One of the tools of listbuilding is a system to deliver your emails to your subscribers. A big mistake new list builders make is to go the cheap route and decide not to use a professional autoresponder. You might be tempted to send out emails from your personal email account or be tempted to use a “free” service. Here’s why that decision is a big mistake.
- Deliverability. You work really hard to attract readers to your website and then to sign up for your list. You spend hours creating great value messages and newsletters. Then you turn everything over to someone to deliver those messages. What a shame it would be if many of them never arrived.Behind the scenes, Internet Service Providers have waged a huge war against spam. And thank goodness for that! The problem for the list builder is to avoid getting messages marked as spam and never being delivered. A professional autoresponder company will spend time communicating with those ISP’s to give their customers a smoother path. They will also run a spam check on your messages prior to them being sent so you can make any necessary adjustments.
- Back Up. Imagine that you accumulate hundreds or even thousands of happy subscribers and then one day, a computer gremlin eats your database. Talk about a Maalox moment! If you use a professional autoresponder that’s not probable as they will frequently back up your database.
- Stay on the Right Side of the Law. There are very strict anti-spam laws that every emailer must be aware of and must adhere to. There is a large financial penalty for violating these laws. A good autoresponder company will have processes that will keep you out of trouble in terms of double opt-ins and unsubscribe links.
- Saving Time. You will want all of your subscribers to get the same messages after they subscribe. A good autoresponder will have a system whereby you enter all your messages or newsletters when they are written (even all at once). The system then delivers the messages to new subscribers on the days you decide with no further intervention by you. You would spend a great deal of time if you had to do that manually.
- Tools For Improvement. As with any part of a business, the list builder must study the effectiveness of the messages and continually improve. A professional autoresponder company will offer tools and statistics to show which messages are being opened and acted upon and which are falling flat. Without such tools, you are just shooting in the dark.
The autoresponder company that I use and whole-heartedly recommend is Aweber. With Aweber, in addition to all the advantages mentioned above, you no longer have to create your own opt-in form. They have a wizard to build the form and then they give you one line of code to add to your website. It doesn’t get easier than that!
Keep in mind that you don’t want to have to switch companies because it involves getting all your subscribers to opt in or confirm a second time. I wish I had known that when I started building my first list. A “cheap” service always ends up costing a lot more!
That’s my opinion and I welcome yours.
Chris Cobb
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