The question here is not if should you have an automatic responder email software or not, because you should. The question is how should this autoresponder look in order to please your readers and customers?

What Is the Autoresponder

An autoresponder is a function used by a web site or email software to generate an automatic reply to certain emails sent by users.
Individuals can also use an autoresponder. The most usual is the “out of office auto reply”.
Autoresponders are usually only a part of your broadcast email software (alias bulk email software) and represent a great convenience in sending mass email.
Web sites can use the autoresponder to thank users for subscribing & confirm passwords, for posting a comment, voting, filling in a query or placing an order. Apart from thank you messages, the autoresponder collects double opt ins (asks the user to confirm a previuous online subscription via email); they confirm that an order has been submitted. The same functions go for an email software.

The Autoresponder in a Bulk Email Marketing Campaign

An email software can use an autoresponder to allow users to get more information on a certain topic or product, that you don’t want to detail in the newsletter body. This is also an effective selection tip, that helps you identify purchase intentions. The little secret about autoresponders is that you should let your subscribers easily guess that they receive an automatic generated message. You shouldn’t make them believe that the answer comes from a real person. A phrase like please do not send reply to this address (message) will do it.
However, autoresponders should carry friendly, personalized messages. If the autoresponder asks for an email address and other data in order to provide information, that data should be used exclusively for that specific (specified) reason. An email address collected by an autoresponder for one-time use, cannot be considered an opt in form for your further newsletters.

Self standing autoresponders

Aweber — subscription based autoresponder software, available for $19.95 monthly.
Get Response — available on a subscription basis, that will cost you $17.95 monthly.
Postmaster — one time software license that you install on your PC and prices can range from $199 to $599, for various versions.

About opt in bulk email from the perspective of the online-based business owner, or how to walk into consumer’s minds via email.
Let’s imagine you decided to bring your business online. You want a big emailing list and a catchy newsletter to convert the receivers into faithfull, happy customers.
There is one major question: “How do you bring your commercial message in the consumer’s email box in a friendly, unoffensive manner?”
The first painful truth is you’re not alone in this. Thousands of people have the same initiative every day. The second one is nobody seems to be happy when receiving dozens of unsolicited commercial emails every day. Still, you need to make yourself heard.
The most important players in the online business community today seem to unanimously accept that using opt in bulk email is the best option.

What Is Opt In Bulk Email?

Opt-in became the usual term for the most legal (not to mention ethical) way of action when sending mass email.

Basic Principles of Opt In Bulk Email

1. People in your email list (prospects and customers) have agreed, one way or another, to receive your newsletter. They are called “subscribers”.
2. Your subscribers must be able to unsubscribe any time they want.
3. Your subscribers need to be reminded how they got on your list.
4. The email addresses and personal data that people provide in the subscription form are confidential; you can’t forward this data to anyone else, unless you have their explicit accept.
5. You can’t subscribe by default somebody in your emailing list to other newsletters that you decide to edit.
Suppose your database has under 100 subscribers. This is a list you can easily manage using exclusively the options that your email client provides (whether this is Outlook, Eudora or any other.)
When you surpassed 100 subscribers it becames really difficult and uneffective to manage the emailing list without a specialised software.
In the next sections we’ll cover:
the essential features of an email software
how to manage the bulk email list, low cost and effectively
how to choose the best email software from the thousands available on the market.
Other terms for opt in bulk email marketing are permission-based or targeted bulk email marketing.

A spam accusation that came out of nowhere is not absurd, nor easily swallowed. How to be prepared:
You worked hard to build your opt in, targeted, bulk email list. You request double confirmation at subscription. You have an easy unsubscribing method and still… you run the risk of spam accusation.
Why?
There are people that subscribe to your newsletter and then quickly forget about it.
There are people that subscribe their friends or …enemies for newsletters, without asking permission.
There are people that, wishing to unsubscribe your newsletter, accidentally or not, hit “This is SPAM” button.
There are people that use your free content in spam emails, and people that won’t believe you don’t have anything to do with the spammer.
If you don’t keep your list clean of bounces, your ISP server may get confused about your tactics.
Sometimes people are so bitter to catch the spammer that they go on carelessly accusing innocent persons.
What is there to do about it?
Validate subscriptions after a double opt in request.
Request confirmation from subscribers that they have read your privacy policy and agreed with it.
Don’t lie about your identity, don’t lie about the subject of your message, don’t send unrequested email, honour unsubscription requests immediately.
Keep your list clean of bounces.
Get listed on ISP’s white lists.
When you receive a spam accusation, do your own research to see what really happened.
Don’t freak out. Can Spam Law is not meant to nail you, you can use it to prove your good faith.
Ultimately, if there’s no way to prove you weren’t spamming, prove at least that you follow some basic rules:
don’t lie in the ‘Subject’ field about the message’s topic;
allow people to opt-out;
don’t use return false addresses.
One important detail is that the 2003 Can Spam Law does not classify spamming as an illegal practice. You can send unsolicited bulk email as long as you observe the forementioned rules. Ultimately, think geographicaly: what is illegal in some states (or countries) is not outlawed by others.

