Email Autoresponder vs Email Newsletter

Email Autoresponder

This is a 4-part series on Email Autoresponder (in sequence):

1. Email Autoresponder vs Email Newsletter (you are here)
2. Best Autoresponder for me?
3. AWeber Review – Sadly Switching
4. AWeber vs GetResponse – Comparison

So, you have an email newsletter?  Good for you!  But you don’t know what an email autoresponder is?  Well, it might be time you did!

Email Autoresponder is the New Powerful Modern Version of the Limited Email Newsletter.

Email Newsletter

Long ago before anyone had even heard of an email autoresponder, the email newsletter was king.  Today the standard email newsletter is not dead but it is not enough. By itself.

Email Newsletter is but a subset of any good Email Autoresponder.

Many top bloggers  say that a subscription list is Gold.  And they are so right. Your subscribers are still the most valuable asset, whether you have just an email newsletter program or an email autoresponder program. Basically with the old form of email newsletter programs, you:

• collected subscribers
• manually created newsletters that you manually sent out to your list (albeit usually in bulk)

The key difference between the old email newsletter programs and the new email autoresponder programs lies in the manual vs automation capabilities.

Email Autoresponder

With Email Autoresponders, life is made much easier and much more effective.  The turnkey is that much of the work which had to be done manually, can now be pretty much fully automated. With email autoresponders, you only have to set up once:

• an opt-in confirmation email to each new subscriber
• an automated Welcome email once the person has opted in
• if desired, a series of tutorials automatically (maybe spaced an X number of days apart)
• if desired, a (series of) emails that is triggered by a specific event (e.g. a subscriber purchases an affiliate product)

.. and much more.

Email Autoresponder is indispensable to any effective email marketing.

Remember that I am just laying out some of the very basic differences.  And this article is mainly for any busy layperson who does not want anymore technical fluff than is absolutely necessary.  So while some could argue that their (old) email newsletter program does some of the things that the email autoresponder can do, there is no way that the old email newsletters have as much automation built into them nor the social integration that is increasingly required. In other words, today’s email autoresponder will:

• save you an enormous amount of time and manual labour
• is much more sophisticated in functionality
• can be set up to be automatically responsive to subscriber wishes and/or behaviours
• be easily integrated into top social networks
• provide extensive tracking and analytics

A Deeper Insight into General Autoresponders

This video below by Jon Landells (from Internet Marketing with John Landells) will give you a better overall view of what an autoresponder is as well as what features a good email autoresponder should have.  For your convenience, I have compiled a bullet list of the things he mentioned in the video. A good email autoresponder should be able to:

• capture email addresses
• scheduled emails
• send broadcast emails
• provide links to your blog
• update your social media networks
• track open-rate
• track links (within your email)
• segment your list
• provide performance reports
• offer easy unsubscribe facility
• offer double opt-in subscription

Next: Which Autoresponder Should I Get?

Not all email autoresponders are the same. Some are better than others.  Some will suit you, your available time, your level of expertise, and your purposes better than others.  So which should you choose?

Now that we have covered Email Autoresponder vs Email Newsletter in general, the topic of my next post: Which is the best autoresponder for me?