Tips

A search for auto-responder on Google yields 2.5 million results and it is easy to see why it is so popular and yet so poorly used by companies. An auto-responder serves two purposes primarily:

i) It allows people who try to contact you by email to know that you are not available to answer their emails immediately.

ii) It can be used as a marketing tool to automatically send emails to people looking for more information.

The first type of auto-responder is very easy to setup and require nothing more than a basic grasp of how email works. On/offtips has an excellent tutorial on how to create and use multiple out of office auto-responders.

Using Auto-responders as marketing tools requires the use of a third party solution (unless you are adept at setting your own). One service that has offered unrivalled service and garnered a number of awards is US-based Aweber.com. Not only is it cheap to set up and use, it is also a very capable and intuitive tool.