Navigation:  Your first autoresponder > Creating Your First Autoresponder: A Tutorial

In this chapter, you're going to create your first autoresponder using Email Autoresponder.

The autoresponder you create will:

Step 1: Creating the Autoresponder

Select Campaigns » New Campaign » Autoresponder from the menu bar. A screen containing the properties of your new autoresponder  will appear.

Type your company name into From Name and your company's email address into Reply Address. For Subscription Address, type factsheet, for Description type Product Fact Sheet.

Click the Create button. The properties screen will be replaced with the Messages for Campaign: Factsheet screen for your newly created autoresponder. The table of messages says “No messages found” which is correct because we haven't added them yet!

Step 2: Adding the Immediate Message

Let's add the first (immediate) message to the sequence. Click the Add Message link on the sub-menu bar.

Clicking the Add Message link adds a new message to the sequence for this autoresponder and takes you into the Messages » Create Message screen for your new message. This is where you enter the settings of the new message and also the message text.

This is the first message in your example autoresponder, and as we said, it's going to be sent back as soon as someone subscribes to your autoresponder. This is called the immediate message of this autoresponder.

Each of your autoresponders can have one immediate message, or none.

Step 3: Setting the Message Properties

So let's set up your immediate message. In the General Settings section:

Step 4: Entering and Personalizing the Message

Scroll down to the Plain Text Message box. This is where we enter the text of the message that will be sent back to your subscriber.

We want this message to be personalized with your subscriber's first name. We can insert that into the message using a special tag that will be replaced by your subscriber's name when the message is sent.

For first name, the tag is {FIRSTNAME}

But we also need to control what will happen if Email Autoresponder does not have your subscriber's first name stored. For example, they may not have included their name in their email address or they may omit to enter it on your subscription form.

We handle this situation using a default entry. The default entry is the text that will be inserted into the message if Email Autoresponder does not know the subscriber's first name. For our example, we will use “Internet Marketer”.

So the complete tag that we will use to insert your subscriber's first name is {FIRSTNAME Internet Marketer}.

Enter the text shown below in the Plain Text Message box in the Message Text section. It's common practice when sending plain text e-mails to press return at the end of your lines of text, rather than letting the recipient's email software decide where lines should break. By inserting hard line breaks (ie pressing return), you have greater control over where your lines of text will end. Lines should be no longer than 60 characters, certainly no more than 65.

Here's the message text that you need to type:

 

Dear {FIRSTNAME Internet Marketer}

 

Thanks for requesting more information on our product. It is the best in it's class and costs just $10.00 if you buy it before the end of the month.

 

It's available in red, green or blue and in standard, super and deluxe models.

 

Thanks again for requesting our factsheet, we look forward to welcoming you as a new customer.

 

Regards

The Widget Product Development Team

 

Step 5: Previewing Your Message

Before you save the message, you can preview it. Click the Preview button on the Plain Text Message heading line.

The screen will redraw and a new window will open showing how the message will look when your subscriber views it in their email software. The {FIRSTNAME} tag has been replaced with an example first name, John. NOTE: Make sure that you switch off any pop-up blockers which may prevent the preview window from appearing.

The message automatically includes an unsubscribe link at the end of the message. Later you will find out:

Step 6: Saving the New Message

For now, we've completed creating the immediate message for your new factsheet autoresponder. So close the preview window by clicking the cross in the top right corner and save the message and its settings by clicking the Save Changes button at the top or bottom of the Messages » Create Message screen.

You will be taken back to the Messages for Campaign:screen for the “factsheet” autoresponder. It shows the message you just created as the only message in the “factsheet” sequence. Note: its Schedule setting is Immediate.

 

The Actions column in the list offer you some choices for working with the message you just created:

 

Step 7: Adding the Two Follow-Up Messages

Add two more messages to the sequence for the “factsheet” autoresponder. The only difference is that each of them will have their Schedule set to Use Interval and their Interval set to 1 day. This means that the first follow-up will go out one day after the immediate message and the second will go out one day after the first follow-up.

Are you ready to add those two new follow-up messages? Click Add Message to begin! You can use your imagination for the message text. “Just a quick follow-up to check...”, “Can we be of further help....?” etc.

Summary of Creating a New Autoresponder

Congratulations! You have now created your first follow-up autoresponder called “factsheet” in Email Autoresponder. It contains one immediate message that will be immediately sent back to your subscriber, and two further follow-up messages that will be sent at intervals of one day. The messages are in plain text format and are personalized with your subscriber's first name. We have told Email Autoresponder what to do if it doesn't know your subscriber's first name.

Finally, each of the three messages has an unsubscribe link at the end.

Checking the Length of a Message

You can check the length (in characters) of your plain text message by clicking the Message Length link under the Plain Text Message box where you typed the message text.

Some Additional Points

 

 

---