Question on Auto Responders and Hosting for offline clients

[JonesersRX7]

Was talking to my business partner and I think it's definitely a niche that we can carve out a piece. Having been in sales and technology for the past 8 years and owning multiple businesses I think I can relate quite well to their needs and design solutions for them.

A few questions....

Why on Earth do people recommend to be in control of the auto-responder. As in.. have it under our own Aweber account for clients? The liability for that just seems unnecessary. As a business owner I would want to have full access to my clients emails - managing as a service is completely different. If you add 20 customers a month over month at $5 re-occuring (Aweber referrals) this seems like a better approach. Also if the client becomes toxic and you need to part ways quickly it's "here's how to change your password, best of luck!"

I am going to meet with InfusionSoft as well but I think for most businesses they will be overkill.

I was also planning on using GoDaddy for hosting as they are local and would stick with our mission statement of supporting local businesses but who has the best hosting affiliate program? Have not looked in to becoming a reseller.

Thanks in advance for any help.

- Jonesers

[Kyle Tully]

I always get my clients to sign up to an autoresponder through my affiliate link.

Put one client under my own account in the past, and of course that turned out to be the nightmare client. Never again.

Hosting you've got two options:

1. Get them to buy through your affiliate link. (I use Hostgator.)

2. Be a reseller (again through Hostgator) and charge a premium. You can add in a service contract, ongoing SEO/traffic etc fees... all through the one convenient billing interface.

[chrisnegro]

Jonesers:

There are 2 schools of the thought. MANY people have many different opinions as you will see from your responses.

The following are the benefits if you control their list:

1) There is a big barrier should they want to leave you and they want to control their own lists. Again, they can still leave but it would cost them something (e.g. lost list size from opting into a new list). However, one could argue that if they are not willing to transfer to the new list -- they are not really loyal and potential paying customers anyway....so in a sense you are filtering or scrubbing your list.

2) If they don't pay their bill you have control of their list and can stop promoting their emails. Again...another incentive to pay you and do good business dealings with you.

3) Definately alot more money involved. If you charge them $97 per month (for example) for your autoresponder service, just think of what the revenues would be for having 30 clients on board (e.g. almost $3,000 per month on autopilot EVERY YEAR)

4) The potential to Joint Venture with Your Client and Their Lists where they can promote your company through their list (technically your list as their list is under your account). There is much power in this that very few people have talked about yet.

Summary of the benefits of controlling their list: Money and Control period end of story.

Negatives of Managing their list

1) The potential for your client to get a little mad down the road when they want to leave and they find out we have to transfer them to a new email list and they could lose subscribers. Unless they make alot of money with their list....they may never know the difference (like most IM'ers would).


However, this is a almost full proof strategy to make everyone at ease and gives you the greatest chances to mitigate any lost subscribers:


Hello [!firstname_fix}:

First of all, as the owner of XYZ corporation, I want to thank you for your past business and consider you one of our best customers. As an expression of your loyalty to XYZ corporation we have upgraded you to VIP Status and will be sending you a VIP Card shortly.

As as thank you , we have give you a special coupon/gift (worth $75) to that you can use at your business anytime you like. However, before can send you this gift, you need to let me know that you are wanting this gift and the VIP Card sent to your address.

To get your $75 gift, please click on this link now ====> xyzcorportation.com.

Many thanks again for your business trust,

Success to you,

Your Name Here

2) Your not really working whats in the best interests of the client. Its more beneficial if they are set up where they would not have to transfer their list and they could lose subscribers.

3) Potential of more risk since you are technically responsible for all email content that goes out. However, if you are managing their list THEY WOULDN'T HAVE THE PASSWORD to mess with this anyway -- so is this really a risk? Again opinions will vary.

Summary

This is a business -- set them up through your grandfathered Aweber list call it a day and move on. But again....you will see their will be varying opinions -- but this is mine which is also shared by David Preston. Hope this helps you !

Success to you Jonesers,

Chris Negro