Set up Autoresponder

Autoresponders are the solution to send automated replies and follow-up emails to the prospects and customers. Once you receive a response from the lead or contact, you have to manually exclude the contacts from the mailing list. See Also Autoresponder Scenario

Important:

• This feature is available only for the Leads and Contacts module.
• You can set a maximum of 3 autoresponders and a maximum of 5 follow-ups per autoresponder.
• You can send maximum 250 mass emails per day, per company.
• Custom view selected for the autoresponder must contain new data. If you select a custom view in which data is not new, autoresponder will send the first email to the same old data during subsequent iterations. For example, you can select custom views "Today's Leads" and "New This Week Contacts" instead of "All Open Leads" and "Recently Created Leads". In the Today's Leads view, data is always updated with the today's data whereas the data in All Open Leads view may not change frequently.
• While setting up Dynamic type Autoresponders, always select the Custom Views according to the options in the Recurrence Pattern section. If you set the recurrence pattern as By Day, make sure your data in the selected custom view is new every day. Similarly if you select By Week, your data must be a new one for that week before the autoresponder is initiated. If the data used is old, autoresponder will send the first email to the same data during subsequent iterations.
• While executing the autoresponder, system cannot identify the duplicate records. Hence, you are recommended to check for the duplicate contacts and merge with the primary record, before setting up the autoresponder.
• At present, you cannot track the response when customer responds to your email. Hence, you have to manually select the contacts from the mailing list to exclude them from the next follow-up.
• Use the unsubscribe form in the autoresponder email templates. By using unsubscribe form, you can allow the recipients to opt out from your next follow-up and avoid Anti-SPAM complaints. See Also Setting up Unsubscribe Form

To set up autoresponders

1. Click theLeads/Contacts tab.
2. In the Leads/Contacts Home page, click Leads/Contacts Tools > Autoresponders.
3. In the Autoresponders page, click Create Autoresponder.
4. In the New Autoresponder page, under the Autoresponder Details section, do the following:
   • Enter the Name of the autoresponder.
     
   • Select the owner of the records from the Assigned To pick list.
     By default, the field displays the name of the user who creates the autoreponder.
   • Select the Custom View to set up the recipient list for the autoresponder.
   • Select a Folder for the autoresponder.
   • Select Static or Dynamic and specify the corresponding details. (Refer the table for the list of standard fields)
     • Static- Autoresponder in which the Follow-up happens on a fixed date.
     • Dynamic - Autoresponder in which the Follow-up happens on predefined intervals set by you.
   • You can add follow-ups if needed. After selecting the email template in the follow-up, you will be prompted to enter the From and Reply toemail addresses. Here you can choose:
     • account email address
     • email address of the record owner
     • the organization email
5. Click Save.

The following table gives the list of fields and their description when Static option is selected.

The following table gives the list of fields and their description when Dynamic option is selected.

Create Folders

In Zoho CRM, you can create various folders for a better organization of your autoresponders. This helps you to keep them classified under different categories for quick access.

To create folders

1. Click theLeads/Contacts tab.
2. In the Leads/Contacts Home page, click Leads/Contacts Tools > Autoresponders.
3. In the Autoresponders page, click Create Folder.
   
4. In the Create Folder page, do the following:
   • Enter the Folder Name.
   • Enter the Description.
   • Under Accessibility Details, select the option to specify the accessibility to the autoresponder feature.
5. Click Save.

Excluding Contacts from Follow-up

After receiving replies from the recipients, you can exclude the leads or contacts from the follow-up, and schedule the next follow-up only to the leads/contacts that have not responded.

To exclude records from the next follow-up

1. Click the Leads/Contacts tab.
2. In the Leads/ContactsHome page, click Leads/Contacts Tools > Autoresponders.
3. In the Autoresponders page, click the Update Response link corresponding to the autoresponder.
4. In the Mail Sent List overlay, select the leads/contacts to be excluded from the next follow-up.
5. Click Update Response.
   Note that the Update Response option is available only for the Dynamic type autoresponders.

To exclude records before the autoresponder is initiated

The Mailing List will be available only after the autoresponder is initiated. In case you want to exclude some contacts from the mailing list, even before the autoresponder is initiated, follow the steps given below:

1. Click theLeads or Contacts tab.
2. In the Leads/Contacts Home page, select the check box(es) corresponding to the records that you want to exclude.
3. Click More Actions > Update Response.
   
4. In the Select Autoresponder popup window, select the autoresponder from the drop-down list.
5. Click Save.

Including all Contacts in the Follow-up

This option enables you to include all the contacts for the follow-up that you had excluded from the mailing list.

To include all the record for the next follow-up

1. Click the Leads/Contacts tab.
2. In the Leads/ContactsHome page, click Leads/Contacts Tools > Autoresponders.
3. In the Autoresponders page, click the Reset link corresponding to the autoresponder.