An e-mail utility that automatically replies to an e-mail message with a prewritten response when that e-mail comes into a specific e-mail or Internet address.
Autoresponders are used by individuals and also by Web sites that need to respond to user comments automatically. For example, an individual may use an autoresponder feature of e-mail to inform the sender that he has gone on vacation and will not be replying personally to e-mails until he returns to the office; an enterprise may use an autoresponder in response to a newsletter subscription request to verify the opt-in or subscription cancellation or to indicate to the sender that a user comment was received. Autorepsonders are also used by enterprises to indicate that an online purchase was processed and will typically include an order confirmation number in the e-mail that is automatically generated and sent to the purchaser.
An autoresponder is a computer program that automatically answers e-mail sent to it. They can be very simple or quite complex.
The first autoresponders were created within mail transfer agents that found they could not deliver an e-mail to a given address. These create bounce messages such as "your e-mail could not be delivered because..." type responses. Today's autoresponders need to be careful to not generate e-mail backscatter, which can result in the autoresponses being considered E-mail spam.
Autoresponders are often used as e-mail marketing tools, to immediately provide information to their prospective customers and then follow-up with them at preset time intervals. Such follow-up autoresponders can be divided into two categories:
Outsourced ASP model — these autoresponders operate on the provider's infrastructure and are usually configurable via a web-based control panel. The customer pays a monthly usage fee. This is easiest to implement for the end-user.
Server-side — enables users to install the autoresponder system on their own server. This requires technical skills.
Autoresponders are also incorporated into electronic mailing list software, to confirm subscriptions, unsubscriptions, posts, and other list activities. Several reliable commercial autoresponders exist such as Norabots, Getresponse and Aweber.
