David Hartshorne
Note: we’ve just updated this post to take into account new features and pricing changes as of 18/12/2017.
As a blogger, it’s all-too-easy to become side-tracked with the latest marketing trends.
SEO.
Paid advertising.
Blogger outreach.
Influencer marketing.
Social media marketing.
You name it. You’ve been sucked in.
And while there is nothing wrong with any of those marketing channels, haven’t you forgot something?
Email marketing.
Have you forgotten how powerful that is?
You’re not alone.
Early in his blogging career,
Adam focused on other strategies before realization struck:
The truth is that email is far more effective at reaching your raving fans than any other tool.
When you communicate directly with your fans via email, you can be sure that your message will reach them.
No more wondering if they spotted your latest blog post in Google. Or crossing your fingers that the Facebook algorithm has worked in your favor this time.
When you use email, you control the dialogue.
And because email marketing is so cost-effective, you also control your budget too.
According to the Direct Marketing Association.
ROI for email campaigns rose 53% to an average of £38 for every £1 spent in 2014.
So, if you’ve been neglecting your email marketing efforts, now is the time to get back on track.
We’ve taken a look at three of the best email marketing tools on the market and pinpointed their key differences. Whether you’re just starting out, or you’re evaluating your current solution, this detailed comparison will help make an informed decision.
AWeber
AWeber was founded by Tom Kulzer in 1998 with a goal to make email marketing simpler and more profitable for small businesses. Since then it has grown to be one of the most popular email marketing services used by over 120,000 small businesses, bloggers and entrepreneurs around the globe.
What we love about AWeber
Signing up
Signing up to AWeber is straightforward.
Click the big green button to start your 30-day free trial. You’ll have to provide some basic details, like your name and address. Plus you’ll also have to enter your credit card details. AWeber prefers to have your credit card information so that your account runs smoothly after your free trial is over.
Getting started
Once you’ve completed the formalities you’re ready to start.
I love this welcome video. If you’re new to email marketing it explains the first few steps required to get you started:
Account setup
Create your first list
Customize your confirmation email
Once you click the ‘Let’s Get Started’ button, you complete the three steps, ready to start.
User interface
The AWeber user interface is clean and pleasing to the eye. There is a logical menu, and there is always help on hand.
I’ve broken the home screen into four sections so you can see what I mean.
The first section highlights the main components of the system: Messages, Lists, and Subscribers. The information on this screen gives you an overview of your account across these areas. And it has contrasting green buttons so you can take action.
The second section highlights three different types of help that are available: Webinar, Video and Online Guide. This shows AWeber catering to how different people prefer to learn.
The third section gives you a quick overview of your subscriber stats. Each List displays its own stats, so be sure to choose the correct List at the top of the page. You also get a glance of upcoming Broadcasts (the name AWeber use for the different types of email message you send to your subscribers).
And finally, the fourth section provides information on any recently sent broadcasts plus the latest stats on your selected List (top of the page).
Message types
Messages in AWeber used to be called Broadcasts. Now they use the term Broadcasts for one type of message.
From the main Messages tab in the top menu you can access each of the different types of message.
Drafts
The Drafts page is like a holding page where you can store your draft messages, plus it also shows your active campaign messages.
I love the ‘Copy to List’ feature. If you happen to have created a message under the wrong list, you can copy it to the correct one. Believe me; this is an easy mistake, and this is a quick solution!
What I also like is the fact that the system saves your messages to this draft status. From here you can send a test, schedule a broadcast or add to your follow up series.
Legacy Follow Up Series
Follow Ups are also known as Autoresponders. For most people, they are a fundamental part of email marketing automation .
For example, you can use these to start a welcome series of emails to new subscribers, or to deliver a subscriber-only email course like the Snackable Writing Course from Henneke.
Campaigns
Campaigns is a new email automation feature in AWeber that allows you to create and manage multiple follow-up series all within the same list.
You can build action-based automation flows using the drag-and-drop campaign editor:
There are three actions to choose from:
Send a Message (email)
Wait (X number of days)
Apply Tag (or remove a tag)
Note: Unlike GetResponse, there is no visual workflow builder.
Click automations
Tags are used elsewhere in AWeber’s marketing automation. Click automations let you segment your list and send more relevant emails to your subscribers based on the links they click. In short, you let subscribers self-select their next step.
For example, Henneke could offer two options at the end of her email course:
Learn more about copywriting
Learn more about blog writing
Whichever option a subscriber chooses, AWeber tags them accordingly, and they receive the relevant information for a new campaign.
Broadcasts
Broadcasts are for one-off messages. For example, you can send a message to let subscribers know that your latest blog post is live or to notify them of a special event like a webinar or a sale.
Blog Broadcasts
Blog Broadcasts allow AWeber to deliver your whole blog post via email to your subscribers using the RSS feed. I’ve never been a fan of this method, but it’s available if you want it.
Pro Tip: Here’s an interesting article by
Michael Hyatt on why he switched from this approach to a simple text and link strategy.
Creating messages
You have three methods to create whichever type of message you decide to send.
Drag and drop email builder – Use templates to create custom emails
Plain text message – Create a text-only message
HTML editor – Use WYSIWYG or edit the raw HTML
There are pros and cons to each method, and each one is easy to use.
- Drag and drop email builder
The Drag and Drop Builder opens up endless design possibilities. You can choose from over 700 customizable, mobile responsive drag-and-drop email templates for broadcasts and follow ups. You also have the option to start with a blank canvas and design your own template. - Plain text message
If you’re struggling to decide which template to use then consider this:
You don’t need a template.
