Through my website and online ordering, I have collected over 700 email addresses but have yet to start any email marketing. I spent some time playing with Constant Contact but could not seem to use their templates. My web designer wants $159 monthly to do two emails a month with the same page, just different text for each email. Does anyone have a company they use that has a good graphic design department and good prices? I’m not interested in trying to create my own pages but don’t want to keep sending out the same email over and over. Any suggestions?
Mailchimp seems to be fairly intuitive and has quite a few templates that allow for some variety in the way the header and message look. You can tool around on the site and send out some test emails for free (until you upload your full email list).
Fishbowl might be another one to look at on the web. I haven’t used it yet but may be switching over with my new online ordering site since the two are integrated.
Edit: As far as a site that offers graphic design at reasonable prices, I think that Loyal Rewards does all the work for you but charges per email sent out. Still, will not cost $150ish buck per month.
Thanks Brad, I will give Loyal Rewards a try.
Hey Paul, Im using Loyal Rewards and am very happy with the service and the price. You pretty much call in and tell them what you want to offer and in about 5-10 mins you have a proof. Once you approve it you give them a time and date (or Immediately ) and they send it out. Hope it helps.
I contacted Loyal Rewards after Brads recommendation and just approved an email that was sent out a couple minutes ago. Very easy company to work with. So far, dealing with them has been nothing but positive! AAA+++
I use iContact but their model is like ConstantContact.
Look into Murgent. I used them before switching to iContact where I do my own designs. They can supply you with forms for people to fill out and then all you do is send them in and they input them, design your emails and send them out.
Hey Paul, Just curious . What kind of response are you getting on the email promotion?
I received 9 orders using the special that I emailed. I sent 402 emails out. I used a pretty aggressive offer so I was hoping for a better response. I did have the highest online ordering sales the same day I sent the offer. I included a link to my website so I can only imagine this is why the online ordering was up.
Does Loyal Rewards give you any kind of tracking data?
For example, my Mailchimp account tells me things like how many e-mails were opened, bounced, unopened and the click rate of links I stick in the email just to name a few. You can even use google analytics to track e-commerce (which would be wonderful if I could ever figure out how to get it to work properly).
I’m starting to feel I’d be willing to pay a bit more to have a contact at the e-mail company who could set up the things I can’t figure out (i.e. - google analytics).
I didn’t want to start a new thread for something that has already been discussed quite a bit.
Does anyone have any new information or preferences on email marketing? I’m looking into Emma, Constant Contact or IContact. I’ve used Emma before on a non-profit that I help with. They have some cool tools to track things but the prices of the other two are a lot cheaper since I’ll be sending less than 500 per month for awhile.
I figure that anything will be better than my current method of attaching a PDF to a BCC’d list.
I’ve been happy with Constant Contact. I’ve been using them for a few years now. I have also used http://www.getresponse.com in the past for another business and was happy with them as well.
I like the iContact route as its cheap and easy to maintain. You really only have to set up an email once and then just change the text for each new mailing. No reason to make one from scratch each time.
Personally, I do not like working with designers and going back and forth with proofs. With iContact, or other similar companies, I can just sit down “once” and get it done and be on to my next project.