Setup Wizard Makes Email Marketing Easy

Posted by Marc Kline

My introduction to email marketing came through working with AWeber users on our Customer Solutions team, so I know a lot about your concerns.

We all know it can be intimidating to start anything new, and many of our new users are just getting started with their first email marketing campaigns.

I can’t tell you how many times people have asked me, “Can I just have a walk-through of what I need to know?”.

Well, I’m as happy to say now as I was then: “Yes! I’d be happy to show you how to set up everything you need to know to start seeing results.”

Email Marketing Setup Just Got Easier

OK, so maybe I can’t speak with each and every user personally, but you might hear me in the videos in our new setup wizard.

Here’s a quick preview:

The wizard will quickly guide you through just the steps you need to take to start building a list of subscribers and have a welcome message ready to go out when they sign up.

When Can I Use the New Setup Wizard?

~~If you’re one of the limited number of users we’ve rolled this feature out to, you can see this now in your control panel as you work on your lists.~~

Don’t see it there yet? Check back soon. We’ll release it for all accounts in the very near future.

Update: Now! The wizard is live in all AWeber user accounts.

Tags: New Features

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25 Responses

Karin H.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:34 am

Hi there

Is there a way - per list preferable - to remove the ‘list completion’ bar. Some of our list don’t have and will never have a webform etc.

I’m sure it is a big help for some, but please give us an option to remove the bar, or manually set it to 100%?

ps - and I rather would see the column ?unsubscribed? back in the grand total overview if I may say so.

Sorry to sound a grumpy client, but that column is rather helpful!
Marc Kline
December 9th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

Hi Karin,

Thanks very much for your feedback.

We’re working on adding an option to manually mark steps as completed, or perhaps "skipped" for the type of situation you describe.

That way, in cases where a step is not as important to your particular campaign, you can quickly acknowledge that you don’t need to complete it and move on to others.

About your comment on unsubscribes: when all lists are 100% setup, that column will appear again.
Joe
December 9th, 2008 at 6:17 pm

Can I please opt out of this feature? I don’t want that bar there, and there are steps I don’t want to complete on all my lists.

I need to get rid of that HUGE bar and get my unsub stats back ASAP.
Fabian Tan
December 9th, 2008 at 7:57 pm

How do I remove the list completion feature if I don’t want it?
Yee Shun Jian
December 10th, 2008 at 12:11 am

Wonderful…

Thanks again for the continual improvements =)
Karin H.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:05 am

Fair enough - I’m happy
Stuart Turnbull
December 10th, 2008 at 5:52 am

Hi Marc

The set up wizard is a great idea.

I have 3 existing lists and the progress bars show I’ve missed steps, however, when I click the bar I just come back to the same page.

How do I find out what steps I need to take?

Thanks
Justin Premick
December 10th, 2008 at 9:50 am

Stuart,

It sounds like you might be using Internet Explorer 6, which doesn’t offer some of the CSS support necessary to display the bar correctly.

It’ll work fine if you upgrade to IE7 or Firefox.
Marc Kline
December 10th, 2008 at 9:50 am

Joe and Fabian,

To hide the ~~feature~~ bar docked to the bottom of the page, click on the close (red "X") button ~~in the wizard~~ you see inside of it.

This feature (including the progress bars) will completely disappear from your control panel homepage when all lists in your account are 100% complete.
Steve
December 10th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

Marc, your reply of Dec 10 might have misunderstood the concerns of Joe and Fabian.
Clicking the red "X" button in the wizard doesn’t remove the completion bar.

We aren’t interested in the wizard. All we want is for the "unsubscribed" stats to be displayed.
Marc Kline
December 10th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

Steve,

Thanks pointing this out - I’ve updated my response to be more clear.

We’ve been discussing ways to reintroduce the appearance of unsubscribe stats along with the wizard and will comment here when it happens.

For the meantime, completing the list setup will effectively restore the column.
Lisa Braithwaite
December 10th, 2008 at 4:04 pm

I already have web forms for most of my lists, yet they still show 92%. It’s annoying to have to look at this "incomplete" bar. I agree with other commenters who would like to see unsubscribes returned and this completion bar optional or hidden.
Simon Hodgkinson
December 11th, 2008 at 5:05 am

I’d echo Karin’s an others comment here

"I’m sure it is a big help for some, but please give us an option to remove the bar, or manually set it to 100%?"

I also miss the unsubscribes column and wonder why that had to go when you added this?

Please put it back
Karin H.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:45 am

At the moment you can still deduct which list has had unsubscribers by comparing Subscribed total with "Grand Total" total.

We have around 30 lists and it is doable, but looking forward to see it at one glans again.

Karin H.
Johnnie Green
December 13th, 2008 at 5:58 am

I have set up three wizard for my auto responder and add e-mail address to them. Now, I want to make sure if I can add different section of one affiliate product at a time.
Rod
December 15th, 2008 at 10:42 pm

It’s handy but it’s also annoying as customers do we have an option to "turn it off?"
Hannelore
December 16th, 2008 at 9:53 am

I have one list combined with a Paypal button, the bar shows 92% and there is nothing I can do about it.
Another list is not used temporarily, so the web form is unpublished temporarily, too.

Like some of the others I’d like to see the most recent unsubscriptions that I can react immediately if something went wrong with my newsletter or website.
Hector G. Diaz
December 16th, 2008 at 3:09 pm

Great idea! Now I will promote your company even more!
Dorothy
December 26th, 2008 at 3:11 am

I am thinking about getting an auto responder,
but I have never had one and it seems from the
comments that it is difficult to understand.
What say you?
Adeel Chowdhry
December 28th, 2008 at 8:46 pm

Okay I know i’m just re-iterating the point others have made but I also would like to stress being able to remove those bars and showing my unsubscribe stats.
Karin H.
December 29th, 2008 at 10:39 am

@Dorothy

Just go for it, watch the videos on AWeber help site and enjoy!
It is absolutely not difficult - but take your time
Justin Premick
December 29th, 2008 at 10:42 am

Dorothy,

I don’t personally feel that AWeber is difficult to understand, but if you do, you’ll be happy to know that you have a lot of ways to get answers to any questions you may have, including how-to videos and our extensive Knowledge Base.

And don’t forget - our Customer Solutions Team is here to help by phone, email and live chat (click the "live chat" button near the top of the page).
Janice
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:22 pm

When will the "Unsubscribe" column be put back on the "Overall" View page??

As everyone knows it disappeared after the NEW Wizard "Competed" deal was added.

It’s VERY valuable "data" and a real pain to pull a report up for everytime.

I was told it was being worked on.

What’s the ETA???
Marc Kline
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:55 pm

Janice,

I can’t report a specific ETA, but when I say a solution is in the works, I mean it is actively being developed.

For the meantime, see my above comments about how to make the bars disappear.

You can also determine your unsubscribes without seeking other reports. Just subtract the "Subscribed" number from the "Grand Total" number for each list, or from the totals at the bottom of the chart for an overall view.
Marc Kline
January 14th, 2009 at 1:38 pm

Janice et al.,

As of this morning, the "Unsubscribe" field is now restored for all accounts.

You might notice we also widened all pages a bit so we could fit some more useful things while allowing for some breathing space!