Closed Group Autoresponder

Closed Group Autoresponder

Understanding closed group autoresponder

Closed group autoresponder is a series of automated messages sent to a fixed group of contacts within a mailing list. They are widely used in product and event promotions. Let's go over closed group autoresponder setup and explore the different scenarios you may encounter while trying to create one.

When can I use closed group autoresponder?
  1. Launch an event such as conference or festival and send a series of emails.
  2. Promote a product (may be a book or a music album) to a fixed list of recipients.

Create a closed group autoresponder

  1. From the Navigation Toolbar choose Automation and select Autoresponders.
  2. Click Create Autoresponder. Mouse over the Closed Group and click Create.
  3. Fill in the following information:
    • Name the autoresponder for your future reference.
    • Select a mailing list that should be associated with your autoresponder. If necessary, you can create a new mailing list.
  4. Click Create.

Closed group autoresponder has two views: the timeline view, and the tree view. You can toggle between these two views using the switch in the top-right corner.
autoresponder timeline view

autoresponder tree view

Create the closed group series

Zoho Campaigns allow contacts to choose what email newsletters they would like to receive by selecting topics they are interested in. Therefore, you can send multiple closed group autoresponders to contacts with different interests based on topics. Learn more about topics.

Creating your first message

  1. Click Create Message button.
  2. Add a name and subject for your message.
  3. Select a topic from the drop-down. Learn more about topics
  4. Add sender address, enable reply tracking to track your replies if needed and select a reply-to address and click Next.

  5. Add content for your email message and click Next.

  6. Click Send for Review to send your message to our spam compliance team.

  7. Once the message has been reviewed, click the  Set Sending Time button. 
  8. Click Create Follow-up Message using the above steps 1 to 6. 

Creating followups

  1. Click Create Follow-up Message.
  2. Add message details and content. (See steps 2 to 5 above)
  3. Click Send for Review to send your message to our spam compliance team.
  4. Once the message has been reviewed, click the  Set Sending Time button. 

Once created, your autoresponder will be enabled. You should set a date and time to start your autoresponder. It is at this date and time your mailing list will be closed after which no more contacts can be added to it. The follow-ups are scheduled based on the first message and will be sent out accordingly. You need not start every message separately; however you can cancel the schedule of any message and reschedule it based on your need. To stop the whole series you can disable the autoresponder.

Managing autoresponder messages

To edit the message schedule:

  1. Click the Edit icon to the right of your message.
  2. Select a time to send your message, then save your changes.
Notes:
  • Any timing changes may take up to 24 hours to take effect.
  • It may take up to 30 minutes from the scheduled delivery time for the autoresponder message to be sent.
  • Schedule after one day means your message will be sent exactly 24 hours from the previous message.
Edit autoresponder

To edit an email:

  1. Click the More icon next to the email you want to edit.
  2. Select Edit from the list.
  3. Make the intended changes and click Save and Exit.
Notes:
  • Only a message in draft can be edited.
  • Any changes in the message content must be sent for another review.
Edit autoresponder message

To delete an email:

  1. Click the More icon next to the email you wish to delete.
  2. Select the Delete option. A pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm. Click Delete to confirm.
Note: Only an email in draft can be deleted.
Delete autoresponder

To delete a message:

  1. Click the Delete icon on the right side of your message. A pop-up will appear, asking you to confirm.
  2. Click Delete to confirm.
Delete autoresponder message

End-of-series action

Once the autoresponder message series comes to an end, you can take further actions on contacts present in the mailing list to which the autoresponder was associated. You can remove contacts from the existing mailing list or add them to a new one.

Configuring End-of-series actions is as follows:
From the autoresponder summary page, navigate to the End-of-Series section at the bottom of the page.

To remove contacts from the list:

  1. Click the Configure Now link found in the Remove Contacts section.
  2. Provide your preference as to when you wish the action to take place (either immediately or scheduled for later).
  3. Click Save to confirm.

To add contacts to another list:

  1. Click the Configure Now link found in the Add Contacts section.
  2. Select a mailing list to add the contacts to. You can also create a new mailing list here.
  3. Provide your preference as to when you wish the action to take place (either immediately or scheduled for later).
  4. Click Save to confirm.
Notes: The end-of-series actions' schedule is dependent on the last message of the series
Click the View Reports link to see contacts that were removed from the list or added to a new mailing list. You can pause these actions any time you want and enable it later clicking on the Pause/Enable link.
End of series actions

Sending campaigns to autoresponder opened and clicked recipients

You can send campaigns to recipients who have opened and clicked your autoresponder.
  1. From the autoresponder timeline, navigate to the Reports section and click Send email button on the top-left corner of the screen..
  2. Select from the options Opened or Unopened from the drop-down menu.
  3. Select from the options All messages or Any message from the drop-down menu.
  4. Click Create.

You can now create the message, configure content and schedule the campaign.