Autoresponders are an extremely useful tool for big businesses that send out newsletters to large volumes of recipients, to whom personalized responses would take a tremendous amount of time, effort and therefore money. Auto responders can be used to follow-up with clients in a timely and systematic way, whether it be to confirm a purchase or to confirm a subscription or unsubscription.

When creating the autoresponse to be used, keep a few things in mind.  First, it is important to make the presence of the auto response very minimal.  In other words, personalize your response so that it forges a relationship with the recipient.  In the greeting line, use their first name, avoid using general salutations.  In the subject line of the e-mail, if possible, use their name again to catch their attention. 

Be sure to receive a sample of the autoresponse to your personal e-mail address to see how it delivers.  Testing is a very important part of sending these messages, because they go out in such high volumes.  One error will carry through to many clients and could be potentially damaging.  Test the autoresponse to various e-mail services as well, just to make sure that there are no discrepancies in the delivery amongst them.  It is also critical to double check the content of the message you are sending, either with a colleague or by using the grammar and spell check tools available on your computer.  If a fresh pair of eyes can look at the response that would be ideal.  A message with any typos or mistakes would take away from the credibility of the company.

By law, the autoresponse should have an “unsubscribe” option.  It can be a link that is placed at the end of the message, or it can also be part of the text itself.  This way, the recipient is always given the choice of not receiving future messages on this topic.  If your company receives such a request, it is imperative that you act upon it very soon, as that is also required by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which gives the sender 10 days to follow through on this request.

Finally, it is recommended to use professional services for autoresponses.  With a professional provider, you are likely to have a better chance of delivery with your message; otherwise it is possible the message could get filtered in SPAM.  Additionally, these providers will also backup your database of contacts, which is always useful data to protect. 

The autoresponse feature is a widely used tool that, when used correctly, improves efficiency of a business and strengthens relationships with clientele.