When it comes to building a profitable relationship with customers, email marketing is not only the best way to stay in touch, and is relatively inexpensive as well. I've experimented with literally dozens of scripts, contact forms, capture engines and auto-responder services, both hosted on my server and third-party servers. I've tried i-Contact, GetResponse, AutoresponderPlus, Interspire Email Marketer and AWeber as autoresponder options.
Now, to be frank, I stuck with Interspire for quite a long time as I could host it on my own server and I had complete control over the code of the software. What I've found is that it can be pretty good for you if you're starting out and for a list upto a 1000 people. It's got awesome professional designs, interfaces and compatibility with web templates.
But if your business is scaling big and you need some organization dedicated to handling the software, without overloading the cron timer of your server, AWeber is undoubtedly the Rolls Royce of autoresponders.
I've used AWeber as well for a long time and it's been an awesome choice! So here's my honest and kick-butt AWeber review for you...
It's external, so obviously no load on your server. Plus, you just setup the campaign and select the form, no fiddling with the code if you don't have a clue about design and programming. Following are the main features I really liked:
1. A Good ROI (return on investment)
I figured out the math, when I started with their original plan and standard subscriber limit, I was averaging a very nice ROI every month. This can be huge when you're just starting out, because you're testing the waters in your business and email marketing is nothing but a huge split test in the beginning.
When you upgrade to more subscribers and more lists, you'll be paying more but you'll be earning more from a larger list as well. So the ratio of profitability persists.
2. Quick Creation and Sending of Email Newsletters
You can import your existing email templates or even create those that fit your needs. Then cycle between those to see which ones are getting the best response using AWeber's tracking features and campaign statistics. The best part is, it's easy and gets done at the click of a button.
3. Scheduling of Mail Campaigns
If you're planning ahead or are unconfirmed of the future time chart of your JVs, then just schedule the ready campaigns for a time in the future with their date feature or use the dropdown calenders.
You can even set an entire sequence of emails to be sent out during a content reception plan or a launch sequence of videos that you want your list to be.
4. Easy List Management
You can start a separate list for all your campaigns and even merge your lists. Further integrate lists with your RSS feeds to deliver new content from your AWeber account directly into the browsers of all your subscribers.
You can also easily segregate and filter contacts from your lists to send special communications. Unsubscribing is easy for the contact as the mail will NOT end up in their spam box and can be done at the click of a button.
5. Awesome Optin Form Designs
AWeber autoresponder services offer you tons of email templates to choose from according to the design and feel of the webpage you will use the optin form on, so that it can easily blend in with the visuals as well as the code on that page, without looking extraordinarily out of place or UN-professional.