If you're new to email marketing, you have probably noticed that there are a lot of different terms to get familiar with. Email autoresponders are one of them. Autoresponders can be a powerful revenue driver for your business. It offers a cost-effective and consistent way to nurture new leads and guide them through your sales funnel. 

Autoresponders require only a one-time setup. They enable busy entrepreneurs to save time and generate revenue. However, how do you create an effective autoresponder series? In this blog, we’ll explore what autoresponders are, how to set them up, and the best tools available.

What is an Email Autoresponder?

An email autoresponder is a feature that automatically replies to emails when they are received. Typically, autoresponders are triggered by specific actions or emails. To set one up, you need to enable the autoresponder and create a predefined email that will be sent automatically.

For example, if you’re going on vacation, you can set up an out-of-office response. This way, your email client will automatically notify anyone contacting you that you’re unavailable during that period.

Why Should Businesses Use Email Autoresponders?

When autoresponder emails are used correctly, they provide important messages at the right moment, enhance the credibility of your brand, and increase sales. Email Autoresponder offers significant benefits, including:

1. Instant Email Replies

Autoresponders allow you to specify when an email should be sent. With an autoresponder, the email goes out immediately, ensuring that the customer receives timely information. This enhances your email marketing campaign by increasing customer engagement.

2. Generating Leads

With each new lead, you can gently encourage them to make their first purchase. In the end, autoresponders can help you turn more leads into profitable customers.

3. Boosting Brand Credibility and Loyalty

When users submit a complaint or support ticket, they receive a prompt response. These quick responses reassure users, building long-term trust and confidence in your brand.

4. Timely Response

Autoresponders reduce the workload of writing and sending emails by sending pre-written responses on time. For instance, you can prepare an email before going on vacation, and it will be automatically sent when needed, keeping your email responses timely and consistent.

5. Save Time

Once you have created an automated email flow, there’s no additional work needed. Every time a new customer signs up or makes a purchase, you can be confident they’ll receive relevant and engaging content without manual intervention.

Different Types of Email Autoresponders

You can set up various types of autoresponders, from one-to-one responses to email marketing series. Here are the primary types of email autoresponders:

1. Customer Service Autoresponder

When users send emails with questions or issues, you can use autoresponders to confirm that their inquiries are received and will be addressed promptly. This type of autoresponder allows you to provide immediate acknowledgment, enhancing your customer service and email marketing performance. You can set up separate responses for different types of inquiries, such as refunds, returns, or demo scheduling.

Quick response times are crucial for maintaining positive relationships with clients, and autoresponders can assist by sending immediate confirmation emails. These messages reassure customers that their inquiry has been received and that a team member will respond shortly.

2. Out-of-Office Autoresponder

If you’re away from the office and unable to respond to emails, an out-of-office autoresponder informs recipients of your unavailability. These auto-replies often include details such as:

• Reason for absence and duration
• Date and time of return
• Contact information for an alternative person during your absence

3. Mailer Daemon

A mailer daemon is a server that manages email delivery. If an email fails to reach its recipient, a mailer daemon sends an error report back to your mailbox. This is a type of autoresponder that notifies you if emails don’t arrive due to:

• An incorrect or misspelled email address
• Restrictions allowing only whitelisted senders
• An email address that no longer exists due to domain changes or employee departure

4. Autoresponders for Employees Who Have Changed Jobs or Relocated

You can set up an autoresponder for employees who have left the company, notifying anyone who emails them of their departure. This autoreply should provide contact details for a new employee or department to ensure seamless communication. 

5. Double Opt-In

Automated double opt-in emails play an essential part in permission-based email marketing. They help maintain a healthy email list and ensure your campaigns reach subscribers' inboxes. Here’s how it works: when someone subscribes to your email list, they receive an automated email with a link to confirm their subscription.

Double opt-in offers several benefits, including:

• Removing misspelled email addresses that would otherwise cause bounces
• Preventing accidental signups and serving as proof of consent (required by data protection laws like GDPR)

Double opt-in is a must-have autoresponder for all email marketers.

6. Welcome Emails

Welcome emails are among the most popular autoresponders in email marketing. You can easily create a welcome email using your preferred marketing tool. These emails are also an excellent way to generate leads by offering new member discounts or promotional codes.

7. Onboarding Emails

Unlike a single welcome email, an onboarding series typically includes multiple messages to guide new customers or users. This autoresponder series can help users get started, providing guides, tips, and other resources over a series of four to five emails.

8. Abandoned Carts

When a visitor leaves an item in their cart on your eCommerce site without completing the purchase, an abandoned cart autoresponder can re-engage them. The first email should be sent within hours as a gentle reminder, followed by additional messages over the next few days to encourage them to return and complete the purchase.

Autoresponders can be tailored for many functions, improving customer interactions and enhancing the efficiency of your email marketing and support processes.

4 Best Email Tools with Step-by-Step Guide to Setup Autoresponder

The top email marketing services offer ready-made automation that is easy to customize, enabling you to build complex workflows in minutes. Here are some free autoresponder tools that you can use for your campaigns.

1. Neo

Neo is a rising star in personal and professional communication. This email hosting platform is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses, offering dynamic features such as an email autoresponder, a free one-page website for all plans, personalized email addresses, no-reply mailboxes, email marketing tools, and scalable plans.

Along with email autoresponder, Neo includes a drag-and-drop email builder, making campaign creation simple even for beginners. Users can create their ideal autoresponder sequences in just a few minutes by adding sophisticated elements to the available, responsive email templates.

Neo Features

• Priority Inbox: Important emails are automatically organized in a separate tab, ensuring they receive immediate attention.
• Lightning-fast Apps: Experience seamless connectivity with Webmail, desktop, and mobile apps.
• Turbo Search: Neo's advanced search functionality can produce search results up to ten times faster.
• Rules: Customize your inbox with rules to move emails to specific folders automatically, mark them as read, star them, or forward them.
• Email Templates: Neo includes preloaded templates, so you don’t have to start from scratch.
• Simple One-Page Template: Neo's one-page website builder is straightforward and requires no expertise.
• Advanced Security Measures: Protect your account with Neo’s advanced anti-spam, antivirus, and two-factor authentication.

How to Setup Email Autoresponder with Neo?

Here are the steps to set up email autoresponder with Neo: 

Step 1. Log into your Neo webmail and then click on Settings at the top right corner. 

Step 2. Click on Preferences and then turn on the toggle option in front of Auto-reply. 

Step 3. Pick out a From date and To date. In the To option, you can choose from two options: Until I turn it off or Pick a date and manually select a date. 

Step 4. Type in the Subject and Message for your automated reply. You can even format the text using the tools in the rich formatting toolbox. 

Step 5. Add a signature using the Insert Signature icon. 

Step 6. To control how frequently a particular email sender should receive the automated reply, you can set the number of days the autoresponder should reply to the same email. 

Step 7. Click on Save

2. MailChimp 

MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing autoresponders. It has been found that MailChimp has a clean user interface, an intuitive template editor, and an easy-to-use workflow builder for creating automated messages and delivering them to subscribers’ inboxes.

However, MailChimp’s automation features can be challenging for beginners despite the reliability of its email editor and autoresponders. If you’re new to email marketing, it may take some time to get comfortable with the tool.

MailChimp Features

• Custom workflows with multiple steps to reach your target audience
• Predictive insights to enhance marketing campaigns
• Easily customizable email newsletter templates
• Extensive knowledge base with guides and tutorials (for free plan users)
• Integrations with popular apps like Shopify

How to Setup Autoresponders on MailChimp? 

Here’s how you can set automated reply on MailChimp: 

Step 1. Create your MailChimp account and head to the tab that reads Automation. It offers a list of automation, and if the type of automation you require is unavailable, then you create your Custom Integration. 

Step 2. To guide you through, let’s set up p a Welcome series for your autoresponders. Click on Add Automation under the Welcome Message option. 

Step 3. Name your responder according to your motive and pick a list of users your message should target. 

Step 4. The welcome series includes three placeholders by default: a Welcome message to the list and two follow-ups. Click on Design Mail, choose a subject line, and pick a template or create your own template for your message. 

Step 5. After choosing the template, use MailChimp’s drag-and-drop builder to add content. If you are satisfied with the design, then click on the Save and Continue button. 

Step 6. The Welcome Series autoresponder schedules the first email to be delivered a day after the new subscriber has joined. However, this can be changed as well. Go back to the Automation tab, select the autoresponder you just created from the list of available ones, locate the edited email, and then change the settings to Immediately under the delay option. 

Step 7. Repeat the same steps to add more automated replies. 

3. Brevo

Brevo is a free email autoresponder tool that uniquely integrates email and SMS marketing, allowing for transactional emails across both channels. The platform includes a straightforward email editor, enabling users to customize templates or build an HTML email campaign from scratch.

Another valuable feature is Brevo's segmentation tool, which helps you target new subscribers with relevant content.

Brevo Features: 

• SMTP server for transactional emails and SMS
• Advanced segmentation options for grouping subscribers
• Personalization tools for SMS marketing
• Contact list management for the organization
• Landing page builder to increase lead generation

How to Setup Autoresponders on Brevo?

Here are the steps to follow: 

Step 1. Log in to your Brevo account, go to Campaigns on the Dashboard, and click on New Template. You can choose from a pre-designed template or create a new custom template using a drag-and-drop editor. 

Step 2. Once the template is ready, go to the Dashboard and click on the Automation tab. Then, select the Create a New Workflow option. 

Step 3. Brevo offers two options: creating a custom workflow from scratch or using a predesigned workflow available in the Brevo Workflow Library. 

Step 4. Click on the Welcome Message from the available workflow types and click on Create. 

Step 5. You must have created a signup form posted on your website that saves the list of email addresses interested in signing up for your services. Now, choose the list that matches the signup form and decide on the timeframe your subscribers will receive the welcome email. 

Step 6. Select the email template that you have just created and click on Finish. 

Step 7. Now, you can see your created workflow and set it live by clicking Activate the workflow in the top right-hand corner. 

4. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is one of the most effective and powerful email marketing platforms available today. Its feature set is amazing, with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, comprehensive analytics, and cutting-edge automation. If you spend a lot of time on complex, multi-step campaigns, ActiveCampaign can help you complete them more quickly.

All of the basic autoresponders are included, but there is also a vast collection of more advanced automation recipes for every situation. Depending on the information you provide ActiveCampaign during account setup, it will generate several templates relevant to your industry.

ActiveCampaign Features 

• ActiveCampaign can assist you with SMS marketing and even provides ready-made templates.
• The "Reports" tab allows you to track the performance of your automation.
• Access sales automation recipes and contact management tools.
• You can create automated site messages based on a contact's interactions with your company.

How to Setup Autoresponders on ActiveCampaign?

Here’s how you can set responders on ActiveCampaign: 

Step 1. Click on Campaign and then Select Create a Campaign. 

Step 2. Give a name to your campaign, click on Autoresponder, and then hit on Next. 

Step 3. Complete the fields to set up details about your campaign before moving the design. 

Step 4. Select the Campagin builder you want to use. Create with Email Designer is selected by default. However, click on the down caret to select the designer of your choice, such as Classic Designer, Custom HTML, or Text-Only Designers. 

Step 5. Select the template from the pre-designed template library or click on the Start from Scratch option. 

Step 6. Add content, modify the look and feel of your campaign, and click on Next. 

Step 7. Configure the settings on the Campaign Summary page, such as whether you want to send the campaign to an existing contact, by clicking the toggle button. For new senders, the sending timeframe is set to immediately, but you can change it by clicking on the dropdown menu next to Send to New Contacts and entering the number of days/hours you want the autoresponder to send the welcome email. 

Step 8. Click the Finish button and complete the setup.  

Bottom Line

An email autoresponder is a useful tool that automates the process of sending emails. Depending on your company’s goals and marketing campaign, the autoresponder can send various types of emails. Using an email autoresponder can help your business save time, improve customer satisfaction, and increase brand trust.

When creating an autoresponder, it is critical to identify the trigger, write the response, specify the conditions, and then validate the autoresponder. Adhering to best practices and routinely assessing the autoresponder’s performance can achieve efficient and professional email communications.

Neo is the top choice when searching for the best autoresponder tools. It is a complete suite of features for email and growth that aims to speed up the online growth of small businesses and entrepreneurs. Select Neo as your starting point for business growth!

FAQs

1. How many messages can I send per day from a single list?

There is no limit to the number of messages you can send from a single list. However, sending many emails in a short amount of time is not advised unless the recipient anticipates it. Otherwise, they may feel overwhelmed by the volume and choose to unsubscribe.

2. What makes an effective email autoresponder?

The best email autoresponders are simple to use and offer numerous automation options. The number and quality of the platform’s pre-built automation templates, as well as the autoresponder’s price, are also important.

3. Which is the best autoresponder tool?

Neo leads effectively as the best autoresponder tool. Its advanced segmentation features, along with the numerous triggers and actions available through the automation workflow builder, make a significant difference. If you're not sure where to start, there are hundreds of pre-built automation workflows to choose from.