How to Choose an Autoresponder

In prior posts, I’ve discussed the value of building your mailing list, which is your direct connection with those current and prospective clients most likely to refer or buy your services. In this article, you’ll learn the kinds of autoresponders available and how to choose one that’s best for you.

Autoresponder Options

You have five options available in choosing type of autoresponder, ranging from free to fee:

1. Use the autoresponder your web hosting company probably offers as part of your package. While limited in features, this kind of autoresponder can be used to automatically send vacation reply messages and the like. And you’ve already paid for it.
2. Use a free autoresponder provided by an online service. Some services offer free autoresponders for small lists and with limited numbers of messages, with the option to upgrade to full-featured, fee-based service later. These free packages tend to have limited features and some of them may place their own ads in your messages. They may be good ways to experiment with autoresponders, though (with my caveat below).
3. Buy and install autoresponse software on your own computer. This option costs $200-$400, typically. The benefits of this approach are that there’s usually good installation technical support, the product carries only a one-time software cost, and gives you have full control of your list because it resides on your own computer. The disadvantages, though, may be significant if you’re not interested in the work of managing your own lists: You must regularly back up your list to protect it, sending mass emails could exceed the limits of your ISP (internet service provider), and you are alone in addresssing any blacklisting problems caused by messages that another ISP considers spam.
4. Subscribe to an autoresponder service that manages it all for you. Your list resides on the company’s servers (though in the good ones, you can export copies of your list for safe keeping) and they manage the subscribe, unsubscribe, and messaging tasks. I use this approach because I want both a full-featured service and as few headaches as possible (for more on which service I use, visit Favorite Autoresponder: AWeber).
5. Choose an autoresponder that’s packaged with a shopping cart service. If you have services that you want to invoice from your site or products that you want to sell from there, then you may find it helpful to purchase a combined package. I keep hearing good things about 1ShoppingCart.com but have never tried their service.

I believe in conveying a message of quality to current and prospective ADR clients, so I’m not keen on options 1 and 2, except, perhaps, for some experimenting to famliarize yourself with autoresponders.

If you go the experimental route, keep this in mind: It’s a real pain to keep switching autoresponders, since that you’d need to keep transferring your list, as well. Most quality autoresponders will require that you re-confirm any lists that you import to the new service, meaning that all your list members will have to re-subscribe. Asking them to do that once may not be a big problem. Asking them to do it over and over is a sure-fire way to turn people off. If you want to experiment with various options before committing, get yourself a few free email addresses and use yourself and maybe a few friends and family members as your testers.

How to Choose an Autoresponder

If you’re interested in autoresponder services, I recommend the 10 feature-evaluation questions in How to Choose a Good Autoresponder Service. For a brief assessment of three top autoresponder services, try Your Powerful Automated Assistant.

If you’re interested in autoresponder software for purchase, you may find this page on DMOZ a helpful starting point.

What’s Next

The last article in this mini-series will be Autoresponder Strategies for Building Client Relationships, where I’ll suggest specific ways to build and promote your ADR business using the technology of autoresponders.

Do you have autoresponder questions that I haven’t yet addressed? Leave a comment below and I’ll make sure your question gets answered! Or contact me directly, if you prefer.

Copyright © 2006 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.