Have you ever received an email telling you that the person you emailed is on vacation and will not be answering his email for the next week? What about a company that answers with an email thanking you for your interest and that they would get back to you in a day or two? Or even an email saying that the email you tried to send could not be delivered?
Each of these is a different version of what we commonly call an autoresponder. An autoresponder is simply that, a computer program that automatically answers email sent to it. This simple definition, however, belies a world of difference between the different types of autoresponders in use today.
The first auto responders were incorporated into mail transfer agents or email providers. When they could not deliver a piece of email, they would send an autoresponse to you letting you know as much. These types of emails were helpful, but not particularly sophisticated.
That has all changed radically in recent years, as autoresponders have been incorporated into the marketing strategies of many companies. Today autoresponders are used by companies to immediately give feedback and information to prospective...