When you think about it, your friends don’t use a flashy email template when they email you, do they? Often a plain text email with a link to your post or page is more than adequate.
Pro Tip: Plain text emails have a higher open rate than those with images or other HTML styling [ source].
You can’t embed links in the Plain Text Message, but you can add the URL in full. - HTML editor
The WYSIWYG editor is a middle-ground between the previous two options. (Switching to HTML source is for serious coders only!) It’s not dissimilar to using a word processor:
And now you can embed the link in your message:
Overall, I think AWeber have done a great job in structuring the message creation process. I like the fact that whatever type of message you create you have the same options, and that all your messages are stored in the Drafts holding page until you commit to sending to them.
List management
You can have as many lists as you like in your AWeber account. And each list has its own dedicated Follow Up series.
List options
The basic list options are all easy to follow and setup:
General information is pulled in from your account details and then you have the option to personalize it for each list as required.
AWeber uses a default option of Confirmed Opt-in, but you can switch this off per list as needed if you prefer.
List automation
If you have multiple lists, you can create an automation rule to automatically subscribe or unsubscribe someone from one list when they subscribe or unsubscribe to another list.
For example, if you had one list for prospects and one list for customers, then an automation rule could unsubscribe customers from your prospect list when they purchase something from you.
This is a useful way of managing your subscriber numbers.
Subscribers
The Subscribers menu lets you manage current subscribers and add new subscribers.
Manage subscribers
AWeber has some predefined filters and other field selections to manage specific users. Here is a quick snapshot to give you an idea:
So, for example, you could select subscribers whose email address contains gmail, and at the same time save it as segment if you wish.
Adding subscribers
You can add subscribers to your lists either through a website opt-in form or manually. If you’re moving from one service provider to another, then there are tools available to export and import the lists. Alternatively, if you just need to add the odd subscriber manually, then there is also a facility for that too.
What we don’t love about AWeber
Sending messages
Once you’ve created your messages they sit in the Drafts page waiting for you to decide when and how to send them.
You can:
Send a test email
Schedule a broadcast
Add to follow up series
Schedule a broadcast
When you select this option you see a selection box:
Each of the three sections is self- explanatory but somewhat limited. Look at these examples:
Who should receive this message?
This option is crucial, but AWeber doesn’t give it enough attention. This is the time when you can perform some A/B Split Testing, for example, on two different headlines.
But there is no mention of it. No prompts on the screen.
In fact, you have to go searching in the online help section if you want to discover more about A/B split testing in AWeber.
The testing could be automated so that you could simply split your list in half and send the same message but with different headlines.
Or, you could do some preparation before this stage in managing your subscribers to create segments, and send different messages to each segment.
When should this message be sent?
This option only offers you to select one time-zone.
So, for example, if you choose to send your message at 10 am British time then a subscriber based in San Francisco would receive the message at 2 am. This could have an impact on the open-rate of your messages if you knew that the best time to send messages was at 10 am local time.
You could probably create segments of your list based on timezone or country to get around this problem, but you would have to copy the message multiple times for each segment you wanted to send it to. This would involve some manual work on your part each time you sent a message, so I don’t think this is good.
It’s fair to say that AWeber has not excelled in the Sending Messages process.
Subscriber counts
You need to be careful when managing the status of your subscribers because even though some might not be active, they are still counted towards your overall subscriber count, and thus the cost of your AWeber account.
Subscribers on more than one list count each time
Subscribers on deactivated lists will still count towards your subscriber total
Unsubscribed addresses count toward your total number of subscribers
Pricing
When you start with AWeber, your first month is free.
Pricing is based on the number of subscribers, hence my point above about managing your total subscriber count.
TRY AWEBER
Check our price comparison section at the end of this article to see how AWeber stacks up against GetResponse and MailChimp.
GetResponse
Simon Grabowski founded
GetResponse in 1998. It now serves more than 350,000 customers in 182 countries and is available in 21 different languages. They market themselves as the
world’s easiest email marketing platform .
What we love about GetResponse
Signing up
Signing up to GetResponse is as simple as AWeber. The main difference is that GetResponse doesn’t take your credit card details up front. They contact you towards the end of your 30-day free trial to arrange payments.
Message types
GetResponse offers three types of messages:
Newsletters – For sending updates to your subscribers
Autoresponders – For sending predetermined messages, based on time or actions
RSS to Email – For sending your entire blog post via email
Creating messages
When you want to create a Newsletter you have a couple of options:
Drag and Drop Email Editor
HTML Source Editor
Both of these are useful and easy to use.
Pro Tip: Make sure you have selected your correct campaign before creating a newsletter. I’ve been caught out with this a couple of times.
Whichever option you choose there is a standard screen that appears first where you write your email subject line and choose your email address.
And then below that are some optional distribution settings:
Analyze: Click-through, Google Analytics, A/B Testing
Share: Twitter and Facebook
We’ll come back to the A/B Testing shortly…
- Drag and Drop Email Editor
Like AWeber, there are over 600 pre-designed templates that you can choose from when you create a newsletter. The templates are arranged via industry to help your selection:
If you don’t see anything you like, you can order a template from the GetResponse designers.
Alternatively, you can start from scratch to build and save your unique template. There are many blank templates to work with:
Starting from scratch can be a good idea. You get to choose exactly how much design goes into it. It is very easy to drag and drop the different elements into your message:
GetResponse also has a ‘mobile screen view’ so you can see how your design will appear on a smaller screen: