I thought I was the only one who didn’t know.
For over two years I have been sending out email newsletters to individuals and churches who support our missionary work. But, I did it in the most inefficient way.
Here is my old procedure for sending large group emails:
- Hand out a piece of paper and have people write down their contact information.
- I would then enter it into my windows contacts program associated with Windows Mail.
- Next, I would break the list into groups of 25 (limit imposed by Windows Mail).
- Send out the newsletter to eight different mailing list groups.
- Go through all the change my email address requests and ‘mail undeliverable’ errors.
- Hope that I didn’t have to go through the process again.
I thought I was the only one who didn’t know about email services until just this week a friend said he had no idea. I decided that this information is worthy of a post.
Easy, Efficient Ways To Send Emails to Groups: MailChimp, Aweber, and Constant Contact
In my research, two mail services continued to surface as industry leaders – MailChimp and Aweber.
The Advantages of Aweber and MailChimp:
- Individuals help maintain the list by subscribing, unsubscribing, and updating email addresses.
- Easy to customize email templates.
- Simple, hassle free emailing to recipients.
- Easy to set up subscribe forms or links to email to current subscribers.
- Ability to upload current subscriber list (users may need to confirm their email address).
Both MailChimp and Aweber Are Recommended For …
- Church email communication lists
- Missionary report emails
- Non-profit emailing lists
- Frequent personal group emails
Pricing Comparison Between MailChimp and Aweber
| Subscribers | MailChimp | Aweber |
| 0-500 | Free * | $19 |
| 501-2500 | $30 | $29 |
| 2501-5000 | $50 | $49 |
| 5001-10000** | $75 | $69 |
* Limit of 3,000 emails per month with MailChimp.
** Both plans offer services beyond 10,000 subscribers, but I figured if you are emailing more than 10,000 people, you already know about all this stuff.
Because of the free service for under 500 subscribers, I am currently using MailChimp. However, if I were emailing over 500 people I would likely use the Aweber service as it has a much better affiliate program.
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There are also discounts for non-profits and charities.
If you are still maintaining your own mailing list and sending out mass emails to people or groups, I highly recommend you check out these mail services.
Are you receiving emails from a missionary or non-profit? Why not ask them if they are using a mail service? It will save them a lot of time and hassle so they can focus on more important things associated with their work.
Do you have a newsletter service that you use and recommend?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I have used Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) for a couple of years. Many of the same characteristics. I like the scheduling ability, ability to have people in different groups and the fact that a link can be placed on my website for people to sign up. Pricing is much the same as aweber. They do offer discounts if you elect to pay for 6 mo or a year at a time. The discount is 30% to non prophets who pay annually.
Having said that I will check out mailchimp as my list is much less than 500.
This is very good info. I also have heard of constant contact that was mentioned by @jarthurford, and icontact, but I am really interested in MailChimp. I have never looked into them before since I assumed they were pricey. Now that I know that it’s free I will have to look into it!
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I’ve used Streamsend for one of my newsletter for a couple years. I am starting my new site / newsletter with Aweber and love it so much I will be migrating my other newsletter to them as well.
If you think you will grow past 500 subscribers and want to use Aweber, I’d encourage you start with Aweber NOW. They do not allow you to import lists from another service without your subscribers having to opt-in again….when this happens you are likely to lose 30% or more of your readers because they will not perform this action.
There are other advantages to Aweber that will probably grow on you (reporting, split tests, auto responders etc), but as far as the basic functions, most of the services operate relatively the same…assuming their deliverable rate is comparable.
Kita
I’ve been struggling with what to do about this for a while, but I think you solved my dilemma for me. Thanks Craig!
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Thanks for the info Craig! Much needed, if I sign up with Aweber, I will use your link…
Lakita,
Thanks for you comment. You had a lot of good points.
As for as starting out with Aweber, I think you need to know what you plan to do with your list. I anticipate it will take me over a year to grow my list to 500. In that time I’ll save over $300. If someone won’t confirm an email address when I change they are not likely to be active readers anyway. If I was aggressively building a mailing list then Aweber would probably be a better choice.
By the way, MailChimp also allows you to do reporting, split tests, and auto responders. Both seem like great services, but I’ve only used MailChimp.
Nice try… putting up that affiliate marketing link for Aweber and not even linking to the Mailchimp website. Not exactly a fair omparison. Then again, I expect nothing less from a Christian website.
@Arne
Thanks for pointing that out. I’m actually an affiliate for both Aweber and Mailchimp so it is my loss that I forgot to link MailChimp.
I’m not sure what neglecting to link something has to do with being a Christian.