My Review Of 4 Email Marketing Services For Bloggers

My Review Of 4 Email Marketing Services For Bloggers

Email marketing is the secret sauce to making money blogging.

If you’re a pro blogger, you already know this. It’s often said that “the money is in the list,” which refers to the email list.

If you’re a new blogger, take note – you need to start captures emails asap. No other metric is more important that your email list (more on that here). If you haven’t started a blog yet, here’s my tutorial on how to start a blog.

I had such a significant uptick in income when I switched from MailChimp to ConvertKit that I want to walk through four different email services with you so you can make the best decision for your blog. It’s too important not to.

Here’s a look at the four best email marketing services for bloggers.

1. ConverKit

ConvertKit is the email platform I use now.

It is the reason my email list is over 25,000 subscribers. I did this in under two years, while it took me an entire year just to get to 1,700 subscribers with MailChimp.

The reason for this is that ConvertKit makes it so easy for you to capture emails from your readers. It’s easy to put forms on your site, set up sequences (which are a must), and create and send emails. The customer service is fantastic, and because it was founded by a blogger for bloggers, everything works smoothly and makes sense. It’s the best email platform out there.

One downside is that it’s a paid service. Another downside is the limited control over subscribers. For example, if you want to delete users who haven’t opened an email in a year, you can’t. You can only delete “cold” subscribers, which is defined by ConvertKit.

However, it’s still the best platform out there and will make your life easier and help you monetize much faster.

ConvertKit Details:

• $29 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers (followed by increases at specific subscriber levels)
• Unlimited emailing for the price you pay
• Includes forms, sequences, and automations for your website
• Designed by a blogger for bloggers
• Incredibly intuitive and easy to use
• Limited subscriber management
• Advanced list segmentation and tagging features
• Good customer service

I recommend ConvertKit for signing up for an email platform because you will be able to grow your email list most effectively with ConvertKit, which will largely contribute to your ability to make money blogging. I use ConvertKit and highly recommend it over all other platforms.

2. MailChimp

MailChimp is the email platform that I started my blog with. It’s free, which is the biggest selling point.

You can’t use affiliate links inside Mailchimp emails. This is really strange and I’m not sure why. But it’s good to know ahead of time. If you plan to make money blogging, you shouldn’t use Mailchimp.

Another downside is that you can only send 12,000 emails per month, which means you won’t be able to send more than 3 emails per week if you have 1,000 subscribers.

Finally, the free version of Mailchimp is only up to 2,000 subscribers. Once you get up to 2,000 subscribers you’ll have to switch to a paid version anyways, and at that point I’d definitely want a better platform if you’re going to pay for one.

MailChimp Details:

• Free up to 2,000 subscribers
• Can send up to 12,000 emails per month
• Includes forms, sequences, and automations for your website
• Not created specifically for bloggers, so there are many options that make the platform somewhat overwhelming and not intuitive to use
• More difficult to edit and send multiple emails
• More difficult to incorporate many forms and sequences

If you absolutely must sign up for a free email platform, then I recommend MailChimp. This would be best only if you are a brand new blogger. However, be aware that your blog income is largely determined by your email list, and you’ll be very limited with MailChimp.

3. AWeber

AWeber is the OG of email marketing (aka the original gangster) for bloggers. I say this because it was one of the first well-known and widely used companies for email marketing for bloggers. But now, many people have moved away to a more customizable and targeted software specifically for bloggers. AWeber hasn’t adopted many of the segmentation features that are necessary for bloggers who want to send emails to different people on their lists. AWeber is a paid platform, and will likely be a bit less expensive for you compared to ConvertKit; however, if you’re going to pay for a platform, you might want to consider the added value of the features you’re getting.

Aweber Details:

• Free trial for 30 days
• $19 per month for up to 500 subscribers (followed by increases at specific subscriber levels)
• Unlimited emailing for the price you pay
• Includes forms, sequences, and automations for your website
• Advanced subscriber management available
• Limited segmentation features
• Not entirely customizable and intuitive for bloggers

AWeber is still a leading company when it comes to email marketing, but if you’re a newer blogger or looking to make a switch, I don’t recommend going with Aweber because of the limited segmentation and tagging features on the platform that are essential for bloggers, especially with a paid platform.

4. Drip

Drip is a new email marketing service that many very advanced bloggers are talking about lately.

It has the advanced subscriber management that some say ConvertKit is lacking in, while also have the advanced segmentation and tagging features that AWeber lacks. The downside is that it’s very expensive compared to ConvertKit (like ~25% more).

So, this is really something that only advanced bloggers sign up for. It’s also a bit more complicated to learn because of the advanced features.

Drip Details:

• The first 100 subscribers are free
• $41 per month for up to 2,100 subscribers (followed by increases at specific subscriber levels)
• Includes forms, sequences, and automations for your website
• Unlimited emailing for the price you pay
• Advanced subscriber management
• Advanced list segmentation and tagging features
• Somewhat more complicated to learn

If you are an advanced blogger who is looking to invest in a very robust email platform that has both advanced email list segmentation and subscriber management, then Drip may be right for you. However, you need to be willing to pay a lot more (~25% more) in cost for this.

A Final Note!

Here’s my two-cents on who each platform would be good for:

MailChimp – Free option that is good for newbie bloggers who can’t afford to pay for an email service and don’t want to make money blogging with affiliate marketing (this is what I started with back in the day, but regret it).

ConvertKit – Middle of the road pricing that is good for bloggers who want the biggest bang for their buck and also want to make money blogging (this is what I use now).

AWeber – Middle of the road pricing that is good bloggers who care a lot about subscriber management but not list segmentation.

Drip – Most expensive option that is good for advanced bloggers who don’t mind paying the extra 25% for advanced segmentation and subscriber management features.

I started with MailChimp because I was super cheap and didn’t want to pay for a service. Then, I switched to ConvertKit because I reached the end of the free version and wasn’t making any money blogging. I almost immediately tripled my list and increased my blog income by using ConvertKit.

I wish I would’ve started with ConvertKit sooner, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

For all of my blogging posts, visit my Blogging Page. Happy blogging!

Original article and pictures take nataliebacon.com site