PUTTING AUTORESPONDERS TO WORK FOR YOU

You probably used an autoresponder last time you took a vacation. Simply stated, when you receive an email an autoresponder sends a response to the sender. At flyte we use them on our contact form to tell visitors we've received their email and will respond shortly.

But an autoresponder can accomplish much more for you. Say you have some valuable content: tips, industry reports, white papers, etc. You want to provide them to your visitors, but you want to follow up by email to “seal the deal”. How do you make sure they're providing you with their REAL emails, and not a made up email–like x@x.com?

Set up an email address like articles@yourdomain.com and set up an autoresponder that contains the content of the article. By providing their real email address they'll receive the article. If the email is bogus, they'll get bupkis.

Alternatively, your autoresponder could contain a link to an article as opposed to containing the article itself. This method will give you more control over the formatting of your data, and will allow you to protect material not easily sent via email, such as a Flash movie or an audio file.

Using an autoresponder to deliver content will increase its perceived value to your visitor. However, it may reduce the number of people who view that material, so use it judiciously. While it may make sense to protect some unique, sensitive or proprietary data, you shouldn't make it difficult for visitors to read your sales or marketing material.

If you have questions on how to set up an autoresponder on your own site, please contact us.

–Rich Brooks

President, flyte new media