Why You Need an Autoresponder
Your email follow up system is the first part of your business that you should automate. You need to be able to engage with your leads and customers long after they have left your website. Your autoresponder is like your personal assistant who works 24-7 and never calls in sick.
If you don’t yet have an autoresponder, you’ll never know why you need a service like Aweber until you try it.
Choosing the Best Autoresponder
Now that you’ve decided to use an autoresponder, you have a decision to make and there are dozens of providers to choose from. Aweber, Get Response, iContact, Constant Contact and Mail Chimp are all decent options. There are a few more but these are probably the most popular and I’m only really going to write about Aweber.
You need to choose an autoresponder that fits with your business needs and how you plan to use it. Ask yourself how often you intend to mail out and how many customers you want to reach. There are really 2 main options to decide on:
1. Web based autoresponder or self hosted?
For most small businesses, charities and entrepreneurs, an web-based service is the best. Online autoresponders usually have a monthly subscription based on the size of your mailing list and level of use. You don’t need to worry about installing software updates or lack of support. Delivery rates can be higher because online email services like Aweber work with ISPs to build their reputation and avoid spam complaints. This allows you to leverage the reputation of the service provider so your email reaches your customer and not their trash.
Hosting your own email autoresponder on your server is possible but you need to know what you’re doing because you don’t have the support or training of a web-based service. I wouldn’t recommend this option unless you really need it and you have your own in-house tech support.
2. How Much do Autoresponders Cost?
There are autoresponder packages are aimed at every budget from free (but limited) services to $499 plus for Infusionsoft. You get what you pay for and I’d never recommend cutting corners here. Remember, this will be a central pillar in your business.
Do your research.
Why I Chose Aweber
My research started with recommendations – I didn’t look for opinions, I looked for facts. Than meant checking my inbox to see what autoresponders the pros were using. I looked at all the newsletters I was subscribed to and amazingly over 80% of subscriptions were handled by Aweber. You can’t argue with social proof like that.
In fact as I write this post, Justin Brooke*, Yaro Starak, Alex Jeffreys, Jeff Johnson, Liz Tomey, Soren Jordansen, Ryan Deiss* and Yanik Silver are all using Aweber – far more than all the rest of the professional autoresponders added together. That’s good enough for me.
[*Update - Justin and Ryan have recently moved their lists over to iContact to take advantage of the more advanced functions and avoid some of the limitations of Aweber that can have an impact when you have a very large mailing list].
I’d already read a some ebooks recommending Aweber and after checking a few reviews by Yaro and Darren Rowse, my mind was made up. Aweber is undoubtedly the best autoresponder to start out with and if you find that you do need an alternative solution like iContact, it’s far easier to export your contacts from aweber than it is to import them, so switching is easy.
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michele carr
William Freeman
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Actually Marc, I'm using iContact and so does Ryan Diess… Aweber is definitely the best low cost solution aka under $100. But when you get into 10k subscribers and more you'll start wanting more options then aweber allows.
especially things like single opt-in and importing without having to re-optin people. That stuff Aweber doesn't like and some of it they just plain won't let you do.
However, for just starting out Aweber is definitely the best choice and u can move to iContact when you get big enough.
Hey Justin,
Great to see you here and thanks for setting me straight. I'd originally posted this a while ago and it just goes to show that you should always check your sources!
I can see how Aweber could cause some problems, particularly when moving members around without making them jump through hoops. I guess it's a shame that they feel they need to use their policies to govern their users instead of depending on the honesty and transparency of their customers.
I'm off to update the post and I'll definitely include the drawbacks you listed. Great to have a balanced view from someone who's been 'round the block.
Cheers mate.
Marc,
Just wanted to drop by and thank you for mentioning us next to Aweber; I'd like to add a few relevant comments to this discussion and help marketers make the right choices when it comes to autoresponders.
I would encourage marketers to look at who they receive emails from already — clearly, something must be working if they are receiving autoresponder (or commercial email) messages. Also, it's a good idea to research and compare the costs of using another provider. Specifically, it's a good idea to research the short and long term costs associated as not all email services charge the same for services.
I feel Aweber is great for smaller list sizes. I mean, their product is pretty cool and definitely helps novices along so they can understand the world of email marketing and email automation. However, different providers offer specialized value in their products. For instance, a person who fits ConstantContact might not fit well into Bronto, or an Aweber person might not fit well with iContact — it all depends on the needs at hand the goals one wishes to accomplish.
On that note, I wanted to clarify that Infusionsoft offers flexible pricing plans that start at $199 monthly for 25,000 emails monthly; $299 for 75,000; $499 for 200,000 email messages monthly. It's pretty affordable and straightforward. Similarly, comparing Infusionsoft to email service provides alone isn't exactly equal since those services don't offer a customizable CRM or e-Commerce capabilities. Then again, not everyone needs that and should be researching solutions based on their need and future growth of their business.
Thanks for sharing this insight. It will help us understand the needs of email marketers so we can continually be providing value to them.
~Joseph Manna
Community Guy, Infusionsoft
Hi Joseph,
Thanks a lot for dropping by and chiming in. I have noticed a few marketers using Infusionsoft and it looks like a really cool solution that offers a lot more than autoresponders.
I guess in that sense, I'm comparing apples and oranges so it's not a really fair comparison.
I agree that for most fledgling email compaigns, infusionsoft is most likely overkill because it just has so many tools that many would not use.
But as a full blown ecommerce and marketing platform it looks kick ass.
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