Hi Guys, Hope you are well. I am new on here, So Hi! I was hoping i could picj your brains and ask for some help. I am looking to select a email marketing tool/program/sender. Generally we have requests from companies asking to be put on our mailing list, who we then send offers to - offers are of stock that we sell. We are selective about which companies we send to or not - i.e. we don't send to every individual who asks. Too many brokers, mess the pricing up for us. So we like direct buyers. So my needs are to use an email marketing program - that has a high rate of delivery in the inbox resulting in open emails. We don't really require a web form as such, as normally we advertise on selective area's around the internet and we get enquiries direct, or use forum posts, where we get requests and this way we can gauge an idea of the serious buyers or time wasters. So don't want lots of people simply entering there email into a web form which we then mail to. So based on the above needs : My questions and concerns: I have signed up with Aweber, as in the past have noticed alot of internet marketers use this - but now it seems, it is more geared towards list building rather than simply sending emails. So as we dont require the list building side of things, is it really the best option? Other ones i have come across are or have used a little : Verticle Response, Mail Chimp ( i like what i read on there site), Get response, Constant contact. The mail chimp seems more like a sender that suits my needs, but i really don't know what i am looking for when selecting to be honest. It seems like it has alot of valueable information on it. I have sent one email out to all my subscribers from aweber - but now in 2 minds, I don't want to alienate my subscribers by keep sending them links from different email programs to confirm. So i think this is my last chance to rectify and get my selection right. Any help is most appreciated. Aweber is describer as an autoresponder, where as the other are described as email marketing - whats the difference? Thank you. D.
Hi, Sorry not sure what MTA means? Not sure what i am asking : Basically i want a mail sender that does just that - and is the best at doing it, i.e. delivers in the receipients inbox with less bounce rates. I appreciate double opt-ins will give me better results.
It sounds like you're looking for an ESP that doesn't require double optin. Is that correct? If so you already have it. Aweber has a function that allows you to turn off the double opt request. But yes, they do require you to opt the subs in through their forms. Some of the others that you listed will allow mass imports though. It also sounds like you're entering the data yourself "don't really require a web form...". Be careful with that. You could be getting in a whole lotta trouble doing that. An autoresponder means that you can set up a sequence of predetermined messages to be sent out to each subscriber - quite a handy feature imo.
Hi, Thanks for the help. I am not too fussed about the double opt-in, as those we add to the list have asked our company directly for info - it could help if they didn't have to double opt in as we ca send the offers quicker - do you know where to find the "turn off" option? in terms of the adding we don't require a web form as these our customers and/or companies requesting info from us via direct contact. the web forms are for list buildng - although we want more customers - we dont our stock offered everywhere and anywhere - and therefore select who we send to. So if i understand this correctly - Aweber is perfect for what i want - which is send info in a relaible manner. The other may let me do this without the double opt-in option - however in terms of reliability and function exact same. It seems mail chimp have a lot to say regarding methods they use to make sure it is easy for us to send and have mail delivered - so thinking it is better - but not sure. Thanks
makin friends tell friends about the micro cap and when the hurricane hits they invest in that. when that wall street sale like what the hell? penny stocks and big cocks is what we mail.
@ John - I do not have a clue what you are on about. If anyone can help further, i would really appreciate this. Having further read the forum - it seems Mail chimp is not a very good choice - now i am really confused.
I'd guess 90% of the people on this forum have no clue about what I said, but given your name and the initial post you should know what micro-cap is. You might even know something about penis pills and special ham.
John, I don't think the other 10% will know either. I think your the only one who knows what it means. So not really helpful on a post where I'm asking for help. And no I don't know what the other crap you have wrote means either. It may seem you are implying that I should know what it means as I sell those products- which if it is the case - your wrong. Please give me a helping hand on the topic or allow the post to stay on topic. It would be much appreciated. Thank you.
It sounds like you have a relatively small database of customers and would be best served by a self-serve ESP.. You said you used Constant Contact/ MailChimp.. Why did those not work out for you?
