Last time we talked about why it is essential to have a list in the first place. The next step is signing up with an autoresponder service so you can start building your list. An Auto-responder service stores your reader’s email address and other pertinent information and allows you to send emails to your list. Things you may do with this service: weekly newsletter, frequent update emails, solo offers, or a series of autoresponder messages.

About Auto-Responders

Let’s look at 3 different autoresponder providers and compare them. I hope this information will help you make an educated decision when it comes time to sign up. All the options we’re discussing here are subscription services – meaning you’ll pay them a monthly fee for their service, similar to your website hosting fees. Just so you know, when it comes to auto-responders, there is a second option – a self-hosted autoresponder. This option did not come highly recommended. Apparently, there are all sorts of technical and legal hot waters you can get yourself into by hosting your own autoresponder service. I’m not going to entertain this option. I’ll leave that to the guys that know what they are doing and sign up for a reputable Autoresponder provider.

3 Auto-Responders Compared

Here are the 3 services I chose and a comparison of their attributes along with some recommendations from Tracy Roberts (Piggy Makes Bank) on what works best in what situation.

Aweber

Aweber has been in the business of list building and providing autoresponder services for ages. They have a great reputation and work hard to ensure their emails are delivered to your reader’s inboxes.

Over the years they’ve expanded and added a lot of features for list segmentation, testing and tracking, and list-building templates. They offer a free trial if you want to check them out.

One of the big disadvantages of Aweber is that they charge you for duplicates (the same people subscribed to multiple lists of yours), and unsubscribes unless you go in and manually delete them. Since pricing depends on your list size, this can quickly add up.

MailChimp

Mail chimp has long been the autoresponder darling of bloggers. It’s easy to use, has a lot of functionality, and has some beautiful templates to make your newsletters and emails look just as pretty as your blog. I would caution you to look at the functionality each level provided.

Like Aweber, you are charged for duplicate entries and unlike Aweber, it is hard to segment your list and track to see what’s working. If all you’re worried about is one main list for your blog, Mail chimp is a great option for you. The free version is very limited in functionality but if you have a small following and just need so nice email templates, it will work fine for you. If you are creating automated workflows, then it would serve you best to subscribe to the Basic ($11 mo.) or Standard level ($17). As long as you have a list of 500 or fewer, MailChimp is an affordable option.

Note: If you want a little more functionality and data, and you want to be able to set up multiple opt-in forms then this may not be the right choice for you.

ConvertKit

Convert Kit is the new kid on the block that seems to give us the best of both worlds. It’s easy to use and has very pretty options like MailChimp, but with all the bells and whistles of Aweber. Convert Kit was developed by a professional blogger who made sure to include everything he’d want in an autoresponder service.

The only downside here is that the company is fairly new and doesn’t have the track record that the others do. If you are looking for functionality, ease of use, and affordability this just might be the one for you.

I Chose…

I was looking for a way to do very specific things for my business: Build an Email List and Send my soon-to-be-released 30 Days to Clarity Journal series. Knowing there are so many more things I will want to do  I needed a service with all the bells and whistles which would grow with me.

The answer was staring me in the face. My website already had a ConvertKit plugin installed. After much deliberation, I decided to upgrade from the free version to the Creator plan. This allows me to create all the email campaigns I need.

I especially appreciate the ease of use, beautiful templates, and supportive community of creators that so graciously answer our novice creator questions.

Up Next…

Different Ways to Send Emails.  Next time we’ll tackle another important topic – What type of email to send and when.

Did you miss the first in the series? Click Here to read about Why You Need a List.

Until next time.

All the Best,

Patricia