In the previous post on Paid Services, I listed off some of the Email Service Providers (ESPs) that focus on mailing lists and email marketing. There are lots of them out there, but these are five of the leading players:
- AWeber
- ConstantContact
- iContact
- MailChimp
- VerticalResponse
Most of these firms do fairly similar things. They have tools for gathering new subscribers, various email templates that you can modify to suit your needs, list management tools, and other marketing tools. It’s hard to say which company is the best in regards to these type of tools, as it can be fairly subjective, and the effectiveness of their offerings will vary by user. I’ll touch on a couple of the highlights for each of them, but what I’m really interested in are things that are a little more technical and more objective. The main areas of focus will be:
- Analytics – Do they offer analytics, is it easy to use, and does it provide worthwhile data?
- API functionality – Do they offer an API, is it easy to use, and does it offer good functionality?
- A/B or Multivariate Testing – Do they support A/B or multivariate testing and how simple is it to implement?
- SPF/SenderID/DKIM Support – How simple is it to setup and how helpful are they in the process?
- Mailing List Import/Export – Are you able to import and/or export your mailing list? What are the requirements when you do so?