More and more opt-in e-mail is being sent around the Internet. Remind your prospect that he requested your messages by keeping an eye on continuity.

Start and end each message in a similar way. At the top, let your prospect know who you are, why he is getting e-mail from you, and where he is in the follow up sequence. This can be as simple as saying:

“Last week, you requested more information about Green Garden Fertilizer…”

Then, end each message with your own contact information. Use your autoresponder’s personalization features to list details about your lead. Also, include a way for the lead to unsubscribe. For example:

“This message was sent to Dusty Dan at dustydan@needsanewlawn.com. On April 5th, Dusty Dan requested information about Green Garden Fertilizer. Questions? Call us at 000-000-0000. Or, to unsubscribe, click here.”

First, convince your audience that your text is worth reading. Make your first sentence or two very interesting: Make a bold statement, say something seemingly ridiculous, or appeal to your prospect’s emotional side. Later, tie this grabber in with the rest of your copy. For instance:

“Want to make your neighbors jealous? How about with a lush, green lawn in just 2 weeks?”

Do Your Potential Customers Forget About You?

[By: Tom Kulzer]

Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person’s need for information quickly!

But, after you’ve delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don’t.

When you don’t follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him. Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn’t receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.

Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?

Following up with leads is more than just a process – it’s an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don’t follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.

Consistent follow up gets results!

When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the “List Technique.” I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information, so I used the company’s latest news as a follow up piece. I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win a few additional orders, it wasn’t a very good follow up method. Why isn’t the “List Technique” very effective?

The List Technique isn’t consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have “big news”.

List Technique messages don’t give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can’t make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you’ve just moved your headquarters?

List Technique messages convey a “big list” mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.

What follow up method really works?

Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you’ll need to develop your follow up messages. If you’ve been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn’t have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn’t the right color or doesn’t have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it’s unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don’t want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors’. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don’t want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up – don’t you want to be one of the few to get it right?

What is the product you’re advertising? What does it do? Directly after your grabber, give a compact explanation of your product. Keep this explanation short, while still being very clear. For example:

“Green Garden Lawn Fertilizer is taking the landscaping industry by storm. What else can give you the lawn of your dreams in just 15 minutes a day?”

What will it do for me? This is the time for details – make this section long and rich. Suggest a variety of product uses, and give examples. Make the most of this opportunity to directly target your unique audience! Clearly explain how your readers will benefit from your product.

You’ve come so far – you’ve laid out exactly what the product is and how it will help your unique audience. Now, seal the deal – tell your readers to purchase the product!

This step may sound strange, but it’s necessary. Often, people hear about a product and are genuinely interested, but fail to actually make a purchase. A clear call to a simple action cuts down on buyer ambivalence.

Don’t be pushy – just change your verb tenses to the imperative. Instead of: “If you think that you fit this profile, you might want to think about buying Green Garden Lawn Fertilizer.”

Say: “Click here to order Green Garden Lawn Fertilizer today.”

Think of banner ads as the spice in your affiliate diet. Sprinkle them around, but for a heartier helping of sales, you’ll need something more solid! Learn to give your visitors longer, more descriptive pre-sales text. Revamp your affiliate advertising using these simple steps: Pull the Reader in Introduce the Product Explain the Product’s Significance Tell the Reader to Make a Purchase Pull the Reader in

To convince your audience that your text is worth reading, make your first sentence or two very interesting. Make a bold statement, say something seemingly ridiculous, or appeal to your prospect’s emotional side. Then, tie this grabber in with the rest of your copy.

Introduce the Product

What is the product you’re advertising? What does it do? Directly after your grabber, give a compact explanation of your product. Keep this explanation short, while still being very clear. This should still be a very short section of your text.

Explain the Product’s Significance

What will it do for me?

By writing your own copy, you can directly target your unique audience. Make the most of this opportunity! Clearly explain how your readers will benefit from this product.

No one knows your audience like you do. Suggest a variety of product uses just for them, and give examples. This is the time for details – make this section long and rich.

Tell the Reader to Make a Purchase

You’ve come so far – you’ve laid out exactly what the product is and how it will help your unique audience. Now, seal the deal – tell your readers to purchase the product! Include your affiliate link in this section.

This step may sound strange, but it’s necessary. Often, people hear about a product and are genuinely interested, but fail to actually make a purchase. A clear call to a simple action cuts down on buyer ambivalence. Don’t be pushy – just change your verb tenses to the imperative. Instead of:

“If you think that you fit this profile, you might want to think about buying this product.”

Say: “Click here to order an account today.”

