7 Best Out of Office Message Examples for Your Auto Reply

Out-of-Office Message – Basic Example Template

Sending a vacation message can be tricky. Here’s a great vacation message. 

We don’t always have time to be clever or creative, and that’s okay! At its core, a vacation responder email simply needs to inform the sender that you are out of the office and when to expect a response.

The elements of a great out-of-office reply are

1. How long you will be gone
2. When you will return, and
3. Whom to contact (and their phone number) if it’s urgent. Include these, and your vacation message will be perfect. 

Lead Generation

Have you ever thought of an out-of-office message as a lead generation tool? Well, now, you should! It’s quite easy to create an opportunity to collect a lead in your vacation responder. Just add a little flair to the end of the message and start raking in the leads!

Aside from a newsletter sign-up, you can use this opportunity to encourage webinar attendance, signup for an online course, whitepaper downloads, or any other lead generation tactic your sales and marketing team implements.

Content Promotion

A professional email sign-off is an incredibly effective branding tool. but, did you also know a professional HTML email signature could also be a great lead generation tool? It’s true! Add a clickable banner or a CTA to your out-of-office email sign-off and make people visit your online store, sign up for a webinar, or download an ebook. Online generators like Newoldstamp or MySignature can help you to automate the signature adoption process across the whole company.

If generating leads is not a key strategy of your sales or marketing efforts, you can use your out-of-office message to get more eyeballs on your content. Add a little value to your email by linking to an interesting online resource your company has developed. You can also use auto-reply messages to improve your promotion strategy.

Traffic-Driving Out of Office Message Template

Maybe you don’t have any content to promote, or you simply want to drive traffic to your website using an out-of-office reply. Great! A vacation responder is an awesome way to do that. Depending on the page you link to, your away message might be different, but here’s an example.

Networking or New Business

As much as we’d prefer it, not every away message is for a vacation. Sometimes, you need an out-of-office reply for a business trip or conference. Instead of simply telling people you’re out, why not use that opportunity to encourage networking or new business connections?

Social Media Engagement

The percentage of people who follow brands on social media ranges from 44% to 53% (depending on the platform), and  53% of those who follow brands on social media are more loyal to those brands. So, it makes sense that companies want to build their audiences on social media, especially to create loyal customers.

However,  most people don’t seek out a brand’s social media accounts. They’re more likely to follow you if asked or presented with the opportunity, which can be done in your vacation responder.

Funny/Clever

Of course, the best out-of-office messages are the funny, clever ones. There are tons of examples, from giving your “auto-responder robot” a personality to using GIFs and memes to joking about what you’re actually doing on vacation. Messages like that can add a personal touch to auto-reply messages.  Here’s a clever out-of-office message sample:

You can find out more about Parakeet templates on our blog and start generating your emails in seconds.

*Bonus* Maternity Leave Out of Office Message

Sometimes, you may be gone for reasons other than your vacation. Make sure to set up an out-of-office response for either long-term sick leave or maternity leave as well.

To spice up the auto-reply messages, you can send out an image instead of a regular reply mail, as seen in the example below.

Would you like to add the image but edit it for your own use? Please visit Venngage to edit the template. You will find a number of other templates to choose from.

Conclusion

Like many people, you may not realize that your away message is a unique opportunity to be memorable and make someone’s day, beyond simply telling them you’re out. It doesn’t have to be a long or complex — just thoughtful and interesting. So, next time you’re setting up your vacation responder, use it to inform, assist, or delight the email sender. It will be a fun exercise for you and a pleasant surprise for them!

What’s the best out-of-office message you’ve received or written? Let us know by sharing in the comments!