Email Marketing - Oprius, I-contact, Aweber: Challenges and Solutions
Monday, July 7, 2008 at 07:55AM UPDATE: Do Not Use the term 'Renegade University' anywhere, in any way, in your email marketing if you use I-contact. You can promote to your list, but do not use Renegade University in the subject or content of your emails (also, don't use it in any way to name lists). I'll follow up on this when there's time.
You may have learned the hard way that some email providers like Oprius, I-contact, Aweber and others have strict rules.
It's important to become a student of this topic, not only to succeed in your own marketing, but to become a highly sought after "attractive upline" who your prospects want to first talk with, and second sign up with... because of your knowledge in the field.
Challenges 'newbies' face when building their list:
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Can't load leads into an auto-responder system without having them opt-in first (so you lose a big percentage of your list)
-
You lose your account because you're emailing leads that you gathered with another company's lead capture page (like Magnetic Sponsoring, Building on a Budget, Renegade, 7 Lies, Marketing Merge, University, etc).
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Can't load leads into auto responder that you purchased or received from an upline (or elsewhere)
We're going to address all this and talk about solutions.
Why the email 'auto-responder' companies are so strict...
Good deliverability is EVERYTHING to a reputable email marketing provider.
Companies like I-contact, Oprius, Aweber (and a small handful of others) have survived in the highly competitive industry of 'emailing marketing' because they followed the rules. That is to say they made their clients (you) follow the rules.
The companies that didn't follow those rules are either gone or on their way out.
That's because their emails didn't get delivered--they were blocked by the 'big boys' who decide if an email gets through or not.
Aol, yahoo, hotmail and dozens of other major email giants block email senders that get a lot of complaints about spam.
You're not going to pay to have a company like I-contact or Oprius (or Awebber or any other) send your emails and auto-responders if they don't get through to your prospects' inbox.
That's why the rules are strict. They should be. We're all happier with less spam.
The rules are as follows, "Be very respectful to people's email boxes."
Among other things 'being respectful' means that the person should have opted into YOUR list. As time goes on the line gets more and more clear on what it has to mean to be considered 'your list.'
They don't want you to send an email to your list unless you generated it yourself.
That doesn't mean you won't get away with it if your complaints are low--but it's the rule to follow if you want to be 100% in the safe zone.
Can't load leads into an auto-responder system without having them opt-in first (so you lose a big percentage of your list)
If you've collected leads from somewhere, even if you gathered them with your own lead capture page using the most respectful opt-in methods possible... some email management companies like Aweber and Oprius require you to have them first "opt in" when you load them into your contacts list.
It works like this...
When you load in the leads to Oprius or Aweber, an email is sent to the contacts you loaded in asking if they want to receive email from you. If they don't indicate that they do, then they won't be added to your auto-responder or list.
Now, everyone knows you'll lose a huge percentage of your leads if you do this. But it makes sense why companies might require it... it minimizes complaints about spam.
I-contact is more relaxed on this...
That's why I use I-contact -- they do allow you to load in leads that you generated elsewhere without making you have them opt into the list when you load them in.
But they do have rules... for example, they ask that you have people opt in if you haven't emailed them for more than 6 months--and they require that you generated the leads yourself.
If you purchased the leads it's likely that I-contact won't bug you about it as long as you don't create a lot of complaints. That's all they really want to minimize... they don't want unhappy email receivers. And it makes perfect sense.
I-contact could change this policy but I hope they don't.
If you're using Oprius or Aweber and you're loading in leads you generated elsewhere (like with Magnetic Sponsoring, Building on a Budget, Renegade, 7 Lies, University, Marketing Merge, or any other affiliate lead capture page) you'll have to use the opt-in feature, which will cause you to lose a fair percentage of your list.
If you're NOT using I-contact than you're hopefully creating your own lead capture pages so that your leads opt into your list the moment they sign up, because much more of them will do it at that point in time.
At some point it's a great idea to create your own lead capture pages, which we're going to move into in our webinar trainings at Marketing Merge Professional later this summer.
Having your own lead capture pages that you create yourself helps eliminate many email marketing concerns.
There are some great resources out there to help you fairly easily start creating your own lead capture pages.
Oprius is one of them that I've heard a lot of good things about and am investigating to teach with.