Micro, I agree with Nick that you need a self-serve ESP. It seems you are confused by the semantics and jargon of the industry. An autoresponder allows you to program a sequence of messages that can be sent to EACH subscriber in the order you set the sequence based on when they signed up (for example - if you have 10 msgs in your sequence set to go out every day, then on day 1, all the subscribers who sign up that day will receive msg 1, on day 2, all NEW subs will get msg 1 whereas the ones who signed up the day before will get MSG 2). This is, as Arbydar said - quite useful because it allows you to build a relationship with your list on a regular basis without having to mail each person individually. If you are simply mailing a series of promotional offers every day, then it also allows you to make sure ALL your offers get presented to your NEW list members as they join. But, don't think this is ALL an ESP that offers an autoresponder function can do. Good ones allow you to send broadcast messages in addition to sequential messages. A broadcast message is when you send a message in real time to the ENTIRE list (regardless of whether or not they are receiving a sequence message that day). Aweber and Get Response provide both as part of their system. Mailchimp and Constant Contact do not (unless I am mistaken). Most of the mailers on here have their own customized platform for mailing broadcasts every day (to stick with the jargon). You need to decide whether you want to program a series of messages to be sent automatically in the future (and have the ability to broadcast new, real time messages as well) or you just want to broadcast every day. BTW - you could use Aweber, GetResponse and other systems simply as a mailing platform and NOT use the sequential features but as I said earlier, it does allow you to build a real relationship with your list members without having to remember to manually mail the SAME messages each time a NEW subscriber signs up. Once you decide that, then find out what system has the best features for you: Delivery Single Opt/Double Opt or Both Reporting Segmenting Split Testing Handling of Bounces and Complaints and Unsubscribes Don't worry about alienating your subscribers by switching ESPs if you find a better one later. If you aren't pissing off some of your list, then you probably aren't mailing hard enough or sending the content that will get you opens and clicks. And as a good list owner, you will keep adding new blood to the list every day. Hope that helps, Jedi
@ Jedi & Nick. Thanks guys. Yes you are right - my list is small, as mentioned it very personal to our offers. I have around 620 Members, i would see it growing to around 1000 over the next year. Consisting of wholesalers and distributors, retailers. Because of there buying patterns i never really need a massive list, just the right customers- who become repeat customers. I would mail offers on a weekly to a monthly basis. I would want a new person added to the mailing list to receive a welcome message. Following which the last sent offers list. As such, following reading on here i think i need an self serve ESP as you have mentioned. Discoveries i have made - Aweber does not have any image hosting - and as such - i can't add images to my offers, which is quite important in my offers. - So i thing should be discarded as an option - do you agree? Mailchimp - Seems to have all the bells and whistles - with auto translations( handy as i have customer in other countries), inbox inspector, delivery doctor etc - and seems like as a newby it could really help me - but concerned on what i have read on shared IP's - but then thinking does my campaign really need to worry about this, due to the size of the mailing list. I have only used vertical response before, didn't really have a problem with it, apart from maybe deliverability which i dont know who's fault it was, mine or there servers. In terms of alienating my list - one subscriber could be a main customer for the next 5 years, making orders of 20/30K per month so really need be sure he/company/she gets my offers - so really need deliverability at the top of the priorty list without alienating them. So lastly thinking mailchimp - because of all the extra features, but concern - shared IP's, and also them knocking my subcriber off, due to hard bounce, soft bounce and any other little error which can be fixed easily as i know the emails are valid. Are most of the self serve ESP's using shared IP's - ?? Thanks Also do they only do double opt-in lists? on i can upload lists. I would appreciate your help on the above thank you all/
Almost all ESPs are going to give you shared IPs unless you pay in excess of 1K per month (and then only a few offer dedicated IPs and you will have to "warm up the IPs" for about 30 -45 days. For delivery, most of them do quite well - aweber and mailchimp both will get your mail delivered to the bulk of your subscribers however, then the onus is on you to get your content through the ISPs filters. Image hosting - hmmm, almost no ESP will allow this but if you need images hosted, why not upload your images to your own hosting acct and code the HTML to reference your own domain (which will more than likely help with delivery more than hosting images on the shared domain of an ESP or affiliate network). As for losing subscribers due to an ESP removing bounces or complaints, this is not something to see as a negative. ESPs should be suppressing complaints and hard bounces (and soft as well depending on the reason for the bounce). Trust me, if they did not do this properly, you would find your delivery up shits creek in a short short. The solution is to get more people on the list - esp, if each is worth 30K to you. I say at this point, your best bet is still an ESP if you can deal with them removing bounces and you can find your own solution for image hosting. Jedi
Based on your other post I think I misunderstood the type of mailing you did. That phrase in bold plus you name reminded me of a pump and dump mailer, my apologies.
Thank you Jedi. Much appreciated. In that case i think i am going to give Mail chimp a try an hopefully they will pull through. They do some image hosting - which is okay as the images will change everytime i send an offer. I feel there extra features are very good if the work properly. p.s. i wish EVERY subscriber was worth 30K... only a small number are /can be so dont want to lose them. one more thing, when they remove a bounce and i know that email is valid - do i get a report to show which bounce and try and sort it out. Thanks
Just an update guys for my post.... I thought I would share. I loved all the features on mail chimp so I signed up. My mailing list is not big at all.... 400-600 members that's all. All thought direct buyers. I sent my first mail and got about 4 responses. As I new there had to be something wrong I contacted my customers and almost all of the important buyer said they never got my mail. Sent it one more time again the same result. I sent the same mail, to the same people through vertical response and it was fine, people got my mail, people responded and people bought. It is a given it is more expensive but it works. Just my 2 pence worth.
