Building an email list is vital for the success of a digital marketer, especially the affiliate marketer, because ‘money is in the list’. So you need an affiliate friendly email autoresponder to build a decent list.
What is an Email Autoresponder or an Email Marketing Software?
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An autoresponder is a software tool that helps in sending automated messages to your website subscribers and then follow up with them at preset time intervals. In other words, sending preset emails to subscribers in autopilot mode. Eventually, it saves time, so that you can spend quality time with your loved ones or in other productive areas.
Autoresponders are perhaps the easiest and most effective way of converting your subscribers into customers. Your conversions increase when sending your subscribers a series of follow-up emails, gently guiding them down the sales path while building a relationship with them at the same time. You can even market other related affiliate products to them later on.
i-AutoResponder: Unlimited Autoresponder Service For Life
i-AutoResponder is an email service provider whose dominance in the market has continually grown in the recent past. It has played a vital role in improving automation capabilities for many bloggers. Yours can extensively benefit from their services too.
Ideally, its design focuses on improving conversions as well as managing subscribers. With these two aspects being the most focused on, i-AutoResponder, undoubtedly, becomes an ideal choice for bloggers. It will always play a vital role in improving your relationship with readers.
How to Choose the Best Autoresponder for Email Marketing?
The criteria we use, to short list each autoresponder is based on the following
a. Good Delivery rate
If your subscribers aren’t even seeing your emails, how do you expect to make any money with your affiliate links? It’s important that the emails you send reach your subscriber’s inbox. Its crucial to look at metrics such as open rates and the actual deliverability of each campaign. Your efforts are in vain if most of the emails you send don’t reach your subscriber’s inbox. Remember, bad email delivery rate means less money for you.
b. Automation Capabilities
As an affiliate marketer, you’re typically trying to make a passive income. You want your email marketing procedure to be performed with minimal human assistance; somewhat passive to where you’re not actually going to sit down and type up an hour-long email every single day. And the way we do that is through automation.
C. Integration and other features
It is desirable to have integration capabilities with other leading software tools. Apart from basic features, additional features like landing page builders are an added advantage.
D. Ease of use and Customer service
User-friendliness is an important parameter, especially to newbie digital marketers. Users would love an interface that is aesthetically appealing and easy to navigate. Intuitive, efficient and effective arrangements in the dashboard will entice users to stick with that marketing tool. Quality customer service would be an added advantage.
E. pricing
Beginners will always consider the starting price before signing up for a software tool. It is always a good idea to make sure that it doesn’t cost you too much. If you can start with a freemium tool or begin your email marketing journey by paying only a reasonable price then it will be beneficial for you in the long run.
Should an affiliate marketer avoid any email autoresponder?
Popular autoresponders like MailChimp, MailerLite, SendinBlue, Constant Contact, and Benchmark are not affiliate friendly. They won’t let affiliate links in email campaigns, even if the links are from internationally reputed affiliate networks like ClickBank and JVZoo. They will ban you if you try to include affiliate links in your email campaigns. It is risky to use ActiveCampaign for affiliate marketing, so we wouldn’t recommend that either.
You have probably been lured more than once into trying a new autoresponder, to realize after a few months, that it is not the right one for you and that you will need to either use the tool in an uncomfortable way or move on to the next free trial. We have used all the below mentioned autoresponders either for our personal email marketing campaigns or for my client’s marketing campaigns.
How To Use Email Autoresponders To Boost Affiliate Sales
According to marketing charts, 89% of the decision-makers believe that email is the most valuable customer identification piece. The best way to make the most of email information is by sending email autoresponders. A program is set up that sends specially designed emails in a specific time frame. When planned well, these email autoresponders can rapidly boost your affiliate sales.
The emails that you acquire from your website will become your potential buyers if you create the right email autoresponder strategy. Let’s have a look at some fruitful email autoresponder strategies.
Welcome Email
Most of the companies send a welcome email. Instead of just welcoming them on your platform, send something that builds the bond. The customer is new to your business, and your first email should talk about what you are and what you do.
