Autoresponders

These tools are the all important "behind the scenes workhorses" that take care of your follow up e-mails, opt in e-mails, news letters and list mail outs. Follow up e-mails sent from an autoresponder will keep people returning to your website. And with the right autoresponder subscribers can be categorised and lead to view areas of your website that will interest them most. Returning visitors could convert to sales.

I started out years ago with a free autoresponder, my customers' needs grew and so did my list. The free software although reliable did not have the functions my business required such as segmenting buyers into a category of subscribers who had already made a purchase or being able to split test a follow up message to determine which subject line attracted the most message opens.

So I had to do some very serious research into autoresponders. Questions like "Should I buy a script such as Autoresponse Plus (arpReach) or should I sign up for a web based monthly payment from $20 up to $500?" needed to be answered.

E-mail marketing software and services, (autoresponders) can be remotely hosted, server based or desk top based. With the desktop based option you purchase a license to host the script on your own website. That way you will own the license to use the script to send as many messages as you wish avoiding monthly e-mail service fees.

Generate HTML for forms that you to place on your website in order to collect customer information.
Help you build lasting relationships with an automated sequence of personalized messages that you compose.
Automatically mail out your monthly or weekly digital newsletter after a subscriber has joined your list.
Track whether or not your email has been opened by your subscriber.
Track link clickthroughs (when a subscriber clicks on a link contained in your email).
Allow you to insert your own header and footer graphics into your emails so that they look professional and help brand your business or product.
Track from which form your customer signed up.
Allow you to segment your subscribers into categories.
Provide an interface for inserting some type of security reCAPTCHA in your forms.
Allow you to creat trackable links to insert in your emails.
Provide you with the ability to create an unlimited number of autoresponders.
Integrate with social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

Own your own autoresponder desk top based software

Get Response

This is a remotely hosted web based e-mail marketing solution autoresponder service. It is fairly priced and I tested it when the free trial was on offer. It has a user friendly interface and is very popular in the industry. There are no surprise add on charges like some other web based e-mail marketing companies charge.

The support staff are quick to respond. When I first signed up to test "Get Response" I had some minor newbie issues that needed attention and they responded to my e-mails within 12 hours.

iContact

A really nice remotely hosted autoresponder service. They offer a 15 day free trial. Don't upload too many of your contacts just in case you decide to opt out. However I have tested this soft ware and highly recommend you do check it out. Others have a few more features.

At the time I took the 15 day trial there was no way to attach a file to an outgoing autoresponse e-mail message. Attachment s are disalowed. There is a work around. You could place a link in the outgoing e-mail that when clicked would send your prospect to a page on your web site.

My final take on iContact autoresponder:

We recommend using iContact for sending out permission-based e-mail newsletters.
This is a great web service if you are not anticipating more than 1000 subscribers. After the first 1000 it gets a little expensive compared to other automatic e-mail services of similar quality.

Cost starts at just $10.00 per month.

AWeber

For some reason most of the automated e-mails that I receive from companies on the internet are delivered through AWeber internet marketing opt in e-mail.
Could this mean that Aweber is the most popular of the web based e-mail marketing solutions?

I joined up for their newsletter which offers useful information about internet and network marketing e-mail marketing solutions. Aweber has a very good reputation for deliver ability.

At the AWeber web site you can take a test drive of their e-mail marketing software.
They offer unlimited autoresponders and up to 500 client sign ups to your account. After 500 you have to pay a little extra.

Moon Mail

This email marketing program is well worth taking a close look at if you are just starting out or even long established. If you are just starting your email marketing you could begin with the free service which allows you to create 1 campaign per day, mail out to 500 recipients per campaign and store up to 2,000 recipients in your free account.

With the free version the number of emails that you can send in one month is limited to 15,000.

If you don't already have a subscriber list then this is a very economical way to build up your list.

The paid options are as follows:

Starter xx.xx/mo usage fee $0.20 for every 1000 emails

Unlimited campaigns per month
Unlimited recipients per campaign
Store up to 25,000 recipients
Use any email as the send address
Unlimited Recipients Custom Fields
Premium support
Powerful Drag'n Drop Editor
Advanced Signup Forms
DKIM & SPF Configuration
Free MailChimp Migration

Pro $xx.xx/mo usage fee $0.xx for every 1000 emails

Unlimited campaigns per month
Unlimited recipients per campaign
Store up to 70,000 recipients
Use any email as the send address
Unlimited Recipients Custom Fields
Premium support
Powerful Drag'n Drop Editor
Advanced Signup Forms
DKIM & SPF Configuration
Free MailChimp Migration

Enterprise $xxx.xx/mo usage fee $0.xx for every 1000 emails

Unlimited campaigns per month
Unlimited recipients per campaign
Store up to unlimited recipients
Use any email as the send address
Unlimited Recipients Custom Fields
Premium support
Powerful Drag'n Drop Editor
Advanced Signup Forms
DKIM & SPF Configuration
Free MailChimp Migration

Go to the website and have a closer inspection of this professional email marketing program. You will need to compare the features of each autoresponder to determine which one is more suited to your usage.