autoresponder getting started guide

Click on the links below to navigate the guide. We recommend reading the section as well as watching the available videos.  Links to the videos are located within the written guide while explanations are being given.

Click here to download the Printer Friendly PDF version!

Contents

What you need to do first...

What to do next...

Advanced Functions...

Response Magic Tools

How do I...?

Question not listed here?

System Requirements
Operating System:
windows 2000, NT, XP or Vista
Macintosh OS 10 (X) or greater

Web Browser:
Internet Explorer 6.0.29 or greater (Windows only)
Firefox 1.5 or greater (Windows or Macintosh)
Safari 10.2 or greater (Macintosh only)

The AOL built in Web Browser is not compatible with Response Magic

Back to Top

What you need to do first...

Setting up your Personal Settings

Back to Top

Setting up your List Settings

1. Watch the List Settings Training Video
2. Go to Settings then Personal Settings to view your current list settings
3. You can add a new list by clicking the "add a list" button.
4. You can edit your current lists by changing the information for that list and clicking the "update" button.
5. You can change the Name and the Email address that will be displayed to your contacts on that list when they receive email from you by changing the fields "from first name", "from last name", "from email"

Example: If I entered in "Jane" "Smith" "janesmith@yahoo.com" for list #1, the recipients of emails from that list would see it as coming from that source. If I then put on list #2 "Jane Smith", "Working from Home", "youcanworkfromhometoo@yahoo.com" recipients of emails from list #2 would see that as the sender. If you leave those fields blank, they will use the default first name, last name, and email address that you have set up under Personal Settings.

Back to Top

Understanding How Your Lists Work

Watch the List Management Training Video

The easiest way to understand Lists is to think of each list as if it were a folder on your computer. If you have 3 lists set up (we will call them Prospects, Members, and No For Now Leads), then you have 3 folders, each with a different name. You select what folder you want to open (or what List you want to work with) from your home page under List Management. There you will find a drop-down menu that shows what Lists you have. This menu is called "Select a List to Manage Below." By default, every time you go Home, it will display the contents of your first list (or folder), which in this case would be Prospects.

Each folder has its own sub-folders. These sub-folders are called Email Management, Contact Management, Opt-out Management, and Broadcast. When you Select a List To Manage Below, you will be opening that folder and displaying the subfolders for that list. So if I am currently on Prospects list, and I change that to Members, (by Selecting a List to Manage Below) the page will refresh, open that folder, and display the Email Management, Contact management, Opt-Out Management, and Broadcast options that are related to that list.

What also changes when you change lists is the numbers displayed

These numbers change to reflect the contacts you have under that list (or, in other words, the contacts that you have under the Contact Management sub-folder in that List's Folder) For more information on what these colors/categories mean, please see the section on Contact Colors and Status.

Back to Top

Setting Up Your Confirmation Settings

1. Watch theConfirmation Settingstraining video.
2. Go to Settings then Confirm Settings to set up your Confirmation Email
3. Choose what list you want to create a Confirmation Email for (You will need to create a different confirmation email for each of your lists) by using the drop down menu "Confirmation Email for List:"
4. Create your Subject Line.
5. Create the Body of your email.
6. Submit your email for approval. All confirmation emails submitted must be approved by us before they are sent out to Pending contacts. For it to be approved, it must follow three rules:
1. No Website Links (www.website.com.)
2. No Advertisements (ex: "You can make 5000$ a month!)
3. Your subject line must match the body of your email

These rules only apply to Confirmation Emails. If it meets these rules, it will be approved and will be sent out to all future pending contacts. If it does not meet these rules, it will be declined and an email will be sent to you requesting that you change something in the email and resubmit it for approval.

7. The Opt-in and Opt-out links and instructions will be placed at the bottom of the email you create automatically by the system when it is sent out.
8. If you do not create your own confirmation email, we will send out a generic email for you. You can view this email here.

Back to Top

Why do contacts need to opt-in?

Contacts that have a Pending status must first opt in to receiving emails from you before they will become Active members. This prevents accusations of spam on your account because these contacts have agreed to let you email them. For more information on spam and anti-spam regulations, you can visit the following websites: FTC Can-Spam Act
Spamhaus Spam Information

Back to Top

What to Do Next...

Watch the Contact Management training video.

Adding a Contact

There are three ways to get a contact's information into Response Magic's Contact Management. If you have a team website which has a Get More Information Form, or you have your own website for which you have Generated a Sign-Up Form, contacts can fill out these forms and their information will automatically be added to Response Magic for you. If you have purchased leads, either from Live Leads or from another source, you can import the leads using the Import Wizard. You can also add a contact manually.

To add a contact manually, first Select a List to Manage Below to choose what list you want this contact to be added into. Then, go to Contact Management. There is a button that says "Add a Contact". Clicking this will bring you to a blank Contact Details sheet which you can then fill out with the contact's information. There are two options at the bottom.