Drive Sales – Use Long Copy If you don’t feel ready to write long copy yourself, ask your affiliate program manager for help! Many companies release well-written articles by respected authors that you can reprint free of charge.

The novelty of the Web is wearing off. People online now are busy. Surfers won’t make a purchase unless you make a great case for what they’ll get out of it. And you’re not going to do that with just a banner ad.

What follow up method really works?

Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you’ll need to develop your follow up messages. If you’ve been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn’t have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn’t the right color or doesn’t have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it’s unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don’t want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors’. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don’t want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

The concept of the follow up autoresponder revolutionized Internet Marketing. Now, “Auto Message Setup” promises to bring the field an even greater degree of efficiency.

This recent innovation lets experienced marketers painlessly transfer marketing know-how to their entire downlines. A marketer can now provide each of his downline representatives with a follow up autoresponse system that is already packaged with the marketer’s pre-written messages.

The result? Just a few minutes of work on the part of an experienced marketer, and each of his reps is set up with the same tried and true marketing messages.

Case Study: Marketer Matt and the New Breed

For example, take a look at the case of a fictional network marketer named Matt M:

For years, Matt has been successfully marketing All Natural Pharmaceuticals using a follow up autoresponder. In fact, much of his success can be attributed to the set of seven messages e-mailed to all of his potential customers. Matt has carefully crafted those messages over the years, and they’re really great.

Recently, Matt has been trying to pass what he’s learned along to his downline representatives. He explains his marketing principles over the phone, and he knows that several of his reps pass his follow up messages around amongst themselves.

However, Matt finds that his pearls of wisdom rarely survive this ‘telling and retelling’ intact. He knows his reps aren’t getting anywhere near what they could out of his knowledge. He wishes there were a way to harness today’s technology, and put it to use for the greater good of his downline…

Enter Auto Message Setup

Using an Auto Message Setup system, Matt’s downline reps can order their own follow up autoresponse accounts that are already packaged with Matt’s pre-written messages. They can reap the fruits of Matt’s experience with ease.

Each rep will customize Matt’s messages for himself by logging in to his new follow up autoresponder account, and entering his own contact information.

Here is Matt’s original autoresponse message: Hi LEAD NAME,

Thanks for stopping by the All Natural Pharmaceuticals web site today! We hope you come back soon!

Best Regards, Matt M. matt@all-natural-pharma.com 918 Awl St. Natural, PA 22314

Notice that the message greeting uses a variable, (LEAD NAME). The variable ensures that each of Matt’s leads will receive a message personalized with his or her own name. Notice, also, that Matt’s name and address are at the end of the message.

Case Study: Downline Dan and the New Breed

Dan is one of Matt’s downline representatives. He’s ordered his own follow up autoresponder through Matt. Since Matt is using Auto Message Setup, Dan’s account came pre-packaged with Matt’s marketing messages. Dan personalized those messages to himself by answering a few questions in his Online Control Panel. Now Dan is sending his own personalized version of Matt’s messages to his customers! All of the basic content is Matt’s, but Dan’s contact information is on the letters. Here is the autoresponse that Dan sends to his potential customers: Hi, LEAD NAME

Thanks for stopping by the All Natural Pharmaceuticals web site today! We hope you come back soon!

Best Regards, Dan D. dan@pharma-ceuticals.com 5 Farm Way Sootuh, TN 88457

Notice that the contact name and address at the end of the e-mail are Dan’s, but that the greeting at the beginning of the message still includes the name of Dan’s lead.

Mission Accomplished

With Matt’s experience in hand, Dan is now marketing more successfully than ever before. And he isn’t the only one – Matt’s entire downline is now using his marketing messages! Matt’s commissions are growing exponentially.

Matt and Dan’s situation is not unique. Any network marketer with an established downline can take advantage of the opportunities available in an auto message setup system. There’s no better way to put more auto in your autoresponder.

For example, take a look at the case of a fictional network marketer named Matt M:

For years, Matt has been successfully marketing All Natural Pharmaceuticals using a follow up autoresponder. In fact, much of his success can be attributed to the set of seven messages e-mailed to all of his potential customers. Matt has carefully crafted those messages over the years, and they’re really great.

Recently, Matt has been trying to pass what he’s learned along to his downline representatives. He explains his marketing principles over the phone, and he knows that several of his reps pass his follow up messages around amongst themselves.

