How to Setup Gmail Auto Reply or Gmail Autoresponder Feature

You can setup Gmail auto reply or gmail autoresponder feature with ease. Google has provided Gmail users with steps to create the Gmail auto reply feature.

This is the type of message that automatically responds to incoming mails when you are away.

The importance of this feature cannot be overemphasized as it readily helps at ensuring steady communication is maintained with contacts, clients, customers or subscribers.

But of course, this is not meant to replace the traditional autoresponder like Aweber or Getresponse. It’s for those who just want simple auto reply functions.

The auto reply feature is called the ‘vacation responder’ and turning this on or off is easily explained by Google.

 

Steps To Setting up Gmail Auto Reply or Gmail Autoresponder Feature

So, here are the steps to set up the vacation responder feature so you can automate Gmail replies to messages when you are away.

Step 1.  Login

Go to Gmail and sign in using your username and password.

 

Step 2. Go to the settings

In the top right corner of the screen find the settings (gears button) and click on it.

 

Step 3. Locate the option

Scroll down to the “settings screen displays and find the “Vacation responder” section or options.

 

Step 4. Enable the responder

The vacation responder is already defaulted to “off” but you can now enable or activate it by clicking ‘vacation responder on’ toggle button. Activate or enable the Vacation responder.

 

Step 5. Fill in relevant info

You can now fill in the date range, subject, and message. The date you type is the day your vacation starts, the date it will end (this is optional).

You can either type the dates or click on the middle to bring up the calendar. Use it to fill in the dates.

 

Step 6. Create your subject

You should insert the subject you want displayed to the recipients. The subject must be very catchy so as to catch the attention of any reader. Remember, some recipients barely read the subjects of the mails so making it as catchy as possible would help increase the click rate.

 

Step 7. Write your message

You should then write the message you want all recipients to see. Remember, you are creating a standard message template that would be sent to all recipients. You can predict who receives your email, so your message is not customized to an individual or group.

It is important to leave an alternate contact in your message in case there is a project that needs urgent attention while you are away. Also ensure you alert the backup contact of the need to treat any urgent project or mail.

For instance: After your main message you can add “Please contact ABC at 1234567 or email@aaaa.com” for more enquires”. Gmail signature template also applies to your auto reply or vacation responder email.

 

Step 8. Select recipients

You should then select the people or recipients to see your vacation responder. This is simply done by checking the box that states “only send a response to people in my contact”.

By doing this, you now limit the auto reply to people in your contact. This is important so that the auto reply would not be sent to every junk mail you receive or to newsletter subscribers.

 

Step 9. Final step

You can now click the save changes button. Now, you Vacation responder message is set for testing.

You can ask a friend or contact to send you an email once you are out on holiday. If the friend gets an auto reply then your Vacation responder is working.

If he/she did not get the reply then you can repeat the steps until your responder email is properly set up.

 

How to set up Gmail Canned Response for auto reply

Vacation Responder is send to contacts once every four days. This may not be the right option for those who want to set automatic reply for blog visitors.

To deal with this issue, you can set up the Gmail Canned Response. This is also known as Gmail Email template. It is useful for sending automatic replies to messages with similar types of headers, words, phrases, etc.

There is no point writing the same messages over and over when you can just write and save one as template or canned message and forward to same or different recipients.

Here is what you should do:

Step 1. Go to your settings

Go to settings in your Gmail and click on “Labs” tab.

 

Step 2. Enable the option

Scroll down to find the Canned Response Option and check the enable button.

Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the “Save changes” button.

 

Step 3. Create your message

Go to “compose Gmail” to create your canned message. You will find a drop down added as ‘canned response’.

 

Step 4. Create your response

Click on “new canned response” and a window will pop-up. You can now enter the new canned response name and click “OK” to save.

 

Step 5. Type your message

Next type the message you would like to send to and click on the “Save Now” button.

Now your canned message is ready to use and you need to set it up for automatic reply. This can be done by setting it up in the “filter” section of your gmail.

 

Step 6. Login

Log into your Gmail and go to settings.

 

Step 7. Create new filter

Click on the “filters” tab. Click on “Create a New Filter”.

 

Step 8. Select how to filter

Select how you want to filter and enter the words or email you wish to filter, in the new pop-up window. You can fill in “From” box with an email address, subject, or some specific words in the email body as a filter. You should do so with other filter boxes like the “to”, “subject”, “has the words”, and “doesn’t have”.

After that you can check the “has attachment” and “don’t include chat” buttons. Also, you can fill and set the document size based to ‘greater than” or “less than” specific MB, KB or Bytes. When you are done, then you can save by clicking the “create filter with this search” This will take you to a pop-up in the next step.

 

Step 9. Check the “Send Canned Response” box

Scroll down and pop-up and check the “send canned response” box. You then choose the title of the canned response you want to use.

 

Step 10. Do the Last step

Finally, you hit the “create filter” button and you are done.

Whenever an email is sent to you and that matches the criteria you set in the canned message, an automatic reply would be sent to the sender.

 

Conclusion

These are how to setup auto reply feature in Gmail. See that it’s not that hard?

For those who are going away for some days or weeks, setting up the vacation response would be cool.

For sending auto reply messages to senders who may want to inquire of your services, ask questions, or leave comments, etc., you can set up the Gmail canned response in conjunction with the filters tab.

But of course if you are looking to do serious sending of messages to subscribers, whether as autoresponder messages or broadcast messages, you should consider getting a third party professional autoresponder service.

The best third party professional autoresponder services are Aweber and Getresponse.

No matter which one of these you decide to use, they are both truly first class when it comes to autoresponders out there. And what’s even more important is that they are used by more marketers in the industry than other autoresponders.

While trying to use Gmail is awesome, don’t try to use it to replace a traditional autoresponder service. Even worse, don’t go from Gmail to a free autoresponder service. That’s even worse. Using free autoresponders are a big mistake, especially on the long term.

If you are short on cash right now or want to test out either Aweber or Getresponse, you can. Both of them offer 30 days free trial, which can get you started without paying anything. You only start paying when or if you are satisfied, after 30 days.

To enjoy this 30 days free trial on Getresponse for example, click here and scroll to the bottom of pricing option where you will find:

Not sure which plan is right for you? Get a test drive – we won’t charge you a dime! 1 month free – no strings attached.

Click on the [1 month free – no strings attached] when you get to the above and you will be on your way to enjoying Getresponse autoresponder for 1 month free!

Don’t forget, both Aweber and Getresponse offer 30 days free trial, so if Gmail auto reply feature doesn’t meet your needs, consider getting one of these.

 

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