You can also offer some free trials or new user discounts in your first email to prepare the visitor for the next step.
Send A “How To Start” Guide
Since the user is new and doesn’t know much about your product/service, a guide will surely help. If you have a procedure to follow, a step by step guide will make more sense. Most people quit because they don’t know what to do next. Create autoresponders and show them the way to the next step once they are done with the first one.
Create A Schedule
Frequent emails will irritate the subscribers, and they will spend a few minutes to unsubscribe you. Create a schedule and space out according to time. Create a strategy for the number of emails you want to send in a day.
Neil Patel suggests sending one email a day unless there is some special occasion like a sale going on or something else. Then also, try to space them out over time.
Share Stories Or Case Studies
Stories touch the human heart and build a better understanding. Sharing your business stories will help create awareness and curiosity about your brand. Have you ever received emails from “save child foundations”? Their campaign story is appealing enough to generate leads.
Looking at case studies, they work better than your “what you do”. When you send case studies, users can see themselves in that position. They can feel how you have served the needs of the person. They can decide whether your service or product can help them or not. The best thing is both B2C, and B2B companies can use this method.
Deliver Some Knowledge
Don’t always sell because the user is not always interested in buying. Share some valuable tips that new people might not know. Suppose you have a point credit system where you offer points after purchase. You can send a message, telling them about the points which they can use for their next purchase.
Create A FAQ Response
No matter, you have explained everything on your website, or you have a FAQ section there, and you have dedicated customer service as well, but the users will still have doubts. Collect common questions that users have asked recently and answer them with an email autoresponder.
Ask For Reviews After Purchases
Customers purchase and forget the service if they don’t feel any issue with the product. You might get complaint emails if the product didn’t serve the job. But, for positive feedback, you have to ask.
Suppose you offer online courses, send them autoresponders after completion of course, and ask for reviews. Honest reviews add credibility to your services.
Referral Temptation
Who doesn’t love some extra benefits? Many brands have got massive popularity with the referral scheme. You offer some freebies or bonuses for every friend joining, and your users spread the word for you.
You can offer bonus rewards on milestones as well. Like extra reward after five referrals. Or a discount coupon after two referrals. The tier system also works great.
Add A Personalized Touch
Though most of your subscribers already know you are not typing individual emails, calling them with their names still matters. When you add their name at the beginning of the email, it catches more attention.
There are many software out there that let you add the subscriber name as well. When users receive an email that has their names, the chances of opening the email improves.
Share Customer Reviews To Build Trust
Your users will always be interested in reviews. When you have a new website, users will not trust reviews on your website. Ask your customers to review your services on third-party platforms. Such sites don’t let you edit or delete negative reviews, and that’s why users trust them.
We have websites like Trustpilot, which have honest reviews. Share these reviews in autoresponders, and you will build a bridge of trust.
Reflect Your Personality
Sending basic and boring emails will never make you stand out from the crowd. Whenever you order something from Amazon, they send you a confirmation email. The email body is unique to Amazon and that’s what you need for your website as well.
Create a unique and interesting email to build your personality. Add your personal flavor and wit. Make the email your image.
Call For Cart
Calling for abandoned carts works so well. Sometimes, customers forget to buy at the end moment, and this call reminds them to complete the purchase.
Sending emails like price dropped for items in your cart or special discount or freebies to first few buyers will surely boost the sales.
Show Your Biggest Clients
A business is known by its clients. You need to show the best clients you have worked with to build credibility. If someone works for a big brand like Google, it means they have the potential to serve the best.
Your users need to know your worth. You have to tell them the big names who used your services which could be anything such as a software or even a piece of information. Add your achievements in the email autoresponder, and you are good to leave an everlasting impact.
Sort Your Subscribers
You might have subscribers who are following you for a long time and make frequent purchases, and you are also getting new subscribers every day. Not everyone needs to get the same emails, and that’s why sorting is necessary.
You need to segment your subscribers into groups to target with the right message. You can create categories and questions to sort. Send questions, and depending on the answer, put them in the related category.
