I was setting up a new marketing campaign for a client in a free Mailchimp account to demonstrate (and get them used to) the idea of email marketing and how powerful of a tool it is.
BUT Mailchimp has pulled out all the whistles and bells for this level and the platform now sucks BECAUSE they want to charge an arm and a leg for nothing in comparison to what other platforms offer.
That set me on a journey to find a reasonable solution (and I did).
My necessary platform parameters:
1) Free Trial for a new/starter account for approx 500 contacts
2) Should have the minimum necessary elements ACTIVE to create an effective “starter” email marketing campaign which should include the ability to have:
a) 1 – short “We’ve Received Your Request/Thank You” Email
b) 1 – “Nice To Meet You,” this is how you can contact us for more info/support email
c) 1 – “Here is the information you’ve requested” – download link – email
d) Provide you the ability to measure and track your emails statistics.
Bonus Points for having the ability to implement and use: Tagging, Segmenting, Triggering, Functional Automation Workflows, Templates with a html & text editor.
NOTE: I love Active Campaign. But they do not have a “free” starter plan. This is the tool we “transition” to once we’ve identified the actual ROI for the time/money investment required to set it up and get it running.
During my research and testing over the past few weeks, I came across the MailerLite.com platform. It has everything mentioned above (free to start) AND the User Interface is fantastic, the tutorials are fantastic, and it just works. It was a breeze to set up, it was harder to write the beginning email sequences that it was to get it up and running.
This is where it gets even better.
You get a 14 day trail period of ALL the “premium features” and then it limits some of it’s functionality. To re-unlock this – it’s only 10.00 a month for up to 1000 contacts Note: This platform does not have sms capaibility built in – the only feature missing from this platform BUT it does integrate with Zapier).
AND The premium features it limits – you don’t need these to get started. After you have your first 1000 contacts, and you can measure what is going on, then you can decide how to grow to the “next level” with all the whistles and bells (of things you probably don’t really need at this point).
If you have been wondering if email marketing is worth it – YES it is.
MailerLite is a great place to start your testing. The price is right and the features are fantastic (and it actually works out of the gate).
If you would like some help setting up a testing email marketing campaign, give me a call and lets talk. Schedule a time here: https://bookme.name/wesleyharrison