When it comes to customer service, no one likes to wait. We’ve all had experiences where we’re trying to reach out for help and can’t get an immediate answer. But with the rise of technology, there is a way around this problem – autoresponders! Autoresponders are automated messages that respond quickly and efficiently when customers contact your business.
What are Autoresponders?
Autoresponders are automated messages that are triggered in response to customer inquiries. They can be sent via email, text, or even an in-app chatbot. The great thing about autoresponders is that they provide fast and helpful responses to customers without human intervention.
How are Autoresponders Used Today?
Autoresponders are used in a variety of ways. Businesses can use them to respond to customer inquiries quickly, provide helpful information, or even track and resolve customer issues without involving a human agent.
Autoresponders can be tailored to the needs of each customer, providing personalized responses that make customers feel valued and appreciated.
The Benefits of Autoresponders
Autoresponders are an ideal solution for busy businesses. They help streamline customer service operations and reduce costs of hiring more customer service personnel. Furthermore, autoresponders provide customers with faster response times, allowing them to quickly receive answers to their inquiries.
In addition, autoresponders can be used to send promotional content or discounts to customers. This helps boost customer loyalty and encourage repeat purchases.
How to Choose the Best Autoresponders
When choosing an autoresponder, ensure it fits your business’s needs. Think about what type of content you’ll be sending out, how often it will be sent, and if any additional features could benefit your customer service operations. It should also integrate easily with other systems like databases, CRMs, and eCommerce platforms.
Be sure to test out your autoresponder before deploying it to ensure it works properly. This will ensure customers receive the best possible experience when interacting with your business.
Some of the things to consider are:
The List Size
The majority of email autoresponders have a monthly price that is determined by how many subscribers you have. Some, on the other hand, bill based on how many emails you send each month. Some even have pay-as-you-go options that allow you to pre-purchase credits.
Hence, it’s crucial to consider the size of your list and how many emails you intend to send them.
Visual Automation Builder
Most autoresponders have a visual automation builder, allowing you to quickly create automated emails and workflows. This ensures that emails are sent out quickly and accurately.
Integrations
Make sure the autoresponder integrates seamlessly with your existing systems like CRMs, databases, eCommerce platforms, etc. This will ensure that all customer data is properly synced and updated.
Customer Support
It’s important to review the customer support offered by the autoresponder. If you have any issues or questions, you’ll want a knowledgeable team to help you out as quickly as possible.
Forms and Landing Pages
Some autoresponders offer forms and landing pages that allow you to collect customer information. This makes it easier to create targeted campaigns and send the right message to the right people.
List Segmenting and Management
Many autoresponders offer advanced list segmentation and management. This allows you to send targeted emails to specific groups of customers, helping you deliver the most relevant content.
Email Limits
Check the email limit of your autoresponder as it will affect how many emails you can send in a month. If you’re sending out large campaigns or high volumes of emails, make sure the autoresponder can handle them without any issue.
Should You Stop Manually Sending Out E-Newsletters?
No, you should not stop manually sending out e-newsletters. Autoresponders are great for providing quick answers to customer inquiries, but they do not replace the need for personal communication with your customers. E-newsletters give businesses a more personal way to connect with their audience and build relationships with them over time. This can yield long-term benefits for your business.
The Top Autoresponder Software To Use
In today’s digital world, customer service is more important than ever. Customers expect quick and helpful responses to their inquiries and businesses need a way to provide them with the answers they need without having to hire additional personnel. That’s where autoresponders come in!
But which autoresponder software should be used? With so many options available, it can be difficult to choose the best one for your business.
Fortunately, some top choices stand out from the rest. Below, we will explore the features of each of these top autoresponder software programs so you can decide which one is right for you.
Hubspot
One of the most powerful autoresponder capabilities available is provided by HubSpot. You can easily set up auto-response emails upon form submission, especially if you’re utilizing other HubSpot Marketing Hub features like our form builder and popup forms.
You can get robust with your targeting and follow-up email assignment using HubSpot’s workflows.
You can segment items, for example, according to contact property information you’ve gathered, such as company size or the service the subscriber is interested in. This enables you to customize your follow-up emails so that they are more beneficial and relevant to the user.
Also, you can program a series of numerous autoresponder emails and incorporate behaviorally prompted messages; the possibilities are virtually limitless.
As there is hardly any learning curve for the software, Moosend is one of the best autoresponder solutions you can use immediately. The service offers pre-built recipes that you can modify or start from scratch to design your autoresponder sequence and an intuitive automation workflow builder.
You may choose from various triggers and actions to design your workflow, do an A/B test, and even replicate your automation steps to save time. Moreover, you can include “And/Or” expressions in your automation stages. Team members may also share workflows.
A drag-and-drop email builder, in addition to email automation, is another feature of Moosend that makes creating email campaigns simple for anyone, even a novice.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact has helped hundreds of businesses expand more quickly by reducing menial tasks. You may test out this reliable autoresponder service for 60 days without using a credit card.
