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Recently I’ve been setting up a lot of e-newsletters for various clients. An e-newsletter (or e-blast, if you must use an annoying marketing term) is basically a webpage that you send via email, and it shows up (if all goes well) as nicely formatted text and images in the recipients’ inbox. I’ve had a chance to evaluate several newsletter services, and here are my thoughts on each.
Mailbuild
Mailbuild is my top choice, especially for folks who are going to send to relatively small lists (say, under 1000), on a schedule less than once a week. Their pricing scheme is really affordable at these levels, because you pay per send, based on the number of recipients.
As a designer, I love the flexibility of Mailbuild, and the fact that I can hand-code the templates (rather than wrestling with a WYSIWYG editor) so I know they are solid and will accurately show the design. And, frankly, I know my client can’t unintentionally screw it up.
From an end-user’s point of view, Mailbuild is very easy to use, by just entering your text content and optionally an image for each news item. The one drawback is that the client needs to contact me to update it any information that is integrated into the template itself (such as contact information).
Last but not least, I know Mailbuild has a really good reputation (very important when you’re relying on your emails to be delivered and not marked as spam), and is very active in promoting best practices in email newsletters. They also have a lot of good articles on their site with tips and tutorials for e-newsletters.
Some reviews of Mailbuild:
AWeber
AWeber is another solid service, whose pricing scheme can be most affordable for those wishing to send to lists frequently — weekly, for example, because you pay a monthly fee whether you send anything or not.
One main difference between Aweber and Mailbuild, besides the pricing scheme, is the templating scheme. I haven’t had much experience with it, but it seems there are 75 templates to choose from, that you can then customize. I have found an explanation of how to use your own html, but it seems rather clumsy.
AWeber also seems to take its reputation seriously, and has a few features Mailbuild lacks – such as timed autoresponder sequences.
Some reviews for Aweber (all positive):
- http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com
- http://www.profitpapers.com/
- http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is another service paid with a monthly fee. The one client I have had that uses Constant Contact expressed some frustration with their user interface, which is a little clunky. I also found it difficult to achieve fine control over the template, but I finally wrestled it into shape.
Constant Contact also offers surveys and campaigns.
Some reviews for constant contact (mostly mediocre):
Conclusion
As you can see, though Mailbuild isn’t perfect, it is my favorite of these three I’ve used. It will be overpriced, though, for those sending frequently to large lists.
I’d love to hear your experiences with these services, or any others. In a future article, I will share some tips for your email newsletters campaigns.