Vbulletin As Infusionsoft-type Autoresponder
 

Has anyone ever tried using vBulletin as an autoresponder?

Problem: Aweber is the Model T of newsletter services. I can't send info to specific users. If a person buys my products I can't be sending them "half price on the product you just bought" emails. That is a big problem. For users who need 12 emails before they buy, I can't be sending people who 've already bought my product these 12 emails. If a person buys after email #2, they should be removed from that particular list.

Infusionsoft has gotten this right, but charging $300 per month seems a bit steep for something as simple as sending out emails based on a few variables. (More importantly, I need more control over those variables.)

All of this stuff is super simple in regular ol' vBulletin land. If (usergroup==$x) {do whatever}. Done.

The deliverabilty aspsects of Aweber are generally good. Probably better than what I'd get from my stock server, but the ability to target....and/or just use a PM seems like it would be 10,000% better even if half my emails are getting blocked.

I wrote a VERY crude method for this back in the day. It simply used a cron to calculate who was due for an email, tossed them into a queue, and every 10 minutes or so it sent out the emails. That site died before it really got started, but I remember it being quite effective.

Brandon did you get any answers from the vBulletin 4.1.1 team? Or any other answers on this issue?

I agree that InfusionSoft is excellent but too expensive... Have you evaluated Vertical Response, or iContact, MailCHIMP, or Constant Contact or GetRESPONSE ?

I am very interested in your thoughts on this issue. And agree that vBulletin would be a nice way to handle it... but will it ever?

Anyway, let me know if you learned to just stay with aweber or who you may switch to!

~ Todd