If you want to jump ahead to creating your lead capture pages and haven't already done so, check out Oprius.
Again, we'll offer tremendous support in teaching how to set up your own lead capture pages later this summer.
You Will Always Be Using 'Some' Affiliate Lead Capture Pages (Most Likely)
There will often be advantages to using affiliate lead capture pages to generate more leads in "niche" target markets and to monetize or offer more value to prospects... So even if you are creating your own lead capture pages you'll likely be in a situation where you want to load leads into your email marketing service.
More about generating leads through an affiliate lead capture page...
If you're generating leads yourself, but you're using a lead capture page from one of these sources:
-
Building on a Budget
- Magnetic Sponsoring
- The Renegade
- The 7 Lies
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Renegade University
-
Any Other Lead Capture Page That is Accompanied by Emails You Don't Send
There's a challenge you may have to face.
While you ARE generating the leads when you use one of these lead capture pages, you are also partnering with these companies who created the lead capture pages (and usually much more 'value' behind the lead capture page). This is a win-win because it gives you more value to share with your prospects.
But the creators of these lead capture pages (i.e. Mike Dillard, Ann Sieg, myself or whoever it may be) are also sending emails to your list. That's part of the arrangement. You get to use the tools, training, affiliate program, etc so you don't have to go out and build all of it yourself. In return you share the lead.
It works out well except for one little hitch, which has become a bigger issue recently...
The email companies (Oprius, I-contact, Aweber, etc) require that the lead capture page states that the person opting into the list will be receiving emails from two parties.
I'm currently working with I-contact on this so we can put the appropriate statement on the lead capture page to properly address the issue.
I think this is a great thing--because we're going to be advertising you, the guide, even more--right on the lead capture page!
As you know it's all about branding YOU and we're going to keep looking for opportunities to do that.
I'll give you an update on that as soon as it's there.
In the meantime keep using your lead capture pages as you are (if you're using any right now).
If you're not generating complaints than you'll most likely be fine. If you run into any challenges let me know.
Buying or getting email leads from elsewhere...
So if you buy or get your leads from another source the email companies like Oprius, Icontact, Aweber, etc are very concerned and have set up some strict rules basically saying 'no' to it.
But basically, if you don't generate complaints then you stay under the radar. They know people are breaking their rules. In the marketing world that's pretty normal. But they rules will probably get more strictly enforced going forward.
So Here's the Email Marketing Solution:
- Learn to create your own lead capture pages as we've mentioned already. It's not that hard. We'll start some tutorials on this shortly to take you step by step through it. Or, you can jump ahead if you like.
- We'll be putting your name on all the Marketing Merge and Renegade University lead capture pages, which will put you 100% in compliance with being able to email your contacts even if you use our lead capture pages.
Other affiliate lead capture pages like Building on a Budget and Magnetic Sponsoring, Renegade or The 7 Lies may or may not follow this plan. But you can still use them -- just be thoughtful of the issues and note some tips I give below.
So going forward, if you're using affiliate lead capture pages to generate leads, stay under the radar and minimize spam complaints.
How?
By putting yourself in the shoes of the person getting the email--
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Do they know why they're getting the email from you right off the bat (based on your subject in the email and the content)?
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Is it perceived as value to them or does it feel like you're selling something too quickly?
Ultimately, this is the new landscape of the business world. Become a student of these topics and you'll be a very valuable asset in the business world.
I'm still working with I-contact for the exact wording change for our Marketing Merge and University lead capture pages--to put YOU there so we're 100% compliant. The benefit will even go beyond that because it will brand you... putting your name in front of your prospects from the get go.
I'll share that with you as soon as it's ready and we'll hold a Webinar event to go over this topic in much more details.
We will continue to give you the most current and helpful tips you need to excel at attraction marketing.
It's indeed a process--enjoy it!
Partners in success,
Mike Klingler
P.S. If you have questions or comments to contribute please share it using the comments section below.
To learn more about any of the email marketing companies we've discussed in this article (or the issues), log into your Renegade University account at www.MarketingMerge.com Contact your guide for help.
Reader Comments (35)
Hi Mike,
Thanks for these great tips! I appreciate you going the extra mile for the rest of us so we can continue to create effective marketing systems that also prioritize integrity.
