We want an auto-responder to deliver our emails
automatically in the sequence we design and to subscribe
the respondents at our web page to a list we designate on
the auto-responders database.
So the first thing we want to be sure of is that our auto-
responder company is stable enough to be around for
awhile…it pays to stick with the big ones if you don't want
your business to be dislocated.
From my experience and everything I read AWeber is the
most popular of the Auto-responder services and is highly
endorsed by many users.
But all auto-responders are not born equal so first let's
examine some of the things an auto-responder can do for us
and what makes one better than the other.
This is a good cross-section of popular auto-responders on
the web at the moment:
AWeber http://aweber.com/
EmailAces http://emailaces.com/
GetResponse http://getresponse.com/
IntelliContact http://icontact.com/
RobotReply http://robotreply.us/
Before subscribing to any of these you'll want to know a
few things about them.
How well do they deliver your emails?
Independent testing suggests that the first 4 all deliver
above 80% of your emails but Robot Reply seems to fall way
behind at 50-60% delivery of your emails.
In these days of spam where AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail etc. have
such vicious spam filters I would think that these numbers
are bit high.
How do their Features compare?
Aweber, GetResponse and IntelliContact all have great
features so there's not a lot between them in this area.
Email Aces has OK features and Robot Reply trails the field.
How quickly do they respond to your email queries?
Get Response and AWeber are reported to respond to
"Trouble Tickets" in 4 to 6 hours while the rest take 20
hours and over.
How much do they cost?
Pricing is an important consideration and for some people
over-rides every thing else.
The following prices are not totally current so you should
check for yourself. Pricing is time sensitive but this will
give you a ball park idea of what to expect.
GetResponse: $17.95 per month ($17.95/mo for 10,000
subscribers + $4.50/mo for extra 5,000)
Aweber: $19.95 per month ($19.95/mo for 10,000
subscribers, plus $9.95/mo for extra 10,000)
RobotReply: $34.95 per month
EmailAces: $37.90 the month you sign up, then $29.95 per
month thereafter.
IntelliContact: $109.00 per month. Ouch! (but it does
allow up to 15,000 subscribers)
Pretty obvious here…GetResponse is the lowest cost
followed closely by AWeber while IntelliContact is way more
expensive.
It would seem to me that AWeber and GetResponse come out
ahead of the field.
I personally use AWeber most of the time and find them
very good.
Sometimes when I want to upload a purchased list in bulk I
will rely on other services. AWeber is totally restrictive
as far as double opt-in is concerned and insists on the
verification email. This protects both them and you, but if
you have purchased a double opt-in list it can be a pain.
The way I handle this is to upload my bulk list to another
service and have my "web-form" send the respondents to
AWeber for my long term list needs.
Keep on Winning
Regards
Jim
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