Which Autoresponder to use? Email list integration - help!

[HGPgal]

Hello fellow IMers ~

I'm wondering about which autoresponder company would have the most features with the lowest cost.
Awber, SendFree, ConstantContact, etc. (not GetResponse - too expensive).

I use the IBF site builder that includes some autoresponse features, but I'm not sure they are enough.

Big Question: how do I integrate my double opt-in newsletter subscribers with those who request a
catalog (from an autoresponder page) and my "regular" personal email list?

Please advise, thanks!!

[Ravedesigns]

Hi Lisa,

Just what features are you looking for in an autoresponder?

I'm pretty familiar with the offerings from Constant Contact, 1Shoppingcart and Aweber - and they all seem to fill different niches in the industry.

Constant Contact is great if you want to send nice looking HTML newsletters as they provide some nice looking templates (of course you can also send plain text too) - but they're not really an autoresponder service, as you can't set up a series of messages to be sent over time to someone.

1shoppingcart is another great service that makes it easy to setup autoresponders, but they don't offer any templates if you want to do HTML emails. I started out using them earlier this year at about $19 a month, but then they upped their prices and lost me to Aweber.

I've been using Aweber for a few months and for $19 a month you get a pretty full featured service to use. They make it easy to send both broadcast messages and autoresponders, but like 1Shoppingcart you're on your own if you want to setup HTML emails.

In regards to your catalog question, most autoresponder services give you the ability to sign people up for one autoresponder when they sign up for another - so you should be able to have people that sign up for a catalog added to your newsletter list. Of course you'll want to let them know that signing up for a catalog will place them on the other list so they don't cry "spam" when they start getting emails from you.

Steve

P.S. Just out of curiosity, what's the "IBF site builder?"

[avrr]

Hi Lisa,

If you can manage autoresponder script , then better buy one and install on your web site. Here you have to manage your software, but no monthly fees.

If you can't manage and OK with monthly fees, you can use one of the services Steve told above.

[Lynn Terry]

Aweber is a great solution, and offers tons of features. The tracking & reporting alone is worth gold! You can funnel all of your subscribers into one account, and then only email specific 'groups' if you like - or the whole list. So if you wanted to send an email ONLY to people who requested a catalog, you could do that by "creating a view" of this sub-list (detailed in the FAQ).

They offer a , so you may want to check it out for yourself

[LuckyMommy]

I just got into aweber and so far I'm impressed and excited to start using it

[Ladan Lashkari]

Hi Lisa,

Recently, I did a complete research to find the best autoresponder solution because I needed one myself. I found out Aweber is the best one available.

I've written an article explaining some important features you should make sure the autoresponder you choose has. You can read it here...

[HGPgal]

[Lynn Terry]

With Aweber you can develop HTML formatted newsletters or emails, too - they even have a little editor within the control panel. You can also click a button to have these html emails saved in an HTML Archive and also as an RSS Feed at the same time, which is super-handy

I would highly recommend over Constant Contact (I assume that is who you meant by "CC"). The reason is because CC is often "blacklisted" by this ISP or that... causing most of your emails to be undeliverable (even though your subscriber went through a double opt in). Aweber takes special measures to prevent this, and to correct it in the case that it happens - and they have one of the highest delivery rates in the industry.

Also, if you look at the rates for larger lists... CC and Topica both (if I remember correctly) charge outrageous pricing. Something to consider for long-term. Aweber is the same price up to 10,000 addresses I believe, and very reasonable beyond that.

[Steevg]

[Lynn Terry]

Hi Steve,

Can you possibly give a link to that report?

It's really hard to say. I havent had any problems at all with Aweber, and I would certainly recommend them as my top choice for mailing list managers and/or autoresponders.

[Steevg]

[Lynn Terry]

[Steevg]

OK Lynn, I'll do that, Thanks,
Steve