BrandingYOU&Co. » email marketing

Review of Aweber – Email Autoresponder

Claire Morawski — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:42:00 +0000

I personally use Aweber to build a relationship with my readers, subscribers and customers. In this article I am going to list Aweber’s features and how they can help you in your business, so that you would be able to make the right choice whether Aweber is right for you too.

1. It is simple in design. When you subscribe, there are many training videos, articles, guides and webinars that walk you through the setting-up process and to get familiar with the system. In addition, the core features are easily available through tabs at the top. It personally took me about an hour (maximum 2 hours) of playing with the system to set everything up.

2. Aweber boasts excellent email deliverability rates, so that your email reaches the inbox of your subscribers. Aweber enforces a zero-tolerance anti-spam policy. They even have a built-in spam meter, where you can see the possibility of your email’s spam rate before sending, and it also gives you suggestions on how to lower the score.

3. Grow your list through a signup form on your site. Through Aweber, you can publish a signup form (a web form) on your website, blog or even onto your social media account, to turn people visiting your site into subscribers. You can easily choose from a wide variety of ready-designs, and yet you can still customize them according to your needs. For example you can add various fields to your web form, such as Phone Number as a required or an optional field, or your Subscribers’ Skype IM. In addition, it is also easy to install the web form once you create it.

4. E-mail authentication. Once a reader signs up for your list via a web form on your site, Aweber sends the subscriber to confirm their opt-in status via an authentication email. The authentication email ensures that the reader is serious about subscribing, and it also ensures that Aweber’s spam-free reputation remains so. You can also customize the email authentication, so that it will have ‘a touch of you’ to your new subscriber, and has a higher rate of the subscriber actually accepting. In addition, you can also control the landing page that the subscriber would be taken to, once they confirm that they want to receive information from you (this is excellent, especially if you have 2 lists from 2 different websites).

5. You can use Aweber to send your monthly Email Newsletter, and also to create autoresponders to build a relationship with your subscribers starting the moment they sign up. Autoresponders can welcome new subscribers, educate them about your products, and drive them back to your website. In addition, Aweber has an Autoresponder Send Window feature, where you get to choose the day and time you know it is best for your subscribers to receive emails from you.

6. You can choose from over 135 HTML email templates that are tested for readability, if you love sending colourful, image-rich newsletters, or you can paste in your own template or create one from scratch using the message editor. There is no need to know any HTML.

7. You can have unlimited follow up messages that Aweber will automatically send to your opt-in subscribers. You get to choose the order you want your emails to be sent, and how far apart you would like them to be sent. Aweber lets you know the possibility of your email’s spam rate before sending, so that you can adjust your message accordingly to lower the score. In addition, you can also track all the links in each email.

8. Can send a broadcast to all your subscribers, or you can even choose a particular list. When you send a broadcast, Aweber allows you to monitor to how many subscribers was the message sent to, how many were delivered, and how many were actually opened.

9. Can set up different lists for your prospects and customers, or for different websites – all from the same account. Each list will have a unique list of emails and a unique customized signature box. So if you have 2 websites, you can easily send 2 different lists of emails with a unique call to action in your signature box specific to your subscribers’ interests. In addition, you have the option that Aweber will automatically subscribe or unsubscribe someone from one list when s/he subscribes or unsubscribes from another list. Also, if you already have an existing list of subscribers, you can easily migrate this existing list to Aweber.

10. Can easily integrate your list with many shopping-carts and other third-party applications. For example, if a customer shops at your webstore, the customer will automatically receive an e-mail if they want to be included in your email list. Then, unlimited autoresponders can be set up, such as sending them a follow-up message after 10 days asking them whether they are satisfied with their purchase, sending them a survey, and so on.

11. If you have a blog, you can send Blog Newsletters (RSS to Email). The Blog Broadcaster automatically turns a blog’s RSS feed into email that you can send to readers daily, weekly, monthly or whenever you have something new on your blog. With email bloggers can reach a broader audience than they can with RSS subscribers alone.