1. If you click Yes to Activate, that contact will become active and will begin to receive any sequenced emails you have set up for that list. If you choose No, that contact will become Archived and will not receive the sequenced emails you have set up for that list. You can activate archived contacts at anytime by clicking on the red dot next to their name in Contact management.
2. Send Automated Response give you the option of if you would like to send them the email you have created under Automated Response in Email Management, such as a welcome letter to this contact.

Once you have several contacts in your list, you may notice that some are a different color, or Status. Response Magic has four contact status states, marked by the use of the different colors.

1. Green contacts/Active: contacts that have opted in and are receiving your sequenced emails.
2. Red contacts/Archived: contacts that have previously opted in and were at one time Active contacts. These contacts have received all of the sequenced emails you have set up for that list. You can reactivate these contacts at anytime.
3. Orange contacts/Pending: contacts that have not yet opted in to receiving emails from you account. These contacts will not receive emails from your list until they have opted in. You can send Pending contacts the confirmation email by clicking on the orange icon.
4. Gray contacts/Bounced: this means that the email address listed in the contact's detail sheet is an invalid address. Many times, you can go into a Bounced contact's detail sheet and correct this error. One example would be a contact's email reading bob@yaho.com instead of bob@yahoo.com. You can correct this and reactivate the contact.

Back to Top

Emailing Your Contacts

There are four ways to email your Active or Archived Contacts.

1. You can email them individually by going into Contact Management and selected Email from the drop-down menu across from their name. This is explained in the Contact Management training video.
2. You can send emails to groups of contacts using the Broadcast function.
3. You can send emails to groups of contacts by using Saved Emails
4. You can set up Sequenced Emails for your contacts in specific lists to receive.

Back to Top

Setting up your Sequenced Emails or your Email Campaigns

1. Watch the Email Management training video.
2. Select a List to Manage Below.
3. Go into Email Management for that list.
4. Click on Add HTML Message.
5. Wait for the Email Editor to load.
6. Type in a Subject Line, the number of days, and fill out the body of the email.
7. When you are done creating your email, click the Preview button to view how your email will look to your contacts when it is received. Any errors will be highlighted in red.
8. Close the preview panel, correct any errors there may have been, then click Save to add the email to you sequence email list.

Back to Top

Advanced Response Magic Functions

Saved Emails:

Watch the Saved Emails Training Video

You can create template emails that you can store and then send to one contact or multiple contacts. Go to Emails then Saved Emails.

Once you have added an email to your Saved Emails, you can then send it directly from Saved Emails, or you can choose to use it when you are sending out a broadcast or sending an email to a contact. To use a saved email when broadcasting or emailing an individual contact, simply select "use existing" in the email options instead of "create new". For more information on using Saved Emails, see the section on Broadcasts.

Back to Top

Testing Your Emails

You can test all emails that you have created in your Saved Emails or in your Sequenced Emails by going to Emails then Test Emails.

1. Fill out the information form to test the email variables.
2. Select which emails you would like to test. You can send yourself 10 emails at a time.
3. Click the "Test Emails" folder to email them to yourself.

Back to Top

Broadcasting Emails

Response Magic's Broadcast function allows you to send an email to a list of contacts. You can set the broadcasts up to go out immediately or on a future date.

1. Watch the Email Broadcast
   training video.
2. To send a Broadcast, go to Broadcasts then Send Broadcast
3. This brings you to the Broadcast Options page. Follow the options on this page to create and send your broadcast. Please be aware that once a broadcast has been set up to be sent out, it can not be changed or stopped.

The My Broadcasts page will show you all Broadcasts you have that are set to be sent, are currently being sent, and that have previously been sent. You can also view your Link Tracking data from the My Broadcast Page.

Back to Top

Link Tracking in Broadcasts

Refer to the Email Broadcast
training video.

Response Magic can track both how many people click on the links in your Broadcast, as well as which specific person clicked on the links. This feature is only available for Broadcasts and is not enabled for Sequenced emails.

To Enable Link Tracking for your account, go to Settings, then Personal Settings. Look for the Enable Link Tracking option and place a checkmark in the box provided. Click Update.

To view the tracked-link data for a sent Broadcast, go to Broadcasts then My Broadcasts. Look under the Broadcast History section. Click on a Broadcast Title in Broadcast History to view the link tracking details.

Link Tracking information will also be displayed in a contact's Link History if they have clicked on a link in a Broadcast that you have sent to them. You can view this history by locating the contact in Contact Management and viewing their Contact Details Sheet by clicking on the contact's name.

Back to Top

Opt-Out Management

When a Pending contact chooses to opt-out of receiving emails for you, or when an active contact decides they wish to unsubscribe from your mailing list, they are taken out of your Contact Management and are placed in your Opt-Out Management. You can view the Opt-out management for a specific list by going to List Management, Selecting a List to Manage Below, then going to Opt-Out Management. You can see the opt-outs from every list as a group if you go to Tools then Opt Outs. Opt-Out management will show you the person's name, their email address, and the email on which they chose to opt out of unsubscribe from receiving emails from you.

