What's the best email marketing utility? Why?

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Billington on May 26, 2009 at 11:39am

I use a software package called Email Marketer, by Interspire. It fits my needs perfectly. My volume is close to what you've described above. http://www.interspire.com/emailmarketer/

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Permalink Reply by Michael Reynolds on May 26, 2009 at 12:50pm

Emily,

I use the email marketing module that is part of the Freedom Application Suite, which is what we use as the framework for our websites at SpinWeb. The module has all the features you described. Let me know if you would like more info.

Thanks!
Michael Reynolds

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Permalink Reply by Jon D. Speer on June 11, 2009 at 11:28pm

If you value higher open and click through rates, TFMail from Tomato Fish Marketing (in Indy) is your answer. Contact Brooke DeRam on SI.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Herndon on June 12, 2009 at 1:20pm

Emily,

I'm just curious: have you had much success with email marketing? I find that typically click throughs are about 6% and I know for sure that I always unsubscribe because of the amount of email I have to keep up with. Just interested in your thoughts.

Daniel

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Permalink Reply by Emily Myers on June 12, 2009 at 1:37pm

Daniel,
We have had a good deal of success with email marketing- but probably mostly for 2 reasons: 1) Our products are in pretty specific niches (i.e. antiques, farming, auctions), and 2) our email marketing is 85% opt-in.
Our typical click through is 20% on most campaigns.

Compared to the high cost of direct mail and generally much lower response in comparison- the ROI on our email marketing is very good.

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Permalink Reply by Brooke DeRam on June 18, 2009 at 9:29am

Emily,

As Jon Speer mentioned below, we offer a great email marketing service/software that has outperformed other email marketing providers. Would you be interested in discussing your needs over coffee sometime soon? If we are not a fit, I can point you in the right direction for another service.

How about next week? Does the 24th or 26th work for you?

Brooke DeRam

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Permalink Reply by Erik Deckers on June 18, 2009 at 3:14pm

Brooke,

I didn't even know you offered this. I was about to recommend a couple of utilities I've only heard about. Good thing Jon mentioned something.

I figure if you're doing it, it must be good.

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Permalink Reply by Brooke DeRam on June 18, 2009 at 3:36pm

Well of course! :) Thanks for the shout out!

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Zuber on June 18, 2009 at 3:25pm

Emily,
One of the companies I represent offers a product called CustomCast and is a ver friendly easy to use service. CustomCast is also Canspam compliant AND whitelisted with the AHLB. They have a free trial program to let you give it a test drive.

The best part of the equation is that they are local and very customer service focused. They also offer a wide variety of e-marketing services at a reasonable cost. Feel free to contact me at 317-828-8406 or at jeff@zuberandassociates.com

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Permalink Reply by Todd Muffley on June 18, 2009 at 9:05pm

Emily,

My company, Fat Atom Internet Marketing, provides FULL SERVICE email marketing solutions. We help our clients with all aspects of email marketing, from strategies, design, testing and analytics. If you are looking for a DIY yourself solution, I have many recommendations I could make for you, but it would be foolish of me without knowing more of your needs.

If you would like, call me on my cell phone at 317-614-5526. I would be more than happy to give you my sales pitch and also guide you to the right solution if we are not a good fit.

Best,

Todd Muffley
Co-Owner
Fat Atom Internet Marketing
Carmel, IN
www.fatatom.com

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Permalink Reply by Rick Matkins on September 6, 2009 at 5:10pm

Hello, this is my first post here (hello all), but when I looked at this post and the recommendations so far, I felt the need to toss two good candidates in here:

The two best DIY applications I am aware of are MailChimp and CampaignMonitor

These are SAAS websites that offer a ton of features that will help anyone manage a mailing list:
* import / export functions (csv files)
* opt out subscriber management
* forward to a friend functionality
* email templates that are made to be compatible with a large range of email clients (including the ever difficult Outlook)
* powerful tracking analytics that allow managers to see virtually anything associated with their mailing list
* subscription forms that can be dropped easily into any website

I could go on, but I highly recommend taking a look at these links for more info on each company. I remember when I was looking for software how impossible it seemed, and when I found these two (these are competing companies btw - no affiliation to either) it made life so much easier.

They are fee based, and each company uses a different pricing structure, so you can see which format you like the best...

Hope some of you find these useful - as far as I know, these are the two best. I have used Constant Contact as well, you may want to check them out, but I do not like that solution near as much as either of these.

Obviously, there are things to consider using SAAS for something like this, but they have legally binding terms of service to protect your clients' privacy, and they have some very big clients that trust them with their information.

I am also aware that owning the software may reduce costs if you are equipped with everything needed to send out 50K emails regularly from your own servers and not be branded a spammer - so this must obviously be taken into consideration when comparing prices. The lists I send to typically range in the 1K - 15K range for small businesses, so the costs are not too steep and using one of these sites is an absolute no brainer.

Anyone managing smaller lists need to know about these companies because they are so much better than almost any other solution out there. In fact, I think the survival of a lot of other companies offering email services to small business depends on their customers not knowing about these solutions and how easy they are to use. Now keep in mind - I am NOT speaking of those that offer consultation / strategic planning and actual design work - there will always be high demand for that!

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