If you're looking to market online, you definitely need an email marketing service, better known as an autoresponder. Since I've had the opportunity to try both of the main services, "AWeber" and "Get Response", I'd like to point out pros and cons of each so you can choose which is right for you.
Setting up your Email Responder...
While it is imperative to have an autoresponder when marketing online, I strongly recommend NOT getting it first, because you'll find it overwhelming. My first attempt with online marketing began with an AWeber account which left me so lost that I literally didn't know what questions to ask.
AWeber did contact me personally on the phone to see if they could help, but I still elected to terminate that initial account.
About six months later, I joined a service that teaches how to market online, and in there I received step by step videos that explained how to set up an AWeber account. So this is when I decided to join AWeber again and load my pre-written automatic response emails into the system.
Still a little inhibited, I actually didn't do anything with my autoresponder for a year, other than allowing it to work with the pre-written emails.
THIS IS A BAD IDEA...
The reason being that the whole point of an autoresponder is to allow your leads to get to know YOU - not the guy who wrote your emails for you. I strongly suggest that, once a pre-written campaign is loaded, you go in and read each of your response emails and change to your own personality.
Having said that, make sure you keep the original format of the email - because the experts know certain types of formatting, such as short paragraphs and words that capture emotion are good sales techniques. Just make sure the story is about you,
not some other person.
New Changes with the Email Autoresponder...
Recently, AWeber changed their broadcast design pages. By the way, when you send out an email to everyone on your list, AWeber calls that a "broadcast" and Get Response calls it a "newsletter". Either way, these are messages you send out in real time over and above the "follow-up" messages built into the system.
When you're first starting out, I recommend clicking the small link under the "create a newsletter" button that says "take me to the previous version", because that link will take you to a plain email page that's not so overwhelming to learn.
However, it's a good idea with both AWeber and Get Response to try to learn the new format, because I was recently advised by Get Response that if you upload a video into the old version, it's likely to raise your spam score, which means that it's likely to be seen by fewer viewers.
Creating videos to add to your broadcasts, as well as adding your personal pictures is a great way to warm up your list. Check the open rate and click through rate on your broadcasts. If you get a good one, add it to your follow up sequence.
Now for the "Pros and Cons" of AWeber vs Get Response...
AWeber Pros:
1) You can get started for only $1.00. After the first 30 days, $19 monthly will be charged to your account. Your cost does not go up until you get over 500 leads, and then you're charged and additional $10 monthly.
2) You have the option of paying quarterly or annually to save money.
3) Becoming an affiliate to sell AWeber is easy - just click their affiliate tab.
4) You have the option of creating newsletters on a previous editor link
AWeber Cons:
1) Difficult to learn because you don't have immediate customer service. They will respond to an email with 24 hours to answer your questions, or you can call them.
2) You are still charged for leads that unsubscribe to your system. You must manually delete them or call AWeber to get them removed so they don't add up your monthly fees.
Visit AWeber Website. Click Here!
1) Customer Service around the clock 24/4 on a chat line, so you can keep working on your email while you chat online. They can actually access what you're working on to see where you're going wrong to help guide you.
2) You can get started with a free 30 day account. After 30 days, you're charged $15 for up to 1000 subscribers and $25 for up to 2500 subscribers. This is more cost effective than AWeber, where they'd be charging $29 for over 500 subscribers.
3) You have a "gallery" to collect all your personal pictures, and additional pictures are already in the system at your disposal for use in your emails.
4) You have the option of creating emails quick and easy by using the previous editor link.
Get Response Cons:
1) They recently were attacked and went offline for about a week. While many people swore this would drive them back to AWeber, I've heard that this also sometimes happens to AWeber - and in either case - you can be sure that any system you're paying for will make it their mission to get back up and running as soon as possible.
2) Slightly more difficult to become an affiliate to sell Get Response, although I believe any hurdle can be overcome with their customer service.
Visit Get Response Website. Click Here!
Now that you know enough to make an informed decision on which is the best email marketing service, you can decide on either AWeber or Get Response. You can access both of these through my blog post, "Aweber vs Get Response." However, I strong advise on FIRST getting started with a program that teaches online marketing, along with step-by-step instructions on how to upload your email campaigns. Click here for a full explanation of what you can expect from our "Prosperity team" of online marketers.
By Nancy Harnell. More ideas? Try this
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