So, you’ve just entered the world of internet marketing. You’ve heard it — you need to build a “list” — specifically, a list of e-mail contacts. You’ll soon discover your e-mail contacts will become one of your most important assets. Your list will bring you leads that will eventually drive profits.
Where Do You Begin?
Should you use the free autoresponder service provided by your hosting account? Should you set up one of your own? Or, should you subscribe to an autoresponder service? Do you need a sequential autoresponder?
I guess it depends on how big of a list that you want it to be. If you target only a small list, then I guess it’s plausible for you to use the autoresponder service provided by your hosting account.
If your hosting account allows it, you can even install one of your own. There are commercial autoresponders and open-source autoresponders which you can try install.
If you’re on a shared hosting account and sharing an IP address, you’ll have a problem. If one shared hosting customer starts spamming, the IP address could be blacklisted. Because of that, you are also affected. Your mail deliverability rates dive.
Also, many hosting companies will have some sort limit to how many mails sent out from one account per day or per hour. If you have a big list, that’s not going to work. You might risk getting your account suspended.
On the other hand, if you subscribe to a professional autoresponder service, problems like the above are rare. For one, these services enforce strict spam control. The ones that I know will force you to abide by the CAN-SPAM Act.
That is, certain rules must be followed. For example, you MUST tell recipients where you’re located. You normally put this information at the footer of every mail sent out.
Since these professional services are specialized businesses, they have dedicated server and bandwidth resources to cater to the mail broadcast load.
The bottom line: You’ll get higher deliverability rates with these professional services.
Don’t Make This Big Mistake!
Now, here’s something you should know. Perhaps you’re starting out with a small list on your shared hosting account. You probably think that once you have built up a big list, only then you move your list to a professional autoresponder service. That could be a big mistake!
With professional autoresponder services, because of spam controls, when you import a list, an opt-in confirmation mail will be automatically sent out to each imported recipient. If your list recipients somehow misses this mail or don’t confirm this opt-in request, you could lose part of your list that you’ve built up over the months or years!
So, do think carefully where you want to host your list before starting out. If you’re looking for a good professional mail broadcast service with sequential autoresponder features, check these services out:
I admit, their prices may be a bit steep but if you’re serious about list building, these services are the way to go.
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