How to Automate Your Site through Your web design Hosting Service

When first creating your website, it’s crucial to think about automation from the very start. What can you automate to make life easier?  How can you save time while giving your site a professional presence? 

Already Done

First, keep in mind that a good bit of the automation capabilities for your site will be provided by your web design hosting service. 

The host can provide forms, e-mail features, ordering features, etc. to help your site operate smoothly.  Let’s take a look at some of these features so you can get well ahead of the game in your website design.

E-mail Automation Features

Most web design hosting companies enable their users to set up e-mail accounts using their main domain name.  This means your e-mail will be personalized for your website, with your own domain name after the “@” symbol. 

 The name/title before the “@” symbol can be chosen by you, and most hosts allow multiple IDs to be created.  So you might have one e-mail with your first name @ your domain name, and other IDs such as order, support, etc. to serve other functions within your site.

E-mail can be automated in several ways. 

You can create auto responders to give response to e-mails letting the sender know you’ve received their e-mail.  Auto responders are convenient for when out of the office and on vacation.  They can be used to confirm orders or to verify subscriptions to a newsletter (e-zine).

In your web hosting control area, you can likely create various auto messages.  These can be typed and programmed to follow up under certain e-mail IDs. 

Under your main e-mail account, for instance, you’ll likely want a simple “welcome” message.  For orders, you can create “Thank you” messages and order fulfillment.  For newsletters, the autoresponder message will likely be the first issue along with a welcome message.

Automate with Forms

Adding forms to your site not only helps prevent spam, but also gives you a chance to ask questions of your visitors.  If a visitor e-mails through your form about a certain product or service, you can create a form with several questions so you’ll be able to answer the questions accurately.  Also create surveys, order forms, contest forms and others to help promote your business. 

If you have a support team, forms can enable proper direction of the e-mails so they’ll reach the right person.  One might be sent to support while another is sent to an order fulfillment service.

Shopping Automation

For a site with 10 or more products to sell, having a built-in shopping cart can be a lifesaver.  Your visitors will be able to shop for multiple items, add them to their shopping cart, and check out with ease when ready. 

 This saves you from many programming issues later while making the site fun and easy to navigate for your visitors.  Your web design hosting service likely has a shopping cart option, or you can check with third party processing companies such as PayPal to use their shopping set-up for merchants.

With so many automation features, the possibilities are endless for your site’s success. Don’t miss out on these great time-savers.  Ask your web design hosting company today about the possible options.