been active on the Internet since 1995.

Dr. Quek is a professional engineer registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia, and a corporate member of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia. He is also a registered EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) Consultant with the Department of Environment Malaysia and the Natural Resources and Environment Board, Sarawak.

Dr. Quek has over 20 years of post-graduate experience mainly in consultancy work. He specialises in the field of water resources including hydrologic and hydraulic modelling and environmental management. He is a regular contributor of engineering journals, seminars and conferences, with more than 30 publications to his credit.

Besides engineering, he is also interested in using the Internet to market his services.

One of his early ?successes? was a popular website called Water Resource & Environment Centre which provides free resources in water resources and environmental management.

In 2002, he started conducting training workshops for engineers. This was when he developed the website msmam.com for his participants to download his free software for use in the workshop.

He wanted to find ways of promoting his paid workshop. So he started offering free downloads of his software (evaluation version) to visitors at his website. He set up an autoresponder on his main page.

To request for the free software, the visitors must fill up a form on the page with their names and email addresses. This will be entered automatically into a database and the autoresponder starts to do the followup at pre-determined intervals. In this manner, he has built up a list of thousands of subscribers and many have signed up for his workshop :-)

Realising the potential of the autoresponder, he began selling it on the Internet in 2005. Besides selling software, he has also been successful in building portal sites to profit from Google?s Adsense program. This involves getting high ranking on popular keywords in major search engines to bring visitors to Google?s advertiser sites.