Auto Responder Campaigns

FlutterMail marketing software allows you to create several different types of automated campaigns, the most basic being the standard Auto Responder Campaign. An auto responder campaign is one that will be automatically sent to each individual subscriber after they subscribe to your list. They can be sent to a subscriber immediately after subscribing, or a certain number of days or hours after subscribing.

All auto responder campaigns are based on the date and time a subscriber is added to your list. If you want to create an automated or recurring campaign based on a different subscriber date, like a birth date, you’ll want to set up a subscriber date-based campaign instead.

Here are some reasons to use an Auto Responder Campaign:

Sending a timed series of email lessons for an online class
Sending a thank you message to new subscribers
Drip marketing

Creating an Auto Responder Campaign

To create an auto responder, go to the Campaigns tab and click Create New Campaign. Set up the new campaign as you typically would, and select “Auto Responder Campaign” as the type of campaign.

On the next page, choose which list or lists this auto responder should be sent to. Keep in mind that this campaign is not being sent right away to existing members of the list you choose, but will only be sent to new subscribers who opt-in to this list in the future.

Finish the email as you typically would a normal campaign by designing the content and continuing on to the Summary page. This is where you select when your auto responder should be sent to new subscribers.

If you’d like this campaign to automatically send to each new individual subscriber immediately, select “Immediately” from the drop-down menu in the green bar along the bottom of the Summary page:

Or, if you’d rather the auto responder be sent a certain number of hours or days after a person subscribes to your list, choose “After a specific timeframe” option from the drop-down, and select the number of hours or days you want to wait before the campaign is sent.

After you set the settings you want, click Finish to save your campaign. Remember, this campaign will not send to your entire list at once but to individual new subscribers as they opt-in.

Will My Auto Responder be Sent to Existing Subscribers?

If you create a new auto responder campaign on a list that has pre-existing subscribers, remember that the existing subscribers will not necessarily receive your auto responder campaign. For example, if you create an instant auto responder to be sent out to all new subscribers as soon as they opt-in to your list, none of your existing subscribers will receive it. The email will only go to people who sign up for your email after you create the Auto Responder Campaign.

Or if you created an auto responder that sends a certain period of time after someone signs up for your email, if the subscriber fits the criteria they will receive it. In the image below, you will see that the period of time that passes before an auto responder is sent is one day and five hours. Since everyone on the list the auto responder was made for was added to that list more than a day and five hours before the auto responder was created, they will not receive the email.

My Instant Auto Responders Didn't Send During Import

All auto responders will be sent to any subscriber who signs up to your list using a subscription form on your website. However, keep in mind that instant auto responders are not sent when you import a large batch of subscribers using the Import Subscribers feature. This is to save resources and prevent problems or errors that can occur when trying to import large numbers of subscribers and email a campaign simultaneously.

If you’d like to import subscribers but still send all of them an instant auto responder, you can do so by creating an auto responder that is sent one hour after a person subscribes instead of sent immediately. After creating this one hour auto responder, import your list, and all subscribers that you imported will receive the campaign within one hour after the list import is complete.

Note: Instant auto responders are also not sent by default when a single subscriber is added manually through the administrative interface. However, if you are adding your subscribers individually and you want them to receive an immediate auto responder, you can select “Advanced Options” then check the “Send instant auto responders” box when you add the new subscriber.

Subscriber Date-Based Campaigns