Email autoresponders are integral in the acceleration of your blog’s growth. And they are the simplest things in life – simple messages like Welcome or Thank You, are, according to Marketing Sherpa, the most effective autoresponder messages to use whenever a person subscribes to your blog.
Every time a potential fan or customer leaves their email address in the opt-in form or the Subscribe here box, they automatically receive an email from you.
The thing is, you don’t send that message the moment they leave their email, you probably drafted the message months ago, and the autoresponder sends it out automatically.
If you have been looking for the best autoresponder system to leave these messages on the subscriber’s emails, you could be asking the same question above, a question posed by countless new bloggers.
Fortunately for you, this article will help you choose between these two autoresponder systems.
First, why bother with the autoresponder systems?
Well, sending an autoresponder email builds trust.
The autoresponder represents a series of emails focused on particular topics and are delivered in a predetermined sequence and predetermined intervals. And it all starts when someone subscribes to your email list.
For them to work well, the email should be educational and also promotional by addressing the needs of your prospective customer or reader, while highlighting the benefits of the products or services you are offering.
What this means is that with an autoresponder series, especially if you send a follow-up email, you will build trust with your prospects easily.
You also need to make sure that you regularly appear in your readers’ inboxes, sharing highly progressive and useful lessons.
Autoresponders are, therefore, great tools for turning your casual visitors into actual fans and readers.
So, which is better: Feedburner or Aweber?
The difference between Feedburner and Aweber
Contents In Page
Feedburner
Feedburner refers an autoresponder system that uses RSS and Atom, the Feed-based technologies to send updates to the subscribers of your blog.
Google-owned, Feedburner is the largest feed syndicators on the internet.
How does it work?
When people subscribe to your email newsletters or blog updates, all they are doing is subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed which lets them read your blog content in their emails or using other applications.
Feedburner will take your regular RSS feed created by your blog, grabs it, and gives the feed a new address; then it tracks down anyone subscribing to that address.
Every time a new visitor subscribes to your blog, and whenever you publish a new post, the visitor receives an alert on the new content.
What this means is that it makes it possible for more people to subscribe to your blog. It also lets you view the number of people who’ve taken action like following your blog.
Feedburner requires a specific feed reading app on the subscriber’s end.
Aweber
Aweber is also an email-based technology, an autoresponder system that lets you send automated messages to all your subscribers.
Though it works as an RSS feed, Aweber is structured such that one doesn’t require a specific feed-reader software to access the link sent via email – it only requires the visitor’s email for a subscription.
Because of its simple system, Aweber is the most popular autoresponder software solution for internet/ email marketing.
How to use Aweber
Aweber is a system that simplifies the setup of your mailing list. It allows the creation of split tests, opt-in forms, and you can grow and manage your mailing list on the platform easily.
Even though it is not a free system, it is a system you want to use for your email marketing strategies.
The best part is that Aweber has everything you need including:
- Split-test for the opt-in forms
- It sends automatic follow-up emails solidifying your relationship with your readers. The automatic follow-ups include sending free eBooks, creating a buzz, ensuring your readers see your emails and products, and it also promotes affiliates.
- It has a pop-up opt-in form
- You can use Aweber to run split tests on mail outs. What this means is that you could use Aweber to determine the email subject line that results in higher open rates. You can also run tests on the email body, color, link size or the anchor texts, among others.
- The great support team that ensures high delivery rates, endless and accurate stats.
Comparison
What’s good about Feedburner?
Feedburner is free, but Aweber isn’t
The primary reason why bloggers still use Feedburner is that of its being free. On the other hand, you have to use between $20 – $100 monthly depending on your subscribers’ list.
Feedburner supports both the email subscribers and feed readers
Even though Aweber works well as an autoresponder, it only works with email subscribers and not feed readers. Feedburner allows people to subscribe to your blog feed using email and you can also read readers with it.
Feedburner also requires little effort
With popular blogging platforms like WordPress and Blogger publishing feeds automatically.
The problem with the use of autoresponders like Feedburner and Aweber is that you have to set up the messages you intend to send to your email list manually.
Aweber, is, however, trying to make things easier as it lets you set up a blog broadcast easily, creating an automatic email newsletter.
Feedburner is also easy to subscribe to and implement, and it’s a low maintenance system.
But, even with these advantages, Aweber still takes the crown for the best autoresponder.
- It allows customization – something lacking in Feedburner. The customization includes allowing you to change the email subject. Aweber will give you total control over the feel and the look of the service, and you can also write emails in plain and HTML versions.
- Aweber lets you personalize emails, and you can control the scheduling of the emails, Feedburner doesn’t.
- You can use Aweber to send out both email and article sequences, as well as news and educational posts. It also allows further segmentation of your email list.
- Aweber offers unparalleled and exceptionally impressive delivery rates
Also worth mentioning is the fact that Feedburner’s support is wanting with users reporting inaccurate stats and problems with the delivery rates.
So, even though you have to pay for Aweber, it is the right system for your blog.