I've used quite a few different online programs for sending out, tracking, and managing email newsletters including
emailbrain,
Constant Contact, and
Vertical Response but have siwtched all of my clients over to Vertical Response for a number of reasons:
*
Vertical Response does not charge a monthly fee for 'membership' - you just pay for however many 'credits' you want (1 credit = 1 email)
*Their price per email is excellent, even when you're buying smaller numbers of credits.
*They will give you 100 credits free to try out the program when you sign up (also free - again, no fee to register and no monthly fees)
*They adhere to the spam laws and help users maintain their own adherence with a system that automatically removes an unsubscribe from ALL mailing lists in an account.
*Excellent stats reporting on bounces, unsubs, opens, and link clicks
*Inudstrywide stats comparison (so you can see how your own response rates compares to those in your industry or niche.)
*Freeform HTML templates (for clients who want custom coded newsletter templates that match the design of their site perfectly) - the only drawback here is that the file size limit for HTML code is 31K and it counts the stylesheet as part of that size (even if the stylesheet is hosted on your own server and not in the actual HTML of the template itself.) For larger newsletters you have to get creative with codepacking and abbreviated tags to try not to go over the max....but all in all the best freeform program I've used for creating custom newsletters/templates.
*A wide range of ready-made templating, border, and design options for those who just want to 'plug in' their text rather than creating a custom template.
*Future scheduling of newsletters - so you can get it ready ahead of time and set it to send any time/date you prefer.
*Quick and easy opt-in box creation with code you simply copy and paste into your site so that people can sign up/subscribe to your/your client's newsletter with a click. Also allows for up to 10 custom information fields above and beyond address, phone, email, company, position, etc.
*Has a great system/program for setting up and sending out postcards via snailmail...a great and relatively inexpensive marketing tool.
*You can download your contact lists in XL sheets with different types of data and info including date, type of opt in (manual or double opt in), status (unsub, bounce, active, etc.) and much more.
There are
so many reasons we prefer
Vertical Response to the other two programs I mentioned...I've listed just a few here.
The ONLY real drawback I've found is that their customer support is pretty bad about answering questions...I've emailed them twice with no reply at all. They do have a live chat function for support but since I'm abroad it's always turned off.
Fortunately, the system is pretty straightforward and very easy to use and understand...my questions were not related to a problem with their program...
Re: Vertical Response - email newsletter campaign program
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