Automatic Message Responding

If you frequently respond to messages with standard reply, then you might have a need for auto-responder functionality. This function automatically detects messages containing certain text and responds with your pre-built message. This is particularly useful for web forms that invite a user to provide their e-mail address for further information. You can even use Personalization fields so that the response is customized with the user's name, for example.

To access the Automatic Message Responding functionality, select File > Options from the main toolbar.  Select the "Automatic Emails" tab and click the "Automatic Message Responding" button.  This will display the Responding Rules Dialog where you can create new rules and edit your existing ones.

Active rules are checked.  You can disable any rule by unchecking it.

Your message responding rules are processed every time you check for mailing list messages (e.g. by selecting "Home" > Check Now on the main Toolbar).

 

Auto-Responder Folder

Specify the mail folder to check for any messages that match your responder rules (Outlook only). You can use the same folder as for your normal message processing, but ensure that your rules do not clash with any of MailList King's command processing rules (e.g. use the word Subscribe). After messages are processed they will be disposed of using the same method as your normal message processing.

Note:  If you are using e-mail software other than Outlook, you will only be able to use your default folder (Inbox).

If you are using POP mail server retrieval, then your default POP account will be used (i.e. same as that used for normal message processing).

 

Creating your Auto-Responder Rules

Click the "Add Rule" button to create a new autoresponder rule (or the "Copy Rule" button to create a new rule, inheriting the settings of an existing one).  You will need to specify the following settings:

Specify a name to help you identify this rule
 

Specify one or more of the following rules that will determine a message that this rule applies to:

- Messages sent to the following address:

Rule applies to messages with the specified e-mail address in the to field

- Messages containing a specific word or phrase in the subject:

Rule applies to messages that contain a word or phrase in the message subject (the case does not matter, e.g. word and WORD are considered the same)

- Messages containing a specific word or phrase in the body:

Check this option if the rule should apply to messages that contain a word or phrase in the message body (the case does not matter, e.g. word and WORD are considered the same)
 

These are optional conditions that you can use to further refine your auto-responding rules:

- Message sender is a member of the following group:

The rule will only apply when the message sender exists in the specified group

- Message sender is not a member of the following group:

The rule will only apply when the message sender does not exist in the specified group
 

Specify whether the message is a standard e-mail (sent by a user) or a web form with embedded fields (sent from a web server)

- Standard E-mail

Select this option for normal e-mail messages.  The sender address of the message (and name if available) will be used for the response that MailList King generates.  You can also specify that the address should be added to a group of your mailing list.

- E-mail is a web submission form

Select this option to process messages that are sent automatically by forms submitted on your web site.  MailList King will retrieve the e-mail address from a web form field within the body (and any other fields, such as name, group, etc).  The message will be parsed using the same formatting rules specified in Options, Web Forms tab.

The value of the Action field will specify how the message is processed, by default the user is added to your mailing list.  Set the Action to "None" (e.g. as a hidden field in your web form) to specify that the user should not be added to your mailing list

Note: If you are also processing Web Forms for normal subscriptions (under the "Email Processing" tab) and retrieving messages for auto-responding from the same location, ensure the subjects for your auto-responder messages do not match those specified for normal web form messages (i.e. as listed under "Email Processing" tab, Web Form Messages, Edit Message Format).
 

This is the message that will be sent in response to any messages that match the rules specified.  You can specify personalization fields to customize the content for each user (if the message being responded to is a standard e-mail then you should only use the name and e-mail personalization fields).
 

Send multiple messages, e.g. a ten week training course that is sent by e-mail once a week, click the "Delayed Messages" button and specify when and what messages to send.

 

See Also