Category: Email Marketing

MailChimp vs AWeber: The Complete Review Between Two Of The Best Email Marketing Solutions
Can’t decide between AWeber vs MailChimp?

Both AWeber and MailChimp has long been in the email marketing industry. I don’t know how blogs and websites had did email marketing comparison between AWeber and MailChimp.

So, why did I publish this article? The answer is simple.

I want to share my personal point of view using AWeber and MailChimp.

As a disclaimer, I use AWeber for business and MailChimp for personal use, along with ConvertKit (sorry, got to mention them all to be honest)!

In order to make this review an excellent resource for you (and not wasting your time), this article is going to be packed with tons of information to help you decide which email marketing solution is best for you.

Before that, allow me to share my first video for 2018. Enjoy!

I hope you like the video and remember to subscribe to my daily YouTube videos!

Disclaimer: This article is over 2,000 words. Use the table of content below if you are looking for specific information.

Table of ContentWhy Should I Use Email Marketing In 2018?AWeber Review 2018 Overview of AWeber features Top AWeber Feature – Automate your email marketing funnel AWeber Feature #2 – Craft your best HTML-rich email (without coding skills)AWeber Feature #3 – Easily collect and email addresses AWeber Feture #4 – Analyze, tracking and improving AWeber Feature #5 – AWeber is on mobile How much AWeber costs?Is AWeber worth it?MailChimp Review 2018 Overview of MailChimp Features Top MailChimp Feature – Email marketing automation MailChimp Feature #2 – Email templates MailChimp Feature #3 – Email delivery rates How much does MailChimp costs?Is MailChimp worth it?What Are The Differences Between AWeber and MailChimp?1. Pricing structure 2. Email automation feature 3. Customer support 4. Feedbacks and customer testimonials Decide now! AWeber vs MailChimp?Summary: AWeber vs MailChimp 2018

Why Should I Use Email Marketing In 2018?

Email marketing continues to be a vital communications channel with the DMAs latest Email tracker showing that email receives 30 times return on investment on average. 95% of respondents rated it as ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to their organization.

While we are on this topic, here’s an important article you need to read: The Ultimate Comparison Between ConvertKit, Drip and MailChimp.

AWeber Review 2018

AWeber been in the business for years and this is the first paid email marketing service that I had used.

Why did I choose AWeber for my business?
- Affordable
- check-circleEasy to use
- Availability of autoresponder
- Excellent delivery rates
- check-circleReady-made email templates
I don’t need an email marketing service that is expensive and full with features. All I need is an email marketing service that is affordable and easy to use — that’s why AWeber is my top choice.

If you are just starting out with email marketing or running a small-medium sized business, you certainly doesn’t need an expensive email marketing software to get the job done. I know, there are marketing consultants that are asking you to subscribe to email marketing services that cost thousands of dollars a month and trust me, those are not worth it. At least for now.

Overview of AWeber features
- Automatically create emails from your newest blog posts
- Choose from over 700 mobile responsive email templates
- Create and send professional email newsletters with ease
- check-circleEasily create automated email sequences with our drag and drop editor
- check-circleApply tags to trigger automated email campaigns based on clicks and opens
- check-circleSend a sequence of automatically delivered emails
- check-circleAutomatically create emails from your newest blog posts
- check-circleConnect your email list with your favorite online tools to automate your list growth
- check-circleGrow your email list with mobile responsive sign up forms
- check-circleIntegrate third-party apps with AWeber’s API
- check-circleDownload our suite of mobile apps
- check-circleGet account support when you need it
- check-circleEasily collect, track and manage your subscriber list
- check-circleCreate subscriber segments to send targeted emails and campaigns
- check-circleTrack email performance with analytics like open rates, click-throughs and more
- check-circleGet industry-leading deliverability and ensure your emails make it to the inbox
- check-circleAWeber is constantly adding new features for their customers
Top AWeber Feature – Automate your email marketing funnel

Email automation is critical for year 2018. And AWeber implemented this back in 2017.

Now, the system is fully ready and you can start making your email marketing work harder (and smarter) for you.

