Email autoresponder: how it works and how to set it up

An email autoresponder, in the marketing sense, is a pre-written series of emails that starts when someone joins your list and then runs on a timer: day zero, day two, day five, day ten. Each subscriber gets the same carefully ordered introduction to your firm, no matter when they signed up. This article answers one question: how to design and set up that timed series so a new subscriber moves from downloading a guide to booking a conversation. For the single instant reply to an enquiry, see our separate guide on the instant email auto responder.

What you get once it is set up

A new subscriber receives a welcome and the thing they asked for immediately. Over the next two to three weeks they receive four or five more emails, each one teaching something useful and moving them a step closer to a sales conversation. The series stops automatically when they book, reply or become a client.

Your team gets warmer conversations. By the time a prospect books, they have read your view of their problem several times and know what you do.

Before you start

You need a lead magnet or reason to subscribe, such as a guide, checklist or calculator. You need a form in Sites that captures email and consent, a verified sending domain, and a clear end goal for the series, usually a booked call. Write the full series before you build anything; it is easier to change a document than a workflow.

How to set it up

1. Go to Sites, open Forms and check the marketing consent checkbox.
2. In Automation, create a workflow from scratch.
3. Add the Form Submitted trigger for the sign-up form.
4. Add a Send Email action for the welcome email.
5. Add a Wait of two days.
6. Add the Send Email action for email two.
7. Repeat the wait and email for the rest of the series.
8. After the final email, add the Add Contact Tag action with series-complete.
9. Add a Goal Event for an appointment, set to End this workflow.
10. Use Test Workflow, then publish and save.

How to plan the series

A sound five-email autoresponder follows a simple arc. Email one delivers the resource and sets expectations. Email two names the most common mistake your market makes. Email three shows how you approach it, with a short worked example. Email four answers the objection you hear most often. Email five makes a direct offer to talk.

Space them two to four days apart. Closer than that feels pushy; further apart and the subscriber forgets why they signed up.

What it is for in a 10 to 250 person company

Most established firms collect sign-ups and then do nothing with them until the next newsletter. When revenue has stalled, those dormant subscribers are some of your warmest prospects. An autoresponder gives each one a structured introduction while their interest is fresh.

It replaces the occasional manual follow-up and the newsletter that new subscribers join halfway through without context. Once built, weekly time is under 30 minutes: check bookings from the series and read replies. Agencies, consultants, mortgage brokers and real estate firms can each run one per lead magnet.

To build longer or branching series, read our guide to automated email sequences with conditions. If subscribers are not ready to buy after the series, move them into a slower email nurture campaign.

When not to use it

Do not run a marketing autoresponder for someone who has already booked or bought. Exit conditions exist for that reason. Also skip it when you have no clear next step to offer; a series that ends with "let us know if you need anything" wastes the subscriber's attention.

Troubleshooting

Subscribers receive the series twice. They submitted the form twice. Set the workflow to allow a contact to enter only once.

People keep getting emails after booking. The condition checks the wrong calendar or pipeline. Point the goal event at every calendar your team uses for first calls.

Unsubscribes spike at email three. That email is probably too long or too salesy. Cut it to one point and one link.

Contacts finish the series and hear nothing more. Add the series-complete tag and use it to enrol them in your newsletter list. Our guide to keeping an automated email list in order shows how.

Frequently asked questions

How many emails should an autoresponder have?

Four to six suits most business audiences. Fewer and you have not built trust; more and you risk fatigue. Measure where people book and where they unsubscribe, then adjust.

Is an email autoresponder the same as a drip campaign?

They overlap. An autoresponder usually means a fixed series triggered by sign-up. A drip or nurture campaign is often longer, slower and may branch based on behaviour.

Can I edit the series after it is live?

Yes. Edit an email in the workflow and new sends use the updated version. Contacts already past that step will not receive it again.

Should the emails be designed or plain text?

The welcome email can use your branded template. Later emails often perform better as plain text from a named person, because they read like advice rather than marketing.

The journey this guide describes