Product Review: AutoResponsePlus
For those who don’t know, AutoResponsePlus is autoresponder software that you purchase and install on your own website or domain. Many email marketing professionals consider it the “cadillac” among autoresponders, and if you buy it or play around with the demo tour at their sales site, you’ll see why.
OK. First things first. Let’s talk tech support. After all, if you’re going to buy standalone software, you don’t want to be “left out in the cold” if something goes wrong.
Several months before I bought ARP, I emailed some questions to them. My inquiries were answered personally by owner/develop Neil Morgan, and in a very timely, courteous, and thorough fashion. He had no idea who I was, nor that I owned several sites related to email marketing.
When I purchased ARP, I found the installation instructions extremely easy to follow. Unfortunately, some of my files had become corrupted in the process of downloading, so after uploading everything, I couldn’t get the “install” routine to run. I applied for their complimentary installation service, and within a few hours their installer had my software up and running.
Great! I was good to go … or so I thought.
I promptly messed something up, and had to ask the installer to fix it. Again, he had it all set in only an hour or two, and he even answered a couple of additional question that I emailed him after the install was complete. He never asked for anything extra for having done the install twice, or answering my questions.
A few days later, I was having a problem getting one of my autoresponders to send emails. As it turned out, it was my fault. My requests for support were again answered personally by owner and developer Neil Morgan, and as before they were timely, courteous, and to-the-point. He still had no idea who I was.
So … if my experience is any indication of how these guys treat the average customer, I’d have to give them an “A+” for Customer Service. I couldn’t have asked for more from them.
Now for the software. I have to admit I was a little overwhelmed at first, since I didn’t bother to read the very comprehensive 87 page manual before I started experimenting with the program. Had I read the manual *before* venturing in there, I would have known where all the menus were, and would have had a working idea of most of the “bells and whistles”, which are numerous.
In spite of my failure to fully read the manual first, in a short time, I was moving subscribers around, sending out test broadcasts to myself, and had several autoresponders set up and ready to roll.
As I explored further, I discovered all kinds of additional features like customizable signatures, customizable ads that can be inserted into any message, and changed on the main screen, without editing the individual messages, customizable headers and footers, customizable subscribe and unsubscribe link text and confirmation messages … the list goes on and on.
I’d have to say that compared to hosted autoresponders, the learning curve for ARP is a bit steeper, but that is mainly because it has so many features. It does everything that most hosted solutions do, and quite a few things that they don’t do.
Want to sort your database six ways from Sunday? You can. Want to send a broadcast only to people who did not open your last email? You can. Want to send a broadcast only to people who have been subscribed to your newsletter for at least “x” months? You can. Want to “loop” your subscribers to a different autorsponder, or start your series over when they’ve received all the messages? That’s here, too.
The main advantage to something like ARP, however, is that it grows with you, without large additional fees. Most hosted solutions start charging you extra as soon as your database exceeds a relatively small size. The additional fees turn out to be substantially more than the cost of the base service. Ouch!
ARP doesn’t do that. If you end up with a large list, you simply move your installation to a hosting account with a larger bandwidth allowance, or go for a dedicated server.
The initial cost is comparable to most hosted autoresponders, and the yearly renewal fee for continued support and upgrades much less than a yearly subscription to a hosted autoresponder. You can add the optional RSS module, which is a feature not offered by all of the major hosted autoresponder services.
I’m a big fan of blogs and RSS, and feel they strongly compliment email marketing. In my opinion, it’s a big plus to be able to publish your email newsletter in RSS format as well.
Given the learning curve, this may not be a program suitable for someone who is brand new to autoresponders. But if you’ve worked with a free or paid hosted autoresponder at all, you’ll see the benefit to using ARP. Let me rephrase that … the many benefits to using ARP.
And if you’re a serious email marketer, ARP is the way to go.
Really the only drawback that I can think of is the fact that you have to do your own research to make sure your domain is not “blacklisted”, which is part of the service being provided when you use a hosted solution. You do also have to know how to set up a MySQL database, and how to FTP files and set permissions, if you’re going to do the installation yourself.
The bottom line? http://John-Suggests.com/ARP.htm
That link ought to speak for itself, but if it doesn’t I’ll say it in plain English … I give this software a great rating and my highest recommendation!