Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Autoresponder Need

Posted by Anonymous on 6/28/2004 at 10:26 PM ET 750 Points
I have a specific need for an type of autoresponder that can use a *future* date as the base point for scheduling emails.

Here is the use ... We manage many webinars. Registration could be 2 months prior to the webinar, I would like to send a series of emails to each person who registers.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? There is a twist - that's why I am awarding 750 points .... I would like the webinar event date (in the future) to be the starting point of the scheduled emails.

All the web based autoresponder services I have found, use the the 'signup date' when determining the intervals the email is sent. Does anyone know of a service that will allow us to schedule the intervals of the various confirmation and reminder emails from date event, vs the date of signup?

In addition, it must be 'smart enough' to know if a 'relative date' has past when the person registered, so they will not recieve the email scheduled for that time.

Each event has a series of up-to 5 emails that a registered person could get.

1 - Thanks for registering
2 - Reminder sent 2 weeks prior to webinar
3 - Reminder sent 1 weeks prior to event
4 - Reminder sent 2 day prior to event
5 - Reminder sent the day of the event

My preference is a webbased service, however, I will also look at software as well. Please include the URL to the product in your answer. Thanks!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Blaine Wilkerson on 6/29/2004 at 12:37 AM Member
    I use a free program called "Group Mail". You can assign any number of group any number of emails to be sent at different intervals.

    Now, I didn't take the time to run a test to your specific needs, but you can try it by going to www.download.com and search the "download" area for Group Mail.

    It is small and uses any POP/SMTP settings you want...even allows aliases (if desired) and keeps a detailed log of every email sent, rejected, failed, confirmed, etc.

    I love it and it works great for me!

    Good Luck! I hope this is what you are looking for!
  • Posted by Blaine Wilkerson on 6/29/2004 at 12:39 AM Member
    One other place to look is www.scriptsearch.com.

    There you will find thousands of programs in almost every computer language. Run a search on "email" and scan through the different programs. Many of the programmers are easy to reach and can customize their software to fit your needs if necessary.

  • Posted by Pepper Blue on 6/29/2004 at 12:48 AM Member
    Hi Hank,

    MailLoop is loaded with features, you can specify exactly when you want responders to be sent -- right down to the month, week, day, and hour.

    Check them out at:

    https://www.mailloop.com/

    David mentioned AWeber. Lots of feature, and they are probably the best know of the ASP autorresponders but you'll have to call them and see if they can meet your needs.

    Good luck!
  • Posted by telemoxie on 6/29/2004 at 1:11 AM Member
    Here is a comparison chart of email products:

    https://www.gammadyne.com/gm-comparison.htm

    If you wanted to use a brute force technique, you could create scripts based on when a lead is received, e.g.:

    Someone registers 15 days before an event:

    Wait 0 days, send #1
    Wait 1 day, send #2
    Wait 8 days, send #3
    Wait 13 days, send #4
    Wait 15 days, send #5

    On the other hand, if the person registers 8 days before the event, you would kick off the following script:

    Wait 0 days, send #1
    Wait 1 day, send #3
    Wait 6 days, send #4
    Wait 8 days, send #5

    You would want to give each seminar a unique code, and to avoid confusion you could probably name the script based on the day recieved, e.g. TLA June 28 would be the script for the TLA seminar if the lead comes in on June 28.

    If you want to get fancy, you might be able to set up a batch file to replace yesterday's autoresponder script with today's version.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 7/2/2004 at 2:03 AM Member
    OK, since you are fishing for any ideas, how about this one...

    ... You can configure an email package such as Outlook for multiple delivery services. If the delivery service isn't working (e.g. the password is wrong) - or if you have not checked, "Include this account when synchronizing" - won't the email just sit in the outbox? If so, when someone signs up, you go ahead and send your "2 weeks" email via the "2 weeks" service, the "1 week" email via the "1 week" service, and so forth. Then, 2 weeks before the event, you go into outlook, properly configure the "2 weeks" service, restart Outlook, and just like magic, those emails go out. Once all the emails have gone out, you disable the 2 weeks service, so that an email received tomorrow does not trigger the 2 week email.

  • Posted by darcy.moen on 7/5/2004 at 1:01 AM Accepted
    Your should look at a software package put out by www.autoreplying.com called Promosoft Autoresponder.

    I have used this system to configure the exact system you are trying to make. Its fairly easy to do...I've done some that are even more complex (like a cascading response system so everyone at different points in the sales cycle receives a message leading them towards a sales close).

    You could buy this software and do it yourself...but as you said, you have limited time to invest to learn how to do it. I'd set it up for you, but I'd need remote access to your machine. May I offer to set up and run the campaign for you from my desktop until you get the hang of the system?

    Contact me if you'd like to discuss your need, I'd be happy to walk you through as best I could over the phone.

    email me via my website (in my profile)

    Darcy (Customer Loyalty Network)
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 7/10/2004 at 1:27 AM Member
    Hank, if you ARE going to write a specification and have a tool developed, a technology expert that I know and trust says that www.rentacoder.com is a great resource for getting something built. The trick is to have enough detail in your spec. Good luck!
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