E-mail tools allow you to create opt-in lists, send out mail and track the results of your campaigns. I use Mail Chimp for StGermaine.ca and I’ll be using it for my other websites in the new year.
I like MailChimp because it is dead simple to use, has great reporting and integrates with my RSS feed. The RSS integration is a huge plus for me because I don’t have to manually create a newsletter unless I choose to. I just select an e-mail template (or you can upload your own) and create a schedule to send out a newsletter whenever I publish a new blog post.
With their “Forever Free Plan” you can manage up to 500 subscribers and send up to 3,000 emails a month for free.
MailChimp Features:
- build and manage your e-mail lists and make as many sub lists as you want
- create your own e-mail newsletters using wyswyg (what you see, what you get) editor
- use newsletter templates that they provide for you
- schedule times to send newsletters
- conduct surveys
- manage opt-in lists
- embed gadgets that create e-mail sign up options on your blog
- review reports on how many e-mails were read, clicked on, what blog pages they viewed and much, much more
In addition to the standard e-mail options, MailChimp really gets it when it comes to social media and platform integration. They have plugins for sites like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Ning making it easy to add a subscribe option on your site. It integrates with social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. In addition, you can connect it to all kinds of online tools like Google Contacts, Google Docs and Salesforce.
I’ve tried a lot of different e-mail marketing tools in the past and MailChimp is a winner. You can try them out by using their Forever Free Plan, so, if you haven’t already, head on over to their site to create your account.
