There are many different email autoresponder platforms that you can sign up for as an online marketer, and Aweber is one of the premier services that has a long-term, solid reputation.
If you’re new to email marketing and list building, then you’ll want to ease into this without overwhelming yourself with too many needless details. Many people focus on all the wrong things when the most important ones are learning how to get set up and send out emails to cultivate a following and convert them into sales.
The technical setup of Aweber is easy for everyone to use. There are no complex steps and they even have built-in tutorials and videos showing you how to do it every step of the way.
Once you have it all set up, you’ll be able to apply your best marketing strategies to cater to the needs of your target audience. They’ll become loyal subscribers you can communicate with on a regular basis, helping you grow your income over time.
Why You Need a Proven Email Autoresponder System
As any seasoned marketer can tell you, it is devastating to wake up one day and realize that all of your hard work in building a list of loyal subscribers is gone in an instant. This is exactly what has happened to many marketers who have trusted the wrong autoresponder platform to house the contact information of their followers.
There are many different email autoresponder platforms that you will see come and go over the course of months and years. However, there are some that have proven their value in the marketplace, including Aweber, GetResponse, and MailChimp.
Everyone has different features they are looking for with an email autoresponder, whether it’s a technical one or a price point they’re hoping to secure. Aweber is a wonderful option for both newbies and experienced marketers alike.
You will have access to a database of tutorials they have built to help their users navigate the system with ease. If that’s not enough, you have access to 24/7 help that can assist you. The platform is extremely easy to use and should allow you to quickly begin building your list without delay.
Start Free and Grow Your List and Account
If you are just starting out with email marketing, you can sign up with Aweber for a free account that allows you to build your list up to 500 subscribers and send out a whopping 3,000 emails each and every month.
You still get access to the 24/7 support system, along with many of the design tools, forms, and some other special perks. When you are ready to swap your free account for a pro version on Aweber, you’ll find that it is very affordable.
You’ll have time to begin growing a list of buyers, which should allow you to easily be able to afford the pro-Aweber account. If you are going with the pro version, it’s cheaper to purchase more months upfront.
For example, if you buy an annual account, it will cost you a little over $16 per month on average, but if you prefer to pay monthly, it will cost you just under $20. As you grow your list of subscribers and your needs increase, you can easily level up with your investment and change over from a free to the pro version that supports your growth and email expectations.
Forget About the Bells and Whistles in the Beginning
If there’s one thing newbie marketers are notorious for, it’s trying to rush the process and skip the basic steps so that they can hurry up and make money. When it comes to email marketing, you need to learn the basics first and master them so that you are consistently able to add new subscribers to your list, increase your open rate for emails, and see your conversions rise for people who click on the links inside.
When you first sign up to Aweber or any email autoresponder for that matter, you are going to see all kinds of features that you have the ability to use for your list. From split testing to segmenting subscribers, and more – you will be tempted to start using all of the fancy elements and strategies because you’ll assume other top marketers are doing that to achieve their higher profits.
What you need to remember is that the person on the receiving end of your email cares about one thing – whether or not you have provided value for them when your email hits their inbox.
Yes, it makes sense at a later date to learn how to split test and use other strategies built into your email autoresponder system. But when you are first starting out, all you need to know is how to set up a list, create a form, and send out emails.
There are a few other basic administrative maintenance tasks that you will need to learn also. But don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do too much, too soon. Stay focused and master the basics first before moving on to more advanced topics.
Setting Up Your List(s)
When you first create your Aweber account, they’re going to send you your login link. When you log in, it’s going to walk you through the initial setup with their “Welcome” experience.
Here, you’ll enter your business information and a few other details. To start a new list, you’ll want to click on the List option on the left sidebar and choose Create New List. The system will ask you to name your list and give a description of it.
You’ll also choose what name and email address you want the emails to be sent from so that it’s personalized as coming from you. Next, you’ll whip up a short confirmation message that they’ll get, and you can choose to use their built-in template, too.
Creating and Installing a Form for Your Website
To create a form for your site or blog, you’ll want to first make sure you’re on the correct list (if you have more than one). On the left sidebar, click on the Sign Up Forms section. Over time, you’ll be able to see the various forms you’ve created.
The data will show you what type of form it is, how many times it’s been displayed, how many submissions it’s had, etc. This can help you later when you’re trying to split test certain elements and strategies.
Click the Create a Sign-Up Form drop-down box and choose whether it’s for a landing page or your website. You can choose from their built-in template gallery, which is a great way to get started as a newbie.
Find something that will match the color and theme of your site. They have niche-specific templates, like those for food, travel, etc. Or, you can use something more generic, like those for corporations.
When you find one you like, load the template and edit it as you wish. You can change the text, size, etc. Save your form and move on to step 2. You’re going to give this form a name that’s for you to recognize and choose where you want the subscriber to go after opting into your list (a basic, built-in thank-you page is fine).
Save the form again and go to step 3. Here, you want to click on Raw HTML Version for the option of how you will install the form on your site. (You also have the option to use JavaScript if you prefer).