However, Matt finds that his pearls of wisdom rarely survive this ‘telling and retelling’ intact. He knows his reps aren’t getting anywhere near what they could out of his knowledge. He wishes there were a way to harness today’s technology, and put it to use for the greater good of his downline…

Dan is one of Matt’s downline representatives. He’s ordered his own follow up autoresponder through Matt. Since Matt is using Auto Message Setup, Dan’s account came pre-packaged with Matt’s marketing messages. Dan personalized those messages to himself by answering a few questions in his Online Control Panel. Now Dan is sending his own personalized version of Matt’s messages to his customers! All of the basic content is Matt’s, but Dan’s contact information is on the letters.

Here is the autoresponse that Dan sends to his potential customers: Hi, LEAD NAME

Thanks for stopping by the All Natural Pharmaceuticals web site today! We hope you come back soon!

Best Regards, Dan D. dan@pharma-ceuticals.com 5 Farm Way Sootuh, TN 88457

Notice that the contact name and address at the end of the e-mail are Dan’s, but that the greeting at the beginning of the message still includes the name of Dan’s lead.

Using an Auto Message Setup system, Matt’s downline reps can order their own follow up autoresponse accounts that are already packaged with Matt’s pre-written messages. They can reap the fruits of Matt’s experience with ease.

Each rep will customize Matt’s messages for himself by logging in to his new follow up autoresponder account, and entering his own contact information.

Here is Matt’s original autoresponse message: Hi LEAD NAME,

Thanks for stopping by the All Natural Pharmaceuticals web site today! We hope you come back soon!

Best Regards, Matt M. matt@all-natural-pharma.com 918 Awl St. Natural, PA 22314

Notice that the message greeting uses a variable, (LEAD NAME). The variable ensures that each of Matt’s leads will receive a message personalized with his or her own name. Notice, also, that Matt’s name and address are at the end of the message.

Account Wide Reporting

Previously all reports and graphs generated were specific to each individual subscriber list. If you’re following best practices and segmenting your subscribers into different categories it’s possible you have multiple lists in a single account. With account wide reporting you’ll now be able to see subscriber activity for all of your lists combined into a single graph.

Unique Open Rate & Click Totals

Is your message being read multiple times or forwarded to other recipients? The yellow line in the graph indicates

the unique number of users seen opening your email with images enabled. This data along with any other data represented in charts is also available for export in text format.

Once you have the list you’d like to work on selected, to navigate around its settings, you’ll use the row of tabs and menu options at the top of the page.

If you hover your mouse pointer over top any of the tabs, you’ll find menu options to choose from just beneath them.

For example, if I wanted to search through my leads, I’d hover my mouse over the Leads tab, then click on Search.

Open Rate & Clicks Over Time

Have you ever wanted to see when your subscribers open and click on your messages? Previously only a total number of opens and clicks were reported but now you’ll be able to drill into reports and see activity down to the hour.

Setting Up Your List Now that we know how to get around in the account, let’s set up our first list.

Click on the List Settings tab.

On this page, we’ll set up the basics for your list.

List Settings

List Name This sets the name you’ll see in the Change List box. It will appear in very limited places in your email campaigns to your subscribers (such as on the unsubscribe page), but it is mostly for your reference, like naming a file on your computer.

Enter in your desired name, and wait a few seconds. Just beneath the box, you’ll see either a green or red highlighted line letting you know of whether or not that name is available.

Short List Description Choose a few words here to describe the subject of your list. When someone clicks on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of your messages, they will be reminded of what it is they’d subscribed for with this value.

Multiple Unsubscribe / Open Rates Leave the two checkboxes checked, as they are. There is really no particular reason to change these, and it certainly wouldn’t be recommended at this point.

Each list in an account has its own messages, subscribers, and sign up forms, and you may set up as many in your account as you’d like. For instance, if you have multiple websites, you can have a list for each.

To help you to work separately within each list, near the top of any page you’re working on, you’ll find the name of the list you’re working on in green.

To select the list you’d like to work in, choose it from the Change List box.

Reply Address

Email Address When someone opens their email, they will see either your name or your email address in the ‘From’ line. This will help them to identify your email from the countless other messages they see.

It’s important that you brand your messages with an email address including your name or your company’s. Wherever possible, you’ll want to use an email address hosted at the same domain as your website.

So, for example, if my website is found at http://www.example.com, I could use marc@example.com or newsletter@example.com.

Avoid using email addresses found at the domains of free providers (e.g. @yahoo.com, @gmail.com), since spammers often use these for their reply addresses. Needless to say, you don’t want to be confused with spammers.

Be sure to use an address you check regularly, so that you’re in compliance with U.S. Federal law, and so that when your subscribers respond to your messages with an inquiry, you can get back to them in a timely manner.

