Posted by Ray White on October 30, 2009 Comments (1)

There are many autoresponder services available to you. Autoresponders are classified into three main types: locally hosted, remote hosted and desktop hosted. Each type has pros and cons, depending on your needs. Locally and desktop hosted programs will give you complete control over the program, as you run them through your own server or website, but you will need to install and maintain the script on your server yourself. Remote hosted, on the other hand, is run through a third-party service provider who is skilled in getting your email delivered. Remote programs cost you a monthly fee, while desktop and locally hosted programs cost one fee – the price of the script.

Before you decide to purchase an autoresponder, you should always compare and see what each one has to offer. If you are interested in running one from your server or website, then you will need to look at desktop and locally hosted autoresponders. There are free programs available online, although they will normally come with strings attached, such as ads in your emails. This can be a bad thing, as ads in your email will confuse your customers and may give them the wrong impression. Purchasing a script may help you avoid having extra advertising in your emails, but you will have to install and maintain it on your server. You should also know that all spam complaints will come back to your domain which will hurt your email deliverability and your reputation.

With a remotely hosted autoresponder, you will be dealing with a company that does nothing but work to make sure that your emails get delivered to your list of recipients; that is the main service for which you pay the monthly fees. The company has control over the address of the autoresponder, meaning that your domain name won’t appear in the return email address. Although you may prefer to have the messages come from your domain, having the company in control means that spam complaints are handled by the company and don’t come back to your domain. Of course, if your email messages become a recurring spam problem, you will lose your autoresponder account. A good autoresponder service, however, will work with you to avoid having your messages trigger spam filters.

Know your options when you are ready to add an autoresponder to your business. If you take the time and research what each one has to offer, you will end up with an autoresponder that is invaluable, no matter what it cost.