autoresponder owner manual |
Once
an autoresponder owner receives confirmation of account activation, there are
certain features that must be configured before the account is truly usable. These
features are described first and then the rest of the autoresponder system’s functionality
is described below it. First,
it is necessary to log on to the Autoresponder Owner Administration system. You
will type the url of the ‘userlogin.html’ web page into your browser. This address
is http://www.autoresponders4all.com/auto/userlogin.html.
You will be presented with a screen asking you for your username and password.
Please note that username and password are case sensitive (i.e.
password is different from Password.) When you successfully log in, you will be
able to access all the features described below. In
case you forget your password, there is a link on userlogin.html that will take
you to a different web page where you can type in some identifying information
and your password will be sent to the E-Mail address you used when you signed
up for your autoresponder. It
is strongly recommended you immediately address the following two functions: Modify
Autoresponder Message Sequence - This function allows you to set your response
E-Mail messages. It gives you room to create up to 16777215 follow up response
messages (the exact number depends on what was configured for this specific account),
subject lines and times to mail each message. Please note that times to mail are
based on the time the last E-Mail was sent out. In other words, if you put in
the number 3 as the number of days to wait before mailing, it will be 3 days from
the time the previous E-Mail was sent out, not 3 days from the time a subscriber
signed up for your message sequence. Also note that all E-Mails are processed
and sent out just once per day (unless your host allows for more times per day)
so the true time from the first to the second message may be up to almost 1 whole
day longer than you specified but the other messages in the sequence will be sent
out on the time basis specified. Additionally,
there is a box for each message to indicate whether or not it is to be sent as
a text style E-Mail or HTML style E-Mail or both.. The default for this capability
is to send the E-Mail as a text style E-Mail. Please note that this means if you
do send an HTML style E-Mail, it understands all the HTML tags, links, etc. and
if delivered to a customer with an HTML capable E-Mail program, it will be displayed
as an HTML page but if displayed to someone without an HTML capable E-Mail program,
the customer will see all the HTML tags embedded in the message. If
both text and HTML are filled in then the client’s email program will show whichever
one it supports so if it doesn’t support HTML it will show the text version of
your message. If
the admin has given you the rights you will see a dropdown of other autoresponder
message sequences you may copy. Templates can be setup for you to copy by the
Admin this way. A
checkbox is also next to each message if you wish to track who has opened the
message(only works in html message). This can be seen later under Message
Stats from the main menu. The
mailing are handled by a background task that checks for all E-Mails that need
to be processed and sent out. Since this task is generally scheduled to run once
per day, there can be some disparity in when messages get sent out. For instance,
if you scheduled message 2 to go out two days after message 1, it would probably
go out in 2 days and some number of hours. The only way to change that operation
is to schedule this background cron task to run more frequently every day. Also,
please note that each E-Mail keeps track of where it is in the message sequence
by message number, not contents of a message. Therefore, if you make changes to
the contents of the messages or add/delete messages, the changes become effective
immediately on all E-Mails currently in the system as well as all future E-Mails
added to the system. Lastly,
these messages can be personalized to each individual customer by both the customer’s
E-Mail address and the customer’s first name. This feature is more fully described
in "E-Mail Personalization Settings" below. Note:
Due to the way the cron task operates, if you set up your 2nd autoresponse
to go out one day after the first one, it will go out 24-48 hours after the first
message depending on when the person subscribed vs when the cron task runs. If
you want it to go out in less than 24 hours (i.e. the next time the cron task
runs), you will set the delay to zero. This is only necessary for message number
two as the message sequence needs to sync up with the cron task. For all other
messages, the sequence will work based on the number of days you put into it. Set
From E-Mail Parameters – This function allows you to set all the response
E-Mail addresses that are used when creating your messages and keeping you informed
of events. For keeping in touch with your customers, you can specify a "FROM"
E-Mail. This lets you have great control over how you may want people to contact
you from your response messages. You can also modify your administration E-Mail
address. This is the E-Mail address that is used by the Master Autoresponder Administrator
to contact you on a periodic basis. Finally you can specify a FROM Name in your
emails that the subscribers will see who it is from. Note:
The "FROM" E-Mail address is initially set for you by the system when
your autoresponder account is set up but it may not be the E-Mail address you
want to use in your E-Mail contacts with your customers. Changes
to these E-Mail addresses take effect instantly. An
additional feature that can be set in this administration screen is the ability
to receive confirmation E-Mails of customers when they sign up with the system.
