Build and activate your first auto responder
Pick a list, write your emails, clear the checklist, and decide whether existing list members get enrolled.
Updated
An auto responder needs three things before it can go live: a list to attach to, at least one written email, and complete sender details. Here is the order that works.
Start with a list
Every auto responder is bound to exactly one list, and you pick that list when you create the responder. If you don't have a list yet, the page says so and sends you to Contacts first.
Choose the list deliberately. You can't point a responder at a second list later, and everyone who joins the one you pick will start receiving these emails.
Add your emails
Each email in the sequence is a full campaign, built in the same editor you use for a normal send. Give it a subject, build the body, and it becomes a step.
The wait you set on a step is the gap after the previous email, not a date on a calendar. Leave the first one at zero and it arrives as soon as someone joins.
Only the first email can go out immediately. Every later step needs a wait of at least a minute, otherwise two emails land in the same breath.
Work the checklist
The sequence page shows what is still outstanding before you can activate. It lists only the unfinished items, so an empty checklist means you're ready. Common entries:
- Add your first email — the responder has no steps yet
- Write email 2 — the step exists but the body is empty
- Add a subject line to email 3 — body written, subject blank
- Add your business name or Add your mailing address — sender details missing
- Verify your reply-to address — the address is set but unconfirmed
The sender items are the same requirements a normal campaign has. If you've already sent a campaign, they're done.
Decide about existing members
When you activate, you choose whether to enroll the people already on the list. This matters more than it looks.
Leave it off and the responder only applies to people who join from now on. Everyone currently on the list is untouched. That's usually what you want when you're adding a welcome sequence to a list you already had.
Turn it on and every active contact on the list starts at email one. On a list of 4,000, that is 4,000 sends beginning immediately. There's no undo, so check the list size first.
After it goes live
New contacts start arriving in the sequence on their own timers. You can pause the responder at any point, which stops sending without losing anyone's progress, and resume later from the same place.
Editing the emails afterward has rules of its own. See Editing emails after your auto responder is live.