My Aweber Autoresponder Review – Simply The Best

Updated, March 24, 2022.

There are plenty of autoresponder services to choose from. And I’ve tried my share of them. But out of the ones I have tried I’ve found Aweber to be the most user-friendly.

And more importantly, it does what I need it to do.

So with that said in my AWeber autoresponder review, I’m going to walk you through how to use AWeber. Plus I’ll cover the key features it AWeber has to offer, pricing, the pros and cons, and more.

But first…

What Is AWeber?

Founded in 1998 by Tom Kulzer, AWeber is a SaaS (software as a service) company that provides users with an email marketing tool that allows you to automate your email marketing campaigns.

AWeber allows you to create opt-in forms which you place on your website. These forms gather contact information from people and place them on your mailing list.

And it’s through your mailing list you can do your email marketing all on autopilot.

The Money Is In The List

Now you’ve probably heard the saying “The money is in the list”? And it’s so true. A responsive email list can generate a full-time income if done correctly.

And to create your email list and to property do email marketing you need a quality autoresponder service.

As an online marketer, building your email list needs to be part of your overall marketing strategy.

And the reason why you need to build an email list is that not everyone that comes to your website is going to purchase what you have to offer on their first visit.

In fact, on average only 2 out of every 100 people will purchase on their first visit. So as an online marketer it’s essential that you have some sort of capture system in place to gather people’s contact information.

Now, of course, not everyone is going to join your mailing list. But if you don’t have something in place to gather people’s contact information these potential customers that come to your website are gone forever. And you have no way of reaching out to them.

However, once people are on your mailing list you now have the opportunity to build a relationship with these people. And once people know, like, and trust you they will buy from you. And many will buy from you over and over again.

Best ROI

Did you know the best ROI (return on investment) is through email marketing? For every $1 spent on email marketing, the ROI ranges between 3600% and $4200%.

So invest $1 and get a return of $36 and $42 dollars. This makes email marketing one of the best marketing options available.

Aweber has a ton of tutorials on every aspect of their service including setting up your campaigns and lists. But I want to give you a quick walkthrough of how you’re going to set up a list and an email campaign.

It’s very easy to set things up. You simply fill in the information on each page and you’re good to go. And if you have questions you can always check the knowledge base. Or you chat live with a support member.

Set Up, A Quick Overview

Once you’ve created your account it’s time to set up your list settings. You’ll find your list setting under the List Options tab in the side menu.

You’re going to begin with the Basic Settings of your new list.

So, on the basic settings page you’ll find the following that you need to complete:

1) List Name and Description

2) From Name and Address

3) Contact Address

4) Notifications

Personalize

The next step is to personalize your list

1) Company Details

2) Social Media Sharing

3) Subscriber Pages

4) Global Text Snippets

Your Confirmation Message

This is the last step in setting up your list settings.

Your confirmation message is the very first email subscribers will receive from you when they subscribe. This is the email that asks them permission to receive future emails from you. This prevents you from being accused of spam.

The subscriber must accept being on your list. Hence the name Permission-Based Marketing.

 

 

Once you’ve got all your basic information completed it’s time to set up your autoresponder messages. These are the automated series of messages that your subscribers are going to receive from you.

You have several options when it comes to creating your messages.

I like the Drag & Drop editor because once I’ve created a message I can save it as a template and use it for my other messages.

You can have as many or as few messages as you like and set the schedule that the messages get sent out.

So you can have an autoresponder series of messages go out once a day, every other day, once a week, once a month – it’s totally up to you.

And once you have your messages created and scheduled everything will proceed automatically once a person signs up as a subscriber.

However, before anyone can subscribe to your email list you need an option form that’s placed on your website.

Your Opt-in (signup) Form

Now it’s time to create the opt-in form. You can create an opt-in form for your landing page or for your website.

For a landing page, you have several landing page templates to choose from with built-in forms. It’s a huge time saver. Or you can build your landing page from scratch.

NOTE: If you’re wanting to use a landing page. You don’t have to use the landing page templates within Aweber to build your landing page with an opt-in form.

You can also use page builders like Thrive Architect and you can add your option form to that page.

Creating and getting your form onto your website takes 3 easy steps:

1. Design
2. Settings
3. Publish

1) Design

Choose from 100’s of opt-in form templates to build your form. Or if you have your own graphics you can use those for your form.

2) Form Settings

Once you’ve completed creating your form you need to set the form settings.

Now on this page, you’ll see options for your Thank You Page and Already Subscribed Page. With these options you have choices.

With your thank you page you can use Aweber’s basic thank you page. Here’s a snapshot of what that looks like.

But you can also have the option of sending people to a custom thank you page. This would be a page on your website that subscribers would be sent to.