If you activate this feature, the system will send you a note letting you know
that someone subscribed and it will forward any E-Mail message that may have been
included if the customer signed up by sending an E-Mail to your autoresponder
address. It
is recommended you address the following two functions before setting up autoresponder
accounts: E-Mail
Personalization Settings – This function sets a switch to determine whether
or not you wish to use E-Mail personalization. If it is set by you and you have
built your messages with the proper substitution codes (~~NAME~~ and ~~E-MAIL~~),
the program will automatically make the substitutions needed to personalize the
responses that get sent to your customers. Additionally, it will also let you
set defaults for these substitutions in case you do not have personalized data
on a customer (i.e. allow Dear ~~NAME~~ to be substituted with Dear Friend
or something similar.) A
thrid variable that is available to you is the ~~CURDATE+XX~~ variable. This variable
will substitute the personalization string with the date that is defined. Below
are a few examples of this usage and the date that would be generated. this
prints today’s date ~~CURDATE+0~~ this
prints tomorrow’s date ~~CURDATE+1~~ this
is the date 2 days in the future ~~CURDATE+2~~ this
is the date 10 days in the future ~~CURDATE+10~~ Dates
are printed in MM/DD/YYYY format (i.e. 12/17/2000) or DD/MM/YYYY format (i.e.
17/12/2000) or Day of Week Month Day Year (Tuesday February 12, 2002) depending
on the date switch setting in the personalization features menu. The default is
MM/DD/YYYY. These
three are perhaps the most often used personalization features but are only a
fraction of the personalization variables available to you. We also offer many
other personalization features. Below is a complete list and with the exception
of the ~~CURDATE~~ personalization keyword, they all work in both the Subject
Line and the Message Body.~~ CURDATE~~ only works in the message body. ~~NAME~~ ~~EMAIL~~ ~~LASTNAME~~ ~~ADDRESS1~~ ~~ADDRESS2~~ ~~CITY~~ ~~STATE~~ ~~ZIPCODE~~ ~~PHONE~~ ~~FAX~~ The
following 10 personalization variables relate to the 10 demographic fields you
may set up. ~~OPTIONS1~~ ~~OPTIONS2~~ ~~OPTIONS3~~ ~~OPTIONS4~~ ~~OPTIONS5~~ ~~OPTIONS6~~ ~~OPTIONS7~~ ~~OPTIONS8~~ ~~OPTIONS9~~ ~~OPTIONS10~~ The
following 5 custom variables relate to 5 free form variables that you can use
for any purpose in data collection when creating a customer input form. ~~CUSTOM1~~ ~~CUSTOM2~~ ~~CUSTOM3~~ ~~CUSTOM4~~ ~~CUSTOM5~~ The
following variable is used to provide anti SPAM complaints against your list.
It will print out the IP address and referring URL (if signed up via form) or
the original signup email of the person subscribed to the list. This is applicable
to version 3.1 signups and up only. ~~SIGNUPINFO~~ The
following variables are information about the autoresponder owner that can be
inserted into outgoing messages ~~OWNERWEBSITE~~ ~~OWNERFIRSTNAME~~
~~OWNERLASTNAME~~
~~OWNERADDRESS1~~
~~OWNERADDRESS2~~
~~OWNERCITY~~
~~OWNERSTATE~~
~~OWNERZIP~~
~~OWNERCOUNTRY~~ ~~OWNEREMAIL~~ ~~OWNERTELEPHONE~~ ~~AUTORESPONDERNAME~~ Here
is the full list included in the personalize-codes included with the product.
| Personalization
Codes These codes can be used
to personalize your outgoing messages by using data that has been collected about
each recipient.