Email Marketing & Software Glossary
A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|W|X|Y|Z

A

Autoresponder; Autoresponse Email Software
Automated email message that may be triggered by new subscriptions, unsubscriptions, orders etc.
Attachment
A file that accompanies the message and is impossible to be sent in the message body (either it is too large or not in text/HTML format).

B

Bounces, Bouncebacks
In a bulk email campaign, messages that cannot be delivered to the specified address. Causes may be full mailbox, server problems or others.
Broadcasting Email Software
A software that helps the user send mass email.
Blacklist
An URL that lists domains/IP addresses that spread spam.
BCC
Blind Carbon Copy. The option to hide the list of email addresses where a message is sent to. This feature is usually provided by the email client.
Bulk Email Software
A program that is used to send the same message to multiple recipients (mass email).

C

Click Through Rate
A figure provided by an email tracking software, which shows how many receivers of a newsletter clicked on a link.
CC
Carbon Copy, an option to send the same message to multiple receivers, however, by allowing them to see each other’s email addresses. This option is often used in discussion lists and also provided by the email client.

D

Double Opt-In
Email marketing software feature. Allows you to ask people that subscribe to your newsletter to confirm their accept via email.
Delivery Tracking
Email tracking software feature. Estimates the ratio of people that actually received your message per total number of emails sent.
Discussion List
An email service that allows each member to post individual messages that are delivered to all the members of the group. This is also called many-to-many list.
Domain Name
The name you type to define the owner of an web location. The actual name of an IP address.
DARTmail
an e-mail marketing application for planning, execution and analysis of email campaigns.

E

Email
Electronic message
Email marketing
Marketing via email
Email Client
A software that you can use to send, receive and organise email.
Ezine
‘Electronic Magazine’. A term used for email newsletter, but specific for article publishing.

F

Forward
An option where the receiver of a message can send it to other people in his or her address list.

H

Hard Bounce
A message that can’t be delivered because the address is invalid (the account does not exist or it has been abandoned by the user).
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language. The standard language used for publishing in World Wide Web. A HTML message can use specific font, graphics, images and colours.

I

In House List
A list of email addresses belonging to people you know and had previous contact with. E.g. subscribers to your newsletter, customers, friends.
IMAP, IMAP4
Internet Message Access Protocol. Helps you access the email messages that arrive on your server. Saves the messages both on the server and at locations you download.
ISP
Internet Service Provider. E.g. AOL, MSN.

L

List Owner
A person who owns opt in bulk email lists for rent. The list owner does not participate directly in transactions.
List Manager
A person working for the list owner, that talks to people who want to rent a bulk email list, or to list brokers.
List Broker
A person that intermediates list rental. He negociates discounts as his revenue with the list manager, at the same time pursuing the interests of his client.

M

Mail Bomb
An attempt to get down an email server by sending towards it more messages than it can handle within a short period of time.
Mailing List
Any collection of email addresses that you intend to use in bulk email campaigns.
Multi Part Mime
A message format that includes both HTML and text version, displaying them accordingly to receiver’s option or possibility.

N

Netiquette
‘Net Etiquette’. A set of thumb rules that apply to internet users, in order to promote a fair, friendly and non-offensive environment on the web.
Newsletter
A message sent with a certain frequency to the subscribers list that contains articles, news and useful data about a specified topic.

O

Opt-In
Permission email. The action of subscribing to a newsletter or ezine. Usually you have to fill in a form, providing personal information and accept the ‘Terms of Agreement’ page (after reading it, of course!)
Opt-Out
The reverse action of ‘opt-in’. The sender of the message must carry out the subscription request within maximum 30 days (but depends on the newsletter frequency). Also, the sender cannot further use your subscription data.
Open Rate
The number of receivers that actually open the message you send. The email software can track this figure only for HTML messages.

P

Permission Email
See opt-in email.
Personalized Email
A message that uses a personal approach towards the receiver. A feature provided by the bulk email software where you can personalise each email.
Plain Text
Not formatted (plain) text.
POP, POP3
Post Office Protocol. A protocol that manages incoming email. Does not save a copy of the message on the server.