You’ll paste this in your site between the <body> tags or, in a text widget on your blog. Make sure you test the form once it’s live. Make sure it fits well and enter your name and email address to test the process.
What Should You Put in Your Follow Up Email Series?
There are two types of emails that you can send out from your Aweber autoresponder system – follow-ups and broadcasts. Follow-up emails are those that are placed into a series on your account so that when someone new signs up, those emails will periodically drip out to their inbox in a timeframe that you set.
So for instance, you will initially send them your welcome email with a download to the free gift that you have offered them in exchange for their contact information. Then, if you want to, you can set your system up so that every two or three days, or however often you wish, a new email is sent out to that subscriber.
Follow-up emails are good if you have evergreen content that is valuable information for your subscribers to know, and you don’t want to have to email out every day manually, but would rather have it all automated for you for months or years at a time.
You should never put information in these emails that will become outdated, including any hyperlinks. If so, you need to frequently go back and update the emails to make sure there are no broken hyperlinks or misinformation.
Some people will set up a follow-up email series as the free gift that they have offered to their subscribers who get on their list. So instead of a downloadable PDF report, they offer a seven-day email series with tips.
These can all be automated in a follow-up series. The great thing about follow-up emails is that each new subscriber that comes to your list will be able to get these same emails.
Here’s What Should Go in Your Broadcast Emails
While follow-up emails are those that each subscriber receives on a timely basis after they sign up to your list, broadcast emails will only be sent to whoever is on your list at the time you send it.
It will not go out to future subscribers. Many people prefer to use this form of email autoresponder because of the timeliness of their messages. Not all emails that are being sent out will be evergreen in nature.
For example, if you are sending an email to your list about a product that is launching or a bonus that you have as an affiliate for someone else’s launch, it wouldn’t make sense to send that same email to people six months later when they sign up.
Broadcast emails can be sent out in addition to your follow-up emails if you have a mixture of both evergreen content and timely or trendy content that you want to share with your readers.
You can send out the same types of tips you would in a follow-up email, along with information about products you are creating, case studies you are developing, launches that are coming up, events that are happening, and more.
Checking in on Your Dashboard Every Day
If you want to be protective of your email account, you’ll want to log in almost daily to see how things are going. On your dashboard, you’ll have a lot of pertinent information that can tell you how things are going.
You’ll see the total number of subscribers you have, find out how many people have unsubscribed in the past 30 days (which is telling in case your numbers skyrocket), and what kind of change that is compared to the 30 days before that.
You can see sales if you’re selling from within your emails, and see at a glance what’s scheduled to be sent out the following day. But one of the most important stats is how your Sent Broadcasts have performed.
It will show you how many people opened your email or clicked on a link, how many bounced and whether or not you have any complaints. You want to keep complaints to a minimum, so watch this to see if you need to alter your style.
Clean Up Your Subscriber List to Save Money
When it comes to Aweber and many different email autoresponder platforms, you will be paying according to the number of subscribers that you have on your list. For example, you may pay more if you have 10,000 people on your list than if you only have 2,000.
One thing many marketers don’t know is that even after someone unsubscribes from your list, they are still counted toward the total number of people you are paying for. The great news is, you can easily go in and clean up that information in your database so that you are not being forced to pay for people who are no longer receiving your emails.
It’s very simple to clear the unsubscribed individuals off of your email database. Log into your Aweber account and click on the Subscribers option in your sidebar. If you have more than one list, you will need to navigate to each one and remove the unsubscribed individuals from each list.
You will see a section that says Filters and you simply click where it says Unsubscribed. It will load all of the people who have left your list, along with the date and time they left. Click the box by the word Name and it will select all of the individuals.
Then, choose from the dropdown box that says Action and confirm that you want to delete those contacts. Do this for each list that you have and it will help keep your costs down.
The Importance of Back-Ups and Blocking
There are two things you want to do to maintain the integrity and longevity of your list. The first is blocking any unsavory individuals from your list who may cause problems. These are people who are hateful or vengeful towards you and who will only submit spam complaints or cause other problems that you don’t want to deal with.
To block a subscriber from your list, go to your dashboard and click on the Subscribers section. You’ll then see where it says Subscriber Tools. Click the drop-down and then click on Block Subscribers.
Here, you can enter their email address or domain and add a reason that you blocked them to remind you later. You can always unblock people, too – if there’s ever a misunderstanding.
Another thing you want to do is perform periodic backups of your list(s). This is important in case of any technical glitch or in the event that you happen to get banned from your email autoresponder platform.
If you have a backup of the database, you will be able to import that into another platform or reinstall it if something has accidentally deleted all of your subscriber contacts.
To perform a backup of your database in Aweber, go to your dashboard and scroll down to the Lists section. Click where it says Manage Lists. Click on the right option where it says Export Active Lists.
This will allow you to enter an email address where they will send the file to you and then you confirm it by clicking Create Backup. In a few minutes, you will get the email and be able to have a backup file of your list.