| |
List Owner's website |
~~OWNERWEBSITE~~ | |
List Account Name |
~~AUTORESPONDERNAME~~ | |
List Owner's first name
| ~~OWNERFIRSTNAME~~
| | List
Owner's last name |
~~OWNERLASTNAME~~ | |
List Owner's address1
| ~~OWNERADDRESS1~~
| |
List Owner's address2
| ~~OWNERADDRESS2~~
| | List
Owner's city |
~~OWNERCITY~~ | |
List Owner's state |
~~OWNERSTATE~~ | |
List Owner's zip |
~~OWNERZIP~~ | |
List Owner's country |
~~OWNERCOUNTRY~~ | |
List Owner's email |
~~OWNEREMAIL~~ | |
List Owner's telephone
| ~~OWNERTELEPHONE~~
| | List
Owner Custom1 |
~~OWNERCUSTOM1~~ | |
List Owner Custom2 |
~~OWNERCUSTOM2~~ | |
List Owner Custom3 |
~~OWNERCUSTOM3~~ | |
List Owner Custom4 |
~~OWNERCUSTOM4~~ | |
List Owner Custom5 |
~~OWNERCUSTOM5~~ | |
Subscriber Email |
~~EMAIL~~ | |
Subscriber First Name
| ~~NAME~~
| | Subscriber
Last Name |
~~LASTNAME~~ | |
Subscriber Address1 |
~~ADDRESS1~~ | |
Subscriber Address2 |
~~ADDRESS2~~ | |
Subscriber City |
~~CITY~~ | |
Subscriber State |
~~STATE~~ | |
Subscriber Zipcode |
~~ZIPCODE~~ | |
Subscriber Phone |
~~PHONE~~ | |
Subscriber Fax |
~~FAX~~ | |
Subscriber Options1 |
~~OPTIONS1~~ | |
Subscriber Options2 |
~~OPTIONS2~~ | |
Subscriber Options3 |
~~OPTIONS3~~ | |
Subscriber Options4 |
~~OPTIONS4~~ | |
Subscriber Options5 |
~~OPTIONS5~~ | |
Subscriber Options6 |
~~OPTIONS6~~ | |
Subscriber Options7 |
~~OPTIONS7~~ | |
Subscriber Options8 |
~~OPTIONS8~~ | |
Subscriber Options9 |
~~OPTIONS9~~ | |
Subscriber Options10 |
~~OPTIONS10~~ | |
Subscriber Custom1 |
~~CUSTOM1~~ | |
Subscriber Custom2 |
~~CUSTOM2~~ | |
Subscriber Custom3 |
~~CUSTOM3~~ | |
Subscriber Custom4 |
~~CUSTOM4~~ | |
Subscriber Custom5 |
~~CUSTOM5~~ | |
Subscriber Signup INformation(IP or original
email |
~~SIGNUPINFO~~ | |
|
| |
Mass/Special signup email
| ~~NEWSIGNUPEMAIL~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Address 1 |
~NEWSIGNUPADDRESS1~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Address 2 |
~NEWSIGNUPADDRESS2~~
| | Mass/Special
signup City |
~NEWSIGNUPCITY~~
| | Mass/Special
signup State |
~NEWSIGNUPSTATE~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Zip code |
~NEWSIGNUPZIPCODE~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Fax |
~NEWSIGNUPFAX~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Phone |
~NEWSIGNUPPHONE~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Options 1 |
~NEWSIGNUPOPTIONS1~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Options 2 |
~NEWSIGNUPOPTIONS2~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Options 3 |
~NEWSIGNUPOPTIONS3~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Options 4 |
~NEWSIGNUPOPTIONS4~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Options 5 |
~NEWSIGNUPOPTIONS5~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Options 6 |
~NEWSIGNUPOPTIONS6~~
| |
Mass/Special signup Options 7
| ~NEWSIGNUPOPTIONS7~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Options 8 |
~NEWSIGNUPOPTIONS8~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Options 9 |
~NEWSIGNUPOPTIONS9~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Options 10 |
~NEWSIGNUPOPTIONS10~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Custom 1 |
~NEWSIGNUPCUSTOM1~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Custom 2 |
~NEWSIGNUPCUSTOM2~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Custom 3 |
~NEWSIGNUPCUSTOM3~~
| | Mass/Special
signup Custom 4 |
~NEWSIGNUPCUSTOM4~~
| |
Mass/Special signup Custom 5
| ~NEWSIGNUPCUSTOM5~~
| |
Random String |
~~RANDOMSTRING~~
| Set
E-Mail Auto-Remove Choices – This
function allows you to provide descriptive to be added to the default remove link
that is generated by the system. You should run tests with a dummy account as
you modify this field so that it reads exactly how you want it to read. Also
note that you have the ability to choose whether or not to include remove links
and if you do include them, at what message you would like the sequence to begin.