R

Registration
The action of filling in a web form to complete with an opt-in subscription to a newsletter.
Recipient
An email address (accompanied by a personal profile) that you send email to.

S

SMTP
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. The most commonly used protocol in sending email between two email servers.
Soft Bounce
A message that cannot be delivered to the email address because of temporary problems with the server or full mailbox.
Solo Mailing
A one time email that you send to your emailing list, apart from the regular newsletter. Usually it includes paid advertising from a third party.
Spam
Unsolicited commercial email. Untargeted bulk email.
Subscriber, Subscription
A person that accepts to receive your newsletter, following an imposed subscription protocol: access a web form, provide personal data, email address where s/he wants the newsletter delivered and accepts the ‘Terms of Agreement’ page.

T

Targeted Bulk Email Campaign
A mass email marketing campaign applied to an opt-in list. The opt-in action is an implicit selection of people who are interested in your newsletter’s topic. The recipients are eventually selected according to your campain target.
Tracking
Feature provided by the bulk email software that allows you to track the actions of the receivers: opening the message, clicking through, forwarding.

U

Untargeted Bulk Email Campaign
A mass emailing campaign that is sent out to people who didn’t previously opt-in. Unsolicited commercial email. Spam.
Unsubscriber, Unsubscription
A person that requests not to receive a newsletter/commercial message anymore.
Unsolicited Commercial Email
Spam. An email that is sent out to anonymous receivers, on other bases than opt-in or subscription.

W

Web Based
A software application, database or any kind of information hosted online.
Web Mail
Web based email client. E.g. Gmail, Yahoo!Mail, Hotmail.

An email newsletter software also comes (most of the times) incorporated in the email software. Its functions are to help you manage your mass email campaigns and also to take over some of your editing jobs.

Plain Text vs. HTML

Your email newsletter software should be multi part MIME. MIME is a standard that allows the embedding of arbitrary documents and other binary data of known types (images, sound, video, and so on) into e-mail handled by ordinary Internet electronic mail interchange protocols.
That means users who cannot read HTML format will receive the plain text version. Also, your email software can inquire users in the subscriber form whether they prefer to receive the message in plain text or HTML format. You would be surprised to find out that some people still prefer to receive clean text even if their email client can display HTML.

Personalisation

Even if your bulk email newsletter addresses to long time subscribers or customers, it is possible they feel more motivated when receiving a personalised email. If you send your newsletter or ezine to a rented list, you should ask your list broker about the personalization aspect.
A newsletter should not become too personal, too soon. If you target new subscribers, prospects, people that haven’t heard much about you, they could feel that a too personal approach is violating their intimacy and take the decision to unsubscribe.
Another limitation for personalized newsletters are the subscribers themselves. They could have filled in fake names, or spelled their own name wrong. They may not remember this, and however, feel discomfort when opening the newsletter. You should find a way to request, in time, a confirmation of the real name, and until that moment not to use personalization.

Do Not Look Like a Spammer

Be even more careful with what you display in the To:, From:, and Subject: fields. A mistaken strategy is to hide/misspell or often change display of your identity in the From:field, using “pennames” that could confuse your subscribers. The most you can achieve is mislead them to believe that they are spammed and accuse you of sending unsolicited email.
The Subject: field should also be correctly spelled, and remind the user who you are. E.g. “This Week’s Child Care Newsletter”. Not to mention you should not mislead your readers about the topic, but a pre-defined Subject: field would save you from any accidental errors.

Newsletter Customising

Customising should involve automatic links, auto-signatures, spell-check. Also, you should be able to pre-define the number of characters of a text-line (the best option is a 65 characters setting). Stay away from violently coloured backgrounds, unreadable fonts, too large or too small font sizes. They won’t make the reader more interested, on the contrary. They could feel annoyed when forced to change the settings.

Bulk email lists are the the most important asset in your online based business. Not convinced yet?
What Is a Bulk Email List?
When starting a business, the most important questions are:
“What do you sell?”
and “Who do you sell to?”
Suppose you know exactly what you are selling. Bringing the product(s)/service(s) in your customer’s mind is the big trial.

An opt-in bulk email list is a targeted collection of profiles (corect names, actual email addresses and other useful data), belonging to people that have agreed to receive information via email on certain topics, from a certain company or from third parties.
Bulk Email Lists for Rent
The main players here are the list owners, the list managers and the list brokers.
The List Owners
They are persons who offer opt in bulk email lists for rent. The individuals in those lists have agreed (opt in or double opt in) to receive information on a specific topic from third parties. The prices range among $20 and $40 per thousand unique email receivers. You pay the list owners per thousand emails per every emailing campaign. The list owners won’t disclose the recipients to you.

