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There are two primary ways that business owners and marketers use email to establish trust, build relationships, and generate sales and revenue. It's important to utilize both in your business for different purposes and the tools that you use need to support both of these purposes.

In order to do this, you will need to be able to set up both autoresponders, or automated email marketing sequences, AND have the ability to send out broadcast messages to all of your list or a segment thereof.

Let's look at both autoresponders and broadcast campaigns.

Autoresponders

An Autoresponder solution lets you set up mini campaigns that automatically send out pre-set emails indefinitely.

For example, in order to find out about this guide, you most likely went to a page that asked you for your first name and email address.

Once you entered your information, you were added to our autoresponder list. And as a subscriber to that list, you received a pre-written, pre-loaded, email sequence that helped you consume the content that we offered for free.

If you saw value in that, you likely THEN made the decision to purchase this book in order to learn how to improve your email deliverability.

The sequence can be as short as one day or continue indefinitely depending on the purpose of the autoresponder.

NOTE: We are not talking about the vacation autoresponders that say “I’m out of the office until next Monday, please contact my assistant if you need to speak with someone before then”

You can expect to pay a monthly fee for any of the reputable services. And with autoresponders, remember, you get what you pay for! You’re counting on these services to get your email delivered, so you don’t want to chance it with a free service that has no incentive to keep their lists clean.

Some examples of 3rd party autoresponder solutions are aweber, 1shoppingcart, icontact, getresponse, etc. If you do choose to go with a 3rd party solution, then you should spend some time doing your own due diligence (and not simply taking the providers word). We are not endorsing any of these services over another.

Broadcasts

A company that allows email broadcasts, on the other hand, will send out email “blasts” or newsletters, or… “broadcasts”. These are often announcements for discounts, notifications, product launches, events (live or virtual), etc.

You typically load your broadcast email, set the date/time that you want your email to be sent, and the system sends it out.

There are a number of companies that provide this type of service.

There will be some providers that do provide both options. In fact, most “autoresponder” providers will also have a broadcast or newsletter feature.

The costs will range from $20/month to $150+ per month. If you have really large lists or send out a lot of email, the costs may well be in the thousands. Your fees with both types of 3rd party solutions will usually be based on the size of your lists, frequency of mailing, and number of campaigns you have in your account.

Remember: With 3rd party services, you are almost ALWAYS sharing your IP address with other online business owners/marketers and you almost never have any way of knowing who is sharing the IP with you or what their email practices consist of.

Author: Heather Seitz

Attention Readers, Publishers, Editors, Bloggers, and Marketers: You may republish or syndicate this article without any charge. The only thing I ask is that you keep the newsletters, article, or blog post exactly as it was written and formatted, with no changes. You must also include full publication attribution and back links as indicated.

This information has been provided by http://www.EmailDelivered.com and written by Heather Seitz. To find out more on email broadcasts, autoresponders, and email newsletters, visit http://www.emaildelivered.com/email-delivered/email-broadcasts-autoresponders-email-newsletters/. Don’t forget to sign up for the EmailDelivered Pulse newsletter for articles, tips, and recommended resources related to email marketing and email deliverability.

 

April 7, 2011