Introverts N Business

In my newsletter article due out tomorrow, “5 Important Steps to Build an Effective Follow-Up System,” I talk about the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems I’ve been testing out in order to strengthen the effectiveness of my follow up with leads, prospects, referral partners and clients. Since the article was long and I didn’t want to bog down the newsletter with more detail, I’ve duplicated the Resources section of this newsletter here, with more detail. I welcome comments and suggestions by others who are using different systems than the ones I mention, with positive outcome.

AWeber – I have been using AWeber for about a year as the portal for people to sign up for and receive my newsletter, special reports, and back-end communications with my products. AWeber has a strong reputation for deliverable rates, and many features and templates that are frequently updated and enhanced. It’s not as easy as other systems, but it most certainly gets the job done.

Cost for AWeber is $49 every 90 days (about $16.33/month) for the basic service

WORKetc - I’ve just discovered WORKetc, and am impressed with the depth of features offered by this system. As a matter of fact, if it does what it seems to do, it could replace my shopping cart, AWeber and also carry the full weight of my CRM system. Furthermore, though it took 3 tries, when I reported a feature issue that would have turned my “maybe” into a “no” they added the feature I needed within 2 days.

Cost for 2 team members to use WORKetc (me and one of my VA’s) is $44.95/month. For a solo user it’s $29.95/month. Like I said, if WORKetc can replace my shopping cart ($34.95/month) and Aweber ($16/month) it will be well worth it financially and practically.

Batchbook – If I hadn’t found WORKetc I might have used Batchbook. It’s a bit easier to navigate, the video tutorials are excellent, and it’s got a fresh, modern look that mimics – and uses – current social media features. Its biggest drawback is the fact that it doesn’t allow you to send mass campaigns to a chosen group of contacts. You have to also subscribe to a separate – and limited choice of – mass communication distribution systems in order to send out a newsletter, for example. (One can send out html and/or text newsletters in WORKetc.) Aweber is not one of them. But, MailChimp is…

Cost for Batchbook is $19.95 per month for 2 team members to have access, $9.95/month for a solo user.

MailChimp - If I didn’t have AWeber, I’d probably use MailChimp. A colleague just introduced me to this platform and it’s a lot of fun, and easier to navigate than AWeber. The instructional videos are easy to understand and imbued with humor to boot. It’s fairly easy to import contacts from another system into Mail Chimp. My greatest difficulty was matching the data fields. The import system does detect the original opt-in confirmation from other systems, and records the information in each individual’s record.

Cost for MailChimp is zero up to 500 members in your database. Depending on how you enter your contacts, you can keep under 500 for some time, or quickly go over this minimum. For 501-2500 contacts it costs $30/month.

I am interested in sincere review of other systems, and welcome your questions or comments. If you wish to receive the article, sign up for my Dare to Thrive newsletter today.