subject: Auto-responders: A Short Q & A [print this page] Newsletters are still an effective marketing tool, and even though you feel like your email box is overstuffed, online newsletters are on the rise. Many companies are taking their hard copy newsletter and converting it to a digital or online newsletter. It is having quite an effect on publishing. Many people question whether an e-zine is the right choice. There are certainly some questions that you need to answer first.
How do you distribute an online newsletter?
It is best to use a third party company or script to distribute your newsletter. There are many choices available. You don't want to use Outlook as you will run into problems. Part of the problem with distributing it yourself is that many service providers will block emails that are sent out to large groups of people. You will have to break the email group into small groups but these too can be flagged as spam. You don't want to be flagged as a spammer. Using a third party service that you pay a fee for is typically a company that is working to "keep the "door" open" for your emails to get through.
You can also use a script that is installed on your hosting server such as Auto Response Plus. This is what I use.
What does a script or third party provider really do for me?
These programs all help you to manage your list. Subscribe and unsubscribe is managed for you. If someone wants to unsubscribe from your list they just have to click on a button and they are unsubscribed. You, as the list owner, don't have to go into your system and manually remove the person. At first this might now seem like a big deal, but when your list starts to get bigger, it becomes a very big deal. You don't want to spend your time managing these types of details on your list.
What are the differences between the different companies?
The biggest differences that I see are in the ease of use, cost and features. You need to decide what you are going to do with your list to determine which service you want to use. Most services prices are based on the number of subscribers. The more subscribers the higher the cost.
All of the above companies provide good delivery rates. They each offer HTML or plain text options. HTML gives you the pretty looking newsletter. The pro's are the ease of reading, the con's are that many companies block HTML messages from coming into their systems. I have found that Get Response and Constant Contact were both easy to use for their HTML features.
The other feature that you want to consider is the auto-responder feature. Constant Contact is primarily a newsletter program. You can send out "blast" emails. An auto-responder allows you to set up messages in a sequence that go out to subscribers automatically. Get Response and Aweber both offer this in a comprehensive way. The auto responders are unlimited. Constant Contact just added auto-responders but they are limited to a sequence of 5 and you can only set up one series. The system that I use and both Aweber and Get Response allow you to set up unlimited auto-responders. I have set up several e-courses using this feature. You can see this at: http://www.launchingyourdreams.com
I also have set up a sequence of messages for my newsletter. This gives me a chance to be in touch with people right away when they subscribe to my newsletter even if I don't have a newsletter going out immediately. The advantage of this is that I can start building a relationship and rapport, and the person becomes used to receiving emails from me. If I didn't have this feature I might not be in touch with someone for several days or even a week and at that point they have forgotten who I am and block my emails. This is something that you don't want. I feel that the auto-responder is a critical feature.
Can I move my list if my needs change?
You can move your list but you may lose many subscribers when you do. When you move your list from one provider to another, they want to verify that everyone is a true subscriber and that you didn't just buy a list from someone. They will require that you provide all of the opt-in information. When they screen this data they determine which subscribers they will allow into their system. If you can make a good decision at the beginning you will avoid this.
What does single opt-in and double opt-in mean?
Opting-in means that the person has requested your information via an online subscription form. Each of these companies gives you the ability to create a subscriber form that you can add to your website or blog. The subscription form then gives you the details of when the person subscribed; their IP address, their email address, and possibly their name.
Single opt-in is when the person completes the form and immediately is subscribed to your list. Double opt-in is when you require that the person click a confirmation link that is sent by your program to verify that they really subscribed to your newsletter.
Double opt-in is good to use to be sure that the subscriber really requested your information.
Email marketing continues to be an effective way of being in touch with people. In setting up your newsletter or email marketing program you want to make good decisions about the program that you use as well as what your needs are now and what you anticipate your needs to be in the future.
