Introduction

Autoresponders are automated emails that send to your supporter whenever a form is submitted. You're probably used to seeing email confirmations emailed to you after you donated. That's one type of automated response. You can also set an autoresponder for other forms. For example, you could add an autoresponder to your sign-up form to thank the supporters for joining the cause, or you can send a message of hope and encouragement after a supporter submits a Targeted Letter action, and so on.

Autoresponder emails can (and should) be more than a transaction receipt. Use autoresponders to continue the conversation with supporters after they submitted an action. Ask users to stay engaged by taking another action right away.

Configure Default Autoresponders

There is a list of 24 Salsa Engage confirmation messages that are automatically sent after a supporter completes an action online, including making a donation, signing a petition, sending a targeting letter, or signing up for your list. To view a list of your default Autoresponders...

Click the Email tab.
Click the Autoresponders tab.

When you come to the Autoresponders tab for the first time, you'll see available default Autoresponders. Each autoresponder has some generic content included by default, but you can change it. You can edit any of them using the same process. Find the autoresponder that you'd like, and then click on the Reference Name or Description text.

Edit Autoresponders

When you click once on a row, the autoresponder opens in compose mode. Edit any of the following parts of the autoresponder:

Autoresponder Description—This short description includes the context in which you'd use this message as well as keywords you and your teammates might search on to find this message later. This is for internal use only. NOTE: the name is not changeable.
Sender Details...
- From Name—The name that is related to the email address from which the email was sent. Best practices dictate that this name should be recognizable to the recipient (they're more likely to open the email if they recognize the name of the person sending it).
- From Email Address—The email address from which the email was sent. Use a valid email address monitored by someone at your organization.
  
  Caution: Never use the following domains for your From email address. Many email clients automatically block emails from these domains or send them directly to spam:
  - Gmail.com
  - Hotmail.com
  - AOL.com
  - Yahoo.com
- Reply-To Email Address—This is the email address to which emails will be sent if a recipient replies to the autoresponder message. Use a valid email address monitored by someone at your organization.
Autoresponder Content...
- Email Subject Line—The subject line of the email which will be sent. Try inserting their first name and avoid spammy subject lines to increase open rates. To add merge fields to your email, use the control shown below. Merge fields enable you to insert dynamic text elements into your forms and messages. Watch out for suspicious subject lines.
- Edit Content—Edit elements like text, font, color, images, and logos. See the Visual Editor page for more information.
  
  PRO TIP: There are currently more emails opened on mobile devices than on desktops. The shift to mobile has made the use of preheader text important for anyone using email to grow supporters and revenue. Do you use preheader text in your emails? Check out this section on adding preheader (or preview) text to your autoresponders.
Spam Checker—Certain phrases, keywords, link types, and other components of your message may trigger spam filters on the receiving end, so we try and provide you with data to help clean that up if needed. See this section on Spam Checker for more information.
Send a Test Message—When you edit your email blast in the visual editor, this is a close approximation of the final product. An even better approximation is the Test email that you can send to yourself (preferably outside of your foundation's domain; to a personal email, for example).

NOTE: We strongly recommend you send test messages of each email blast to multiple email domains, as email providers have varying standards for spam-checking HTML. For example, send the test message to a personal address at Yahoo or Google in addition to your organization's email. If your organization is blocking the test email or otherwise noting it may be spam, that is because we are sending emails that are on behalf of your organization, though your email server is suspicious. After all, it did not send the email. Our email servers likely need to be whitelisted to perform such an action. Please review our documentation on making sure emails get to supporters.

PRO TIP: It can be challenging to create emails that render well in all email clients, because email clients, unfortunately, have little standardization in the way they display HTML. Here is a helpful resource that other clients of ours have used to mitigate these kinds of problems: http://www.email-standards.org. Another great resource is a program called Litmus (http://litmus.com). It allows you to test the email across various clients. See what email clients your constituents are using in the Results section. If you see that a significant amount of constituents are using Outlook, you may wish to tailor the emails towards Outlook recipients.

Autoresponder Definitions

Autoresponder Name	Description
Donation Receipt - Annual Recurring Initial	Supporters are sent this email in response to setting up a successful yearly donation schedule and first payment.
Donation Receipt - Annual Recurring Installment	Supporters are sent this email in response to a successful yearly donation payment.
Donation Receipt - Quarterly Recurring Initial	Supporters are sent this email in response to setting up a successful quarterly donation schedule and first payment.
Donation Receipt - Quarterly Recurring Installment	Supporters are sent this email in response to a successful quarterly donation payment.
Donation Receipt - Monthly Recurring Initial	Supporters are sent this email in response to setting up a successful monthly donation schedule and first payment.
Donation Receipt - Monthly Recurring Installment	Supporters are sent this email in response to a successful monthly donation payment.
Donation Receipt—One-Time	Supporters are sent this email in response to a successful one-time donation payment.
Donation Receipt—General	Supporters are sent this email if you choose to send the same autoresponder to each supporter that submits the form, especially not distinguishing between separate initial and installment notifications.
Regulation Comment Confirmation	Supporters are sent this email when they submit one of your regulation documents.
Sign-Up Form Confirmation	This is the default message for sign-up forms. Supporters will receive this email when they submit a sign-up form.
P2P: New Team Donation Notification	Team Captains are sent this email each time a donation is successfully made to their team.
P2P: Donated to Event Only	Supporters are sent this email each time a donation is successfully made to a P2P event.
P2P: Donated to a Team	Supporters are sent this email each time a donation payment to a Team is successful. The message contains generic content now, but you can change it.
P2P: Individual Fundraising Notification	Individual fundraisers are sent this email each time a donation is successfully submitted through their individual pages.
P2P: Nonparticipant Registration	Supporters are sent this email each time a registration is successfully submitted for a nonparticipant.
P2P: Donated to an Individual	Supporters are sent this email each time a donation payment to an Individual is successful. The message contains generic content now, but you can change it.
P2P: Complete Your Fundraiser Registration	Registrants are sent this email when a fundraiser registration is purchased on their behalf.
P2P: Registered to be a Fundraiser	Supporters are sent this email when they create a fundraising page for an event.
P2P: New Team Member Notification	Team Captains are sent this email each time a new team member joins their team.
Targeted Letter Out Of District	Targeted Action Ineligible supporters are sent this email as a Follow-Up email if their address does not coincide with the Target's address.
Event Registration with or without Donation	Supporters are sent this email after they register for an Event or register and donate.
Event Donation without Registration	Supporters are sent this email each time they donate without registering for an event. The message contains generic content now, but you can change it.
Petition Signed Confirmation	Supporters are sent this email each time they sign one of your petitions.
Targeted Letter Sent Confirmation	Supporters are sent this email each time they send a targeted letter.

When you are creating an activity, you may use these default autoresponders as you have configured them or you may customize the autoresponder just for that activity.