Auto Responder for E-Mails

[K-Dub]

Since someone brought up the question as to what 800 service provider they use I would like to know what everyone uses for an auto responder.

I know some who use Constant Contact, but had an odd experience with them which drove me away.

I was looking at Vertical Response, anyone used them? No monthly fee and just .015 cents per email up to 1000.

Thoughts?

I'm doing the research on this because I am getting ready to dump Norvax's Auto Responder which I now pay $75 a month for.

 

[djs]

If you have a website to run it yourself, try:
http://www.sellwide.com/follow_up_mailing_list_processor.shtml

You can set it up to work very similar to the Norvax system, as far as the client sees. It is more work on your part though, since you have to manually add names and emails to the responder.

I've used it in the past, it works pretty well. The nice thing is, you can setup as many responders as you want, as many campaigns as you want. It's a one time purchase fee, you own it, just need to be able to run it on a website somewhere.

Dan

 

[natem2112]

I've been using Get Response for the past few months...and I've been really happy about it, I've looked at all of them, Constant Contact, iBoomerang, Vertical Response ect.

I've liked Get Response, just because I can add as larger a list and as many different auto responders as I like for the same price, and setting it up is easy and flawless to do.

Here is GetResponse.com.


How long did you use Norvax's auto responder?

 

[somarco]

Nate, how does GR compare to Constant Contact? I am using CC for a newsletter and have been relatively pleased. I can send a newsletter to up to 500 clients each month at the same price, no matter how many times I send it.

I will pick up 1 sale or so per month from the newsletter but there is a lot of work on my part. Creating a newsletter with interesting content but without sounding like I am pitching something is a challenge which is one reason why I have not done this before.

Having an automatic follow up for new prospects is nice. Just looking at GR it seems I can load in (and constantly refine) my list or lists and peg each one to send out a emails at pre-determined times.

Correct me if I am wrong, but . . .

I can set up a campaign to mail different messages to the same group over a period of say, 3 months. Each successive email has new information and a soft pitch to either commit, drop out or request more information.

Week 1 I enter the data. That group will be mailed at pre-determined times (say 2 weeks apart) until they buy (and I remove them), they opt out or their email addy goes dead. Everyone in that group will receive email A, B, C, D . . . in order as I have set up.

Week 2 I enter new data containing that week's prospects. Like the week 1 group, they will also receive A, B, C, D . . . until they buy, opt out or die.

So basically all I have to do is enter the new emails on a weekly basis and everything from there is automatic.

How are you using the auto-responder? Would you be willing to share some of your content so I can get an idea of how it flows including the interval between mailings.

One other question about GR, CC bases their pricing on the number of active email addresses. It appears that GR is a flat rate regardless of whether you have 500 or 5000 on your list. Is this correct?

 

[K-Dub]

How long did you use Norvax's auto responder?

About a year now! I figure I will just do the extra work and load the emails in the auto responder myself. I'm guessing though once I cancel the Norvax auto responder all the names I have in the system will be deleted. Either that or they take them and sell them to other agents....which wouldn't surprise me looking at the quality of their leads. So my goal over the weekend is to dump out all people I have in my Norvax database and transfer them to my new system.

 

[natem2112]

Nate, how does GR compare to Constant Contact? I am using CC for a newsletter and have been relatively pleased. I can send a newsletter to up to 500 clients each month at the same price, no matter how many times I send it.

That would be about the same here as well, it's the same price no matter what, I believe that the features and benefits of CC vs GR are actually about the same, I just preferred the GR because I found it a bit more user friendly. Plus setting up newsletters using their templates was a heck of a lot easier then CC had........but it's been a few years since I've looked at CC, so maybe they have improved.

I went on a few ezine or email marketing guru's website about their reviews and they all pretty much said that they preferred GR....unless they were of course selling their own system.

I will pick up 1 sale or so per month from the newsletter but there is a lot of work on my part. Creating a newsletter with interesting content but without sounding like I am pitching something is a challenge which is one reason why I have not done this before.

Very true, it is hard to some up with something new every month and not seem like you are selling something, but I usually try to keep my eye out during the month and write down what ever pops into my day that I think would be beneficial to my clients.....I have a not book that I keep in my office and take with me in the car that is full of notes like that. And I have had many clients call me up to further discuss and thank me for some of the topics.......for this month, I wrote about disability insurance for self-employed people paying for overpriced workers comp for themself....if you price it out, disability with ROP is actually cheaper by a long shot and you actually get money back.

I picked that up from a NAIFA meeting when we had a Illinois Mutual exec come in and give a presentation.

I got a quite a few calls of that one!

One other question about GR, CC bases their pricing on the number of active email addresses. It appears that GR is a flat rate regardless of whether you have 500 or 5000 on your list. Is this correct?

Yes, it is the same price, plus an added bonus is that they will soon be adding voice and video capabilities soon to their newsletter capabilities.

I suppose that might either just plain annoy someone receiving it unless you have a resemblance to Dan Rather....or you can just use the voice play overs if you have a face for radio.

Sorry about taking awhile to respond, we had training this week and ended up humping 20k....my feet are hurting me tonight....

Damn Marines......should be taking the bus everywhere like the Army.