“An autoresponder is a computer program that automatically answers e-mail sent to it. They can be very simple or quite complex.” – Wikipedia

I used to think autoresponders were something I didn’t need. You know those automated, “I’ll be out of the office until Monday…” emails you get when someone goes on vacation? Since I hardly ever stop checking my email- even on vacation- I didn’t think I had much use for them.

Since I started blogging professionally, however, I’ve learned just how powerful autoresponders can be. Here’s an example:

A few days before Thanksgiving, we released our very first (free) Stylish Shopping Guide at our shopping blog Something Stylish. Featuring hot deals and tips for maximizing your dollar during the Black Friday / Cyber Monday craziness, we generated a lot of buzz among our visitors. The emails poured in, and each email signup required us to reply with details on how to download the guide for free. Now, because we had an autoresponder, we were able to do the following automatically:

• Send an immediate response to each person, thanking them by name, and providing details on where and how to download the guide.
• Add them to our mailing list, so they immediately receive alerts when our future shopping guides become available, and
• Be able to see who clicked on what on the emails we sent out.

What struck me about all this was how automatic and immediate everything was- and all thanks to our autoresponder.

But how can a blogger make use of autoresponders? AWeber, the autoresponder we use (and love!) features a tool to send out “blog broadcasts”:

You can send out the most recent- or the last 5 or 10, whatever- post on your blog, and prettify it with HTML, AND track who’s clicking through and when. AWeber will do this automatically from your RSS feed. And, of course, you’ll be building a mailing list of your own. Our Build a Better Blog newsletter (scroll down to subscribe!) is powered by AWeber, and we couldn’t be happier.

No, autoresponders aren’t the sexiest of blog tools- but they’ve made my life so much easier.