The List Manager

However, if you want to make the purchasing yourself, you have to talk to the list manager, who works for the list owner. The problem is that talking directly to the list managers, they would always try to sell you whatever their owner has available for rent. And their lists could be wrong for you.
The List Broker
If you want a targeted list, you should address a list broker. These guys will intermediate the transaction. The advantages are that:
1. The broker knows more list owners.
2. The broker knows more about list owners.
3. The broker contracts the owner’s services according to your interests.
4. There’s no additional cost for a broker’s services, as he is paid by list owners. Usually, he negotiates discounts that count as his benefit. The standard is 15% to 20%.
Usually, an email marketing campaign based exclusively on rented lists has a 1% response rate. What is over that is considered a really successful campaign. The problem is that you can’t think of list rental for a budget that is less than $2,500. If you want to address a list broker, the minimum budget would be $5,000.

Bulk Email Lists for Sale

This is a very tricky option when sending mass email. You can never be sure where the emails in those lists come from. They could have been picked up by an email harvesting software. Which means you will be sending unsolicited bulk email. Which would make you a spammer.
In House Bulk Email Lists
This is the safest, the most effective, most time consuming and expensive way to go when building a bulk email list. In house lists are 100% your business contacts. You can build more lists, targeting each list for a different newsletter you edit, for a different class of services or/and products.

Seven Tips to Build an In-house Opt-in List

1. Convert the visitors of your website into subscribers. Announce free subscribing option on every page of the website.
2. Convert the readers that forwarded your newsletters into subscribers by including a subscription invite in each newsletter.
3. Cross promote your newsletters using subscription invites.
4. Offer freebies for new subscribers.
5. Make subscription a condition for discounts, online contests and other promotions you run.
6. Ask for email address and email permission whenever you talk to a client or prospect.
7. ‘Advertise’ your website/newsletter in forums, discussion lists, online workshops.

The email collection software, is a solution for the business who want to find out how many people are visiting in their website, how many of them are interested in their products or services and how of them would to receive marketing emails. By putting on your website an email collection software you can start building a steady and solid database of mail marketing audience by gathering up opt in email addresses.
Using your own email marketing database can be beneficial in many ways (for example you can not be charged with the accusation of Email Marketing Spamming, form people who don`t want to receive any kind of emails from you or your business).Having the written permission of your subscribers, you can send them any kind of email, from advertisement email to marketing email, promotional email and so on and so forth.
Most of the small business can`t afford to buy a new email marketing database, so the best solution for them is to implement on their website an email collection software, and they can gather the necessary information to start a new marketing campaign as soon as possible.
Many business owners who also own a website for their business, do not realise the fact that 95% of them don`t optimize their email marketing efforts, because they do not install an email collection software (newsletter signup) on their website. By installing an email collection software on your website you can start communicating with the current and the prospect clients as soon as they sign up for newsletters.

Nowadays the general email collection software that is available on the market, is able to store the data collected, from the people who gave their email addresses, into a secure database, where only the owner can access it and start managing the marketing campaigns he want to run. The email collection software, has an user friendly interface, that display how many people have signed up and what did they signed up for, on which one of your marketing campaigns they want to participate and so on and so forth.
Here is a list of the features that a email collection software should have:
user friendly interface, that can be managed without too much IT knowledge, only by following the guide book;
they must have the ability to automatically collect the email into one place;
you must access the database from anywhere around the world, only by using the internet;
must have safety measures installed, because if you leak any information from your database the subscribers can press charges against you;
must be able to store an unlimited number email addresses, either it is 100 or 5,000,000;
must be compatible with any site design or layout;
must be able to detect double opt ins;must be able to split your database depending on your desired characteristics.
The prices on an email collection software may vary however the most common price layout is like this:
setup fee & the first year fee around $250;
after the first year, the yearly fee should be around $100.

