I’ve seen some pretty crappy email marketing systems. You know the ones that cause you to bite your nails, grit your teeth, and almost want to curse at it, while you get out the next newsletter or broadcast.
At this stage of the game, just hearing some product names I cringe because I know what systems would work so much better, however I’ve learned to not give advice unless I’m asked. Instead I keep my opinions to my blog.
When you’re first starting out you don’t know what you don’t know and you can only go by what you’ve been advised. When I first started paying attention to blogs, signing up for different free reports and later purchasing products I quickly noticed something in common with most of the people I enjoyed and admired online. They were all using AWeber for their sign-up forms, also called opt-ins.
From the outside looking in, you don’t really get it at first and maybe wonder if it’s the only tool offering this type of service. Of course I quickly learned the list could go on for days in regards to email marketing systems.
So how do you choose if you’re just getting started or getting more serious about your business?
You have two choices:
Go with what everyone else is using or
Take a gamble and try something few people you follow online online use because afterall, it’s FREE right?
The first eNewsletter I sent out, I used Constant Contact back in 2007. They offered a 14 day free trial. The only list I had at the time was from my art shows. After my sales presentation, I’d have everyone fill out a guest card which included their email addresses. Constant Contact allowed you to import names and emails without a confirmation which worked great in this case.
I didn’t know I should not put someone’s name and email address on a list and start emailing them without getting a confirmation or what’s called a double opt-in. I just had the paper with their email address on it and figured, if they put their email down surely they didn’t mind me sending an email.
After the trial period I chose not to sign-up. I’d go back and forth testing out Constant Contact over the next year or so, but never fully committing to their service. It was overwhelming and I didn’t have anything to say regularly to justify buying their service.
The second newsletter I sent out, I used MadMimi. It was a free product that lured me based on how easy it was to use and did I mention it was free? I had a small list of ladies I emailed regarding free fitness classes. By this time, I’d started Virtual Hired Hand and was fully aware of the power of email marketing. I also knew the importance of not just sending people mass emails because I had them in my personal address book, instead I emailed each person individually and sent them to a page where they could get signed up for my practice fitness sessions.
Madmimi served me well because I wasn’t selling anything, it was easy to use, and it was free. However, I knew once I got serious about sending emails it would not be my service of choice. There were many days I’d see tweets from them about the service being down and how emails were not going out. This would be a real pain if you were using it for a revenue generating business.
I am still in the trenches using other products for client projects since everyone does not use the same service. I won’t discuss each system my clients use and whether I’d give it a thumbs up or thumbs down. You can see my list of recommended resources to learn about that.
However, I do want to give a loud almost screaming warning to anyone using or considering MailChimp for their email marketing.
I was shocked to learn:
While they tell you it’s free up to 500 contacts, what they don’t tell you is that your contacts could be counted more than once.
Let’s say you’ve got three different list, one for your newsletter, one for a free teleclass, and one for a paid teleclass. If someone signs up for all three, guess how many times MailChimp counts them?
3 times. This means what you thought to be 1 contact has now become 3 because they are on 3 different lists. I couldn’t believe this. Unbelievable.For every web form you create, you must also create a new list.
Let’s say you want a web form in your sidebar, on your promotion page, and one on your Facebook page. For tracking purposes you want three different forms, all going through the same series of follow messages and adding your contacts to one list. MailChimp will not allow you to do this. Instead you must create a list for each form you create.
Serious business owners are not using MailChimp. While some “experts” may consider it a nice service, are they using it? And if they are using it, how much revenue are they generating with this product?
Growing up I was not one to follow the crowd. I even took French because the majority of the people at my school were taking Spanish. However, there’s a reason “everyone” is doing it.
I tried out other systems that required you download software on your computer and send text emails only, however never found the right one. I ended up going back to the product that was used most frequently online. Working online you go with the crowd and ask questions when you get there.
AWeber has been my email service of choice for over a year now and I have not looked back.
Now it’s your turn. What have been your experiences with different email marketing systems? How did you choose?
Aweber all the way! Great customer service with immediate access to a live human, extensive library of video tutorials, easy to use templates and strong anti-spam stance. I just checked MailChimp for a class on email marketing I’m teaching, and it looks like they currently give you 2,000 contacts for free but you can only send 12,000 emails per month total and there is no autoresponder at the free level. But, I think it does have a place.
Thanks Michele for stopping by and sharing your thoughts! I agree, it does have it’s place.
The problem with these services is that they remain very expensive!
I prefer new players such as Mailjet. 200 emails a day for free, and $7,49 for 30,000 a month. I’m very happy with this. Pay as you go, no engagement, no contacts limits…
I’ll be the first to say I LOVE MAILCHIMP!!!! I’ve used Constant Contact (or shall I call it … We’re going to brand your newsletter no matter how much you pay us email service) and AWeber. AWeber was hacked and we had some very challenging customer service issues because of the hacking. We were an affiliate of AWeber and recommended that our clients change services because of the way AWeber was hacked and how they handled it. Granted this was over 2 years ago, but I’ve never looked back. MailChimp is wonderful, you get up to 2000 free contacts (not 500 anymore) and you can deliver up to 60,000 emails a month to those 2000 contacts for free. Most of my clients are small businesses and they need to watch their cash flow. MailChimp allows them to have a professional presence with out paying a huge price. Also MailChimp is very easy to use for even a tech-no-phobe. š
Thanks Amy! Glad you’re enjoying MailChimp. I don’t think any of them limit the number of emails you can send each month. I can certainly understand why you’re with them after your experience with AWeber. I’m sure they’ve come along way since then. 2 years is a long time. Thanks again for adding to this discussion:)
OMG! You have saved me. š I JUST signed up for Mailchimp last Saturday. I’m so glad you shared this. I noticed that many of the business professional I admire were all changing their email services to Awber. I will sign up with them next week.
Thank you Tiffany, Dyane
Fantastic! Glad you read this post in time:)
Thanks for the feedforward. I receive e-newsletters each Monday from a respected mentor who uses MailChimp and I know a few others who use Constant Contact. Both campaigns look professional. I researched MailChimp prior to signing up for it last month. I will see how it goes.
Keep me posted! AWeber all the WAY!!!
Tiffany, thanks so much for this article. A particular newsletter that I respect a great deal is sent out with MailChimps. I was going to research them and see if they were better than AWeber. You have saved me LOTS of time. I am using AWeber and will just stick with them.
So glad I could help! Wow, I’ve not received one pro newsletter in MailChimp.
Thanks for the great information. I started with Constant Contact, switched to AWeber because of the multiple accounts we can have. With this I like to go with what the pro’s say and stay with it to be honest. Thanks for your great information Tiffany!!
My pleasure:) Constant Contact was helpful in understanding the concept of sending a newsletter. However, when you’re ready to amp up your efforts go where the pros go –> AWeber!
Hi Tiffany, I use Awaber too, I like things simple š thanks for advise and sharing!
Thanks Solvita! I’m with you on keeping things simple.
Whew! I am so glad I am using Aweber. So informative, thanks Tiffany. You should give your opinion more often because, when you speak…. I listen! š
Thanks Elvie! Good to know. That really helps me for future post:)
Great tips Tiffany. I really like Aweber but have never tried out the others so I appreciate the review of their offerings.
Thanks Lori! Welcome to the website.
Tiffany,
I also use aweber and am happy with their service, but never really understood what made them the best choice. Thanks for clarifying why it is worth the investment! I always wondered…especially about mailchimp ;-).
Perfect timing! After having several conversations regarding AWeber and MailChimp it was time a brought that info to everyone else.