Why is Email Autoresponder a must have marketing tool?
Studies show a potential visitor will take seven to nine messages before he or she becomes comfortable with you and eventually contacts or preferably buys your products or services.
If you are left with only one marketing tool, what would you retain? Most marketers would say autoresponders or their email list. This tells you how serious you should treat your email marketing effort AND your autoresponder tool.
What is an autoresponder?
An email autoresponder allows you to follow up your potential customers at a predefined timeframe automatically through emails. You may acquire this functionality by installing a script on your webhosting or you can acquire this function through third party autoresponder service providers.
What criteria should you consider when it comes to picking an email autoResponder? What is the single most important criteria when choosing your autoresponder service?
Three criteria you should consider before you invest your hard-earned cash in this vital marketing tool.
1) Deliverability
A great deliverability is the most sought-after feature of any email autoresponder. Any internet user would receive tons of SPAM mails in their mail-box each day.
There are 2808 spam emails in my email account as at the time of writing. I will never read these emails.
If you use some poor autoresponder service, your emails will automatically be streamed into these SPAM folders.
You may ask, "What determines which email go to "SPAM"?"
Unless you are your email service provider, you don't know their "way of thinking". But definitely you don't want to be the one who emails your subscribers to their SPAM folder!
2) Self hosted OR third party professional autoresponder service
Every marketer or business person has a mission - to lower his/ her cost of doing business. No one throws money out of the window. I don't easily invest in any recurring marketing tool, except for the really required. When it comes to email autoresponder service, I recommend using a third party tool - a tool that is not hosted on your webhost. The mission of third party autoresponder service providers is to deliver your emails.
Why do I not recommend a self-hosted script which you can install onto your webhost?
The reason is one word: "SPAM". Some of your subscribers will report you as SPAM, no matter how diligent and sincere you are with your email marketing campaigns. People just forgot they had signed up on your mail box and they will report your emails as spamming one day down the road.
When subscribers report your emails as spams, their internet service provider (ISP) may blacklist your future emails. This blocks your emails getting into their inbox in the future.
I have previously used a hosted service, which had good results initially (for about 6 months). After a few of my ex-subscribers complaint me spamming them, my emails are not as effective as before.
Great email autoresponders service companies eat and breath on deliverability. They ensure your emails get delivered. Some autoresponder service us claiming that it delivers 99.34%, meaning it their readers get 99 emails out of 100 emails!
3) Price
There are some free autoresponder services out there. I urge you not to waste your time finding or even trying one. Why? I have used those services and only found myself promoting someone's else services.
Those free services basically send out your emails with their own embedded advertising. Your readers will read their ads first before your messages. If you are not serious about your business, use free autoresponsers.
Price should be the least concern, as autoresponder is your lifeblood of your viral traffic. Usually a quality autoresponder costs around $20 a month.
In conclusion, when you choose your autoresponder, the following is a list of criteria that you should consider before spending money on email autoresponder.
Roy Chan is an online business consultant. He provides solid marketing strategies since 2004. Subscribe his marketing e-newsletter. Get his email marketing strategic software valued $27 free for a limited time. Visit: http://www.email-autoresponder-review.com
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Friday, 15 October 2010
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