Autoresponders automatically send emails from a website in response to certain actions or conditions on the website. Autoresponders are an essential part of any successful website. We categorize autoresponders as being either internal or external based on who is being automatically emailed. Both are equally as common and equally as important to any successful business website.

External autoresponders respond to people outside of your company by sending out emails to them within moments of taking some form of action. The most common types of internal autoresponders deliver decision making information to website visitors, prospects and customers in response to their request.

The requested information can be immediately delivered to them without the time delay of someone in your company having to read the email, think about an appropriate answer and draft a response. This could take anywhere from several hours to weeks depending on the frequency of which company emails are read and processed and during this waiting time hot leads often go cold.

For example, on our www.lycheesonline.com site we offer a free lychee idea kit in return for visitors providing an email address and allowing us to email them periodically with special offers & updates.

Internal autoresponders automatically send emails to webmasters, salespeople, sales managers or other individuals within or inside your company to notify them that certain events have occurred on the website.

A very common form of external autoresponder is the error reporter that sends information to the webmaster if there are technical errors occurring on the website. The email contains such things as when (date and time) and where (the actual web page) where the error was detected and some detail about the type of error.

The most powerful use of autoresponders is when you use combination internal and external autoresponders to manage leads on your website.

For example a Request for Quotation (RFQ) is a popular type of website contact form. When a prospect fills out the RFQ, you can use an external autoresponder to immediately send them an email thanking them for their request and directing them back to key areas of your website for more information. The internal autoresponder is used to simultaneously send an email to you or your salespeople notifying them to follow up on the lead.

Internal and External autoresponders are essential tools to managing your magnetic website and the leads & customers that it attracts. They tirelessly fulfill the requests of visitors, require little to no care and feeding, and they work around the clock without pay. Maybe you should consider putting them to work for you.