Email Marketing: What the Hell is an Autoresponder

When it comes to building and using a mailing list, there are certain tools that can help and certain tools that are an absolute must. 

Key among that second category are autoresponders. Autoresponders are tools that you use to manage your email list and that allow your members to sign up and unsubscribe while giving you a convenient place to store your email addresses, to send out emails, to create autoresponder sequences and to build your opt-in forms.

If you are serious about making money online then there is no other way for you to do this without having an autoresponder.

The question is: Which autoresponder do you go for?

There are two big options here: AWeber and GetResponse. Here is how they differ and which is ultimately the best for your goals.

Cost
When it comes to cost, there is no clear winner as they both use somewhat 'non-linear' pricing structures.

An AWeber subscription fee will set you back $19 a month, $49 a quarter or $194 a year. You can save money by paying up-front though but either way you'll have to pay an additional fee depending on how many users you have. If you have under 500 there's no additional fee but for accounts with 500+ there's an additional $10 charge. This goes all the way up to $130 if you have 10,000+ and there's an 'unlisted' fee for accounts with over 25,000 addresses.

GetResponse meanwhile only has a monthly pricing plan which starts at $15 for 1,000 members and goes all the way up to $250 for 50,000 members. 25,000 will cost you $145.

So the 'winner' here really depends on how many subscribers you have. Ultimately though, GetResponse will be a little cheaper in most scenarios which gives it an edge. In the long term, the winner will also depend on what the 'unlisted' fee for AWeber is for 25,000+ members. It just says to 'contact AWeber' which is worrying.

Features
In terms of features, who wins? Both have all the tools and options you might want but according to the majority of feedback on the web, AWeber is slightly easier and more intuitive to navigate and use. AWeber also claims it has the best delivery rates with little to none of their emails ending up in spam. They also have very highly rated customer service.

GetResponse might lose a few points in these regards though but is certainly serviceable. And they do have some useful tools of their own too - such as a squeeze page builder.

Overall, the two tools are both very capable but AWeber might give you a little extra clout for a slightly higher fee.

You may have noticed from the emails I send out, they are all coming from an AWeber account.

I absolutely love this autoresponder as it is so easy to use, it has great design templates for your email newsletters and I find it really reliable.

However, it all depends on your budget and what you want to get out of your email marketing.

Check out both their sites and work out which is the best one for you:

www.aweber.com

www.getresponse.co.uk

To Your Success!
Lindsey
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