Name Enter your name or the name of your company, something that your subscribers will recognize as soon as they open their email.

From/Reply Check this box for the email address you just entered. This sets which address in the list appears in the ‘From’ line.

Notifications If you’d like to receive a message from us notifying you of when a new subscriber is added to your list and when leads unsubscribe from your list and leave you comments, check this box.

There are a few places where you’re subscribers will be directed to pages hosted on our system. These include the page they see when they click on the unsubscribe and verification links.

This is not an entirely necessary section to fill out. In fact, if you’re looking to get setup quickly, I might even recommend skipping it for now. You can always come back later to set this up to brand these pages.

Here’s an example of a page to help to illustrate the customization:

Company Name Just enter the name of your company here.

Logo URL If you have an logo published on your website, copy its location (URL address) and paste it in this box.

Website URL Enter the address for your website so subscribers can visit from these pages using your link.

Divider HTML Color Notice the green bar in the above graphic. It’s a subtle touch you can make, perhaps to match the color scheme of your web page. Type in a color name or use the color code, if you have it.

Creating a Follow Up Message To navigate to the follow up set-up page, hover your mouse pointer over the Messages tab, then click on Follow Up.

Since you don’t have any messages created yet, you’ll see only an Add Message button. Click on this button to create the autoresponder.

Creating a message here is very much like writing one in your own email program. There are some additional options, such as click tracking and templates, but let’s skip those for today; they are important for getting our first message sent to our subscribers, which is what we want to concentrate on.

Message #2, 3, 4 … Creating the messages that follow up on your autoresponder is just as simple as the first. The only difference is that once you click on Add Message, you’ll find a field to set the number of days our system should wait after the previous.

Creating a Broadcast Message To navigate to the broadcast page, hover your mouse pointer over the Messages tab, then click on Broadcast.

Click on Create Broadcast Message. This button will open a new draft of a message to work on.

Creating broadcasts is very similar to creating follow ups, with a few small differences. You’ll notice that, instead of a message intervals, you’ll set a specific date and time.

Choose when you’d like for it to send, add your message, then hit the Save button at the bottom of the page.

You’ll see your message in a Pending Broadcasts section of the page. Notice the date and time set for you each message you’ve created. Just click on the Queue Now button to confirm you’d like for your message to be sent at the time you see.

Publishing Web Forms

Now that you have a message set up, the final step is to publish a sign up form to your website.

Web forms provide you with a means to generate a list of responsive subscribers to send your messages to. Without a place to request more information, it is difficult to establish a relationship with your website visitors. Instead, people may visit your page, take one look, and never return again.

Let’s get your first web form published to make sure you’re taking advantage of the power of an opt-in email service to enhance your site.

Designing a Web Form in Your Control Panel Hover your mouse over the List Settings tab, and click on Web Form.

Click on the Create Web Form button.

You’ll find two steps to cover: Form Details and Design Form.

We’ll start with Form Details. Once you’ve completed that section, you’ll click the Next button to get to the design.

Subject This subject appears as the subject line of your message, the same as how the subject of your email messages appears to your friends and associates.

Enter something brief that describes the actual subject of the message. Use something enticing but not off topic.

For an autoresponder message, since you’ll be welcoming subscribers to your campaign, it makes sense to use words like ‘welcome’ or ‘thanks’.

Think of ways to make your messages stand out. Clever subjects are a great way to entice your subscribers to open your messages. However, using CAPS, the word ‘free’, and excessive punctuation (!!!) is good only for getting your messages put into your subscribers’ SPAM folder.

Plain Text Message The body of your message goes here. You can copy and paste from somewhere else, or type directly into the box.

Use the ‘Personalization Fields’ to customize your message, say with a customer’s name.

Notice that there is a Recommended Width block, which indicates where you should cut off the lines of your messages to be sure that they appear to your subscribers the same way you write them.

Many email programs will impose a line length limit, and will cut your lines off if you don’t take this measure. If your lines go over this length, just click on the Wrap Long Lines button to shorten them.

Don’t know what to write in this message?

Use this is as an opportunity to touch base with a new subscriber. Who are you? Why did they receive this message? What can they expect to receive from you?

The most important thing is to just get something in there to get started. Later, once you’re all set up, you can consider things like what types of questions you find yourself answering a lot. You may need to look no further than your sent box.

Save the message You’ll notice that there’s an HTML Message box, where you can type in a formatted message (or use our templates), but we’ll leave this blank for now. Again, it’s not essential to getting started, and you’ll always want to include a plain-text version of your messages in any case.

