Many people who first start up their business always ask me a question: How do you compare and choose the email campaign systems that fits you best?
This is a very good question and I would say, this is truly one of the important questions that you should ask and evaluate it seriously before you make the jump. As there is always a switching cost to a different system, and such cost could be huge…….
1. Templates and its flexibility
Constant Contact – This is actually the first email campaign system that I used when I first started up my business. It is a very user-friendly system that you can easily get it hands-on in 1-2 hours.
The good thing about Constant Contact is they offer plenty of nice-looking templates. And they do have great flexibility for users to create our desired look and feel simply by drag and drop.
Mailchimp – the template choices are comparatively fewer and less flexible in changing the alignment. So you will need to choose carefully when you decide on a template that meets your needs, especially when you have different information to share.
Aweber, – again, the template is not as many as constant contact and is also less flexible in making the modification, e.g. alignment, colors, etc.
2. Contact lists creation and upload
Sometimes, when you have a huge pile of name cards collected from an occasion or even, you may just like me, thinking the quickest way to start connecting with them would be to type them into a spreadsheet then upload it to the email campaign system, so you can create a single email to say hi, once and for all.
Constant Contact – provides a very easy uploading function. What makes it better than the other email systems is, they won’t have an automatic email sent to the uploaded contacts and ask for permission to receive your future emails. They just simply ask you to check the box and confirm that you have permission to send emails to these contacts.
Mailchimp – same as constant contact, there is no strict enforcement to have the system send out an automatic email asking for permission.
Aweber – It has very strict enforcement of email subscription confirmation whenever you have a new list of subscribers migrated or uploaded to the system. You might say, What? I just met those persons yesterday and exchanged our business cards. Would such system generated email be considered offensive, and it would just prevent you from sending future emails to these contacts because they fail to click into the permission link? This is something that I don’t like.
3. Send to multiple contact lists at a time!
Occasionally you may have some generic emails e.g. Public announcement, general update that you want to send to all, or multiple lists of contacts, all at one time.
Constant contact – it allows you to create just one email, and send it to multiplies lists all at one time.
Mailchimp – it does not have this function, but their “Replicate” button provides you a similar function that you can easily copy the campaign, do the required modification and make the email looks a little more personalized to the contact list before you hit the send button.
Aweber – they don’t allow a single campaign/email/broadcast to send across all or a multiple of contact lists. They considered such action would only create a higher risk of people to unsubscribe from you when they find such emails (e.g. too generic) are not relevant to them.
So, the more contact lists you have on Aweber, the more time consuming it could be for you to create the email/campaign and send them out to the individual list. So think carefully before you create a new list as this means you are adding workload to yourself in the future.
Unlike Mailchimp, there is no “Replicate” button available at Aweber. Instead, you can set a particular email as a template and re-use it in another contact list.
4. Limited photo storage
Contact Contact – oh…. It allows 5 photos storage only unless you pay an extra dollars per month. Honestly, 5 is not enough especially when you are supposed to use their system to send regular updates to your subscribers with new content.
Mailchimp – basically unlimited. Which is great!
Aweber – Same! Basically unlimited!
5. Sign up forms and welcome email
Constant contact – again…the worst out of the 3 systems here in this area. You can only have one sign up form at a time, and point it to a specific list of subscribers as a default. So this is definitely not suitable for those businesses who are managing a variety of campaigns at the same time.
Mailchimp -You can choose to create your own sign-up form for each of the contact lists, however, the standard templates are just so-so. Very limited “Sign up form” template. So you may need to ask for extra help if you need a beautiful form or tailored made something to attract people to sign up with you.
Aweber – it outperforms the other two systems. There is a lot of sign up templates to choose from, and you can create a sign up form for each respective contact list so as to run different campaigns and attract them into the different contact list.
6. Email scheduler
Constant contact – It has the scheduler function so you can schedule your emails to be sent out at your selected date and time.
Mailchimp – same as constant contact.
Aweber – Not only you can set a date, time, to schedule the broadcast, but it also has the “Follow-Up Series” function so you can pre-set a series of broadcasts into the systems, so each and every subscriber sign up with you, they will receive your message at your desired time interval even without lifting your fingers! This is the area that I appreciated most and that’s why I choose to switch and stay with Aweber now!
7. Pricing
Constant contact – starting from US$15 a month with a prepaid discount offered.
Mailchimp – free for the first 2000, then US$30 up for a month.
Aweber – $1 trial. And US$19 a month for the first 500 subscribers.
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Email Marketing by AWeber