12. Aweber offers very detailed and easy-to-read reports. You can track each campaign to see what’s working and what isn’t. For example, you can see how many of the emails you have sent were delivered, how many were actually opened, and you can also track every single click in the email. You can also get a detailed report on your subscribers. For example, when did they join, which list are they on, which was the last e-mail they received, how many emails they have received so far, if they unsubscribed, and so on. In addition, if someone unsubscribes, Aweber asks them to fill out a form for feedback, which you will have access to, to be able to tweak your campaigns accordingly.

13. Aweber also offers powerful testing tools. For example, is your signup form grabbing visitors’ attention (find out through split testing web forms), what is the best time to send your email newsletter, which email title will prompt subscribers to open and read the email? With email web analytics, you will be able to answer these questions and more, and you would be able to tweak your campaigns to be more successful.

14. Customer Service is excellent. These guys are 100% behind their product. Apart from the excellent educational materials such as their articles, videos and webinars, they also offer all users free customer support as much as you need. You can ‘speak’ to real people by phone, email or by live text chat. And this, even though Aweber is easy to use.

15. Aweber is a leading authority among many powerful web stores, online marketers, and industry leaders. Aweber have been in business for over 12 years.

16. Pricing of Aweber grows with your success. For up to 500 subscribers, it is $19 per month or $194 yearly. This price includes unlimited autoresponders, unlimited follow ups, unlimited broadcasts and unlimited campaigns. It is excellent if you have more than one site and would like to manage all of your email marketing in one solution. You would pay more only as your list grows, at a monthly amount billed separate from your Account Plan. For example, for 501 to 2500 subscribers, you pay an addition $10 monthly. This plan is quite straightforward and one of the most reasonable on the market.

17. In addition, Aweber offers a 30 Days Trial for only $1. And if within those 30 days you are not satisfied with the results, Aweber offers a full, hassle-free refund. This is a great way to test Aweber. Click Here And Get Your First Month For Just $1

To Your Success

P.S. To Learn More About How To Use The Latest Technology and Marketing To Make A Fortune Online, Lessons Are Being Given At www.BrandingYouandCo.com

AutoResponder Service – why your business needs an e-mail marketing campaign?

Claire Morawski — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:30:03 +0000

What is an AutoResponder?

It is a service which automatically sends e-mails or newsletters to your subscribers. You would have an opt-in box (or web form) tied to your auto-responder, and when someone leaves their e-mail address, the auto-responder immediately starts sending this person e-mails from the list that you have in the back-office of your auto-responder. The e-mails would have been written by you or your team, and would have been uploaded to your auto-responder in a form of a list. In addition, you usually get to choose how far apart you want your e-mails to be sent to your subscribers. And, you can have multiple lists of e-mails targeting different clients.

Why would you need an AutoResponder?

The simple answer is, to build a relationship with your customers. We all know the benefit of having a list of subscribers – apart from the fact that it reflects positively on the value of your company, it also gives you power since it is the subscriber who asked for information in the first place. The key here is to respect that trust, and focus on building a relationship with your subscribers, so you will be viewed as a person or business with valuable information which your customer will benefit from, which would in turn reflect on the percentage of your e-mails opened. So no spamming, and no hard selling. Follow the 80-20 rule – 80% valuable information 20% soft selling.

Who can Benefit from having an AutoResponder?

It works both ways…
 For the entrepreneur who wants to build a relationship with his / her customers
 For the subscribers who want to be more informed about a particular business or a particular niche or a particular topic. The advantage for the customer is that they can unsubscribe at any time – giving them some form of autonomy.

What are the Benefits of having an AutoResponder?

