Another concern is requiring people that are already on other lists, like our newsletters, to opt in to every autoresponder series we might want to do - seems like that could get confusing and, possibly, annoying (e.g. "I already opted in with these guys, why do I have to do it again?!). Thoughts?

Thanks for the great ideas on utilizing aweber.

You might offer specials/coupons by email (using broadcasts to send out your promotions) and use autoresponders to:

* introduce new subscribers to different departments/sections of your site/catalog

* highlight selling points like free shipping, comparison tools, user reviews, customer service, etc.

Once someone purchases from you, you might use autoresponders to build customer loyalty through a post-purchase email marketing campaign. You could also survey customers to learn where you can improve to better serve them.

Thanks

You’re right - you have to exercise some caution to avoid over-mailing subscribers inadvertently.

I don’t have a specific set of intervals that I recommend for this, since everyone broadcasts at different times (weekly, biweekly, monthly, whenever they have content).

It’s also a question of how many follow ups you’re going to do. If you’re only doing 1 or 2, just set them a few days to a week apart and let them run for a while. Even if someone gets two messages in a day once, that may not necessarily be a bad thing.

You just have to put your follow ups in there, pick intervals, try it out and adjust as you go. Your subscribers will let you know (by emailing you and/or by unsubscribing) if you’re mailing too often.

All of these are good, but what if people recieve 2 messages on the same day? is that bad? if you’ve used autoresponders and advanced schedule broadcasts and send newsletters, you could potentially send 3 messages in a day.

Just curious your thoughts…I guess you would see the scheduled broadcast though so you probably wouldn’t send a newsletter on that day.