Today, in 2014, Online Marketing (also referred to as “Internet Marketing” or “Digital Marketing”) has become an established, mature business activity.  As a result, there are more tools, offered by more competitors serving this business than ever before.  One such area of increasing choice is in the field of Autoresponders, the tool that allows you to build your own opt-in list so that you can mail to them on a regular basis. This consistent contact with the subscribers to your list can serve to convert them into loyal followers, and eventually lead to regular sales.  Below, we will take a look at some of the Autoresponder companies that are available to online marketers today.

Two of the earliest Autoresponder companies that are still around today are AWeber and GetResponse.  These two Autoresponder companies started in 1998 when online marketing was just a new industry.

  • AWeber started as an Autoresponder service, but also includes newsletter tools, RSS-to-email for bloggers, and many applications that integrate with such popular small business marketing tools and services like PayPal, WordPress, and many different shopping cart services.  AWeber offers a $1 trial for the first month, and then allows you to send emails to up to 500 subscribers for $19.95 a month.
  • GetResponse offers a free 30-day trial, and then allows you to send emails to up to 1,000 subscribers for $12.30 per month.

Another early email marketing company is Constant Contact.  It actually started as “Roving Software,” but whose name was later changed to Constant Contact.  Like AWeber and GetResponse, it serves hundreds of thousands of customers around the globe.  Just like AWeber, it too has expanded beyond email marketing to include other online marketing aspects, including social and mobile aspects.

  • Constant Contact gives you a 60-day free trial of their Essential package, which costs $45/month for up to 500 subscribers.  They also provide Basic and Ultimate versions of their Autoresponder packages, at $20/month and $195/month respectively, for up to 500 subscribers.

MailChimp started in 2001, but has only become well-known over the last few years.  However, its popularity has really soared, as 3.5 million users send over 4 billion emails per month using the service.  One of the main reasons is because they charge cheaper prices than most of their competitors.

  • MailChimp allows you to mail up to 2,000 subscribers with up to 12,000 email messages per month for free, forever.  They also have “Growing Business” and “High Volume Sender” options for those with up to and above 50,000 subscribers.

Certainly, it is recommended that you use a third-party Autoresponder service to send out your emails because they have experience in handling and in delivering large amounts of email successfully, and in dealing with spam complaints.  Most of them allow discounted or free first-month trials to get an idea of how the services work so that you can try before you buy and commit to them.  Many of them also provide discounted rates if you choose to pay annually.  Check out all of the ones above and others to determine which one will best fit your business in terms of features and pricing.