For instance, if you have a sequence of seven messages and you want to be sure
the customer gets the first three messages before having the ability to unsubscribe,
you can configure the system to start putting in remove links at message number
four. Set-Up
Demographic Collection Dataset - This function allows you to generate a demographics
collection system for your sign-up form. Basically, you can set up to 10 different
questions with multiple answers in a list box format. This list of questions will
be automatically generated and displayed to potential sign ups when they go to
your sign up form. The data is then stored in the database to allow you to perform
sorts/mailings based on demographics parameters. This allows you to further target
your mailings to your customer list. It
is strongly recommended that you think carefully before setting up the demographics
data set as it is not something you can easily change once people start signing
up with the dataset you create. Basically, when someone signs up and selects demographic
criteria on the signup form, this dataset gets stored in the database with that
person’s E-Mail information. If you change the questions/criteria, you lose the
ability to extract the prior names in a demographic manner. However, you may make
additions to the questions that already exist. In other words, if one question
has three choices a customer can make, you can add two more choices (as an example)
without impacting previously collected data.. Resubscribe
Personality Settings - This function allows you to specify the behavior of
the system if a current subscriber tries to resubscribe to the list. The following
behaviours are possible: - Treat
as a new signup
- Ignore
resubscribe
- Send
out message saying already subscribed
- Resubscribe
automatically only if completed with autoresponder sequence.
Set
E-Mail Message Header/Footer – This function allows you to set up a header/footer
that is attached to each E-Mail the system sends out. It can be used for a standard
blurb like a disclaimer or unsubscribe instructions or a reminder that they are
on an opt-in list or whatever else you desire. Or it can be left blank if you
do not wish to send out any standard messages. Note that whenever you make changes
to these message fields, the changes take effect instantly. You
also have the ability to set up both text style and HTML style headers and footers.
If you are sending HTML messages and only have text header and footer configured,
your header/footer will not be included in the messages and vice versa. Please
note that the HTML header/footer supports html tags and that you should test how
your messages look after programming in a header and a footer. Set-Up
Sign-Up "Thank you" Forms – This function allows you to help set up your custom
forms/responses (described below) when a customer signs up. It will allow you
to "design" the look and feel of your sign up form and the thank you
message that gets displayed when a customer signs up. It
also supports a redirect option to allow you to have your customers go to any
page you desire anywhere on the web. If
you have web hosting available to you, it is always better to use the redirect
option to give the customer a custom look and feel for your thank you page on
your web site rather on the host web site. This way if you have a sign-up form
on your web site, after the customer signs up, the customer goes to a thank you
form right on your web site and never knows that he or she left your web site
for a few moments. Generate
Customer Sign-up Form - This function allows you to generate a prototype customer
signup form to allow customers to subscribe to your autoresponder. It does use
the demographics profile data that you configure as well as the any custom data
fields that you may set up. This
function is used by you selecting which fields you wish to use for collecting
data by checking each box (or in the instance of the custom fields, entering the
questions you wish to use for data collection) and pressing the submit button.
It will
then display a screen showing what the form will look like and will offer a box
below the screen where you can cut and paste the html code. This makes for a good
starting point for customizing the form for placement into your own web site as
you will not need to worry about whether or not you typed all the variables correctly
when creating a form yourself. Additional
administrative functions: Edit
E-Mail Reject Filter – This function allows you to reject specific domains
from being able to subscribe to your system. For instance, if you do not want
any E-Mail’s from Yahoo’s free E-Mail service, you can choose to exclude those
addresses from your customer’s subscription ability by adding yahoo.com to the
filter input box. This function only has effect when a customer signs up for the
service either via email or via form entry.. It does not work with the "Import
E-Mail List Data" or "Manually Add E-Mail Address" functions. The
customer will be notified of the the reject with a message. Manually
Send Message to E-Mail List - This function will allow you to contact all
currently active "members" in your autoresponder database. It includes
both people who are currently receiving your message sequence as well as those
who have received the complete sequence and are now archived. You simply enter
a subject line, a message body and hit the submit button. The system will do the
rest to contact all your members. This function uses the same E-Mail addresses
set up by you in the "Set Response E-Mail Addresses" function above.
