Aweber
has been in the autoresponder business for 6 years
and they are the first program I tested a number of
years ago, when I first got involved with online marketing.
Since then their remotely hosted solution has become
more and more powerful, making it a top choice for
those seeking a solution managed by a third party.
Prices are very fair at $19.95/month allowing anyone
to be up and running within minutes.
One
of the things that I really like about Aweber is they
have some of the best help/support in the business.
When I first got started with autoresponders I was
completely lost. I was surprised to find that an Aweber
professional answered all of my questions very promptly
and efficiently. Even better Aweber has recently added
flash demonstrations for almost every task you could
want to accomplish. A very nice touch for those new
to these types of tools.
The
Aweber interface has a tabbed view for navigation
and includes descriptions of all the major sections.
I found it very easy to navigate and find the tool
I was looking for. The initial landing page contains
some quick stats, the help videos I mentioned, and
a step by step user guide. It is completely recommended
you go over the help feature, which as I said is very
good.
Aweber
has all the features you would expect from a professional
autoresponder, including: unlimited autoresponders,
unlimited campaigns, unlimited follow-ups, unlimited
broadcasts, a sweet inline message editor, message
scheduler, and much more. Aweber also has several
features that many other products neglect which we
will touch on later.
As
expected creating your user list is a breeze. You
can manually enter contacts, import them, snag them
via your inbox, or like most of us collect them via
a form. Aweber also has the best form generation tool
in the business allowing pop-ups, pop-under’s,
on exit popups, the ubiquitous un-blockable DHTML
slide in pop-up, and more. Creating your form for
email collection is simple and requires only 1 line
of javascript in your website to operate. Additionally
Aweber supports 25 custom forms for collecting useful
data like your subscribers name, gender or location.
Where Aweber really surprised me was its ability to
segment my email lists based on criteria. For example
I was able to single out all of my female users and
name a list based on this choice for use in my mailings.
Super handy.
Building
my actual emails is always a pain in the keyster with
most services offering lackluster editors or none
at all. I’m happy to report that Aweber is an
all-in-one solution with a great inline editing tool.
Creating a message for my autoresponder (Aweber calls
this a follow-up) was as simple as using any typical
WYSIWYG editor like Microsoft Word. As an added bonus
Aweber recently included a handy spell checker eliminating
the need for an external editor completely. Also included
is the ability to easily add any of your custom fields
to your emails adding a real personal touch to your
efforts. To finish up your autoresponder you can choose
when the message will be delivered, ie: immediately
or after x number of days. As mentioned you can have
an unlimited amount of these follow-ups, dramatically
increasing your effectiveness.
Along
with the autoresponder you also have access to the
broadcast feature. Broadcast messages are messages
that you can compose and send to your entire list
of AWeber leads at any time. Broadcast messages are
independent of the autoresponse and follow up messages
that your AWeber account sends out. Sending broadcast
messages does not in any way effect your autoresponder
or follow up messages. If you are using your AWeber
account as a mailing list tool, to send newsletters
or ezines you will use the broadcast message feature
frequently. Its worth pointing out that some products
do not include this ability and operate solely as
an autoresponder.
Now
for some advanced features. Aweber includes the ability
to record if your email was opened, or if anyone clicked
any of the links in your message. You may also add
attachments to your mailings which may be essential
for some users. I think one of the most useful features
I have not seen anywhere else is Aweber’s ability
check your message based on its Spam Assassin score.
Spam Assassin is a spam filter employed on many webservers,
so if your message passes the filter you are likely
okay. This is very good stuff and should increase
your delivery success rate a great deal. Some other
advanced features include: An email parser allowing
you to extract data from emails into your lists, and
some automation tools allowing you to remove a subscriber
from one list and add them to another based on a pre-determined
action, ie: a sale. Initially many user’s won’t
use some of these features but it sure is nice that
they are included.
Last
I will cover Aweber’s reporting tools which were
hands down the best I came across in all my reviews.
When you click the Reports tab you are presented with
a beautiful graph detailing everything you could want
to know about your campaigns including: daily, weekly,
and monthly new leads, broadcast stats, subscribe
method, and even verification times. Any stats junkies
will be nodding their heads in appreciation when they
come across this page.
I
seriously cannot come up with any negatives for Aweber.
I think Aweber is a phenomenal tool for anyone looking
at automating their lead management or follow-ups,
and I am happy to recommend them. As a veteran in
the business Aweber in almost every case is leaps
and bounds beyond their competition.