Back to Top

Response Magic Tools

Import Wizard

The Import Wizard in Response Magic allows you to upload your contact lists from other programs and your purchased leads list into a selected list in your Response Magic account. The file must be in .csv (comma separated values) format, a format most commonly associated with Microsoft Excel.

1. Watch the Import Wizard training video.
2. Go to Tools then Import Wizard to begin.
3. Hit the "Browse" button to locate the .csv file on your computer. Note, if you received this file in an email as an attachment, you must first save the attachment from your email onto your computer.
4. If the file is uploaded successfully, you will be taken to step 2 of the wizard which asks you to establish the field order.
5. If you do not see this, or you received an error when you tried to upload, please see the .csv file help guide here.
6. Once it is uploaded successfully, use the drop down menus to assign category ids to the information in your .csv file. This will be done with the first contact only, and applied automatically to the remaining contacts. If a category on your .csv file does not have a matching category in the drop down menu, such as "income expectations" you can use the Custom 1, Custom 2, ect. in the drop down menu to stand for those fields. Once all categories are assigned, click the Continue button.
7. Next you will see the Import Options page. Select your options, choose what List you want these contacts to be imported, and then click "Submit Import".

Back to Top

Customized Statuses

You can use customized statuses in Response Magic to help organize your contacts within a list. You can assign a different status to each contact, and you can create customized statuses according to your organizational needs.

1. To create, alter, or delete customized statuses to your Response Magic account, go to Tools then Customize Status.
2. To change a contact's status, you can go to Contact Management, select the contact, and then use the drop down menu under Status to alter the status of that contact. You can also change the status of your contacts when you are scheduling an appointment with them.

Back to Top

Generate Sign-Up Form

You can use Response Magic's Generate Sign-Up Form W izard to create a lead-generating form. You can place this sign up form on a website you own, or in an email you can send to possible prospects. This form will take the information they fill out and email it to you, then it will add then automatically to the Contact Management for the List you specify.

1. Go to Tools then Generate Sign Up
2. Choose what List you want the contacts to go into that fill out this form.
3. Title your form
4. Select the email address where the contact's information will sent to when they will out the form.
5. Choose which options you would like displayed on the form for people to fill out.
6. Choose the URL you would like the person redirected to once they successfully fill out the form.
7. Select if you would like to be emailed the form-generated information or if you would not like to have that notification emailed to you.
8. Click Submit Form to generate the sign-up code.
9. You will be redirected to a page which shows you three things:
1. What the form will look like when it is placed on your website
2. The link you can use in your email to send to potential clients. You must type your text in the email, such as "Sign-Up Now!" and then highlight that text and change it to a hyperlink. In most programs you can do this by right clicking your mouse on the highlighted text and going to Hyperlink or Hyperlink Options in the menu that appears. In the URL box of the hyperlink, paste the link code for your sign up form. This changes "Sign-Up Now!" into "Sign-Up Now!" . If your email provider does not let you insert custom hyperlinks, you can simply paste the link code in your email with the instructions "please copy and paste this link into your web browser to sign up to receive my emails" included with the link.
3. The html code you would place into the code of a webpage you have created or that is being made for you.

Back to Top

Appendix

What is the difference between an HTML email and a Text email?
An HTML email is an email that uses HTML code, such as website links, pictures, special fonts, and moving graphics. The HTML email format is supported by the majority of email service providers. Text email format only supports basic text, and does not allow pictures, special fonts or colors, or clickable links.

Import Wizard .csv file format help.

A .csv file format is also know as a comma separate value file, and it is most commonly associated with Microsoft Excel. If you encounter an error when trying to upload your .csv file into Response Magic using the Import Wizard, you can try the following steps to solve the issue.

1. Insure that the file you are using is in .csv format. It will have the .csv file tag at the end of the name: example.csv
2. Open the file in Microsoft Excel
3. Insure that there are no blank columns in between columns that contain information.
4. Insure that there are no more than 2,000 rows of contacts in the file.
5. Insure that there are no blank rows between rows that contain information.

Back to Top

How do I Move a contact to another list?

• Select the list the contact is currently in using the Select a List to Manage Below menu. Then go to Contact Management.
• Locate the contact or contacts you wish to move and place a check mark next to their name.
• Use the pull down menu to select what list you would like these contact to be moved into. (circled in red below)
• Click the Move Selected button to move the contacts. (Circled in Blue)


Back to Top

---

How do I copy emails from list to another?

• Select the list the contact is currently in using the Select a List to Manage Below menu. Then go to Email Management.
• Click the Edit button across from the email you would like to copy.
• When the email loads, scroll down and click on Save As.
• This will allow you to Save the Email into another list.
• This will copy the email only, and it will not remove the email from the current list it is in.

Back to Top

---