Websites that sell untargeted (unsolicited) bulk email software will stun you in the first place by the nonchalance of their marketing speech. It seems that people selling this kind of software believe they really do the mankind a big favour, by offering you tools for advertising on other’s expence.
Spam Tool Offers
In the first place you need many, many email addresses, valid — if possible — to start your spam campaign. At ridiculous prices ($20 – $30) you can buy CDs with millions of email addresses; the main inconvenient is these addresses have been used and reused, and chances to sell something to people in the list are low.
Another tricky software available on the market is the one that generates possible email addresses using real domain names; the process is entirely automatic and, using the so called “false opt-out” method you can validate the list.
If you want fresh stuff, you’d probably choose a software that has the ability to work for you day & night collecting email addresses from the web, while you can concentrate on making more money or just mind other businesses; all you have to do is use an email extracting software or email harvesting software. There are 2 major ways of extracting email addresses from the web: decripting web-based email lists (such as the resourceful Yahoo), or harvesting email addresses that are published in forums and discussion lists.
An email harvesting software is capable to collect thousands of email addresses (most of them valid) using very few internet resources. Plus, the ISP won’t be able to track such actions.
Then, by sending unsolicited bulk email, you run the risk of being caught. That is where the spam tool provider helps you again with a piece of software that hides your identity (that means email address & ISP server). Why use an anonymous bulk email server, you may ask, after all spam has not yet been outlawed. Well, because you risk losing your ISP connection (by the way, the entity whom you harm most and make it lose large amounts of money). Or because, out-there, some annoying persons who just happen to receive your dozens of emails, and (stunningly!) decide to fight back by sending you various flames or mailbombs.
You also need to get through firewals and spam-blocking systems and there’s always somebody who’ll offer you the right tool at the right price. In case of reblocking, however, you need to change key header information. Some spam tools can do that.
Finally, methods and tricks to lie in the subject field, or anything else that’ll help you not look like what you are — a spammer.
Sort of a Black List
At www.spamsites.org you can find a bunch of websites that sell spam tools.
Desktop email softwares are more appreciated by spammers because they can avoid ISPs by using an in-house server. We nominate some of this spam tools in a subsequent section.

There are methods that can help you not getting on a spam list. Want to hear about them?

So, spam legislation does not outlaw spam. Surprised? Dissapointed? If you are a heavy internet user, you’re certainly dissapointed. Maybe not yet surprised, as this is not the first time when a legislation act fails to represent those who pay for the ability to work in a equitable system (and even for the laws to be released). And we believe that the Can Spam Act partially fails to represent legitimate internet users in the problem of spam.
Having that as a fact, what can you do? For sure you can use some of the following tips to became less spammed:
Mask your email address. When you participate in discussion lists or forums, you want to be able to publish your email address. The first thing you can do is write it in a form that an email harvesting software can’t read it as what it really is. E.g. you won’t write yourname@domain.com but Yourname(at)domain(dot)com, or other form you know it can be interpreted by a real person.
In chat rooms, use other screen name than your email ID.
Keep separate addresses for business emails and personal ones. When you register to a discussion list you can use a disposable address, which you can abandon when you are no longer interested in the subject.
Choose user names that are not easy to generate by automated programs (e.g. combinations of letters and numbers.)
Don’t reply by an opt-out request to messages that don’t follow the basic rules of mass email campaigns, as they are specified in the spam law. (See details about Can Spam Law).
Always read the ‘Terms of Agreement’ pages before subscribing to newsletters or other forms of email advertising. You may not agree with them afterall.
Do not open messages that are obviously spam. They are usually sent in HTML format, and the sender can track addresses who open the email. That validates your address in their list.
Opt-in for the text version of the newsletters instead of HTML, when possible.
Do not use autoresponders, as they validate the existance of your email address.
Use an auto-preview option to check emails before actually downloading them.
Use an antivirus program that is set to update daily.
Use spam filters provided by your email client.
Report spam when you receive it.

Best online resources for email software and email marketing campaigns.
Resources on Email Marketing (Our favourite top five links)
Wilson Web Dr. Ralph Wilson is president of Wilson Internet Services. WilsonWeb is an enhanced and authorised resource of both free and paid consultancy in the email marketing world. Dr. Wilson was credited by The New York Times as ‘among the best-known publishers and consultants who preach the responsible use of email for marketing’. His specialized Web Marketing Today newsletter is free and available for subscribers only.
www.clickz.com This website is hard to compete with when it comes to accurate up-to-date information on B2B and B2C email marketing.
www.emailuniverse.com An ezine with tips on how to manage ezines, discussion and emailing lists, internet etiquette (or the way they affectively call it, netiquette). It’s worth paying a visit.
www.email-marketing-software-resource.com An enhanced article based resource, provinding email marketing know-how from some of the gurus in this field: Jim Daniels (JDD Publishing), Ron Evans (Great Big Noise, LLC), Chris Maher (Fosforus) etc.
www.emailresults.com You may also find interest in a resource that looks into targeted email marketing, email lists, newsletters (copywriting, strategy) and much more. Your host to email marketing is Al Bredenberg.
Resources on Email Software
Wilson Web Again Dr. Wilson is one of the most credible sources on the web. You can find a documented list of email software providers with comparison charts and analysis.
ClickZ offers a long list of reviews regarding email marketing softwares.
Resources on SPAM
Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email
www.spam.abuse.net A resource to help you fight spam on the web.