Click on the Save button at the bottom of the page, and your autoresponder is ready to go.

There are two different types of messages to concern yourself with: follow up messages and broadcasts.

What is the Difference Between Autoresponders and Broadcasts?

Autoresponder / Follow Up Messages Follow ups are messages sent automatically, in a sequence. An autoresponder is sent first, immediately when someone subscribes to your list. That message is followed by a series of messages, each scheduled with a set amount of days in between.

For instance, I could set up a message welcoming my subscribers as the autoresponder. That way, they’ll receive a message acknowledging their addition to the list right away.

I could then follow that with a second message sent two days later introducing myself and the product I sell on my website, three days later a message giving more information on that product, and so on…

These messages help to build a relationship and trust over time with people who may have otherwise just visited your website once, never to be seen or heard from again. They are helpful for such things as marketing materials, training sequences, and answers to frequently asked questions.

Broadcast Messages Broadcasts are sent once, at a scheduled date and time. They can be written as far in advance as you would like, and you won’t need to log into your account to send them. Instead, they’ll be sent at the saved time you’ve scheduled them for without your intervention.

For example, if I wanted to send a monthly newsletter, I could set up three broadcasts for this month, next month, and the following, all scheduled to be sent on the first, perhaps at 9:00 AM.

Perhaps I’d like to send a message to my entire list letting them know of a special promotion I’m running. It’s time-sensitive material, since they need to act by a certain time, so I let them know by broadcast.

Form Name Give your form a name. This appears only to you, so just use something you can easily reference later.

Type This option controls the appearance of your form. Today we’ll stick with an in-line form, the type that appears directly within the content of your page, not above or below.

It’s important to have one of these published to your page, regardless of whether or not you come back later to also add a pop-up or pop-over type form to your page. To maximize the number of subscribers you generate, you may want to install several to your site eventually.

Forward Variables This is meant for developers or programmers. Just leave this unchecked.

Ad Tracking Once you have a few forms published to your website, it will be useful to review your subscribers and your campaigns statistics to see which of your forms are the most effective in generating subscribers.

Entering an Ad Tracking value will help you determine who used what form to subscribe. For example, if someone used your in-line form on your main page, you might type ‘inline-main’.

Start on Message If you’d like to start subscribers who use this form on any other message than the autoresponder, choose that message from this box. In most cases, you’ll leave it set as is.

Click the Next button.

Thank You Page When your subscribers submit your web form, they are sent to a page that will thank them for subscribing. By default, this is a basic page hosted on our service’s web server, with no branding.

If you or your web designer would like to publish their own page on your website, you’ll just need to enter the address you’d like for us to send them to here.

There are two panels to observe on this page: Fields and Preview.

Fields It’s necessary to capture an email through your sign up form in order to add subscribers to your list, so you’ll find that field already under Preview. Under this panel, you’ll also find a default Name field to use with your form.

Using fields such as Name allows you to personalize your messages with subscriber information. You can add additional fields (e.g. phone number, city, etc.) by clicking on the Add New Field link.

Once you’ve clicked on that link, enter the name of the field. Check the Subscriber Update box if you wish to allow subscribers to change the information they provided at a later time. Finally, click on the Add button.

You have the option to add up to 25 custom fields to your list, but before you go asking for everything from address to phone number to shoe size, stop and think about what is really necessary. The simpler your forms are, the more likely someone is to give you their contact information.

Preview With your fields set, you can begin to work on the way your form appears.

Headline The headline is what appears above the input boxes (e.g name, email) in your form.

To set the headline for the form, click on that line. An example of a headline is:

“Sign up for a monthly newsletter”

It is meant to put the form into context to make it clear what incentive someone has to enter their information.

Form Fields Just beneath the headline, you’ll find the fields currently set to be captured by your form. Again, by default, you’ll see only ‘Email’, but you can add the others by clicking on dragging and dropping them over from the Fields section you just set up.

Once you’ve finished adding your fields, you can click on the Submit button to change the caption of that button to something like ‘Sign Me up!’ if you wish.

Now that you’ve completely set up the fields and details, just click Save at the bottom of the page to complete your form.

Publishing a Form to Your Web Page

In the Control Panel You’ve completely set up your form. Now, it’s just a matter or getting it published to your page.

In your control panel, you should see a page with the name of your form, some tracking statistics, and a Get HTML link. Click on that link.

A window pops up giving you an option between two versions of HTML. Usually, you’ll want to choose the top version for reasons of simplicity.

