Aweber users whom happen to attract subscribers with names such as Jörgen, Mendonça, Renè, Ascânio or João are in trouble. The image above will give you an idea of what I am talking about.
The reason being that Aweber cannot handle international character support, which obviously is a problem if your subscribers primarily are residing in countries where socalled international characters are widely used. But - as you will have guessed - it is also a problem for someone in the US, the UK, Australia or an other predominantly English speaking countries who attracting subscribers from all over the world.
The ignorance of it all
I have been using Aweber for a while to handle my sequential autoresponders for Michael Leander's Marketing Tips, which was setup to test a sequential autoresponder program. At the time my objective was to use an ESP, which offered a sequential auto-responder program. I wanted something easy to use, inexpensive and with no long term contract. Aweber is inexpensive. And I dare say, too cheap.
Twice I have asked Aweber about this issue, and twice have I received a reply that clearly indicates that Aweber are not going to be fixing this issue any time soon.
My recommendations to email marketers
1. If your email marketing activities are important to you, don't be cheap when it comes to selecting and implementing an Email Marketing Service Provider (ESP)
2. Before you enter into a relationship with an ESP, be sure you check their ability to support international characters. Not only in terms of content, but specifically handling names with different characters in the database.
3. If you need a sequential autoresponder program, look around for alternatives. Most high-end email marketing service providers such as Alterian, Exact Target and others do offer this functionality, although for many marketers the price tag of these systems may be too steep. There are other alternatives to Aweber, but I have not tested any of them yet, so cannot recommend anyone in particular at this time.
4. If you need a helping hand with all of this, please do get in touch with Michael Leander.
2 comments:
@Michael: Thanks for highlighting Alterian as an email provider that can handle complex email marketing programs (and we support all international characters, too).
The cost of more sophisticated systems is certainly a consideration for many marketers, even those at large organizations, but as you mentioned, it's best to find an email marketing provider that addresses the business requirements of your company or organization rather than just the cheapest.
Regards,
Ivan Chalif
Director of Product Marketing @ Alterian
Ivan - thank you for your comment. I think it all boils down to the marketers ability to prove Return on Marketing Investment. But marketing automation plays a big part in achieving ROMI now and in the near future.
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