SocialCafe Chat with GetResponse [VIDEO]

Even today with social media taking center stage, email marketing is still the best way to build relationships, generate loyal traffic, and fill your sales funnel. Many haven’t embarked on using email marketing yet because they find it intimidating or boring.

Fortunately, getting started and managing your email lists is getting easier all the time. Solutions have been steadily improving and now you can drag and drop and simply click to have analytics and statistics at your fingertips.

When Deborah Anderson chose GetResponse as the topic for the #SocialCafe Twitter chat we were fortunate to have their Community Specialist Abby Hartz join us in a Google Hangout. If you’re curious about the benefits of email marketing or GetResponse this video is an interesting, fun way to find out more:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9qe59A2VWk]

• GetResponse allows you to move your list without requiring another opt-in
• Be sure to clean up your list before moving it
• Some email providers – but not GetResponse – charge for people who have unsubscribed!
• Hard bounces are automatically removed for you
• Yes, they have an affiliate program so you can earn commissions for referrals
• Weekly Webinars every Thursday about email marketing success
• Free built-in images ~ 1000 free iStock photos
• Landing page creator
• A/B testing for email and landing pages
• Built-in analytics and statistics
• Mobile responsive

How eMail Solutions Providers Charge

Many are surprised to find that major email providers charge for people who have unsubscribed until you manually review and remove them. Some also charge for hard bounces. GetResponse automatically removes them from your list and does not charge you.

Using email marketing is less expensive than even the most creative advertising provided you choose a solution that automatically removes bad email addresses. If you don’t, be sure to stay on top of management so you don’t get overcharged. Kristi Hines at Kikolani had spammers on her mailing list cost her money.

Social Media Integration

Whatever email marketing solution you use, don’t forget to include social networking. GetResponse includes the ability to save and then drag and drop links to your social media profiles and social sharing buttons into your emails and onto your landing pages.

Your email marketing and social media need to be integrated so that your messages can spread organically as easily as possible. Do not pass up the ability to connect your emails to your social media accounts and for your subscribers to share your emails to their social networks.

Why You Should NOT Use Your Regular eMail Address

People often wonder why they shouldn’t just use their regular email address to send messages to their subscribers. Deliverability is the most important factor in choosing an email provider. If your emails don’t get into your subscriber’s inboxes you’re wasting your time.

Major email marketing solution providers spend a lot of time and resources keeping their email servers whitelisted. They have teams of people to ensure their users aren’t spamming and your emails are accepted by ISPs around the world. This is something you really don’t want to have to do yourself.

Many times people forget that they’ve subscribed and report emails as spam. This can get your server blocked which will affect all the emails on that server. It is strongly recommended that if you decide to build a list and send messages to it that you use a professional email provider.

Relationships Matter

Do you have people you want to build relationships with for business or pleasure? Maybe you belong to an organization and need a way to keep members updated. Either way, email lists are a great way to build and maintain personal and professional relationships.

While you could write a personal email to every person, sending personalized email messages all at once means they are more likely to get sent. How often do you wish you had kept in touch, but just didn’t get it done?

Using an email solution with autoresponder capabilities allows you to set up series of messages to send new subscribers. Use them to welcome people, or to send information in smaller, more easy to digest pieces. If you have a business, a strong autoresponder series can keep visitors to your site coming back.

Although email marketing seems complicated – and it can be – the best thing to do is just jump in with both feet and get started. Yes,  you may make a few mistakes, but before you know it you’ll have enough experience to keep improving.