You will have access to many different automation tools. With Constant Contact’s Email Plus plan, you can construct elaborate welcome sequences for new subscribers, finely segmented drip campaigns, and custom triggers to keep prospects moving along their sales path.
The autoresponder software allows you to construct abandoned cart campaigns for your eCommerce site in terms of email automation. Its event invitation management function, which makes it easier to handle your online events, is its best feature. Your webinars and online courses will also benefit from the RSVP feature, and you can even start collecting feedback from the automatic email you sent.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most well-known autoresponder solutions, and for a good reason. This popular autoresponder service offers free and paid plans tailored to fit your business’s needs.
The software allows you to create sophisticated campaigns with automated messages triggered by user interaction. You can also personalize messages for specific segments of your audience, helping to create more meaningful connections.
Mailchimp also integrates with a variety of popular e-commerce platforms, making it easy to sync customer data from online stores. This helps businesses better understand their customers’ purchasing behavior and send personalized messages that boost engagement.
Overall, Mailchimp is a great choice for businesses of all sizes. It offers an easy-to-use platform with powerful features that enable you to build relationships and grow your business.
Sendinblue
Sendinblue is the best option if you’re searching for an all-in-one application that can automate SMS (pre-paid price), live chat, and email marketing. Every package includes all three forms of communication (even the free plan). They stand out from the other providers on this list because of this, making them an easy pick for most people wishing to start using an email autoresponder.
The fact that you don’t have to pay extra or browse any complicated price pages to get what you need is another advantage of this. Everything is clear-cut, transparent, and easy with Sendinblue.
Aweber
Aweber created one of the first well-known autoresponder programs, and it is still incredibly popular and used.
Aweber costs more to use initially ($19 per month for up to 500 subscribers), but it comes with all the essential features you need to set up an effective autoresponder email system. This includes templates, sign-up forms, analytics, segmentation, and even stock images.
Aweber is a decent option if you want a simple solution for a modestly sized email list (anything over 25,000 emails is significantly more expensive).
The autoresponder, in addition to the email editor and newsletter templates, enables you to construct triggered messages in response to subscriber actions like joining or leaving your email list. AWeber is also a fantastic email list management solution for maintaining the integrity of your contact lists and enhancing email deliverability.
Integrations are a significant bonus for the autoresponder in terms of streamlining your marketing efforts. You may combine the service with well-known platforms like Shopify, Salesforce, and others to share data between apps and enhance your email marketing.
Not to mention, AWeber offers a wonderful selection of email testing tools to help you fine-tune your email marketing campaigns and move new subscribers farther into the sales funnel.
Klaviyo
In the e-commerce industry, Klaviyo is well-known and well-liked. They have some of the greatest email automation technologies, especially for behaviorally triggered emails.
If you have the contact’s email address, you can use Klaviyo to set off an autoresponder email sequence in response to pretty much any event you can measure. This opens up a wide range of opportunities, including cross-sell emails given a specific item purchased, abandoned cart emails, thank you emails after a purchase, customer satisfaction surveys after a time window following a transaction, and thank you emails after a purchase.
It’s crucial to remember that because Klaviyo is designed for e-commerce, it is mostly pre-built for features like abandoned cart emails.
This is advantageous if you work in e-commerce, but the feature set may need to be simplified in other sectors to achieve your goals.
Naturally, creating a four-email sequence is simple enough if you only want to construct an email list when someone signs up.
A free tier is available on Klaviyo (up to 250 email addresses). After you reach that point, it starts at $25 per month and quickly increases after that (for example, it’s almost $1000 per month for 78,000 contacts).
ConvertKit
The email marketing service ConvertKit was developed with artists in mind (i.e. bloggers, podcasters, designers, etc.). It is tremendously helpful for marketers who prioritize inbound marketing.
The ConvertKit platform is straightforward to use, but it also has additional tools like forms, analytics, and their more recent automation feature set that can help you construct an inbound marketing program.
Starting at $29 per month, the price scale increases to $1000 for 1,000 email subscribers.
Autopilot
The email marketing, messaging, and automation platform Autopilot advertises itself as the most user-friendly marketing automation platform. They offer a visual editor that is really intuitive and clear (even without being a master automation nerd).
Naturally, their technology supports rather sophisticated messaging and targeting, but you can also make a straightforward autoresponder based on a time-sequence.
Price starts at $1 per month for the first 500 contacts and rises to $25 per month for contacts over 500. They also provide a free trial period of 30 days.
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse is a great option for charitable organizations wishing to engage with new visitors. They give NPOs who use their platform a 15% discount and a sophisticated free plan designed especially for NGOs.
High-volume senders requiring unlimited emails each month can receive a 15% discount using the specialized free plan, which includes 10,000 emails monthly.
Just complete an application form is all that is required. They’ll add those extra email permissions to your account within two business days of confirming your 501(c)(3) status.