Peace,
Lisa
Thanks so much for keeping us up to date and looking after us. There is so much to learn and you clear the path before us. Thanks again, ~ Eddie
A personalized lead capture page with my name on with, without me having to create it - That's something cool!
Looking forward for the changes!
DiDi
Thanks Mike,
I'm excited to be part of the Lead Capture process and appreciate your efforts to bring us up to speed. Regards...Rod
Hi Mike great resource you have for people starting out. An associate of mine forwarded the link to your article to me today. I am the CEO at Oprius and as I am sure you are aware we work very hard to make sure that we have the bet possible tools to make your job easier. If there is anyway we can help you streamline this part of the equation for your associates we are more that willing to help. We take our customers jobs very seriously and want to help as much as possible. I also love feedback on our product so please send it through!
Hi, Mike. Wow! This is timely information as I'm trying to decide whether to stay with iContact or switch to Oprius. For now, I think I'll stick with iContact for the campaigns already set up there. Based on your comparisons here--and the great tutorials on email marketing, I can see the advantage iContact has by giving us some options for setting up the "opt in, opt out" features.
What's the situation if you purchase leads and then convert them by getting them to opt in to an email series or course, for instance? What if they call you and set up an appointment for coaching by telephone after your initial contact with them after purchasing the lead?
Just doing some thinking "out loud" here.
Thanks for digging into this one for us, Mike.
Regards,
Kate Williams
Regarding Kate's Question--About Calling the Lead Before Loading Them In...
If you were to buy a lead from an upline who generated it for you (or elsewhere)... and you contacted that lead, had a good value-based conversation... and asked them if they would like to receive your education training emails, I'm sure most would say yes.
If you chose to have them opt into that list I'm sure at least half of them would.
If you ask a reputable email marketing company how to go about this, they will almost always either require or encourage you to have the prospect opt in.
If you chose NOT to opt the prospect in and you just added them (which would only work with I-contact because other companies require they opt in if you didn't generate it through your own lead capture page)... then you will probably get away with it.
It all comes down to complaints. If there is a relationship and everything looks fine, the email marketing companies aren't going to make a problem. It's when something is brought to their attention and it's an obvious issue that they take action.
Many well intentioned email marketers will break rules but because they are considerable of people they email (offering value, not loading in random leads they bought off the street, etc) there aren't any problems.
Still, some of you I have heard have gotten your accounts canceled and it's not clear why--it has something to do with one of the above mentioned issues. It's not black and white why some get away with breaking the rules and others don't. Ultimately, you just need to know what's going on and you can navigate through the challenges one way or another. We'll keep doing what we can to help with that!
Back to Kate's question about calling prospects before you put them into your email system... that will certainly eliminate any issues because a relationship is established--but I would recommend you mention or ask the prospect about it first before loading them in for best results.
Thank you Alan, I hear a lot of great things about Oprius and definitely plan to take a very close look.
Hi Mike, you have over-delivered once again!
While I have less issue with spam compliants over here in Asia, it's great that you gave me a "through the windscreen view" of the road ahead.
And the part about having my name on Renegade University lead capture pages...YES! I look forward to it!
Thanks Mike, for all that you have contributed to attraction marketing.
Regards,
Willy Lim
Hi Mike maybe I can shed some back end light on this topic for you to help out.
You mentioned earlier that "It's not black and white why some get away with breaking the rules and others don't."
You can think of companies like ours as ambassadors for our clients with the major Email Service Providers (ESP's). Our job is to help you do your job as effectively as possible which means delivering as many of your emails as possible while not offending the rules of the big ESP's. One of the big challenges is that all the ESP's have different rules so making a system that works with all of them is very much a challenge.
Some of them offer us feed back loops that help us determine issues and helps us identify spammers using our systems. Once one of our users has a lot of feed back from one of these loops we have no choice but to act on it or it will reduce everyones ability to send mail to the ESP that complained.
So as long as your complaints are low, which you mentioned, you are fine. If it would help your readers I could write a how to article on the subject to help them craft their emails to avoid as much flagging as possible.
Hi Alan, a 'How To' would be excellent--with your permission we could put it on our main site.