 You can build a list of subscribers from an opt-in box (web form) – we all know that the gold is in the list
 You can link your opt-in box to your auto-responder, so that once someone signs in, she or he would start receiving the e-mails that you uploaded to that list.
 You can focus on building a strong relationship of trust with your subscribers – so that you will be seen as an expert in your niche and the person-to-go-to when they need help in a particular topic of your expertise.
 Because you will be sending an e-mail often, your subscribers are used to it. And then, when, once in a while you send about some product or affiliate link, they don’t find it offensive, and it won’t jeopardize your relationship of trust.
 An auto-responder sends e-mails automatically – sending e-mails manually is not an option as it will take you forever.
 People who opt-in are sent an e-mail immediately. We all know how nowadays everyone is surfing the net, but because of the nature of the internet, everyone seems to have a short attention span, and you would be forgotten immediately unless you capture their attention, and then focus on building a relationship. So an auto-responder will keep building a relationship with the subscribers for you. (The key would be to have an enticing offer which would make your readers subscribe.)
 When you upload a list of e-mails in your auto-responder, you usually give them the order you want them to be sent out, and usually you also get to choose how far apart you want the e-mails to be sent out. So, technically, this relationship-building with your customers is being done on auto-pilot while you are focusing on other stuff in your business, … and it is even working 24 hours for you (even while you sleep)!
 Sometimes you would need to send an e-mail (broadcast) to all your subscribers, irrelevant of how long they have been on your list. This can easily be done through your auto-responder.
 Usually the auto-responder’s e-mail address is white-listed, which means that your e-mails are actually being delivered to your subscribers.
 Through your auto-responder, you are also able to monitor your campaign statistics, such as how many e-mails sent were delivered, how many of them were actually opened and you can also track every single link click in the e-mail. With this information, you are wiser, and you are able to tweak your campaigns to get better response rates.

At what stage in your business (When) should you have an auto-responder?

My answer to this is ‘Today before Tomorrow’. As any business owner knows, it is essential to build lists of one’s customers and prospective customers to be able to keep in touch and soft-sell one’s services. In the long term, your customer list is one of the most valuable assets your business will have. So you need to start collecting your e-mail addresses of your target market from today.

Where should you place your opt-in form?

Your opt-in form should be enticing and in a prominent place. The purpose of this web form is to ‘make’ the reader input their e-mail address to start receiving information from you. So, essentially the opt-in form is a source of lead generation – it is where you start building your list. Once you have them onto your list, you start focusing on building a relationship with your subscribers. So your web form is very powerful.

You can have your web form anywhere where you have a web presence – can be on your website, your blog, your social media accounts, at the end of your articles, and so on. Anywhere where HTML is allowed.

Another idea is to give people an incentive to opt-in. For example, give them a free e-book, or a chance to be in a monthly raffle for a free treatment or a free dinner, in return for their e-mail address.

What to Write in the E-mails?

Keep in mind the 80-20 rule. 80% valuable information that usually offers a solution to your subscribers’ would-be problems, and 20% a soft-sell e-mail. Never hard sell, or just write e-mails where you are selling your services, products, affiliates, etc. As otherwise, this will lead to your subscribers wanting to unsubscribe.

So here are ideas of what you could write:-
 Newsletters
 Tips
 A link to an article that you have posted on your blog
 Any Information that your subscriber would benefit from – example a new video that they should watch, or a book they should read
 Updates on what is happening in your business, and how this can help the subscriber

How Often Should I E-mail?

This is entirely up to you. I would recommend once a week minimum. More often might be too much, while less frequently might not be often enough to do the job of building a relationship of trust.

You might also want to split the lists. Example once a month would be a newsletter, and once a week would be something like ‘Weekly Tips’.

What not to do?

 Don’t spam
 Don’t sell your subscribers information
 Don’t send one off e-mails – be consistent
 Don’t send one off e-mails, which would be just on your product
 Don’t just send e-mails pitching your products – follow the 80-20 rule

I personally use Aweber – it is my preferred auto-responder. Click here, if you would like to check it out.
I would also be writing a Review of Aweber in a future post. Subscribe to the feed so you’ll be the first to know when it is posted.

To Your Success