A sequential autoresponder works by keeping a database of people you want to contact and sending messages from a predefined sequence to addresses in the database.
In this section we will create a basic sequential autoresponder that will let people opt-in by sending a message with word “subscribe” in the subject. It will send a sequence of messages to anyone who opts in. I will not send all messages at once! The first message in the sequence will go immediately after someone opts in but the second one will be sent three days later.
Creating New Sequential Autoresponder
To create the autoresponder click the “New” toolbar button (if you are not able to find the button please read the Using the Main Window chapter). On the window that shows up, select the “Sequential Autoresponder” icon and click the “New” button. This opens the “Autoresponder Properties” window.
Type in "XYZ Follow Up" into the “Name” text box.
Support for Opt-In
In this section I will show you how you can configure the autoresponder to recognize certain incoming messages as requests made by their senders to be added to the prospects database (opt-in requests). This is only a brief tutorial.
Hint: This program also supports double-opt-in, i.e. asking the sender to confirm his or her request for opt-in. To find out more read this: Opt-In and Opt-Out with a Sequential Autoresponder.
Click the “Opt-In” tab. Because we want the program to process incoming messages and treat some of them as opt-in requests, mark the “Enable opt-in by email” check box.
Now, I will show you how you can tell the program to pick up messages that have word “subscribe” in the subject and treat them as opt-in requests. Click “Conditions”, mark the “Incoming messages that match the following conditions” option. Then click “The Subject line contains specific words” and click the “words” link. Type in “subscribe” (without quotes), click “Add” and “OK”. Whew!
Important: If you skip the last step and set no conditions for incoming messages, the program will treat every new message as an opt-in request and add every sender to the prospects database.
Hint: To find out more about conditions for incoming messages read this section: Messages Matching User-Defined Conditions.
First Follow-Up Message
We will now add some messages to the follow-up sequence. Click the “Follow-Up Messages” tab. Click the “Add” button to create a new follow-up message. This brings up the “Follow Up Properties” window. Type in Initial Follow-Up into the “Follow-up name” text box. This message is to be sent immediately after a prospect opts in so “0 hours” is fine as the interval. Take a look at the picture below to see how the window should be filled out.
Now let’s edit the message. Click the “Message” button to open the message editor window. Type in the email address you want the sequential autoresponder to use into the “From” text box. Then enter Welcome into the “Subject” text box, and type in anything as the text of the email, for example:
After you do this, click the “Save & Close” button to save your changes. This will close the message editor.
Hint: To find out how to take advantage of the message editor’s all features please read the Composing an Email Message chapter.
Click “OK” to close the “Follow Up Message Properties” window.
Second Follow-Up Message
Let’s move on to adding another follow-up message. The program will send it three days since the first one.
Click the “Follow-Up Messages” tab if it is not already active and click “Add”. Type in Second Follow-Up into the “Follow-up name” text box.
Then use the “Message” button to create the message you want the program to send.
Finally, type in 3 into the “Time interval” text box and select “days” in the drop-down list next to it.
Click “OK” to close the “Follow Up Properties” window.
Downloading and Sending Messages
Now we will configure the autoresponder to download emails from a POP3 account and tell it which SMTP server it should use to send emails. Click the “Mail Settings” tab, click "Incoming Mail Accounts" and click "Add" to set up a new account:
Type in the account's email address into the "Email address" text box and the server address into the "Server name" text box. Enter POP3 account user name and password into the other two text boxes (“User name” and “Password”).
Mark the “Leave copies of messages on the server” check box so that the autoresponder doesn't not remove emails it downloads from your email account let you open them later using your email program. Make sure the check box labeled “Do not leave a copy of a message that triggered an action” in not marked.
You can test the settings by clicking the "Test Account Settings". Correct any errors before proceeding any further.
Now that we have configured the POP3 account, let’s set up the SMTP server. Click "OK" to go back to the "Mail Settings" window and click the "Outgoing Mail" tab:
Click "Add" to enter a new server:
Type in the name of the SMTP server you want the autoresponder to use to send replies into the “SMTP server name” text box.
Note: If your SMTP server requires authorization please note that you can configure it using the same window (“My outgoing mail server requires me to log in” and “Authenticate by connecting to POP3 server” check boxes). For more information about autoresponder’s POP3 and SMTP configuration, please read the Downloading and Sending Mail chapter.
You can test the server using the "Test Server Settings".
Click the “OK” button to confirm and click "OK" again to go back to the “Autoresponder Properties” window. The newly added account & server are pre-selected for you:
Click the “OK” button to close the “Autoresponder Properties” window and create the autoresponder.
Congratulations! Your autoresponder is fully configured!
Testing the Sequential Autoresponder
You can test your follow-up sequence by having all messages emailed immediately to a selected prospect. In order to do that, click the “Prospects” tab, click the “Add” button, type in the email address and (optional) name of the prospect, and click “OK” (see Managing Prospects Manually). Then switch back to the “Follow-Up Messages” tab and click the “Test” button. Type in the email address of the prospect you have added, turn on the “Send immediately” option and click “OK”. All follow-up messages will be sent to the prospect at once.
Let’s now see how the autoresponder really works.
To test the autoresponder, open your email client, create a new message, and type in: subscribe into its subject. Send it to the autoresponder’s email address.
We do not need to wait till FollowUpXpert decides it is time to download new mail. Open its main window and click the “Send/Receive” toolbar button. You may switch to the “Incoming Mail” tab of the "Status" panel of the main window to see how the program handles the opt-in request email. The "Outgoing Mail" tab will show the first follow-up message along with its progress (see: Monitoring Program Activity).
After processing has finished, switch to the “Autoresponders” view and double-click your autoresponder icon. Click the “Prospects” tab and take a look: your email address is there along with your name!
Obviously, the second follow-up message will get to your inbox three days later. I suggest that you continue reading instead of waiting to check if I am right about this. :)