As a developer, I’m often asked by clients for recommendations to email newsletter and marketing services. AWeber and MailChimp are usually the first ones I mention, simply because I’ve used them both for quite some time, recommended them to previous clients, and always had good results.
Today, however, I want to show you some other choices for email marketing. Some have been around a long time, and some are fairly new- but all of them are awesome. See for yourself:
Campaign Monitor
This is another service I am constantly recommending to friends, family and clients. Campaign Monitor, the flagship product of Australian company-I’d-most-like-to-work-for Freshview, is sleek and powerful and does everything you’d expect from an email marketing tool- and then some. They have plugins & extensions for everything from WordPress to Shopify, a whole library of articles and tips on email marketing, and some of the nicest-looking email templates available. There are no setup or monthly fees- Campaign Monitor charges a flat delivery fee of $5, plus 1 cent for each recipient.
EmailBrain
EmailBrain, which was bought by Dotster two years ago, is a good, solid service that’s chock-full of features, such as some very robust reporting such as unique vs. total links clicked, or how many people chose to forward the email to a friend. Their “Periodic Plans” provide you a certain number of “credits”. The smallest plan, for example, is $9.95 a month for 2,000 credits. That means you can email 2,000 contacts once a month, or 1,000 contacts twice a month, or 500 contacts four times a month, and so on.
LetterPop
I love how you don’t need to sign up for LetterPop to try out their email newsletter builder, 289 templates (at last count) that can be dragged and dropped and edited to your heart’s content. It does seem that they’ve gone to great lengths to simplify the process of email marketing for users, with nice touches like Flickr integration. They currently have five easy-to-understand plans, starting with a free plan of 10 newsletters a year to 25 subscribers.
Mad Mimi
Of all the email services I’ve listed here, Mad Mimi has got to be my favorite- and not just because of their adorable big-haired, horn-rimmed-glasses-wearing mascot, but because it’s an absolute gem of a service. Easy to use? Undoubtedly. Powerful? Amazingly. Gorgeous themes and templates, truly useful tracking reports.. can you tell how much I like this service? They offer four monthly plans, starting at $8 for 500 contacts, as well as a free plan of 100 contacts.
Nouri.sh
Nouri.sh is a little different from the other services I’ve listed here: they offer blog-powered newsletters, which means that they basically take your RSS feed and convert it to a newsletter. Which also means that you don’t have to create separate email newsletters at all, yay! I’ll admit that at first I was worried about how the finished emails would look, but thanks to some good customization and branding options, they look just fine (note: the free plan does not include custom templates). More than fine, actually. But one of the things I like the most about Nouri.sh is their WordPress plug-in, which among other things will allow you to add a quick subscription widget to your blog and track the number of subscribers and campaign data. There are five plans available, including a Free plan that includes up to 1,000 emails a month.
What email marketing services or tools do you use or recommend to clients?