Sounds great Mike I will pool the team here and put together a white paper on the topic that you can by all means share with who ever would benefit. Please send me an email with your contact info.
Thanks Alan, I think that would be very helpful. I plan to connect with you later this week but if you get it done beforehand and want to forward onto me so I can share it, forward to: mike@marketingmerge.com -- I'll post it here at the blog so others can share it with their team.
Hi Mike,
I've been scratching my head for a long time about landing pages. I recently signed up with http:// RodAlfred.mywebsitesystem.com as a solution. It is a cost but less than other systems I've trialed. It does allow you to set up a landing page(s) quickly and also has an email follow up system for the leads captured included.
I set up one at http://showmethemoney.mywebsitesystem.com and with a domain redirect it should be easy to use as a landing page for my adds etc.
Feel free to have a look if you too struggle with these issues.
Regards
Rod
Hi Mike I really like the fact that of you helping me to set up my own capture page this is someting I've been wanting to learn how to do for sometime now. Thanks again Mike you are the best!
Dawn Williams
Hi Mike,
Great blog and as always, thanks for the fantastic info ....
One question comes to mind though. Would it be better to create our own lead capture page and then funnel the lead back to Renegade U; 7 Great Lies; RNM, etc. ?
Jim Hickey
Jim,
Yes, it would! While using an existing lead capture page has its advantages while in the early training process, you want to create your own lead capture page as quickly as you can... then funnel people back to the others.
We're going to start training on this... there are great resources out there that are very easy to use.... we're going to get into this training next and make it a big emphasis.
Hi Mike we finally finished that white paper I have emailed it to you and am posting a link here for people that would like to get it. I hope all is going well and if there is anything we can do here at Oprius to help you out please let us know.
http://www.oprius.com/articles/emailWithIntegrity.html
It seems that there is a new competitor taking it to the man... I'm talking about Web Prosperity and the internet marketing tools they offer... if it claims to be as good as it has been marketed... then we might have a new winner in email marketing and auto-responders.
Your potential customers generally only search for you on the 1st Page of Google. Do you have 1st page Google placement? If not, we can guarantee 1st page Google placement or your money back. Email us back to get a full proposal.
Hi Martin
In answer to your question if we have 1st page of google and the answer is yes we did. It is exciting. My husbands name and our company name came up 4th on google's first page a few days ago. It takes perseverance, patience and a straight forward web page.
If someone searches my name they will find six people in the world with my last name and we all have our special areas of interest followed online. We are also all related my nephews are musicians and producers, my sister a well known artist, my brother a well known marketer my sisterinlaw an educator and I am a zoologist in sustainability issues. Birdwise as a last name is unique.
I have lots to learn about everything especially a way to keep all of the great tutorials in my head and I know I created a lead page as I have the content but I am having trouble finding the leptobyte template that I wrote it for. Sometimes things come my way to try something and even though I wrote down the heading this time I had too little information. A lesson Mike is teaching me is to take it slow and go with the process.
I have yet to meet my guide and I am looking forward to doing so as soon as I know who it is. Guides and coaches make things relate well. I am looking forward to having a guide.
Hi Mike,
Came to this article as suggested at the end of Class4 Lead Capture Page. Thanks for the suggestions in the article, and for helping us keep it 'clean'. By the way, the Lead Capture classes are excellent, as every class at Renegade University has been. I have been with R.U. now 5 months, and have accomplished so much with your guidance. Joining with you has been one of the smartest thing I've ever done. Business has become incredible enjoyable, fun and profitable.
Thanks again Mike for this wonderful opportunity!
With High Regards,
Pat
The previous post was April 2009. Are the lead capture pages through Renegade now okay to use? (I noticed our name is on it.)
I appreciated the article which Alan Smith, CEO posted. Thank you, Alan.
Thank you, also, to you Mike for this blog on the email marketing. I am fairly new . . .about a month and a half and have been learning lots. At first I was a bit overwhelmed by all the classes and info coming in as I am a stroke survivor. I have been plugging away. I have been going through the lead capture pages tutorials you did and also Scott Rogers power points. Both are very beneficial.
cindy birdwise lecocq mentioned leptobyte, which was a term unfamiliar to me. I did a search and found out it is a blog/lead capture page business. Is that correct?
Thank you for the info.
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