By: Meredith Eisenberg
Congratulations! You have decided to launch and online business and publish an e-newsletter. In order to send the message out and comply with CAN Spam requirements, you need to send your newsletter through a service. Before you choose a service, you need to think about your longer-term business plans. Switching lists often requires that you ask all of your subscribers to opt-in to a new list and you might lose customers with each switch.
Some questions to ask yourself are:
1. Do I want to be able to automatically send emails to people who register for my classes, etc.? Do I plan to offer an e-course?
2. Am I going to be offering something for sale? Do I want to set up an affiliate system?
The answers to these questions will determine what type of e-newsletter service you use. There are basically three types of services.
- a straight newsletter service
- an autoresponder
- a shopping cart.
Here are descriptions of top products in each of these categories to help you decide which is best for you.
Constant Contact.
Constant Contact is a great newsletter system -- that is all that it does. You cannot personalize the messages nor can you automatically send out a series of messages to a subscriber (think about an e-course with a new "lesson" coming every few days or simply a message that says "thank you for contacting me").
Advantages:
- You already have a list in this system
- Cost ($15 per month)
- Can easily import from Outlook (without asking people to double opt-in)
Disadvantages:
- It isn't an autoresponder.
- No personalization
- No ability to take payments
Aweber is the autoresponder used by the "big boy" internet marketers. You can send out e-newsletters and series of e-mails. It allows personalization and split tracking on ads.
Advantages:
- This is the very best autoresponder. Easy to do an opt-in form that leads people to an e-book download page, etc.
- Cost ($20 per month)
- Best deliverability (into Inbox instead of Spam folder) rate (Aweber has a 98% rate vs. 93% for 1ShoppingCart)
Disadvantages:
- Double opt-in is a pain
- No ability to take payments
- Does not automatically move people from "prospect" list to "buyer"
1Shopping cart integrates all of your online marketing needs into one system. It allows you offer items for purchase online, it does autoresponders, e-newsletters, affiliate programs, etc.
Advantages:
- Everything is in one integrated package
- Buyers are automatically removed from prospect list
- Can manage affiliate programs
Disadvantages:
- Double opt-in is a pain
- Cost - "whole enchilada" version is $79 per month -- can buy smaller packages with fewer features.
- Delayed delivery of messages (sometimes takes an hour or two)
