Autoresponders:
What You Need To know
-Charles
Brown
(Be sure to check out the Aweber vs. GetResponse Review.)
Intro:
In order to build a list of subscribers to your newsletter, or simply a list
of people who trust you enough to allow you to send them emails now
and then (with the occasional offer), you're gonna need an auto-
responder. An autoresponder is appropriately named because it's just
software that 'automatically responds' to emails sent to it from your
subscribers.
Autoresonders are great because you set it up once (for each
"campaign") and it works behind the scenes on autopilot, making
your subscribers think that you're actually writing each email
yourself. Or that you have a big office in a glass-and-steel high-rise
with a dozen minions working for you...
Well, actually, most people nowadays--even 'non-techie' types like
your grandmother--know about autoresponders. They haven't
heard of the word, "autoresponder" before, but with all the emails
nowadays that say something like, "Do not respond to this message,
it has been automatically sent blah blah..." even your grandmother
is aware of the existence of automatically-generated emails.
So nobody's foolin' anyone anymore...
However, even though your grandmother realizes it'd be practically
impossible to get back a "thanks for signing up to my newsletter,
Alice..." just 5 seconds after she's signed up for the newsletter, she
still expects this immediate and personalized response...
Because it's just become the minimum standard! Anything less is
not good 'netiquette.' If you're not using an autoresponder of some
type, you're behind the times.
Sequential Autoresponders
Like nearly all autoresponders, the top two subscription-based--
"GetResponse" and "Aweber," and the top reside-on-your computer--
"Mailloop 7.0, are "sequential" autoresponders. This simply means
they are capable of responding to your subscriber's email with a series
or "sequence" of responses....responses you've set up ahead of time.
An Example Using Your Website and Your Newsletter
To best illustrate how sequential autoresponders work, let's take a
common scenario and follow it, step-by-step:
Scenario:
You're a dog enthusiast and have a website on dog training. Fred
Doe found your website from a Google search using the keyword,
"dog training." On your website, you have installed a simple signup
form. You've setup this form to ask only for Fred's First Name and
Email in exchange for the privilege of subscribing to your awesome
newsletter on dog training.
(This form can be easily configured and installed from your auto-
responder software or service with a couple clicks of your mouse.)
Fred Doe types in his first name and email into your form.
When he clicks the "Send" button, several things happen...
Some of these things happen because you've set it up that way
ahead of time, and some happen automatically--as part of the
autoresponder's software:
1. Fred Doe's name, email address, IP address, and the time & date are
recorded in your database under the name of the list that you've
given this particular campaign,* for instance--"Dog Training."
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*If you had another website on, say, "Cat Training," your signup form
on your cat training website would record your subscribers' info onto a list you should have named "Cat Training."
This seems obvious, but it's an important detail that has huge consequences: If you didn't separate your lists and
had just a 'master list,' you would quickly alienate all of your subscribers if you mixed up who signed up for
what...
For example, if you accidentally sent offers to your dog enthusiasts list with offers on cat toys or vice versa,
your previously loyal subscribers would click the "unsubscribe me" link faster than you could say, "I've wasted all
this time and energy getting these subscribers for nothing."
Because your autoresponder will gladly merge the right names with the wrong messages and vice versa if you let
it.
And your inconsiderate ways are just a click from being gone from their lives
forever! Because there's a dozen other people with newsletters or offers vying for their attention
anyway.
But these things are easy to keep straight--just be sure to read the instructions that come with your
autoresponder!
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2. A message pops up on Fred's screen that says something like,
"Please check your email to activate your subscription."
- Click here to close this window -
(Note: This is the part you've heard called various things like, "Double
opt-in" or "Verified opt-in" or "Confirmed opt-in.")
3. Fred checks his email and, sure enough, there's a message with a
subject line--something like, "Your Response is Required: Confirm Your
Request for Information from You@DogTraining.com."
The message body of this email will have at least two 'hyperlinks' for
Fred to click on:
The link he must click if he wants to subscribe to your dog training
newsletter (which completes the "double opt-in" requirement),
and a link that cancels his request and removes his info from your list...
This "Unsubscribe Me" link will be preceded by something like,
"If you've received this message in error or you don't want to receive
any more info from You@DogTraining.com then click this link and you
will not receive future communications from You@DogTraining.com."
All of this "verified opt-in" stuff is designed to keep you & your ISP
host out of hot water with the FTC and the CAN-SPAM law.*
*Q. What does CAN-SPAM stand
for?
Answer:
Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography
And Marketing
Act of 2003. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has been given the
authority to enforce it through the DOJ (Department of Justice).
But non-federal 'entities'
have also been granted authority. This is
really the only reason why internet marketers reluctantly complied...
Check out this snippet from the FTC's CAN-SPAM webpage:
"Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against
organizations under their jurisdiction, and companies that provide
Internet access may sue violators, as well."
That last part, "...and companies that provide Internet access may
sue violators, as well" is why there's so much compliance with the
CAN-SPAM law. Otherwise, if it were totally up to the FTC to enforce
the law, SPAM would still be the bigger nuisance it was a few years
ago. (Which is why websites with, "Start Making Money 15 Minutes
From Now with Our Program Guaranteed" can go for years without
even being questioned. But that's another subject.) Anyway...
