One List, Every Offer: The Autoresponder Setup Beginners Skip

You send one email to your entire list and by that afternoon your inbox is full of complaints. Someone who opted in for a weight loss guide is now getting pitched a guitar course. Someone who wanted to learn barre chords is reading about a business opportunity they never asked about. None of it lines up, and the people on the other end notice immediately. That mess is exactly what this lesson exists to prevent, and the fix has nothing to do with fancy software. It has to happen before you ever build a single landing page.

Why does one master list wreck every offer you promote?

The instinct when you’re new is to grab whichever autoresponder account you’ve got, whether that’s GetResponse, AWeber, MailChimp, or something heavier like Infusionsoft, and dump every opt-in into the same bucket. It feels efficient. It isn’t. The moment you’re running more than one offer, that single list turns into a landmine, because people who signed up for one thing start getting emailed about something else entirely.

The rule is plain: a separate list for every separate offer. Promoting three things at once means carrying three lists, not one. Skip that step and you end up with a mix like this landing in the wrong inboxes:

• Someone who opted in for a weight loss guide getting pitched an internet marketing product
• Someone who wanted guitar lessons getting emails meant for a business audience
• Someone who wanted tips on growing tomatoes getting neither, and getting annoyed at both

you need to create a list for every single promo every single offer and product you’re gonna be promoting

As the session puts it, “I cannot begin to tell you how many people don’t realize this is something that they need to do”. That line is worth sitting with. This isn’t an advanced optimization you get to later. It’s the difference between a list that opens your emails and a list that reports you as spam before you’ve sent a second one.

What actually has to exist before you touch a landing page?

Two things, in this order. First, a list inside your autoresponder (in GetResponse this is called a campaign). Second, a web form tied to that list, which is the piece of code your landing page will use to actually capture the opt-in. You log in, find the campaign dropdown, name a new campaign for the offer you’re running, and create it. Then you build the form itself.

This is where most beginners over-think things that are genuinely simple. Inside the form builder you decide what you’re collecting, just an email, or a name and email, and you strip out everything you don’t need. The default form comes with a header, a footer, and a privacy notice baked in. None of that belongs on a clean opt-in. Uncheck the header. Uncheck the footer. Uncheck the branding. What’s left is a plain field or two that exists purely to get someone onto your list.

Where should someone actually land after they opt in?

Here’s the part that separates a list that converts from one that just sits there. By default, every autoresponder wants to send a new subscriber to a generic confirmation page, something like a bare “thank you for subscribing” screen. That page does nothing for you. Nobody builds momentum off a thank you screen with no next step.

Instead, you set a custom redirect. If your hook is a video, send them straight to the video. If it’s a report or a specific offer, send them there instead. That single setting is what turns a cold opt-in into someone actively watching your pitch thirty seconds after they typed in their email. And once the list, the form, and the redirect are all connected, the software hands you a block of code, the actual piece you’ll paste into your landing page builder so the two are wired together. That code is what makes the whole capture engine actually function, and it’s what the next lesson picks up right where this one leaves off.

None of this is complicated once you’ve done it once. It just has to be done in the right order: list first, form second, redirect third. Skip the order and you’ll spend more time untangling a messy list later than you would have spent setting it up correctly today.

The full session walks through this setup screen by screen, including the exact GetResponse settings used. Watch it in full, free, when you Create your free account.

The full session transcript follows below.

Transcript

So here's the deal so before you can capture your traffic right? You need to have something called an autoresponder okay? A list to where you're gonna capture it now I'm gonna assume that you know. You don't really have a lot of experience and if you do you know. This might not be something that's gonna be relevant for you but just in case you're somebody who is new maybe you like nobody showed you how to you know what when it comes to an autoresponder what do you really need need you know.

To to link or how do you actually link your autoresponder to your landing page I'm gonna show you that okay? Now there is also one other thing I want to tell you when it comes to autoresponder companies and you know. Email management services out there in platforms there is there is many there is different varieties there is there is different options that's out there from your typical you know. Get response a Weber to MailChimp to GVO you know. To Infusionsoft to office autopilot I mean there is so many out there right?

You know there is so many out there right? And it seems like there is new ones being created to look you know. Seems like all the time right so I obviously would be impossible for me to show you every single one of them but what I do want to show you in this particular video is I just want to show you the concept of how do you link an autoresponder to and you know. To your landing page because here coming up in you know. In the next few videos I'm going to show you how do you actually create a landing page and so when you create that landing page you will need to link that landing page to an autoresponder so you will need to have an autoresponder in place you will need to have an account for an autoresponder right?

