Autoresponder and Email Series

To be sure to have the latest version of Autoresponder, save the Newsletter main settings and check the plugins page in your blog for updates.

With the Autoresponder Addon, you can create one or more message series that are sent to subscribers with configured delays and run on autopilot. An autoresponder is also known as a follow-up or mail automation.

What is a series

A series is a set of messages with a “delay”. For example a series can be:

  1. when the user subscribes, start the timer;
  2. after a day send the first message;
  3. after a week from the first message, send the second message;
  4. after a week from the first message, send the second message.

The first message can have a delay of zero; it is hence sent immediately.

Series starting rules

Each autoresponder series is started for a subscriber when:

  • the subscriber is specifically added to the series (for example, by a custom subscription form);
  • or the subscriber matches a set of rules.

The starting rules can be activated on the series configuration page. They can be as wide as to match every new subscriber or more focused by list and language. Or just disabled, relying only on other starting methods.

Rules are evaluated, by default, only when there is a new subscription.

Anyway, they can be configured for a periodic match against all the subscribers. So, if a subscriber is modified or added by a massive import if matching the rules, within one hour, the series is started.

This procedues processed only the subscribers not already connected to the series.

Be very careful with the option above: it could start the series for many subscribers at once. It is recommended to use new empty lists for the starting rules when creating a new series.

The Autoresponder addon works only on confirmed subscribers.

Series ending conditions

The series is terminated for a subscriber when:

  1. the message sequence has been completed, and the last message sent
  2. the subscriber does not match the starting rules anymore if it is configured to evaluate them on every step
  3. the subscriber is no longer confirmed (for example, if the status is complained, bounced, unsubscribed, …)

When the series is stopped due to a lack of rules matching (case 2), it is not usually restarted if the subscriber returns to match the rules in the future. This prevents continuing an interrupted series, for example, 2 years in the future…

Each series configuration section provides a list of the connected subscribers, and many per-subscriber actions can be done when needed.

Resubscription special case

In some really specific cases, a subscriber can resubscribe (for example, on sites with multiple subscription forms dedicated to different services).

It is possible to set the series to restart (if already completed) for a subscriber who resubscribes.

Messages and steps (and modifications)

A series is composed of a set of messages, which are called “steps”. When a subscriber is connected, it starts on step 1, which means it will receive the first message after the configured delay.

A subscriber on step 1 has not yet received the first message, it is just waiting for it.

If you change the series, the subscriber status is NOT affected. Hence if it is waiting for step 2 to be processed at a specific time, changing the delay for step two won’t change that subscriber delivery schedule.

If you insert a new step and it becomes the “new” step 2 (and the original step 2 becomes step 3), the subscriber waiting for step 2 will receive the new message for step 2.

Drawback: subscribers waiting for step 3 will receive the message associated with step 3, which was the old message for step 2. So they’ll receive once again the latest message.

So be sure not to change the order of messages once the series is started, or if you do, be aware of the possible side effects.

If you need to make important changes to a series, consider creating a new one.

Subscribers who completed the series

When a subscriber completes the series, adding new messages to that series does not affect the subscriber’s status, and the subscriber won’t receive the new messages. This is reasonable since the subscriber could have completed the series months ago, and receiving a new message out of sequence is something unexpected.

Of course, subscribers still in the series will receive the newly added messages.

Anyway, you have the option to start the series again for a single subscriber or even for all subscribers which already completed it with a specific button on the maintenance page.

Autoresponders are really powerful automation tools, but they need to be planned with care. Do not activate an autoresponder with the idea of completing all steps later. Be sure to have it finished before starting. Usually, the changes made to a series of messages are about the content, the subject, and the ways you engage the customer. Even the delay can be modified; just take care of the notes above about the already engaged subscribers.

Setting/Removing a list after series completion

When a series reaches the end for a subscriber, you can set in which list you want it to be added or removed from its profile. That could be useful for re-targeting or to start another automation (with Autoresponder or Automated).

Messages editing

Since version 1.1.5.

There are two ways to create your series: using the old theme-based system or the composer. The latter is now the default.

Using the composer, each message is fully edited separately from the other. You can drag them into the message dynamic block (like the latest posts) and they will be regenerated at the delivery time. So they’ll look always fresh – even if that is not the main purpose of Autoresponder. For recurring messages to deliver the blog’s new content, you should use the more powerful Automated addon.

If you use the old theme-based system, you have a theme that behaves as a “frame” for each sent message and every message represents only the “body” of the email. Even if that grants a quick way to change the layout of all emails in a series, it’s usually rather complicated to deeply customize the emails.

Statistics

The statistics tab gives an overview of an autoresponder and its subscriber’s status. The panel lists how many active subscribers are waiting on a specific step for that message. It lists how many subscribers exited from the autoresponder (due to removal from the linked list).

Of course, subscribers who lose the confirmed status (because the move bounced, canceled, and so on) exit the autoresponder sequence.

If a subscriber is still confirmed but no longer in the autoresponder list, it stops receiving the email series and is considered abandoned.

Each message is treated as a regular newsletter so the opens and clicks are tracked as usual.

Late messages warning

Since version 1.1.5.

If you get this warning on top of the main Autoresponder administration page, it means you have more messages ready to send than the delivery capacity of your system. That depends on the speed you set on the Newsletter’s main settings.

Once the speed is raised, let the system work to flush the queue; until then, the message will be displayed.

This warning could be temporary and it is displayed only if there is a delay of more than some hours. If you have an important number of emails all going out together, it is acceptable to have a delay in the email series larger than the one set between every single message.

Note: if you set the delay between messages to a few hours and you have a low sending capacity and a large number of subscribers, you can experience larger delays. That is not a bug or a malfunction of the Newsletter; you need to set the speed higher.

If the provider doesn’t allow you more sending capacity, you need to switch to a professional delivery service.

Maintenance operations

Force run or trigger

The button triggers the series process to check if there are emails in the queue that should be sent. The processor has activated automatically every five minutes (if the WordPress scheduler is working correctly), so there is no real need to use this function other than when debugging.

If the series is set as “test mode”, this button behaves differently. On each click, it moves 1 step forward to every subscriber in the series and processes it, as if the delay for the next step has elapsed. This is of course, a special working mode of the series strictly to test or debug.

Seen the complex nature of an autoresponder, those functions are kept public to help people test their series, but they could be hidden in the future.

Warning: Paying with those functions in an already set up and active series could lead to difficult-to-understand behavior, so use them only on test series with a few known and controlled subscribers.

Reset

The reset disconnects all the subscribers connected, cleans up the progress, and everything restarts as if the series has just been created.

Manipulating the database

If you’re comfortable in manipulating the database to make important changes to the series (see the above explanations about changing the order or adding messages), you can look at the table wp_newsletter_autoresponder_steps. The important columns are:

  • step (number) is the next step to be processed for a specific subscriber (referenced by user_id)
  • sent_at (number) is a Unix timestamp (in the future) representing when the message associated to step in the step column should be sent

Of course: backup before act!