It's Mother's Day weekend and you know your team is going to be slammed with trying to fulfill special orders while simultaneously carrying out two events. There is no way for you to spend time answering emails from your other clients or potential clients. What should your out-of-office autoresponder include?
At the core of your message needs to be an explanation that they should not expect an immediate response from you. It seems pretty obvious but we've seen plenty of autoresponses that sounded like the person would still be regularly checking on and responding to messages while on vacation. Moreover, you should include an exact date of when your recipient should expect a response AND be sure to stick to that timeline as best as you can. If you're going to be away for a long period of time but have another team member who can help field messages, be sure to include their contact info in your autoresponder too.
Branding Integration
As we've discussed before, there are
two types of branding: message branding and experiential branding. Message branding includes things like your logo, your booth setup at a wedding show, and advertisements on The Knot. It's about what you're portraying to those
who have never interacted with you (or to restress with those who have). Experiential branding is about the actual experiences people have had with your company. Your autoresponder is the perfect time to reinforce your branding through both of these means. On the message branding side of things, you should be sure to include your tag line in your signature to reinforce people's connection with you. On the experiential side of things, this is a fantastic opportunity to remind clients and potential clients of how hard you really work and the value you bring to their events.
Do this by pointing out that you're out of the office because you're creating beautiful and delicious events or, if you're on vacation, that you're taking a break so you can come back refreshed and ready to create more beautiful events. By reinforcing your strong work ethic and high quality performance, you're encouraging positive thoughts about your business.
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