Email Marketing? MailChimp is King Kong

Newsletters, email marketing, email blasts (all also known as “campaigns”), auto-responders, signup forms. UGH!

If you just want to do what you do best, but you know you need to reach out to your subscribers, just deciding WHICH of the many newsletter/email services to choose from is overwhelming. Aweber, Constant Contact, Emma, iContact…and a lot of smaller ones I’ve never heard of all offer essentially the same things:

• Templates to more easily build newsletters and graphic email messages
• Templates for sign up forms so people can “opt-in” (i.e. sign up) for your communications (required by law)
• Templates and systems for auto-responders (those routine messages you get immediately after subscribing OR the various automated messages/lessons/reports that you’ve requested)
• Ways to build and manage your list of contacts
• Ways to get these messages out via Twitter and Facebook (or more)

I’ve used all of these for clients. I use MailChimp for myself.

I admit. I’m smitten with the little monkey and that’s part of it. Plus their web content is witty and fun. I should be an affiliate but I’ve been lazy and haven’t signed up. I love them for all those reasons,

But mostly it is because it is FREE for 500 subscribers or less!

That’s right. For most of us sending out our early newsletters and email promotions we don’t pay squat until we get big and famous (and have more money).

MailChimp also offers (in my own damned opinion):

• the easiest interface and explanations for anyone who is new to doing these things
• easier templates (you have to fight a bit with all WYSIWYG dashboards so be patient-even graphic designers can struggle)
• an easy-to-find link to your recent newsletter (not so easy with others) so you can share any way you want
• an easy-to-find link to sign up for your newsletter (not so easy with others) so you can send to whomever you want
• good tutorials and videos

Probably the most complex, thus frustrating to noobs, is Aweber. My guess is it has way more power and features than you will ever need.

All of these sites allow for custom forms, emails, newsletters if you or your graphic designer want to build from scratch in HTML.

And, for the record, can I just say:

Don’t abuse your subscribers.  Don’t hammer them to death with email anything!

Make them hunger and long for a new newsletter!

P.S. You can subscribe to mine here.