AutoResponders Take a Step Forward

We've upgraded some of the FeedBlitz autoresponder features this week; seems like there's a lot of interest in this area of our automated email marketing services all of a sudden. We're not done with the work here, but the changes to date are worth noting if you're an autoresponder fan.

1. You can now subscribe directly to an Autoresponder

Before, FeedBlitz autoresponders were designed to start only when a subscriber activated a "parent" newsletter subscription. That restriction has been lifted, so now you can use the autoresponder as a simple lead capture form, or the kick-off for an email course, without having to sign the user up for a newsletter first. There's a new menu entry at Responders HTML Form Code to enable this. When a subscriber signs up they still have to go through our mandatory dual opt-in process, but on activation they'll be sent the first autoresponder entry and then the rest in sequence.

2. Autoresponder subscriber import added

You can now import subscribers into your autoresponder, which you also couldn't do before. As each subscriber is added to the list, they're sent the first entry of the autoresponder which then continues in order. Imports to autoresponders follow the same strict requirements, including black list suppression and a mandatory opt out note and more, as required by our standard newsletter import process.

4. Auto branding of newsletter-triggered emails

For simple "thank you" or incentive reward autoresponders triggered by a newsletter subscription activation, the autoresponder will use the parent newsletter's template, saving you the effort of having to duplicate a template just for the autoresponder. It also allows you to use the same autoresponder for differently branded newsletters and the autoresponder's branding will be correct for whatever newsletter the subscriber joins.

4. Autoresponders only appear in the "Responder" tab

Before they could "leak out" into the Newsletter tab - that's been changed. If you want to deal with an autoresponder, you have to be on the Responder tab, whereas our automatic RSS to email newsletters are only on the Newsletters tab. It eliminates a potential source for confusion.