Or you can set things where they stay on the current page and don’t see a thank you. I advise you not to use this option. Pick either the basic or custom thank you page option.

And as for your Already Subscribed page, you can use the basic version, or like your thank you page you can have your own custom page.

Publishing your opt-in form (adding it to your site) is as simple as copying and pasting. Simply grab the code and paste it on your site where you want your form to be.

Now I like using the Java Script option because when you make any changes in Aweber to your form you don’t have to copy and paste the code again – all your changes are automatically updated on your site.

Broadcast Message

So, what’s a Broadcast Message?

A broadcast message is a one-time message you can send to your list. This message can be sent right away or you can schedule the message to be sent whenever you like.

A broadcast message is perfect for sending out a special message to your list.

Let’s say you just got notified of a great webinar and you want to let your list know about it. Simply create a broadcast message about the webinar and shoot it off to your list.

You can even set up a timed series of broadcast messages just like your autoresponder series if you like. This setup is great to use as reminders to your first broadcast message or to use as notifications.

Remember these messages will be sent on top of the pre-set series of messages you have for your list.

Spilt Tests

When it comes to an email marketing campaign split testing is a must. You want to maximize your conversions and the only way you can do that is by split testing things.

With the AWeber split test feature, you can test different message lines as well as your content. Now the rule of thumb when it comes to split testing is you only test one thing at a time.

Because if you try to test more than one thing you’ll never know what change had a positive or negative effect on your campaign.

With AWeber, you can send up to 3 different variants to your mailing list. One thing to note is the split test feature is only available after you’ve sent a Broadcast message from your list.

Segmenting

Segmenting allows you to break down your main email list into a subset of people that show interest in specific topics. This allows you to better cater to your subscriber’s wants and needs, thus increasing your sales and profits.

And as with all their other guides to the features they have. AWeber has complete step-by-step instructions on segmenting your mailing list.

Import Feature

If you have a subscriber list with another service and you now want to use AWeber, you can import your email lists from your other provider to Aweber.

This is easily done within your Aweber account under “Add Subscribers”. Your subscribers can be imported in 2 different ways.

You can import your subscribers if they have been saved using the following valid files:

• XLS
• XLSX
• TSV
• CSV
• TXT

If your subscribers are not stored in any of the above file types, you can either copy and paste your subscriber information into the input area or you can type your subscribers in manually.

Once your imported list has been approved a confirmation message will be sent to your subscribers. You can customize your message, so your subscribers are more likely to confirm.

You can also give your subscribers a heads up telling them you’re moving to a different provider and they will need to confirm their subscription with this new provider to stay on your list.

You’ll probably lose some subscribers, but that’s ok. If they do not confirm, they were not an engaged subscriber.

You can import up to 10,000 subscribers without a manual review from Aweber.

Reports and Tracking

Now I will admit I’m not a data numbers guy. But even so, I know the importance of knowing the data.

Inside your Aweber account, you have at your fingertips a plethora of data. You can get reports on everything from open rates over time to sales over time to click tracking.

Integrations

With Aweber, you can integrate with over 750 other web applications. Some of these integrations involve a dedicated widget, while others involve using a snippet of code.

While I’m on the subject of integrations. One of the integrations that I like is the Canva integration.

This integration allows you to work directly inside the Aweber message editor and the landing page builder.

So, when you click the “Design on Canva” you’ll trigger a pop-up window that allows you to create your design inside Canva but you haven’t left Aweber.

Once you’re finished creating an image. Simply click “Save to Aweber” and your image will automatically populate your design.

Does Aweber Offer Support?

Aweber provides free expert support. Whether you’re an experienced marketer or just starting out they have you covered.

You have several options available to you:

1. Live Chat and Phone support is available Monday through Friday, 8 am – 8 pm ET, and Saturday and Sunday, 9 am – 5 pm ET.
2. Knowledge Base – here you can browse articles and get answers anytime you want.
3. Live Webinars – Aweber holds free weekly live webinars. You can also watch past webinars anytime you like.
4. Aweber’s blog – here you can stay up to date with what’s going on with email marketing. As well as get tips from email marketing experts.

Does Aweber Offer Training?

You’ll find training throughout your account. Everything from text pop-ups to videos.

Text pop-ups are activated when you hover your cursor over any of the areas that need to be completed.

You can also go to the help section and there you can do a search for what you need a hand with. And you’ll either be taken to a text overview or a video overview, it simply depends on what you need help with.

And if you still can’t find what you’re looking for you can always contact Aweber via the support options I mentioned above.

How Does The Pricing Work?

Pricing is based on list size. And you have the option of paying monthly, quarterly, and yearly. Personally, I pay by the year, it’s just easier and it saves me (you) money.

The pricing is set up on a step system. Meaning once you reach a certain level of subscribers your monthly fee will increase.