So let's say you know and get responses is pretty popular one okay? So I'm just gonna show you get response this is the one that I one of the autoresponders that I use myself personally you know. I also use Infusionsoft pretty cool thing but it's a little bit more advanced so I'm just gonna walk you through the get response but essentially the process is going to be the same step number one is if you're just getting started okay? If you're gonna be promoting anything out there you know. You will need to have you need to create a list okay?

So you need to create a list here's something else is you need to create a list for every single promo every single offer and product you're gonna be promoting so let's say if you're promoting you know. Weight loss and maybe you're promoting flowers right? Maybe you're promoting and training and how to play a guitar right? Well you don't want you to send every body to the same list that make sense you need to create a separate campaign or separate separate list for each of the products that you're promoting so that way those people are not getting mixed together I cannot begin to tell you how many people don't realize this is something that they need to do you know.

They just send everybody to the same thing and then you know. They're sending email out you know to people about guitar training and then they have internet marketing crowd there they have you know how to grow giant tomatoes in there you know. Folks who opted into that kind of stuff right? And then they're getting complaints through the roof and people are just you know. Screaming at them right you don't want that pretty sure you probably already knew that but just in case you know.

Just wanted to point that out again listen I don't know where you are in your level of you know. Or how experienced you are as a marketer so I'm just gonna assume that you know. You're someone who just getting started and you know. This is some of the you know. This is some of the these are some of the things that you need to know all right?

You need to have a list and you need to have a web form basically okay? Here's how you create a list you basically just go if you are using get response you'll you just log into your account okay? Create an account log into your account where it says your current campaign okay? Your campaign is your list drop this down go to create campaign okay? And then you're gonna name your campaign let's say for this example I'm just gonna do test ITF okay?

Test ITF simply we're gonna create campaign oh it's already taken so I'm just gonna do test ITF 100 okay? Create campaign boom campaign was created successfully okay? Awesome so that's that next thing what I need to do is I need to create a web form a web form is something that I'm gonna place on my landing page or link my landing page to so that through that web form right? People are gonna get to get on my list okay? Sounds pretty basic I'll go to web forms okay?

And click on create new right here you will need this for you know what we're about to do next okay? Now web forms because I'm only interested in collecting email with my with my you know. On my landing page I just I'm just gonna leave the email field in here okay? It's actually really easy to add fields and remove fields like I don't want the header see I can uncheck that here I don't want a footer so this footer part is going to be removed check it out boom see that name do I if you want to keep the name you keep the name in there you know if you don't want a name you just uncheck the name boom okay?

Just like that and then privacy you don't really need that and then powered by don't need that so I just need to go you know. To create myself a very simple okay? Very simple you know to create myself a very simple okay? Very simple web form okay with just an email now if you want to collect people's no names go for it right? I'm gonna click on next over here this is actually where you set a a thank-you page so when somebody opts in okay?

See that by default he's gonna say default thank-you page okay? Which is gonna say something like hey thank you for subscribing blah blah blah right? You don't want that you want when somebody when you're promoting something okay? When you are promoting a lead magnet when you when you when you're promoting a lead magnet when you when you when you when you have your hook right? On your landing page when people opt-in where are they going to be redirected to okay?

And so this is where you set that up is right? Here okay so what I like to do is I like to always go and set it as a custom thank-you page right? Here okay custom thank-you page in your web form and then this is where you enter the address the URL where people are going to get redirected to that make sense so you can change this at any time you can edit this out at any time you know if you want to send people when they opt in if you want to send them to a pre-sales video some some sort of sales video or some kind of lead magnet or a report anything else that you create out there this is where you would put that address where they go okay?

Listen I know it's basic stuff for someone who has been doing this forever right? And but for some of you who just getting started you know. You may go wow thank you big I did not know how do you actually set my thing you know how do I set my thank you page okay? That's what you do it so you just put it in hit next let me just put it you know. I'll just say Google okay Google I'll just go next okay?

Now this is what you will need okay? For some for some like if you would if you're gonna use ELP P for example right? Easy landing page Pro it will tell you to to link your web form by pasting this HTML code into a form okay? So you might need this just kind of keep that handy I don't want to include CSS style so I'm gonna turn it off I will turn this off all the time okay? You don't need that but this is essentially this is the piece of code that you need okay?

For your web form you know if you're gonna use easy landing page Pro okay? Now there are other softwares like for example megaphone that connect to your autoresponder through what's called an API okay? Which is a little bit easier I'm gonna show you that as well but for this example this is all I would need okay? So I just created a web form set my thank you page created a list and in the next video I'm gonna show you how to use how to create an actual landing page right? Using the ELP P all right easy landing page Pro software so we'll see you there.