You can choose to send it Now or later. If you choose now, The emails will be
printed to the screen as they are emailed out. If you choose later...it will be
sent out in a nightly job that was scheduled by the administrator, this send is
done as a background process nightly so a user doesn’t have to wait for the messages
to be sent. The details are put in a queue and the user can instantly take care
of other tasks without worrying about if the whole list is sent to or not. The
background process is called maxsend.cgi and set up as a cron job by whoever installs
your version of MaxSponder. We suggest the admin set it up to run once per day
but if you do lots of list processing activities, you may want to set it up to
run multiple times per day. Schedule
A Message - This function contains 2 choices one for Non Repeating (One Time
Messages on a certain day) Or Weekly Messages….Repeating messages on a day of
the week. Weeklly
Messages Allow you to choose a day of the week to keep sending a message to your
List. Whereas the Nonrepeating messages brings up a Calendar and you can choose
the Month, day and Year and your message to your list. Days of the Year that already
have a message scheduled are highlighted in blue. Manually
Add E-Mail Address - This function allows you to add an E-Mail address to
your autoresponse message sequence manually. It is useful for when prospects contact
you through methods other than the "standard" ways for people to subscribe
to your message sequence or if you get inquiry E-Mail from other sources. You
can specify the starting sequence number , if left blank it will start them at
sequence number 1. Manually
Delete E-Mail Address – This function allows you to manually delete an E-Mail
address from your autoresponse system. It is useful for those people who prefer
contacting you directly to have you remove them as opposed to doing it themselves
through one of the autoremove sequences provided. When
you delete an E-Mail address, the system will do two things. First, it will verify
that the E-Mail address is indeed in the system and available for deletion. If
it is, the process will delete the E-Mail address. If it is not, an error message
will be displayed. Second, it will send an E-Mail to the E-Mail address that was
deleted informing that person that the deletion occurred. Delete
All Subscribers - This function allows you to remove all of your subscribers
which basically bulk deletes all entries in your list. CUSTOMERS WILL NOT BE INFORMED
OF THIS ACTIVITY WITH THIS FUNCTION (i.e. no unsubscribe email will be sent with
this function.) Edit
a Subscriber - This function allows you to edit all details of a particular
subscriber – including email address. Also within this section you will find the
IP address of the user who signed up or the original email. If it is a form based
signup then it wil have the IP otherwise the original email. Seach
for a Subscriber - This function is found under Edit a subscriber. You can
shoose any field about a subscriber such as first name, last name, etc. It will
return a list of all matching subscribers and a link to edit them as well. Import
E-Mail List Data - This function allows you to import an E-Mail list (E-Mail
address, name and other details) in a standardized comma delimited, one per line
format. Here
is an example import list: Apple@baker.com Joe@sage.net,Joe Alice@san.org,Alice Etc. Import
can operate in two different ways. It can import the email addresses directly
in the database without putting them in the autoresponder system or it can import
them directly into the autoresponder system. If you choose the first option, this
can be useful for maintaining a mailing list or newsletter or similar function
where you need to contact people on a periodic basis as described in "Manually
Send Message to E-Mail List" above. Note:
When you choose to add the E-Mail addresses you are importing to the autoresponder
list, the emails are processed and contacted at the same time. This can be a slow
process as there are many decisions being made by the system when an E-Mail is
built. The speed will vary based on current utilization of your hosting machine
and similar parameters and can very from a low of about 50 emails a minute to
a high of several hundred emails a minute. This process does not work in the background.
