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You can keep recipients updated with new products and service initiatives, and provide them with helpful information and advice. Email marketing is proven as being one of the most cost-effective elements in your marketing mix giving great results and return on investment.
There are a number of 3rd party email marketing self-service solutions available today that are ideal for SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprises) to use to issue emails and also to manage your database.
Here’s the low down on two of the most popular and accessible solutions on the market…
Constant Contact is a US email marketing solution that is popular amongst companies in the UK. It’s reporting and analysis abilities are unrivalled ensuring full transparency of campaigns and easy access to detailed information.
Designing emails is easy by using Constant Contact’s standard templates. Simply drag and drop content blocks into your desired location and upload images to illustrate your articles. Or for something completely bespoke and tailored to your business, simply import your own HTML code.
Whichever design option you choose, Constant Contact enables your campaign to be integrated with your social network marketing activity, helping you to widen your social circles and benefiting your overall online presence. Spam checkers are in place to test new emails as they are created including mobile email test functions.
Email sign-up widgets are easy to install and use on blogs and websites helping you to grow your contact lists - we use one on our blog page...
Constant Contact is also an effective tool for managing your data. It lets you set up multiple lists enabling you to segment your data and target your groups with tailored messages as required. Any bounce-backs are clearly logged with reason codes enabling you to keep cleansing your data and improving future results.
After investing your time and effort into preparing your emails, you’ll certainly want to find out how successful they have been. As soon as your email has been delivered, Constant Contact starts to report the results, clearly stating the number of emails opened and the number of recipients who have clicked through to your website. You can also drill down into the statistics to find out who’s interested in different elements of your business.
Customer service and support from the Constant Contact team is also fantastic. The UK based team hold regular local roadshows, webinars and issue regular hints and tips by email to help you keep refining and improving your email campaigns for the future.
Many apps and third-party integration services (API's) are available being well promoted on the main website.
Whilst the service is not free, new subscribers can take advantage of a 1 month free trial with unlimited email contacts. Price banding by number of email contacts is clear and simple to understand, and you do pay extra, if required, for bigger image collections with MyLibrary Plus, EventSpot for promoting events, Social Campaigns for running Facebook offers, SaveLocal for promotional voucher campaigns, Surveys and Archiving
Ease of use 8/10
Design templates 7/10
Value for money 7/10
List management 8/10
Reporting and campaign analysis 8/10
Apps and API's 8/10
Additional services 8 /10
Overall 8/10
MailChimp is another popular choice of email system in the UK and is completely free for businesses with less than 2,000 email subscribers.
Similar to Constant Contact, it is relatively straight forward to set up emails using their bank of design templates or you can produce your own HTML code and import it into the system. Manipulating the email templates isn’t quite as easy or as flexible at Constant Contact but is effective if you just want to send something simple.
Pop-up previews let you test the look and feel of emails on mobile devices, plus many templates have mobile optimisation built-in.
Managing your data is also easy with MailChimp. You can segment your data into different lists and issue tailored emails to a specific list or send a general email to everyone. Bounce-backs are recorded with reasons why, enabling you to continually cleanse your data.
As with Constant Contact, MailChimp provides you with reports so you can see how successful your campaign has been. Results are reported in a graphical format which you can click into and drill down further. Whilst we found the Constant Contact reports to be more informative and presented in a more user-friendly format, the MailChimp dashboard is more user-friendly giving you at-a-glance information.
Lots of apps and third-party integrations are available for MailChimp meaning the service is multi-functional across lots of web platforms.
If you get stuck designing your email, MailChimp offers support via a raft of online guides, videos and Q&As which seem to cover all bases.
Ease of use 7/10
Design templates 7/10
Value for money 8/10
List management 8/10
Reporting and campaign analysis 8/10
Apps and API's 8/10
Additional services 4 /10
Overall 7/10
You can view more information about our email marketing services and request a quote by contacting us via our website or calling 0800 849 0888.
We’d love to hear about your experiences of the different email marketing platforms on the market.
Article by: Tim Bennett
myCloud Media | Yorkshire Web Designers
Thank you for contacting us.
We will reply to you in the next 24-48 hours.
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