The bottom version gives more opportunity for re-design of the form, so if your web designer asks for the HTML, provide them with that one.

When you’re ready to publish the HTML to your site, just copy it to your clipboard.

In Your Web Host’s Control Panel In order to publish the web form to your page, you’ll need to have access to make changes to your website. Your web host should have information on just how you do so in their documentation, or you may need to contact their support for a quick walk-through.

You need to get to the HTML source of the page, so that you can copy the HTML we’re providing you with and paste it in. When looking through the help or calling your host, use that keyword (e.g. “Can you tell me how to get to the HTML so that I can make changes to my pages?”).

Once you’ve found the HTML, just paste in what you’ve copied.

Save the changes, and reload your webpage (making sure your cache is clear in your browser so that it’s loading the changes you made).

You should see your form published with a place for your subscribers to opt-in to receive your information. Having troubles publishing it to your website? Contact our customer support team about how we might help you.

What is Verified Opt-in?

SPAM is a serious problem today, with no sign of it getting much better in the near future. To help to battle SPAM, ISP’s (the services your subscribers use to get their email) have set standards for the way email campaigns such as yours should be conducted.

One of these standards is referred to commonly as verified or confirmed opt-in. With this feature, when a subscriber is added to a list, they are sent a customized message with a link to click on. Only once they click on the link does their subscription become active.

How do I turn it on? Click on the Verified Opt-in link found under the List Settings tab.

You’ll see options for turning the feature on near the top of the page. Just click on the OFF link next to the Web Form Submissions option.

Now that verification is turned on for all submissions, you can customize the message. You’ll notice that you can customize the subject, as well as the first and last paragraphs of the message.

You may also send subscribers to a custom page after they click on the verification link, much like how you set a custom thank you page for your web forms.

Once you’ve saved your changes, you can preview the message at the bottom of the page.

What does it mean for my account? We require this feature for all imported leads and any added by sending an email to your autoresponder’s address. There’s a page in your account where you may make changes to the message.

If you make these changes, not only does your reply address show in the messages headers, but your subject will reflect something relevant to the subscriber, as well though this is entirely necessary for imports and subscribers added by email, it is also highly recommended for web form submissions, such as what we describe in this getting started manual.

Verified opt-in provides an audit trail showing that not only did someone put an email address into your sign up form, they’ve also confirmed that request as the only person with access to that address.

This makes it a secure transaction. Anyone can put anyone else’s address into a form to see what’s on the next page (and believe me, it happens a lot), but only the owner of the email address can open that message and click on the link it contains.

Strictly speaking, this feature is an important aspect of any responsible email sender’s campaigns. I’d make this a tip, but that would be a misnomer. It’s really entirely necessary.

Important: Where is This List From?

Do you have a list of people who have previously requested to receive information from you? We offer an import feature to help you to migrate these subscribers to our service.

We have very high standards for what subscribers can be used with our service, and we take care to monitor them to make sure that we can continue to offer the excellent delivery rate we do.

Before we get to how to import, there are a few things you’ll need to consider.

Did these people really request to receive email message from you?

A lot of times when discussing the source of imports with customers, we’ll hear “these are our customers” or “they gave me their business cards at a trade show”. Unfortunately, this just isn’t the same as giving permission to receive email messages.

So, you need to ask yourself: did they really give me their permission to receive email? If not, I’m afraid they just aren’t appropriate for importing to our service.

Was this list provided to you by a third party? Was it purchased or obtained from a co-registration service you’re using? Don’t import this list. The use of these lists is strictly prohibited by our Terms of Service and will result in the termination of your account.

Have you sent them email recently?

When it comes to email, consent has an expiration. If you haven’t sent messages to some people on the list for more than a few months, they should not be used either.

Subscribers from a longer period before tend to report messages as SPAM at a higher rate and are less likely to stick around should they even verify.

Has the list been managed for undeliverable email addresses, and have unsubscribe requests been respected?

Maintaining a clean list is of vital importance, and our service covers both of these bases. Unfortunately, if your previous service has not, there is no way to no clean the list, and it cannot be used.

How to Import Since we require verification for imported subscribers, you’ll first need to customize the message sent to them. This helps to make the message recognizable to your subscribers.

You’ll find instructions on doing so in the ‘Verified Opt-in’ appendix of this guide.

Once you’ve customized this message, go to the Import Leads page, found under the Leads tab.

You’ll find a form that provides you with an option to copy and paste in your subscribers.