Now you can start for free. And this allows you to have up to 500 subscribers and send up to 3000 emails per month. Everything you need to start building your mailing list can begin with a free account.

However, with a free account, you do not have access to the advanced features you get with a Pro account.

So, with a free account, you don’t have access to:

• Email split testing
• Behavioral automation
• Cart abandonment / Purchase tagging
• Branded click-tracking links
• Remove AWeber branding
• Sign up form split testing
• Save and send to custom segments
• Advanced message analytics
• Advanced audience/account analytics
• Webpage tracking
• Email sales tracking

Once you exceed 500 subscribers with your free account and you want to continue with using Aweber you’ll need to upgrade to a Pro (paid) account.

And as I mentioned you can pay monthly, quarterly, or yearly for a pro plan.

Here is the monthly step pricing once you exceed 500 subscribers:

• 501 – 2500 – $29.99 per month
• 2501 -5000 – $49.99 per month
• 5001 – 10,000 – $69.99 per month
• 10,001 – 25,000 – $149.99 per month
• And over 25,000 subscribers you need to call Aweber.

Now if you want to forego having a free account or you need the features that a pro account offers you can start with a pro account right out of the gate.

And if you do that, it’s going to cost you $19.99 per month until you exceed 500 subscribers. And the monthly fees I just listed above will apply.

How Does Aweber Pricing Compare To Its Competitors?

iContact – AWeber is cheaper. iContact’s fee for up to 2500 subscribers is $36.00 per month. With AWeber, you can have up to 2500 subscribers for $26.15 per month.

MailChimp – AWeber is cheaper. MailChimp has a better free plan, their standard plan for up to 500 subscribers is more than AWeber at $17.00. Note: they are not affiliate marketer-friendly.

GetResponse – AWeber is more. Up to 2500 subscribers with GetResponse the cost is $23.78. Which is $2.37 cheaper than AWeber.

ConvertKit – AWeber is cheaper. Convertkit will cost you $25.00 for 1000 subscribers. With AWeber, you can have up to 2500 subscribers for $26.15 per month.

MadMimi – Much cheaper than AWeber. For a basic account with 500 subscribers, it’s only $10.00 with MadMimi.  Note: the features you get with MadMini are basic compared to AWeber.

No matter what autoresponder service you choose. It really boils down to picking one that’s gonna do what you wanted to do and give you the features that you want at the price that you want.

Like I said I’ve tried several different autoresponders and the one that works for me is Aweber. Could that change in the future? Absolutely but right now AWeber is doing what I needed to do.

What I Like About AWeber

• You can begin with a free account
• They are affiliate marketer-friendly (not all services are)
• Email segmenting
• They have a mobile app
• Their customer support is fantastic.
• The pricing is very competitive compared to other autoresponder services.
• They have over 15 years of experience with over 120,000 customers using their service.
• They have a 99% delivery rate for emails.
• 100’s of sign-up form templates, as well as the ability to add your own designed form.
• You can do split testing with different forms.
• Can send broadcast messages at any time.
• Easy setup of an auto-responder series.
• Easy integration of their service with many popular shopping cart services.
• Over 700 pre-built email templates.
• Easy report access.
• Easy step-by-step design of opt-in forms.
• Easy tracking of auto-responder campaigns.
• Copy and paste to add an opt-in form to any website.
• You can create as many different email lists as you like.
• Plus so much more…

What I Don’t Like About Aweber

• Aweber counts unsubscribed people as part of your subscriber total. So if you don’t know to remove those unsubscribed people from your list. Those unsubscribes count towards your total subscriber amount.
• There are cheaper options out there when it comes to an autoresponder service.
• The landing page builder does not offer A/B testing or a way to use Facebook pixels.
• The RRS to email templates can’t be edited using the drag-and-drop email builder.

My Final Thoughts About Aweber

I have been a customer of Aweber’s since 2017. Prior to that, I used many other autoresponders services. Some held up to my needs and others fell very short.

All autoresponder companies provide the basic same service, with a few things that other do or don’t. I like the ease of how everything works, from list creation to management of my lists.

Also, it’s the support that also keeps me as a customer. To me, next to things working well and doing what I need them to do. Support is a very important feature of any company.

And AWeber’s support is top notice. Anytime I have had a question, concern, or a problem I jump onto live chat and I get the attention and service I need.

Yes, there are a lot of companies to choose from. And no matter whom you choose to use, the bottom line is you have to choose the company that is right for you and provides the things you need.

And with that said I have no hesitation recommending Aweber to you or anyone else.

I hope you found this information helpful. If so, feel free to share it with your audience, and if you have any questions or comments please leave them below.

And as always if you need a hand with anything you can email me anytime.

I believe in you!!
Leo