An autoresponder is exactly what its name says. Explaining it in a simple way, an autoresponder is a program that is in charge of automatically answering the emails that you receive in a certain email account.

The autoresponders are well known in the world of the emal marketing for a long time but anyone who has an email account and a control panel cPanel can set up an autoresponder email or email.

What is an Autoresponder for?

An autoresponder, auto-responder or auto-responder, any of the three ways is correct, is usually used in email marketing to have a first contact with the customer who contacts our company.

If on any occasion you have registered somewhere, have requested help from a technical department or have made an online purchase, it is very likely that you have received an email almost instantly commenting that your communication has been received or thanking you for the purchase , etc…

These are the clearest and most common cases in which autoresponders are used but there are many others and not only for companies.

You can have an autoresponder to thank the user who has commented on an entry on your blog, to recommend an eBook that you have prepared for people who register on your website, to warn that you have a lot of work and you will respond to their email as soon as possible or simply to warn that you have gone on vacation and that you will be a few days without answering your email.

For companies there are many applications but one of the most important is that it is the first contact that the customer receives from the company. A well-written and friendly email that the client trusts will make the email mark as desired and thus future email marketing campaigns that you send will avoid the famous spam filters .

Configuring the Autoresponder from cPanel

To configure the autoresponder, the first thing we must know is with which email account we are going to work. Just think about which email account customers are going to send their emails to to get in touch with you or your company. Ideally, create an exclusive account to use the autoresponder.

Once we have clear the email account we must go to our cPanel and locate the Email section where we will find the Auto Answers icon .

If we have any auto-answering machine created, it will appear reflected on the screen after clicking on the Auto-Answering icon . To create a new one, click on Add auto-responder .

Autoresponder Configuration Options

You have to configure some accounts, things that can be complicated at first, but we will explain the most important ones so that you can configure your autoresponder in the simplest way possible.

Character set
Normally left as utf-8 you can change it to another but do not configure anything else before changing this option or the data will be deleted.
Interval
This option is used to configure how much time you want to pass from when the user's email is received until you send the autoresponder. 0 hours will be immediate.
Email
Here we must put the email that we have chosen to use the autoresponder. You just have to put the chosen name, you don't have to add the @ or the domain.
Domain
This is where we must add the email domain.
From
The name of the sender. You can also put the name of the company.
Subject
You only have to indicate the subject of the email. For example, if the autoresponder is focused on people who have just registered a Welcome to …… it would be fine.
Body
Here you have to write the message you want to send. If it is a message designed in HTLM created in an external editor, you must copy the code of the message there. Don't forget to check the box This message contains HTML , otherwise you will receive the raw code.
There are two more sections that are Start and Stop that are used to select dates and time intervals for the autoresponder to start and stop. For example when you are out of the office.

If you click on any of the Customized, a calendar will appear in which you can select the hours and days for the autoresponder to start and stop.

If you leave Immediately and Never, the autoresponder will go to work immediately and never stop.

When you have everything configured and to finish you just have to click on Create / Modify and your free email autoresponder will be created and working.