In this blog I’m going to talk about the best email marketing platforms for your business, why MailChimp isn’t so good and some Mailchimp alternatives for you. Chances you found blog because you are searching for Mailchimp alternatives for one of the following reasons:
- You had your Mailchimp account ban without any warning.
- You were a victim of Mailchimp’s high price.
- You’ve exceeded Mailchimp’s free subscriber limit and realized that Mailchimp is expensive for what you get.
Now I’m not gonna lie. I’m actually not a huge fan of Mailchimp and I would never, ever recommend their service to anyone. And if you know me at all, I’m rarely this passionate towards any company ever now. Over the years, the quality of Mailchimp service has continued to deteriorate despite significant price increases. Now it may be tempting, but you should not sign up for Mailchimp just because of their free 2 thousand subscriber Plan. The money you save from their free service will cost you a lot more money in the long run. And here are six email marketing services that I’ve personally used for blogging and Ecommerce that are way better than Mailchimp and cheaper too.
Mailchimp Alternatives for Bloggers
Drip: Tailored for Bloggers
As an email marketing aficionado, Drip stands out as my top choice. Though slightly pricier, its advanced features make it worth every penny. The lead score system is a game-changer for segmentation, and its automated workflows ensure a hands-free management experience. Drip’s advanced tagging and segmentation engine outshine its competitors, providing unparalleled customization and flexibility.
ConvertKit: Bloggers Delight
Built with bloggers in mind, ConvertKit strikes the perfect balance between price and features. Its user-friendly interface simplifies the email marketing process, making it an excellent choice for those tech-averse. With the ability to tag subscribers based on their interests and automatic tagging from link clicks, ConvertKit is a no-brainer for bloggers seeking simplicity without sacrificing functionality.
Aweber: The Old School Affordable Option
Considered the old school champ, Aweber has retained its position for being budget-friendly. While lacking in innovation compared to its counterparts, it’s the cheapest option in the lineup. Aweber is the go-to choice if you prioritize affordability over a sleek user interface or advanced features.
Mailchimp Alternatives for Ecommerce
Now, if you’re running an e-commerce store, Mailchimp’s flaws become even more apparent. Shopify compatibility issues and lackluster support make it a definite “no go.” Instead, consider these top-notch alternatives:
Klaviyo
Now most people who run in e-commerce store sell many products online. So for example, my Online store carries over 400 and 80 skews spread out across multiple product categories and the main advantage of klaviyo is that it allows you to track the sales of every single product in your store so you can easily create targeted customer segments at a push of a button. So let’s say you wanna send out an email to every customer who purchased a girl’s dungaree in the past 30 days. Easy, if you want to isolate your best customers based on lifetime value.
Klaviyo allows you to easily create a segment of your highest converting customers. So it is for this reason that I personally use Klaviyo to run email marketing for my clients ecommerce store. Right now there’s actually no comparison to any other service now. Running email campaigns for an e-commerce store is actually far different than a blog because you have to market many different products online. As a result, you need the ability to dynamically generate your emails.
So Klaviyo also comes with a number of automated email AUTO responder sequences out of the box that can be implemented at a push of a button. So for example, you can run an abandoned cart campaign. Customers who begin checkout but do not complete their order are automatically sent dynamically generated emails with exact photos of what it was in their shopping cart. Similarly, you can run a browse abandonment campaign, so customers who look at products but don’t buy are sent dynamically generated emails with the products that they looked at. You can also run a wingback campaign. Customers who have not purchased in a while can be automatically sent promotions to entice them to buy again.
You can also run a Thank You campaign. New customers can be sent a series of emails enticing them to leave reviews and share your store on social media. You can also run cross-sell campaigns. Customers can be automatically shown related or complementary products based on what they purchased. And finally, you can also send a repeat customer thank You campaign. Repeat customers can be automatically sent special promotions to promote loyalty and repeat purchases now when it comes to e-commerce AUTO responders.
What is unique about Klaviyo is that it can dynamically pull in product photos from your store to improve conversions. And here’s an example email from my shop where Klaviyo is pulled in the contents of my shopping cart when I abandon the cart. But the key feature about klaviyo is that it has custom audience integration with Facebook. Now if you run Facebook ads for your ecommerce store, then Klaviyo’s automatic custom audience integration is a game changer. Klaviyo can automatically create Facebook custom audiences based on any email segment that you create, and the best part is that these custom audiences are. Dynamically updated. So, for example, if I create a Facebook custom audience of customers who purchase girl’s dungaree, this audience is automatically updated every time a girl’s dungaree is purchased, and this allows me to easily synchronize my Facebook ads with my email campaigns. And right now, whenever I send out an abandoned cart email, a Facebook ad is simultaneously run to the exact same customer, and this feature in itself is so powerful.
Now I talked about klaviyo just now and while klaviyo is the best email marketing solution for e-commerce hands down, the one disadvantage is that it is a little bit expensive, so if you don’t need Klaviyo’s entire feature set, there’s actually cheaper alternatives.
Privy
Privy offers a Bare Bonus email marking solution for ecommerce that is less than 50 percent the cost of klaviyo. But bare Bonus is a little bit of a misnomer out of the box. Privy offers all the basic auto responders that you need like abandoned cart and wingback campaigns. In addition, you can send broadcast to segments of customers based on their behavior. Now the main difference is that previous segmentation features are not as powerful as Klaviyo and they don’t offer Facebook custom audience integration.
But if you are on a budget then signing up for privy is a great option. So hopefully this overview is helpful. Features aside, all the six email marking solutions that I just mentioned are superior to Mailchimp because they offer phone, email and chat support. You can actually speak with a human when you have problems with your account. They also won’t ban you without any warning. Most of the providers above will warn you ahead of time if your emails are exceeding their spam thresholds. Instead of just canceling your account, they all offer affiliate marketing so you can email your customers about whatever you like without restrictions.
But overall keep this in mind, the tone of this blog is anti-mailchimp and for good reason. But I’ve actually been doing email marketing for over a year now and I’m just sick and tired of people signing for Mailchimp only because of their free plan.
If cost is your primary concern, go with Aweber or Convert. And once you look closely at mailchimp’s different plans, you’ll soon realize that Mailchimp offers far less features at inflated price, and out of all the options presented in this video, here’s an executive summary, use drip if you want the best email marketing platform out there when cost is not a factor, use convertkit if you want a good balance of price versus features, and use Ameer if you are on a budget now. If you run an e-commerce store, klaviyo is by far the best email marketing service for ecommerce. But if you are on a budget, try privy, which is a great email marking solution for e-commerce store owners on a budget, good luck with your email marketing.
If you need any help in setting up your ecommerce store then hit me up.
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