It will do an immediate on screen processing of the messages in your list. Also,
You can specify the starting sequence number , if left blank it will start them
at sequence number 1. Export
E-Mail List Data - This function allows you to export an E-Mail list (E-Mail
address, name and other details as desired) in a standardized comma delimited,
one per line format. After they are exported, just save and edit the page or do
a cut and paste into your favorite editor to save on your local PC to be manipulated
as needed by you. Export exports the full name, address, and more details of each
customer. Edit
Autoresponder Owner Record – This function allows you to make changes to your
personal record in the system. This allows the Master Administrator to have your
latest contact information and also allows to set some additional parameters that
are relevant to your profile. Demographically
Contact E-Mail List - This function works identically to Manually Send Message
to E-Mail List except that you can define a demographic search through the database
and only contact the members that meet the demographic profile you are defining.
This works in conjunction with Set-Up Demographic Collection Dataset above. Demographically
Export E-Mail List - This function works identically to Export E-Mail List
except that you can define a demographic search through the database and only
export the members that meet the demographic profile you are defining. This works
in conjunction with Set-Up Demographic Collection Dataset above The actual sending
of the emails will occur in the background just like as described in the Manual
Send function. Generate
Reports – This function will generate a complete report of the current state
of your system. It will tell you how many people are currently active in each
of the message sequence slots, how many have gone through the entire sequence
(i.e. your archived emails), and how many people have removed themselves from
each of the message numbers including how many never participated at all (in the
case of an opt-in operation where people opt-out before getting even one message.)
It also will show you a Traffic report on a daily Bassis. Traffic
Report – Daily statistics on your traffic are kept under Generate Reports
above, choose option Generate a report on your messages sent Note:
The number of archived emails will not reflect the number of people who have gone
through the entire autoresponder sequence if you choose to import emails directly
into the archive rather than importing them to the autoresponder message sequence. Test
Message Sequence – This function will email you either individual messages
or every message in your message list. All the emails will be generated and sent
to your signup email address. This function doesn’t handle full personalization
so you will see many of your personalization fields as you typed them into the
message. This is necessary as it is not operating on a customer record when generating
the message and it doesn’t have the data to work with. It
is strongly recommended that you use this function before making your list available
to subscribers so that you can see how your messages will look before your customer
gets them and to verify that you have properly used your personalization variables.. Reprocess
Archived Contacts – This convenient function allows you to reprocess all of
your archived contacts back into the list without having to export and then import
them. URL
Tracking – This feature allows you to create special urls that can redirect
to any place on the web that you desire, complete with clickthrough tracking.
It allows you to track the effectiveness of your advertising, both within the
autoresponder and anywhere else you wish to use it. It is not limited to use in
just the autoresponder. A full discussion on this feature is in its own section
below. Message
Stats – This feature will allow you to export the data of the contacts that
have opened the html The
messages that get tracked have to have the check box for Tracking on in Setup/Edit
Autoresponder Message Sequence.
You have 2 options under this.
- Reset the
Message Read Counter – This option allows you to reset the counter for a particular
message so you can start tracking again from 0.
- View
report – This option allows you to view the contacts who have opened particular
message. The information given about the contact is very similar to Exporting
email addresses.
Set-Up
Special Message – This feature allows you to set the Special Notification
message and and subject. If a subscriber subscribes to the list and the Special
Email field is filled out with a valid email as well, The spcecial email is sent
the special message Set
up Campaigns – Campaigns are similar to normal auto responder accounts
except that these are mainly administered by the owner and not the administrator,
even though the administrator may customize and delete these accounts in the normal
way .In simpler terms the Campaigns may be visualized as sub accounts within
the autorespoder accounts. This
link is displayed only when a given account has the right to Create Campaigns.
Link
Campaigns – Allows the user to create links between campaigns in such a way,
when a contact has finished the message series for the first campaign, they automatically
get subscribed to the message series of the 2nd linked campaign and
become archived in the first. Now
this also has a great feature in that when someone joins the from campaign in
the link, they will be deleted from to campaign in the link. so as to avoid them
being in 2 of the campaigns at the same time. Also a great tool if someone buys
a product and you want them unsubscribed from the first campaign when they buy
a product filling out a form. Delete
Campaign – Allows the user to delete the campaigns for the given account.This
link is displayed only when a given account has atleast one "Campaign". Go
To Campaign – Allows the user to navigate to a Campaign for the given account.This
dropdown combo box is displayed only when a given account has atleast one "Campaign". Go
back to parent account – Allows the user to navigate from a Campaign to its
parent account. Change
Password - This function allows you to change your login password. Logout
– This function will reset the logout time for the session, in effect shutting
down access to the session, and logs you out. If you do not perform this operation,
you will be leaving a potential security access hole in your system until the
time actually expires. Quick
Stats – While not a menu option, it is a nice feature to get a snapshot of
signup activity in your autoresponder. It lets you know how many people signed
up in the last 24 hours and in the last 7 days. Opt-In
for the Autoresponder Owner Depending
on how your accounts setings were configured during the activation of your account
(as determined by the owner of the autoresponder system), you may or may not be
using an Opt-In methodology for subscribing customers. If
you are configured as one who is using the Opt-In methodology, it works as follows:
- A customer signs
up either via form or email, you enter the customer manually or you import a list
of email addresses.
