Marketing though an email newsletter or drip marketing campaign is something that every business needs to do. Following are the pros and cons of the two most popular email marketing services, as well as a few links to other services you might want to research. Do you have a favorite? Let us know in the comments!
Email Marketing Resources:
Constant Contact
http://www.constantcontact.com
$15/mo. (0-500 contacts) and up
60 day Free Trial
HTML Emails and E-Newsletters
Provides website signup form
Choose from templates or customize
Extensive tracking, support, tutorials, seminars
Unlimited emails, including auto-responder
Text version included automatically
Image hosting and availability.
PRO: Easy to use, fairly inclusive. Can import existing list without subscribers needing to confirm.
CON: Emphasis is on newsletters, and that has the best features vs. auto-responder.
AWeber Communications
$19/mo. (0-500 contacts) and up
$1 for a 30 Day Trial
HTML Emails and E-Newsletters
Provides website signup form
Choose from templates or customize
Tracking, support, tutorials
Unlimited emails, including auto-responder
PRO: More customizable with advanced techniques. Can use different sign up boxes for different campaigns and send them to custom URLs to pick up bonus downloads etc.
CON: Helpful to know HTML to maximize the benefits. Emphasis is on the auto-responder, and that has the best features vs. newsletter. No image hosting (must host elsewhere and link to them). Text versions must be made manually. All new subscribers (even imported existing contacts) need to opt-in. Tracking reports are limited in the basic account, upgrade is needed for more extensive reporting.
Some other options:
http://www.mailchimp.com
http://www.icontact.com
Vertical Response
http://www.verticalresponse.com/
Oprius
http://www.oprius.com/
Mad Mimi
http://madmimi.com/
http://www.practicepaysolutions.com/
http://www.infusionsoft.com
http://www.getresponse.com/
Specifically for the Direct Sales Profession:
I Make News/Party Pulse (for corporate home office to send company-wide customer or consultant newsletters)
http://www.imakenews.com
DSWA Newsletter System (for individual consultants to send newsletters/emails to customers or team)
http://www.dswanewslettersystem.com
Do you know of others? Do you have a preference or can help us choose? Please leave your comments below!
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Follow me on Twitter: mlarter
March 12, 2010 at 3:26 am
Karen – great article. Email marketing is important for all businesses looking to drive measurable brand impact, product visibility, leads and sales – and what business isn’t? And thanks for adding IMN’s Party Pulse as a resource for the direct sales profession! I, like you, speak from firsthand experience of the positive impact email marketing resources brings, having personally used IMN’s Party Pulse to build my direct sales business. Why take hours or even days away from working your direct selling business by taking on the daunting task of creating your own newsletter when there are so many great resources out there to help? IMN Party Pulse is great as it is the only e-communications platform designed specifically to help direct sellers maximize the effectiveness of their sales consultants by empowering them to recruit more sponsors, book more parties and sell more products – for a dramatic impact on sales revenue. With Party Pulse, you get a professionally designed e-newsletter personalized from you. It also includes the added benefit of sophisticated analytics and reports showing you what your customers are interested in! Each report enables you visibility into member preferences. Find out who is interested in hosting a party or who is interested in the business! Study after study has proven that consultants using e-newsletters experience TWICE as much success as those who are not. For more information on IMN, please feel free to give me a call!
Michelle Larter
781-890-4700 ext. 237
[Reply]
Karen
Follow me on Twitter: MyBizPresence
Reply:
March 12th, 2010 at 3:46 am
Thanks Michelle! I LOVE IMN! It has been a great business builder for me! We recently added social media sharing on ours and that gives our customers another way to send referrals our way by tweeting or FBing the newsletter! Very exciting!
[Reply]
Follow me on Twitter: heatheramyprice
March 26, 2010 at 6:59 am
Hi Karen! I use aweber and am comfy with it for broadcasts and autoresponder campaigns. But I’d like to start an ezine with funky graphics and great formatting and that’s where I get hung up. I’d like to hire that out. My VA fooled around with it but she got about as far as I did and it was like the blind leading the blind. I’d like to find someone who knows how to create an awesome looking template using my banner in aweber and customize it for me and teach me how to tweak it. Have any ideas? Thanks!
[Reply]
Karen
Follow me on Twitter: MyBizPresence
Reply:
March 26th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
Honestly I don’t know – certainly not me. I tried Aweber and didn’t have the patience so I gave up. It’s on my list of things to do since so many people recommend it though!
[Reply]