Provide an opt-in source How did these subscribers request to receive your specific information? Provide as much detail as possible (including URL address where appropriate) to expedite the process, as imports are reviewed by our support team.

Remember, the use of purchased or co-registration leads is strictly prohibited by our terms of service. They cannot be imported.

Leads

Your subscriber data goes here. If you have your information in a spreadsheet, highlight all data, then copy it and paste it into this field.

Delimiter What format do you have your list in? The most common is a spreadsheet. For this type of file, you can leave this set as is. If you’re copying from a plain-text file with values separated by another character (a comma for instance) type it here.

If you change the delimiter, be sure to enter the actual character here, and not the word spelled out. So, for example, if your fields are separated by a ”,” character, enter that character and not “COMMA”.

Hi Srini,

You’ll want to remove the following tag:

input type=”hidden” name=”unit” value=”examplelistname”

And insert:

input type=”radio” name=”unit” value=”examplelistname1” checked List Option 1

input type=”radio” name=”unit” value=”examplelistname2” List Option 2

You should notice that you’re taking the normally hidden listname field and replacing it with radio button options. Please note that you’ll need to use the longer form of HTML our Web Form Generator provides, beginning with a “form” tag instead of a “script”.

I’m also including a plain-text version of this e-mail to be sure that you have access to a work-able version in case your e-mail program changes this message. You should see HTML code above. If not, open up the attached file in a text editor.

If there’s anything else we can help you with, please just let us know.

Sincerely, Ryan D. Barrett Customer Solutions Specialist http://www.aweber.com Online http://www.aweber.com/faq

Think You Can’t Do Email Marketing? Let Us Show You How… Live! http://www.aweber.com/blog/live-webinars/

Once you paste into the box, the information will seem to lose the row and column format it had in the spreadsheet. But in fact, the columns are still separated by a ‘tab’ character, so it’s nothing to worry about.

Hit the Next button at the bottom of the page. Match up the columns from your spreadsheet with the fields in your account.

Don’t have all the fields you want in your account? Click on the List Settings tab, then on Custom Fields and add the ones you need. You can come back to this page to match up after you’ve added them.

Once you’ve completed this, click on the Save button. You should find a green success box indicating that your leads are processing.

Check back after a little while, following the link to check on the status of your import.

Hours: Monday through Friday, 8AM – 8PM ET & Saturdays, 9AM – 5PM ET

Toll Free Phone (US & Canada): 1-877-AWEBER-1

Live text chat at the top of every page on our site

Submit a ticket and receive a prompt response by email

go go go

paypal blasting on the top right

RSS Will Not Replace Email [period].

By Sean Cohen

Over the years technology has provided us with more options for sending and receiving content over the internet. One of the newest is a delivery system called Real Simple Syndication or “RSS”.

Definition:

RSS is a format for delivering news and other content through a syndication channel. The most common sites that publish RSS feeds still include major news organizations whose information is broken into different stories and can be delivered to recipients once published.

This delivery concept has also been adopted by other non-news related sites such as the blogging community who publish posts (similar to news stories) and allow other people to subscribe through RSS to receive their blog posts automatically.

RSS Usage Rates:

RSS has been in use since 1999 but still hasn’t been adopted by the mass Internet community. According to an October 2005 White Paper published by Yahoo, “Awareness of RSS is quite low among Internet users. 12% of users are aware of RSS, and 4% have knowingly used RSS.” [http://publisher.yahoo.com/rss/RSS_whitePaper1004.pdf]

A publisher looking to distribute their content can’t rely on just RSS alone.

Tools to Read RSS:

To read an RSS feed you need news aggregator software to capture, read and store all the content that is delivered through RSS. There are many popular aggregators on the market today, many of which are free of charge.

Two popular types of aggregators are web based readers (Bloglines) or a desktop reader (SharpReader). The web based reader is an online free service that you login and can subscribe, read and manage all your RSS feeds. The desktop software is similar in features to its online counterpart but is installed and runs on your computer.

Will RSS Replace Email?

I’d be willing to wager that anyone reading this article today checked their email, in fact going a bit further I bet you not only checked your email but also replied to some of it as well. Will RSS replace email? – I think we can collectively say—no, email is far to important but the beauty of email is that you can marry the two technologies together to deliver information that subscribers want, in the format they want…

Do you give web site visitors the opportunity to download a free trial of your product or service with the intention that they will come back and purchase? How are you following up with these visitors? Asking them to fill out a form and immediately giving them the download on the next page is not the best way to generate a quality opt-in list. Collecting accurate opt-in information from these visitors is essential to follow up education and making the sale.

