Hi,I am getting ready to relaunch our company website and wordpress blog.  I have really learned a lot over the last 6 months of taking classes and following sites like this.  We have a real estate company and I need any help or  suggestions as to which email service I should go with.  I don’t want to have to change after I get one set up so I want to make sure the one I choose I will be happy with for the long term.  I think I am leaning towards Aweber.  Does anyone have anything they would be willing to share in regards to choosing.

@lanawaller

I’ve used all 3.  Personally, I don’t like Aweber.  It’s just something about the UI that doesn’t flow well.

Constant Contact is nice (if you click the link you can get $30).  I use it for a lot of client communications.  Plus they have a lot of really cool add-ons like Social Campaigns, Surveys and an event promotion tool.  I’m actually on their Small Biz Council.  We provide feedback to improve the service for small businesses.

Mailchimp is also really nice.  Really super easy to set up campaigns and it’s probably the easiest platform to learn how to use because of their amazing job at putting out resources including free online training sessions.

Don’t forget about Campaign Monitor The have a great service and an interface that is SO very easy to use. If you have a budget that can accommodate their prices they are my #1 recommendation.

I haven’t used Aweber so I can’t say anything about them.Mailchimp is a great service as well, and very economical.Constant Contact seems to be very popular, but the fact that you pay for a service and they STILL advertise their branding at the bottom of each campaign is really inappropriate. That alone is reason enough for me to not recommend them.

Cheers!
Juels

I’ve just chosen Mail Chimp and agree with the great training support.

It does NOT give cash to affiliates, only “referral credits,” so I think that’s why you’ll see most internet marketers steer you toward Aweber or Constant Contact… as they pay good commissions.

That being said, I like the free 2,000 subscriber deal with Mailchimp, though the free 12,000 month limit is a bit limiting… if you want it all for FREE, lol. (I just love me some freebies)!

And though I haven’t totally researched it, it looks like it’s cheaper than others once you leap over the free limit.

@edwindeleeuw I just checked out Wysija and it looks great.  Have you used it?  I use MailChimp now and I love it, but this looks like it definitely would be the easiest solution if you use Wordpress.  Anyone else have any feedback on this?

@edwindeleeuw Okay, thanks for the info.  I’ll test it out and we can compare notes!

@dianebianchi  @lanawaller    As a WordPress web developer, in the past I’ve used an email plug-in like Wysija. It worked perfectly. The only issue that I saw with the direct from WordPress email is if for some reason my email was reported as spam and the spam to legit email percentage was too high. Then my hosting service could possibly shut down my website for spam. (Just like a MailChimp account would be.)  That’s why I always will use a 3rd party service like MailChimp.

Lana, don’t know if you’ve made your decision yet but I used Constant Contact and enjoyed it, especially the event program but changed to mailchimp because of the free service for a small list. @lanawaller

I use Aweber and also love their customer service. I didn’t go with Constant Contact because of the idea of advertising them on the bottom of my emails. I have thought of Mail Chimp to recommend to some of my clients, but heard that their terms of service frown on sales emails and they could close your account if someone accused you of spam. Can anyone verify that for me? I wouldn’t want to spend the time building a list only to lose it because I went for a free service.

You should look at InfusionSoft, if you are serious about doing ongoing email marketing campaigns. 

On a related topic, what do people use for their shopping carts? I have been using 1 Shopping Cart but find it way too expensive for the few products (digital) I sell.  I also find it cumbersome to use and the customer service is terrible.  (Their training videos are far from adequate.) The advantage is that it is an “all-in-one” service so it provides not only the shopping cart but auto responders as well.

InfusionSoft is way too expensive for those of us who have small lists or who have few products.

Any other options out there?

thanks!

Great selection.  I’ve used them for over a year now and its been great.  Just started also using Infusionsoft and it’s very easy to transfer contacts when ready for that transition. 

In term of revenue models. I agree Aweber gets a lot of referrals from IMers because they pay affiliate revenue. But MailChimp get a lot of referrals from everyone else because they offer a generous free plan. There’s really no difference, you pay for it in the end either way, they are both spending a lot of money on customer acquisition. 

I use MailChimp and to be honest I’ve played around with A Weber because my app integrates with it and I was utterly shocked at the interface. It is truly horrible and somehow recently they have made it worse. If someone brought out a new product these days that looked like that they would be a laughing stock. They do have some features that MailChimp don’t have and perhaps others don’t care about the user design and experience as much as I do but personally I would never be paying money for something that looks and feels as horrible as that. 

We use most of the products mentioned in this discussion and currently my favorites are:

INFUSIONSOFT – hands done the best decision I’ve made in the past 12 months was to step away from Salesforce.com and sign up with Infusionsoft. I love the fact that you can set up email campaigns that are dynamic enough to give your customer a ‘pick your own adventure’ experience. When set up correctly (and this takes for-EVER mind you…) it never becomes a drag for your customers and it doesn’t feel like they are being sold to en-masse.

I love the fact that you have your customer data, mailing list and ecommerce capability in one system. This gives a solid and consistent look and feel to the customers and prospects.

It also tracks your no-opt in, single opt-in and double opt-in clients to ensure only your double opt-in clients receive broadcast emails, faxes or text messages. I like that… 

Sometimes I cheat and I create broadcast emails with iContact because I like their choice in templates and find their user interface really easy to work with.

Hope this helps.

@drpam |  I’ve heard good things about Zen Cart (its free).  Here are some other free one’s  http://hellboundbloggers.com/2010/05/21/free-open-source-shopping-carts/

Great points @Davidv.

I tend to go with the Gravity Forms + MailChimp combo for new clients starting to grow their lists.  I consider Constant Contact to be the “big gun” and recommend it to clients with lists of 3K+.  As others have already mentioned their new local deals and events add-ons make it an attractive option to clients who can benefit from the extra features.

aweber, because it was the only one I had heard of at the time