Converkit is a great software for segmenting and tagging. You can tag people whom you want to send similar emails and then group them together in one segment. It is the best email autoresponder software for digital service providers.
You can also segment according to time or engagement. Whatever way, segment your audience and send them something they might be interested in.
Keep Testing And Refining The Email Strategy
There are thousands of email marketing strategies. Every brand creates its own strategies, and you can’t expect everything to work for you the way it worked for someone else.
Test different strategies and analyze what works best for you. Refine strategies that work. Make adjustments and test again until you see it working the best.
Email autoresponder strategies have worked for so many companies and will work for you also. The only thing you need to do is focus and create your own style. Add your own taste, and you will see your sales boosting.
The Best Of… i-AutoResponder.com
- Ease of Use
You can hardly overlook how smooth using i-AutoResponder tends to be. For instance, its dashboard is not only streamlined but also user-friendly. The arrangement of its core features will play a central role in giving you the user-experience that you have always desired.
Usually, the dashboard allows you to manage your contacts, broadcasts, and sign-up forms. It will also be relatively easy for you to come up with courses to deliver online. Besides, you will be free to create complete landing pages or even subscriber lists.
Once you confirm either of the features, it will automatically join the automation sequence. This way, sending emails to multiple users will hardly be a hassle for you.
- Support
Often, you will need to confirm one or two things about the operation of any software. The friendliness of the support team will often be critical in your overall experience. And ConvertKit’s is one of the best. Their support team will often respond on time, and comprehensively so. This way, any problem will not go unresolved for long.
- Enhanced Effectiveness
Undoubtedly, you will fall in love with how effective this tool is. It will come in handy in catering for various basics, giving you a much easier time in the long run. All tasks will be complete much sooner and without too many problems to give you worries.
- Affordability
While the price is not the cheapest in the market, you will afford this package without too much hassle. Besides, they have multiple packages that could suit your budget. As we all know, affordability will be vital in cushioning you against financial constraints over time.
i-AutoResponder Review
1. i-AutoResponder’s User Interface
i-AutoResponder comes with one of the best dashboards. Your interaction with this interface will, undoubtedly, be one of the best for you. Usually, this dashboard prides itself on a simple organization. This way, you will no longer need to worry about making too many clicks before you can complete a task.
Also, you will find the statistics bar to be relatively straightforward. It will highlight the open rate and the click rate of each broadcast or email. With such a provision, you will be in a better position to make credible decisions on time. Did you know that you will easily follow the number of unsubscribes on the screen too?
2. Segmentation and tagging
i-AutoResponder prides itself on simple segmentation. Various conditional tags will play a vital role in separating different consumers or readers. Well, while this could look a little complex to non-techies, it is relatively straightforward. It is, however, valuable to point out how essential tags, as well as segments, can be to any blogger. They play a critical role in identifying different classes of readers.
Usually, you will be free to segment as well as tag email subscribers per their behavioral tendencies. You could also tag them based on your areas of interest. With this feature, you will only send emails to people that could have interests in the same. Targeted marketing is usually vital in improving your credibility, and i-AutoResponder offers you that opportunity.
3. Email broadcasts and templates
Indeed, email broadcasts and templates on i-AutoResponder come at no cost. Unfortunately, you will have no room to customize the same. This could be a big disappointment to those that would love to explore their creativity. Usually, you will do nothing more than altering the color of the template.
However, the templates tend to be relatively attractive. You could personalize them based on different themes. However, you should be ready for how tedious using these email templates can be.
4. Automation
Always, automation allows you to tag customers and improve your sales pitches. It will also help in triggering various links and even excluding people who already bought your package. i-AutoResponder allows for up to four different types of automation.
The four ways through which automation will be triggered include tagging, through a form, via custom fields, and purchases. From here, you will need to initiate an action, add an event, or highlight a condition. i-AutoResponder prides itself on a fast automation process. Besides, it is relatively simple to use. Simply, you will love the automation experience it offers. Did you know that it will auto-resend broadcasts to those who did not open them at first?
5. A/B Testing
Unfortunately, a/b testing in i-AutoResponder could be relatively disappointing and limited. Indeed, this testing is vital in the growth of any online business. It will come in handy in identifying which strategy will be vital in improving your performance in the long run. But with limited functionality, you will have a hard time. With i-AutoResponder, you can only split-test up to two variations within your subject line. As such, you will need additional measures if you were to test delivery time, automation, and email-body content. If this testing is vital in your business, this downside could end up being costly over time.
6. Forms and Landing Pages
Undoubtedly, you will rely on forms to get subscribers to your account. With i-AutoResponder, you will be free to rely on both forms and even landing pages. In most cases, you will be open to picking up to four different types of forms. They include modal, inline, slide-in, and pop-up. While at it, you will find up to seven distinct form templates at your disposal. Customizing your forms will, however, be quite limited.
On the other hand, your landing pages will come with dedicated pages. Mostly, you could host them on i-AutoResponder servers or your WordPress plug-in. Above all, remember that customizing these pages will be your burden.
7. Integrations
We have various instances when you will need to integrate your site with external tools. Fortunately, i-AutoResponder allows you to do this. It will often work with multiple tools that aim at making email management a smooth process. Some of the prominent tools that it will connect with include Teachable, Gumroad, Swipe, and Leadpages. You could also rely on it to connect with KingSumo.
8. Deliverability
The deliverability of i-AutoResponder is relatively matchless. But maybe we need to take a step back and understand what deliverability is. Ideally, it is the association between your IP and domain, client list, and the email content. ConvertKit will come in handy in ensuring that your email reaches clients within a click.
9. Tracking and Reportage
Typically, i-AutoResponder tends to be relatively minimalistic. It focuses on the ease of use more than anything else. Perhaps, it is at this point that tracking did not come out as vital as it should be. As mentioned earlier, reporting as well as tracking on i-AutoResponder is a little limited.
It will be relatively hard for you to report or even track autoresponders and sequences. As such, you will find it hard to go deeper into analytics on your performance. For instance, there will be no data on your bounce rate. How else would you improve your content if you cannot find this information?
10. Pricing and support
Your budget will always matter a lot in this pursuit. You will always want the utmost value for your money. First, you will get UNLIMITED autoresponder service for Life. After this, you will be free to sign up on whichever package you find suitable. You will also be sure of getting a 30-day moneyback guarantee.
i-AutoResponder has embraced a tiered pricing approach. For this reason, the price will most likely increase with an increase in the number of subscribers. Luckily, the price does not skyrocket as much as seen in other email service providers once you hit 10000 subscribers.
Interestingly, i-AutoResponder prides itself on being one of the most affordable options at your disposal. While it is not the cheapest of them all, it is more likely to give you value for your money in the long run.
Now, about their support. It will often be one of the most reliable and efficient teams. You will be sure of getting responses within a relatively short time. You will also be confident of getting comprehensive advice whenever necessary.
Is i-AutoResponder Ideal For you?
i-AutoResponder has an impeccable delivery rate compared to others. Their recent delivery report says it to be 98.9%. This email automation tool is tailor-made for publishers to grow their audiences. It allows you to use a free account until you reach 500 subscribers.
To sum up, when you choose your email autoresponder, switching costs are high. You’re likely going to continue using the same tool for the entire lifetime of your business because it’s time-consuming to switch. That’s why you want to use a solution that can support both at the start of your business and in the long-run.
While other tools might be easier to use from the beginning or even slightly cheaper, i-AutoResponder is the most reliable solution on the marketing and the return on the investment from its advanced features will repay the choice in the long-run.
As mentioned, i-AutoResponder comes with various benefits and an edge over other competitors. However, it will be a perfect fit for bigger businesses or those with many subscribers. It is not only smooth to operate but also relatively intuitive. Besides, its design and user interface is exceptional. This email marketing service tool will assure you of value for your money in the long run.