Here's where you can read the whole exciting webpage, complete with
all that fascinating bureaucratic jargon ;):
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm
So "SPAM" really stands for "Solicited Pornography and Marketing" but
it's come to mean "commercial email." In any case, it has a nasty ring
to it, so you don't ever want to be accused of "spamming!" And the
way to safely and surely stay in compliance with the CAN-SPAM law is
to always use the confirmed opt-in method we've just described above.*
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*But what if Fred subscribes to your newsletter and then forgets
he subscribed? Because then he might report you for spam when your newsletter arrives or some other email from you lands in
his inbox in
the future...especially if you don't email him for weeks or months...
This is why your autoresponder will record such details as Fred's
IP address (Internet Protocol address--his unique computer address), date, time, action taken, etc. so that you could easily
defend yourself:
You can now email Fred all of these details to remind him of when he signed up for your list. So he will be
able to say, "Oh yea, sorry, I forgot all about that. It was late one night and blah, blah." So now
Fred will 'call the dogs off.'
And you'll also have this info to send to your ISP if they want some answers from you. But generally, you won't even come
up on the radar unless your IP address starts getting lots of complaints...which won't happen if you use the verified
opt-in method. You'll just get the normal few who've forgotten they signed up like in this example.
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Back to our scenario...
4. So Fred has clicked the 'confirmed opt-in link,' which takes him to
a page on your website that has his first issue of your dog training
newsletter for reading on-screen. But Fred can also download a copy
in PDF format.
This page of yours can only be reached after Fred clicks on the
'confirmed opt-in link.' You specified this particular webpage address
as the location that all new signups will be automatically sent after
clicking the confirmed opt-in link sent to their email inbox.
(In other words, this page is on your website like all the other pages.
Only this one is not on the navigation menu; it's not seen by visitors,
there's no link to it on your home page. Visitors can only get to it by
signing up to your newsletter--and completing the signup process
through the 'double opt-in' process.)
5. From here on out, it's totally up to you how often you want to email
Fred. You should setup at least one automatic ("autoresponse")
thank-you letter for signing up to your newsletter. But at the same
time you set up the automatic thank-you email, you could also setup
offers for dog-related products to land in his inbox at various intervals.
But the main thing here is to understand that you only have to make
these decisions once. Then you can forget about it except for
tweaking and testing.
For example, a week after signing up to your newsletter (and
immediately getting an issue and a thank-you letter), you could
have an offer for dog apparel & special dog collars sent out to Fred.
If Fred follows a link to buy anything, you'd have the autoresponder
already setup to fire out a thank you for this sale, and perhaps
another offer related to that one--setup to go out a certain time in
the future...
Those who did not respond to that offer, would get an email at
at different interval, for a different offer, for instance.
So, you can really get into some detail at first, but look at all the
time that you will save overall! You can basically have an entire
virtual store running for you on autopilot--while you're on vacation!
Email Merge Fields
This is simply selecting what personal details of you and your
subscribers that you want, and where you want them in your emails:
For example, here's an email template that I just made up:
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Dear {firstname},
I'm so glad that {your_ company} has been able to help you
find {product}.
We are committed to serving you and your family, {firstname},
for as long as you have any interest in {product}.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate
to contact us at {your_email} or call us at {your_phone}.
If you know of anyone else who may be interested in
{product}, please send them over to our website at
{your_website}. They will thank you for your thoughtfullness and I am personally thanking you right
now ahead of time for your kindness to {your_company}!
Sincerely,
{yourname}
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The bracketed info is called "fields."
The { } brackets would not show up, of course in your emails, but
the information that is represented inside would. And you can even
customize that, too.
So the autoresponder would merge the database of whatever list you
select and match the fields you've selected to one of your customized
email templates. You can setup as many customized email templates
as you want, and schedule your autoresponder to fire them out at
whatever intervals you want.
The Two Types of Autoresponders and How To Choose
There's two types of autoresponders: The type you make a one-time
purchase for that you load on your server and/or your computer, and
the monthly subscription type that's run from third-party servers.
There's pros and cons to both...
Advantages of your own
autoresponder:
Much more customization and fancy features can be incorporated.
I'm specifically referring here to Mailloop 7.0, which really has no
competitors. (See the Mailloop 7.0 review.) Mainly because you
have a big, highly-developed software program running on your
computer...the subscription-based services just can't compete with
Mailloop's functionality (there's that word again!).
Anyway, with your own autoresponder...
You have complete control over messages. For one, you could send
emails to a list of prospects without having to get them to "opt-in" for
your messages. But this is only good if you already have an 'email
relationship' with these intended recipients...
otherwise you'd be committing the equivalent of cyber-suicide.
But there are times when it would be an advantage to not be forced
to get your list to "double opt-in." Like if you'd imported a list of
subscribers that you'd already had an 'email relationship' with; that
you'd already had permission to email. In this case you wouldn't want
to ask them (again) if they really want to hear from you, would you?
But this would be rare, and usually only come up when you want to
switch autoresponder services.
Still, even some of the 'gurus' swear by having complete control of
their lists by having their own autorseponders.
Disadvantages of your own
autoresponder:
You can get in trouble really quick, your website shut down and
unceremoniously banned from your web host for not using a "verified
opt-in" approach.
Your own server may bog down from sending lots of emails.
Especially since most people will rent a shared server; so your
"bandwidth" and "quota" will be less.
It's likely that a significant percentage of your intended recipients won't
even get your messages because their spam filters are set to stop
most of these types of autoresponders. This completely defeats the
purpose of an autoresponder, anyway.
Advantages of a subscription-based autoresponder:
You're not likely to get banned for email spam. Aweber, GetResponse
and others have a special agreement with companies like AOL that
allows nearly all autoresponder messages to get into the inbox of the
intended recipients.
Here's the link to the "Aweber vs. GetResponse" review.
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