- An
email is sent to the customer telling them of their request to join the list and
to click on this link to confirm. If they click on the clink …
- The system stores
the E-Mail details and adds the customer to the autoresponder sequence and they
are sent the first sequence message. If they don’t click the link, a background
process which is configurable in the maxheader.cgi file as numberofdays will eventually
erase the user from the sytem
If
the account is setup to have opt-in disabled then it works as follows:
- The customer immediately
receives message 1 of the sequence and is queued to receive additional messages
at the times specified in the message sequence. There is no other contact by the
system when opt-in is disabled.
This
option can be changed by the account administrator on an account by account basis
so if it is set in a way other than you desire, you may want to contact the account
administrator about changing its setting. Methods
for Customers to Sign-Up for an Autoresponder Sequence In
general, a customer will interact with the particular subscribed to autoresponder
in one of two ways: E-Mail based or form based. Additionally, there are two processes
that concern the customer: subscribing and perhaps unsubscribing. Lets look at
each feature from a customer perspective. Subscribing: Presumably,
you, as the autoresponder owner, are working one or more ways to get a message
out to the customer (or training program or whatever the message you wish to deliver
is.) You may be using a form on your web site to get customers to sign up or you
may be using advertising in an ezine or opt-in E-Mail or any of the many other
ways to initially contact prospects. Once
a prospect is contacted, that prospect has to take an action. That action can
be either to send an E-Mail to your particular autoresponder address (xyz@yourautoresponders4all.com)
if your domain is structured to support this feature or it is to send the person
to a form on your web site to sign up for the information stream. There
are pros and cons of each method. Obviously the E-Mail method is very easy and
doesn’t involve opening the browser or any additional work on the part of the
client (although in today’s integrated environment, it is a very small effort)
but all you get from an E-Mail sign up is the E-Mail address and perhaps a name.
By using the forms based system, you can now open the avenue of data collection
tremendously. You can get address details and demographic profile details which
depending on what you are doing can be just as valuable as the E-Mail address
itself. Unsubscribing: Obviously,
one of the great powers of E-Mail contact is the presumption that the customer
is in control. This is handled by giving the customer the ability to opt out at
any given time. MaxSponder helps with this function. As
you have read, you can set up unsubscribe messages and the system will automatically
put them into every E-Mail that gets sent out provided that you configured the
autoresponder to include them. This method allows you to create friendly unsubscribe
messages that make the customer feel a potential loss if he or she unsubscribes
and also guarantees that the customer is always in power to unsubscribe at any
time. The
system will put in an unsubscribe link that ties back to the cgi program. When
the customer clicks on that link, it will cause a browser action to go to that
page and execute the unsubscribe script and offer the customer a note and an E-Mail
confirmation that he or she has been unsubscribed. Form
Designs: There
are a variety of templates that are provided for you to use and customize to your
needs that allow for customers to subscribe to a particular autoresponder. They
will be explained below. But before that, we will explain the list of form variable
names that can be used in creating your own autoresponder signup forms to allow
customers to sign up for your autoresponder. - firstname
- The customer’s first name. This is one of the Personalization Variables so it
is generally good to collect this variable but not required.
- lastname
– The customer’s last name.
- email
–The customer’s email address. This form variable is required for this process
to work.
- address1
– The customer’ address.
- address2
– A continuation of the customer’s address if needed
- city
– The customer’s city
- state
– The customer’s state
- zipcode
– The customer’s Zip Code
- phone
– The customer’s phone number.
