MailChimp vs Aweber vs Active Campaign

Published on November 10, 2016October 31, 2016 by Michele Category: Blog, Virtual Assistant

We all know that email marketing can be an effective marketing strategy to include in any marketing plan, but which email program should you use? Well, that depends on how many contacts you have and how technical you are planning on getting with your email marketing. I am going to give you a brief overview of 3 popular email programs that are available on the web today MailChimp, Aweber and Active Campaign.

MailChimp – Free and Paid Versions

I am sure you all have heard of MailChimp, right?

MailChimp has a Forever Free version that supports up to 2000 subscribers making it perfect for a new business just starting out with a minimal budget and no need for automation. If you are going to do only basic email marketing and have less than 2000 subscribers MailChimp’s Free version is a great deal and a good way to ease into email marketing. They of course also have paid versions which include more bells and whistles like automation (auto responders), e-commerce features, targeting features and more.

MailChimp is a fairly easy email marketing program to pick up and start using compared to the bigger ones like infusion soft. Don’t let MailChimp’s simplicity fool you though you can get technical with their segments and groups along with other features.

A couple of things that MailChimp could improve on though is allowing you can not send to more than one email list at a time like you can with other email programs. They also do not have phone or email customer service; they only offer their database of help topics.

Aweber – Offer a Free Trial

Aweber costs a little more money from the start than MailChimp. They do however offer a 30-day free trial so you can test out their program. With Aweber you don’t pay for the features you pay for the number of subscribers you have.

$20 for 500 subscribers
$29 for 501-2500 Subscribers
$49 for 2501-5000 Subscribers

Aweber is a pretty solid email program. They have numerous templates to use, automation, lots of integration possibilities, and more. Aweber may take a little longer to learn than MailChimp but if you get stuck they offer live chat and phone support during business hours and email after business hours along with their tutorial databases. They also have a design team that can help you design a template for specific for your business and they include over 3,000 stock photos that you can use.

Some of the cons I have with Aweber is their Automation is a little behind times compared to a program like Active Campaign. They do not integrate with Google Analytics. I also think that MailChimp has made it easier to learn their program and make a really good looking email than Aweber does.

Active Campaign – Free Trial

Active Campaign allows you to try their program out for free for 14 days for 100 subscribers and 100 emails. From there the price you will pay depends on how many contacts you have, whether you want customer support and what features you want.

The thing that Active Campaign has over MailChimp and Aweber is flexibility. There are more ways to segment, tag and group your contacts so that you can send specific automation to contacts depending on the actions they have taken. If you are using sales funnels to trying to sell your programs, Active Campaign makes it really easy to set up and have your sales funnels automated for you.

Before picking an email program, sit down and think about how you are going to use it and what features you think you are going to need. If you are a blogger who is not going to be selling any programs and have fewer than 2000 contact MailChimp’s free version would a good choice. If you have are selling webinars and ebooks and would like to have sales funnels set for these products a program like Active Campaign may be a better choice.

Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to be putting together some basic training videos to show you how to get started in each of these programs.

Remember if you don’t have the time or feel overwhelmed by email marketing, think about hiring a Virtual Assistant to do it for you.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments. I would love to hear from you.

5 Reasons Why Email Marketing Is Still Alive

Published on November 3, 2016October 31, 2016 by Michele Category: Blog, Marketing

There are several different avenues available to use to market your business and services including social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter), TV, radio, and newspapers. This may leave you wondering if email marketing is a marketing strategy that can still compete and prove to be beneficial in your marketing plan?

The answer to that question is, YES!

Why? You ask.

There are several reasons why your should include email marketing in your business, but here are 5 reasons of those reasons why:

Email Marketing Is Inexpensive
One of the best reasons to use email marketing is because it is inexpensive. Email marketing allows businesses to reach a large number of consumers at a rate of just pennies per message. For businesses that have a small budget, email marketing is a wise choice over traditional marketing channels like TV, radio, or direct mail. According to Exact Target, the average Return on Investment (ROI) on email marketing is 4300% a staggering $44 for every $1 spent. Need I say more?

The World Is At Your Fingertips
Email marketing gives you the possibility to expand your business across the globe. Think about that for a second...you can email anyone, from anywhere in the world. Who wouldn't want to expand their business worldwide?

Keep Your Customers Informed
What better way to send your clients information about your services, products, and more all delivered to their inbox and available to them when they are ready to read it. With nearly 50% of consumers wanting to receive weekly information from businesses they are interested in, it would be a shame to let them down. Keep in mind that they have already signed up to receive your emails so they are interested in what you do. The important thing is to keep your emails informative, short and not overly promotional. If all you are doing is trying to sell, your subscribers are sure to unsubscribe.

Measurable Results
It is easy to measure your email marketing success with the various tools and apps available. For example, you can measure the click-through rate and see how your customers arrived on your website. I will go over other ways to measure results in another blog.

Email Marketing is Effective
Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter (McKinsey). When you publish a post on Facebook roughly 10% or less or your followers will see your post, with Email Marketing, the average open rate is around to 20% (MailChimp).

Having a diverse Marketing Plan and utilizing as many platforms as possible will help you attract all different kinds of people from all different areas of the world.

If email marketing scares you or you feel you don't have the time to do it, consider hiring a Virtual Assistant or Marketing Assistant to complete your marketing tasks.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below. I would love to hear your thoughts.

QuickBooks Sale!

Published on May 5, 2015 by Michele Category: Virtual Assistant

QuickBooks is running a Cinco de Mayo sale that I want to pass on to you! If you sign up with me in the next 3 days I can save you 30%-50% off the life of your subscription to QuickBooks. Drop me an email at michele@rvvirtualofficesolutions.com or call (608)284-8259 for details.