At the time when online business was started, there was no software to reply to the customer's or the users subscribed to the website. Every subscriber has to be sent mail individually which is a great mess if the numbers of users are in thousands.
Then, autoresponders came into act to send automatic pre formatted messages to the subscribers on a specific time, so as to get more traffic into the website. Before choosing the autoresponder for your online business, you have to know few points on the autoresponder.
Know about autoresponder
Autoresponder is a type of software that allows you to send messages to your subscribers or customers in bulk to save time and as well as ensure them to make business with you. You might have seen ordinary autoresponders in outlook express (out of office reply). But this replies back with a message whenever the mail is sent.
A sequential autoresponder is further more than ordinary autoresponder that will send specific mails to a group of email ids. Furthermore, it is divided as remotely hosted (hosted from other web server), locally hosted (hosted from your web server) and desktop hosted (hosted from your computer in which the complete software is pre installed, similar to an antivirus).
There are many types and huge variety of autoresponders available in the market. Thus, you have to first know your exact need and choose the right one needed.
Factors to select an autoresponder
Autoresponders provide many facilities based on the rate they charge for maintaining them. Firstly, the autoresponder has to be reliable.
Choose an autoresponder from a company that is well established and has good track record. The autoresponder must be compatible and flexible for your need. Choose the autoresponder that delivers your email at the right time and gives back a delivery note.
Autoresponders must allow you to expand your list, categorize them and there should be no email limit. Many autoresponders not only gives you feature of just delivering bulk mail, but also some analysis software about what your subscriber is really interested and to work towards that path to increase your online business.
If you are a new starter, always go for user friendly auto responders rather than those one which requires a coding. Some autoresponders do not reach the user's inbox but to the spam folder. Be careful while choosing the one's that reach the subscriber surpassing the spam folder.
Cost is one of the biggest factors while choosing the right software required. So, choose the one which suits your need and under your budget.
Before choosing an autoresponder
Always go for a trial version of the software before buying them. I prefer test driving the software so as to know whether it really suits my business and it boosts my business and if yes, at what rate.
Never get caught into fake advertisements and additional features those are not necessary for your website. Check the company's records for their service support after you install the software and read as many as reviews for the autoresponder possible before giving a try.
Look for necessary features such as import and export of mailing list, unlimited messages and campaigns. If you are hosting an online business, it is better to opt for remote or local hosting rather than desktop hosting as if hardware gets crashed, you will not be able to access the autoresponder and if you don't have a backup it becomes disastrous.
An autoresponder must be customizable with the mailing list and should adapt to the changes in list quickly as time is more important. You can't afford a newsletter being delivered a day late than the expected.
Though there are many free autoresponders such as mailchimp but I would suggest you to go for professional autoresponders such as Aweber, i-Contact, GetResponse, etc.
If you have just now started your subscriber list, start with a free autoresponder. But, once you reach a bunch of users, shift for a trial version and choose one that is professional.
Subscriber list is not an easy task to build and if you spam the users, you will annoy them and you will lose your business.
I would personally suggest you to try a trial version, know how the responder works and you can easily choose the one needed keeping your budget in mind.
Invest lot of time in choosing the best autoresponder as it is the core support for your online business.
Try preset autoresponder for specific days such as birthdays, New Year wishes, etc., and try to make your subscribers happy and get interested to your website again and again.
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