ROI Experts Agree: AWeber is Dead Weight

By Johnny Rivera

E-mailers are viewed, for the most part as the digital equivalent of junk mail.

AWeber, a reputable e-mail marketing firm known world over as a white hat.  That sounds like sunshine on a stick to the untrained business start-up. However, like any well-heeled business owner, you want to receive the best results out of your investment.

This is where the undisputed champion of financial metrics, ROI (Return on Investment),  gives us a peek behind the curtain - and crucifies AWeber.

Let's say that you have 2000 fans that follow your blog. Fifty percent of your fan base subscribes to your weekly newsletter. Every Monday, you religiously write a brand new article focused on your niche. After many revisions and four hours later, you upload your newsletter to go out at certain time on Monday. One thousand of your fans receive your well crafted work of marketing art. Your hope is that at least 20% of your fan base are moved to trade their hard earned money for the product/services you are selling.

At least this is the dream AWeber is trying to sell the American small business owner. And they're accomplishing their goals. Why? Because they are baiting you with false hope.

Let's take a in-depth look at core metrics - the ROI factor.

In simple language, ROI gathers all your capital investment facts: time, money, effort and contrasts them against your bottom line: actual sales.

A basic AWeber subscription is $20.00 USD per month. That translates to $240.00 per year. At this point, your business needs to sell $240.00 worth of product to break even.

How much is your time worth? My time is worth at least $55.00 an hour. Let's say it takes me four hours total to get a newsletter ready for public consumption.

$55 per hour x 4 man hours per week = $220.00 per week x 52 weeks = $11,440 USD per year.

$11,440 + 240 = $11,680 per year

Let's add effort. This is an intangible commodity that is measured by the effort it takes to produce a product - to write, edit, rewrite, edit and finally present a final copy to your audience. How much is your effort worth? Only you can answer that question.

For the sake of conversation, let us assume your effort is valued at $5000.00 USD per year.

$11,440 + $240 + $5000 = $16,680 per year. 

You're into the kitty for close to $17,000 USD per year. That's not counting overhead.  AWeber is essentially telling you that for $17,000 USD per year, you too can have your piece of the American Dream.

Here's what AWeber  will not tell you. How many copies of your newsletters end up in a spam folder unread? They will tell you that can not be measured. I strongly disagree. Of course it can. The Laws of Economics agrees with me.

How many sales are you generating? Do you generate at least 20% above your capital investment? Are you operating at a loss? My guess - and ROI experts agree - that the former is true for most American small business start-ups.

In 2007,  I presented similar ROI scenario to New York General Motors auto dealers. One auto dealer under my wing saved $70,000 per year, just short of the retail price of two brand new cars. You may also ask why did GM declare bankruptcy? GM's franchise dealers bought into the false hope third party vendors were selling. Today, GM has a firm grip on ROI.

GM is making money hand over fist.

Are you?