Download giveaway opt-in conversion is extremely simple when done with the correct process. Unfortunately many businesses are leaving significant profits and subscribers on the table by using the wrong methods.

Wrong Way:

A visitor comes to your site and they fill out a form to request your free download. Upon submission of the form they are taken to your thank you page where you provide the link to download.

This person has been given your download but you have not given them a reason to subscribe to your list. They might have given you a fake email address and in all likelihood did give you a fake email knowing that they just need to get to the next page to receive your information. Since you can’t follow up with them you might have lost a sale.

Correct Way:

Insert the AWeber opt-in form on your site. Within eye site of this form provide information about the importance of subscribing to your list. Add value to your list by giving them compelling reasons to subscribe. Make it clear that the download link will be provided in the email they receive after confirming their subscription.

On your thank you page (or redirect page) they are taken to after they fill out the form you need to provide information on verifying. Verified opt-in allows you to ensure that the person subscribing did so with his or her own email address and didn’t provide a fake or malicious email. Let the visitor know that they should check their email inbox. Tell them what the subject line of the email says so they know what to look for. Convey that they must click on the link inside to verify and receive the download link to your product.

In the autoresponder they receive after verifying, give them the download link. Since they are subscribed to your list and have confirmed that the address they provided is valid you can effectively follow up providing more information about using the free or trial software, training tips, and further benefits or features earned by becoming a customer.

Using these techniques you are sure to increase your sales when converting free downloads to paid customers.

A. Add Your AWeber Autoresponder Email Address To Your PayPal Account

When you add an email address to your PayPal account, they require that you confirm it’s a real address where you can receive messages.

Login to your Paypal account: http://www.paypal.com Click on Profile

Under Account Information click on Email

Click on the Add button Insert your AWeber email address and click Save

Login to your AWeber account http://www.aweber.com/login.htm Click on the Leads tab at the top of the page

Click on Display in the middle of the page to display current subscribers. They will appear at the bottom of the page

Find the email address: service@paypal.com

Click on the service@paypal.com email address. This will take you to the detailed entry for that address.

Now, paste the link into your browser Enter your Paypal password on this page and click Confirm

You have now added your autoresponder address to your PayPal account.

Copy this link and paste it into Notepad or another plain text editing program. The link needs to be corrected before you go to it to confirm your address. Make the following changes to the link: The link runs onto two lines. Remove the break so that it is all on one line After the first two = signs the next two characters are 3D. Remove them from the link The end of the link should be your autoresponder address (in this case, paypal-aweber@aweber.com) Replace any characters that don’t belong with the appropriate ones so that your autoresponder address is shown (including the @ and . symbols) at the end of the link. So in this case, instead of

https://www.paypal.com/us/ece/cn=3D15102124422463880063&em=3Dpaypal%2dawebe=r%40aweber%2ecom

the correct link is:

https://www.paypal.com/us/ece/cn=15102124422463880063&em=paypal-aweber@aweber.com

Turn on the PayPal Email Parser

Login to your AWeber account, click on List Settings then Email Parser

If you have multiple lists/products, you would repeat this process for each one. Since each Buy Now button can send the notification to a different address, you simply need to tell PayPal which address to send each product’s notifications to.

this is your sticker of the week option

Following up with customers after they purchase is a critical part of the sales process. This communication helps foster trust and loyalty from people who have already purchased from you.

The Paypal email parser has been developed to provide AWeber users with an automated way to add customers to their AWeber account after they purchase.

This can be used to:

• Send post purchase email to customers
• Send out purchased information products automatically
• Up-sell your customers using email
• Send customer newsletters, etc

Look for the rule titled Payment Processor: Paypal Orders, click the check box under the “Active?” column and click Activate/Deactivate

C. Create PayPal “Buy Now” Button

Now, create a “Buy Now” button in your PayPal account, and tell it to send the payment notification email to your autoresponder.

In your PayPal account, click “Merchant Services”

Scroll to the end of the page and click “Buy Now Buttons”

Click the “Get Started!” link on the left side of the page.

At the end of the page, click the “Add More Options” button

On the next page, scroll to the section titled “Choose an email address to receive payment (optional)” Select your autoresponder email address from the dropdown menu and click “Create Button Now”

Now, copy the HTML for your Buy Now button, edit your website and place the button onto the appropriate page/s

Now, when your customers click on that Buy Now button and purchase your product, they will be added to your AWeber list!

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php http://www.bondedsender.com http://www.habeas.com Relationships & Whitelisting

Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.

With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.