Constant Contact
A straightforward, user-friendly, and well-liked email marketing platform is Constant Contact. It has basic functionality, including drag-and-drop editing, autoresponder sequences, list-building tools, and templates.
Together with autoresponders, Constant Contact also offers a variety of email options, such as those surveys, A/B testing, and event registration.
The autoresponder software allows you to create abandoned cart campaigns for your eCommerce site in terms of email automation. Its event invitation management function, which makes it easier to handle your online events, is its best feature. Your webinars and online courses will also benefit from the RSVP feature, and you can even start collecting feedback from the automatic email you sent.
You can also add personalization features to the autoresponder tool to increase the effectiveness of your automated communications. Unlike to other Constant Contact options like Moosend with more advanced customisation features, you can include your contact information but not “if/then” logic. Hence, you might not attain the highest level of campaign optimization.
Omnisend
The Shopify App Store, G2Crowd, and Capterra all have hundreds of 5-star reviews for Omnisend, making it a well-liked tool in the e-commerce sector. Due to their sophisticated autoresponder capabilities, you can build engaging marketing automation processes that utilize a variety of platforms, including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, web push notifications, and more.
This enables you to set up autoresponders through email and any other channel your customers have authorized for use with your brand.
Like Klaviyo, Omnisend is designed for online shopping. Yet, many of their e-commerce-friendly features can be wasted on you if you’re outside the e-commerce sector. Whatever the case, Omnisend is a strong autoresponder platform that is worthwhile exploring.
With Omnisend, you can welcome and nurture leads with a welcome sequence, increase sales with tailored and automated messages, and use advanced list targeting and segmentation to send the appropriate emails to the right people at the right time.
Moreover, you can receive SMS communications by paying a small premium.
They provide a free subscription with a cap of 15,000 emails per month and only the most fundamental email features. Their $16 monthly Standard plan comes with automation features.
GetResponse
GetResponse isn’t a free email autoresponder program, but it’s reasonably priced and has several excellent features. Via its drag-and-drop editor, you can construct responsive email campaigns and leverage personalization to make your communications more approachable.
Additionally, you can design intricate workflows using the autoresponder’s email automation tools to target your audience with the appropriate message at the appropriate time.
For example, you can design triggered campaigns based on lead scores, cart abandonment, or unsubscribes to interact with your subscribers. The only drawback is that since these services are only available on higher-tier subscriptions, you can’t test them out.
The autoresponder program offers a superb set of anti-spam measures to help you avoid the spam folder and a very thorough reporting section to assist you in tracking your email marketing efforts.
SendPulse
SendPulse is a free autoresponder program that combines email and IM marketing, just like Sendinblue. To communicate with your audience in the best way possible, the autoresponder will provide you with several methods, including SMS and web push notifications.
The software will also provide you with an opt-in autoresponder and allow you to design automatic email sequences to solicit comments, find cart abandoners, upsell your goods and services, and advertise events.
SendPulse’s toolkit also includes segmentation, enabling you to split your email subscribers depending on their web browsing and engagement.
The service also provides a superb landing page builder to develop landing pages that convert if you want to increase your lead generation. Last but not least, SendPulse offers multilingual phone and email assistance in addition to its email marketing and automation products.
Final Thoughts on Autoresponders
Autoresponders are an essential part of marketing automation, enabling you to send tailored and automated messages in response to a variety of customer actions.
The right autoresponder for your business depends on the nature and size of your list and desired audience segmentation capabilities. Many providers offer free plans or trial periods so you can test their services out before committing.
Ultimately, investing in an autoresponder program is a great way to maximize your marketing efforts and build relationships with customers over time. Consider the different providers featured here to find one that best meets your needs. Good luck!
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the best autoresponder?
The best autoresponder for you depends on your needs. Some popular options include Sendinblue, Aweber, Klaviyo, ConvertKit, Autopilot, VerticalResponse, Constant Contact, Omnisend and GetResponse. Consider their features to decide which one is right for you.
How do autoresponders work?
Autoresponders are automated emails that are sent when someone takes specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase. They allow you to send tailored messages in response to customer actions in order to strengthen relationships and encourage engagement.
What is included in an autoresponder package?
Most autoresponders packages include features such as templates, sign-up forms, analytics, segmentation, and stock images. Depending on the provider you choose, you may also be able to access other features like A/B testing, surveys and event registration.
Can I try out an autoresponder for free?
Yes! Many autoresponder providers offer free plans or discounts for nonprofits. You can also take advantage of their trial periods to test out the features and decide if it’s right for you.
Does an autoresponder cost money?
Most autoresponders come with a subscription fee, but some providers offer free plans or discounts for nonprofits. The cost of the subscription typically depends on the size of your list and the features you need.
8-figure Amazon seller and serial online entrepreneur since 2015. Research and practice various online business models, and apply his in-depth learnings to further expand and grow his businesses as well as help others to achieve greater successes. Ex-VP of a high tech VC in Vancouver and a Management Consultant with over a decade of experience in the industry. Master's Degree from HEC Paris.