- fax
– The customer’s fax number.
- website
– The customer’s web site
The
following two variables are hidden variables (i.e. they do not get seen by the
user when the form is displayed on the browser screen.)
- un – This
variable is set to the name of your autoresponder account (i.e. the autoresponder
name you chose when you signed up for your account.)
- function
- This is always set to addresponder2. It tells the computer program where to
go to process the form.
The
following 10 variables are used for demographic data collection and if you use
them, it is recommended that you set up the customer signup form and demographics
data set using the administration system and then saving and editing the form
that is generated by the system on your behalf. However, if you desire, you can
use them as generic data collection fields but in this mode, it will not work
with the demographic contact functions as they will not know the data set to work
on. - options1
– Generic data collection input field.
- options2
- Generic data collection input field.
- options3
- Generic data collection input field
- options4
- Generic data collection input field
- options5
- Generic data collection input field
- options6
- Generic data collection input field
- options7
- Generic data collection input field
- options8
- Generic data collection input field
- options9
- Generic data collection input field
- options10
- Generic data collection input field
The
following 5 variables are true generic data collection fields. That is their only
purpose in the system and you can use them for anything you wish. The easiest
way to create a signup form with these variables is to use the Generate Customer
Sign-up Form described above. - custom1
- Generic data collection input field
- custom2
- Generic data collection input field
- custom3
- Generic data collection input field
- custom4
- Generic data collection input field
- custom5
- Generic data collection input field
There
are three included forms as examples of user signup forms. They are:
- form1.html
– This form just collects a person’s email and sets the un value to autoresponder
account "myaccount".
- form2.html–
This form collects a person’s first name and email and sets the un value to autoresponder
account "myaccount".
- form3.html–
This form collects a person’s name, address, phone and email details and sets
the un value to autoresponder account "myaccount".
These
forms are presented as examples for you to use. But if you do use signup forms,
the easiest way to get started is to use the Generate Customer Sign-up Form
function. URL
Tracking Much
of the url tracking functionality occurs behind the scenes with the cgi program
t.cgi. It deciphers the url the system supplies to you and redirects the customer
to the web page you want the customer to see and increments the clickthrough count
by one. This is a totally automated function that runs in the background and is
something you don’t need to worry about. It just sits there and does its job. However,
to use this feature, you do need to set up some data. To do that, you will click
on the URL Tracking menu option to get into the various setup options.
You have 4 functions: - Add
A Tracking Link – This is where you will always start. Go to this screen and enter
the url you wish your customer to see when he or she clicks on the tracking link
and a description for your personal reference. Your customer will never see this
description but it is useful as a reminder for you. For instance, you might say
"This is for follow-up letter 3" or "This is the url being used
in XYZ ezine." Remember, the url must be the url where you want the customer
to ultimately end up when clicking on the tracking link. When you fill in the
data, hit the submit button and it will provide you with your tracking url. It
looks something like this:
http://www.autoresponders4all.com/cgi-bin/t.cgi?k=autorespondername:trackingnumber (i.e.
http://www.autoresponders4all.com/cgi-bin/t.cgi?k=steven:9
to track url ID number 9 for autoresponder account steven.)
- Edit A Tracking
Link – This function can be used to change the contents of your tracking link
at any time. It does not affect the actual tracking link itself. This is useful
if you wish to add additional description to a field or if you move an html page
and need to change where someone goes when clicking on the tracking link. It also
allows you to set the clickthrough count to any number you want. Generally, if
you change it at all, you will usually set it to zero if you are testing a new
page but in general, it is better to not change it for this reason. If you are
testing a new version of your page, it is better to set up a new tracking link
so that you have better clickthrough to close data to evaluate.
- Delete
A Tracking Link – This function allows you to delete a tracking link from your
system. This is a permanent deletion and we don’t recommend that you perform this
operation if there is a chance the link may still be circulating. If the system
finds no match for the link, it prints a generic error message.
- Generate
Link Clickthrough Report – This function will generate a report for all your tracking
urls. It will supply you with the ID number of the link, number of clickthroughs,
the url that was reached by the customer and the comments you supplied to go with
that particular tracking link.
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