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Cannot decide which service to use to send bulk newsletters

by Clandog Banned
12 replies
My old website that i had had built had a form with an auto responder that went out from my server rather than using a third party service. That was real dumb, because now i have about 40000 emails and i have to take each and put it into an xls sheet.

So now I am looking for a third party service provider I can use, but there are so many... there is Mailchimp, Aweber, Icontact, etc...

Instead of learning the hard way, again, can someone PLEASE PLEASE tell me which one is better and why? I know for some its just personal preference, but I have none as I don't know any of them... I signed up for the free trials and all seem equally confusing so I will need to play with it some more. So please let me know and fyi if it helps, the 40000+ contacts I got was from postings I had done related to selling computers. I don't know if that makes much of a difference, but please let me know.

Thank you so much in advance
#bulk #decide #newsletters #send #service
  • Profile picture of the author Romeo90
    I have used Mailchimp, and for some reason did not find it user friendly (maybe it was just me).

    I then switched to aweber, and it is the best thing I have ever done. Simple UI, easy to understand, gives you lots of templates, easy to integrate forms, easily able to edit them, rates your email content on a spammy level, and I do believe it has a high delivery rate (I.e does not go into spam folders of subscribers email client)

    I have a list <1000, and it costs $19 a month. It's possibly the best 19 bucks I spend on IM every month, as it has easily paid for itself 100's of times over.

    But I am sorry, I cannot offer a valid opinion on the others, as I haven't used them.
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    • Profile picture of the author sonicadam123
      Originally Posted by Romeo90 View Post

      I have used Mailchimp, and for some reason did not find it user friendly (maybe it was just me).

      I then switched to aweber, and it is the best thing I have ever done. Simple UI, easy to understand, gives you lots of templates, easy to integrate forms, easily able to edit them, rates your email content on a spammy level, and I do believe it has a high delivery rate (I.e does not go into spam folders of subscribers email client)

      I have a list <1000, and it costs $19 a month. It's possibly the best 19 bucks I spend on IM every month, as it has easily paid for itself 100's of times over.

      But I am sorry, I cannot offer a valid opinion on the others, as I haven't used them.
      It's not just you, I found the exact same thing with Mail Chimp and it really put me off because at the time I had no experience with auto responders.

      I then tried Mad Mimi, and while the price was good and the support was amazing ... it was a little bit more user friendly than Mail Chimp but the difference was marginal.

      My next port of call was Aweber, bit more expensive than Mad Mimi, but you get what you pay for .... and it's so easy to set up. Well worth the investment.
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  • Profile picture of the author Clandog
    Banned
    I am leaning more towards Aweber and constant contact. I just wish it would create the whole bloody squeeze page rather than just a dumb form, lol.
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    • Profile picture of the author Billy Levin
      Originally Posted by Clandog View Post

      I am leaning more towards Aweber and constant contact. I just wish it would create the whole bloody squeeze page rather than just a dumb form, lol.
      To be honest there are plenty of squeeze pages out there. I've found several decent squeeze pages that were free to download. Alternatively, you could purchase one; they don't cost an exorbitant amount.
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      • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
        Another vote for AWeber if you're looking for a reliable
        third-party autoresponder service.

        There are many reasons I recommend them...

        Their support and training materials are excellent.

        They've been in business since 1998 and focus only on
        autoresponders so they're great at them.

        They are also the most popular autoresponder used by
        Internet Marketers so they are the first to be integrated
        with other software like membership sites, WordPress
        plugins, etc.

        If you don't want to create your own squeeze pages
        and your site uses WordPress, then consider getting
        the OptimizePress theme:

        Optimize Press | Pro Internet Marketing Tools (no affil.)

        I hope that helps you.

        Dedicated to mutual success,

        Shaun
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        • Profile picture of the author Clandog
          Banned
          COOL THANKS!! YES, I DO USE OPTIMIZE PRESS... okay aweber is the way then, thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author Clandog
    Banned
    Thank you for that advise and I have been doing that, but I need a way to stay in touch and email them as well. That's my issue
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  • Profile picture of the author IMHunter
    Aweber is awesome for this! I have been using them and had a great experience with them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Clandog View Post

    fyi if it helps, the 40000+ contacts I got was from postings I had done related to selling computers. I don't know if that makes much of a difference, but please let me know.
    So you have an existing list of 40,000+ people whom you want to import into an autoresponder? This makes your question a very specific one.

    You'll need to discuss "importing lists" in detail with any decent autoresponder company worth using, because they tend (understandably) to handle such situations very much on a case-by-case basis.

    If it helps, the two I'd approach, in your position, are Aweber and GetResponse.
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    • Profile picture of the author joseph7384
      [DELETED]
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      • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
        Originally Posted by joseph7384 View Post

        I've always been under the assumption that Aweber does not allow importing of lists.
        AWeber will allow you to import lists:

        How Do I Import a List of Subscribers? :: AWeber Knowledge Base (no affil.)

        You can import your list without requiring confirmation
        if you have a full audit path for every subscriber.

        If you don't have a full audit path for your subscribers,
        then you can import your list but they will first be sent
        a confirmation e-mail to be sure that only people who
        want to join the list will be added.

        Dedicated to mutual success,

        Shaun
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        • Profile picture of the author The Offline Oracle
          Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

          You can import your list without requiring confirmation if you have a full audit path for every subscriber.
          How do you do this? I'm migrating from a PC based solution to Aweber for a client and I'd prefer not to have all their subscribers opt in again.

          Do I need to provide this audit path to Aweber somehow?
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