The single, most important advantage AWeber has is the drag-and-drop email editor allows you to tag your subscribers based on their actions.

AWeber Feature #2 – Craft your best HTML-rich email (without coding skills)

When you use AWeber, the options for email amrketing is endless. You can choose from over 700 ready-made email templates which are HTML ready, craft your own email template using the drag-and-drop editor or even automate email marketing using RSS to email feature.

Using AWeber, you can now keep your email subscribers up to date without touching a single line of code.

Everything (and I mean everything) is done through drag-and-drop. So, you can now focus on creating beautifully designed emails without having to worry about the creation part.

The best part? AWeber email templates are all mobile responsive and therefore, it looks good no matter on mobile, desktop or tablet!

AWeber Feature #3 – Easily collect and email addresses

By default, AWeber comes with a wide range of tools which you can immediately implement to collect emails. Sign up forms can be embedded or added to your website by just copy pasting and if you are using Thrive Leads like me, integration with third party plugins is a breeze.

Have an existing email list? No worries! AWeber allows you to import existing email lists directly to AWeber in just a few clicks. Your email subscribers do not need to opt-in again for the matter. Zero hassle!

Note: AWeber connects perfectly well with third party lead generation plugins such as Thrive Leads and OptinMonster. You can also read the comparison between Thrive Leads and OptinMonster here.

AWeber Feture #4 – Analyze, tracking and improving

If you want to do email marketing, don’t do it blindly. You need to keep track of the stats to maximize your open and click through rates.

Not sure how to go around this? AWeber allows you to get a holistic view of all your email campaigns under one roof.

Bonus: Do you know that you can use link AWeber with payment gateway like PayPal and Stripe?

AWeber Feature #5 – AWeber is on mobile

I love AWeber’s email marketing app. With AWeber ‘on-the-go’, you can now curate and craft emails wherever you are (I love doing craft emails in the morwhen when I’m communiting to work).

One of the questions I always get is “How good is AWeber mobile suites?”

The answer is simple. AWeber mobile suites are life savers. It saves me a lot of time, and more importantly, it allows me to work on the go.

I can check the stats of my email campaigns, current and new subscribers, and unsubcribers. It gives me good idea on what my current email marketing strategy.

How much AWeber costs?

AWeber offers a free 30-days trial without credit card. I recommend you to sign up for an account here and now.

AWeber pricing starts at $19 per month which allows you up to 500 email subscribers and unlimited email delivery in a month.

Take a look at the table below for more AWeber pricing options.

Bonus: Looking for AWeber discount? You can automatically enjoy discounts when you sign up either for quarterly or annually payments!

Is AWeber worth it?

The answer is “yes.” AWeber is more than just an email marketing solution!

For starters. you can utilize AWeber to understand the behavior on your customers through email and segmenting them accordingly.

AWeber makes it easy for you to create and send emails through their high performance servers.

Last but not least, the entry level for AWeber is extremely low. Therefore, affordability is one of the main factors that makes AWeber an excellent email marketing solution for business.

Get Started For Free!

MailChimp Review 2018

MailChimp is famous. MailChimp is good. MailChimp is recommended by nearly every web developer I know in the planet.

I use MailChimp as well. For me, MailChimp is okay, but it is not the best among paid email marketing solutions. For free email marketing services, MailChimp is one of the most popular in the market.

Well, it makes all the sense though. It is free for life — up to 2,000 email subscribers and up to 12,000 emails delivery in a month. What else can you ask for, right?

I use MailChimp for my personal blogs because MailChimp is:
- Easy to use
- Great option if you have less than 2,000 email subscribers
- One of the most intuitive drag-and-drop editor (for email creation)
- check-square-oLow learning curve
When it comes to personal blogs, you don’t need a super powerful email marketing solution and MailChimp fits perfectly well into the picture.

Overview of MailChimp Features
- Flexible email designs for any industry
- Built in analytics to grow your email list
- Basic landing page builder
- check-circle-oAutomated marketing automation
- check-circle-oInbox preview
- check-circle-oRSS-to-Email
- check-circle-oDelivery by time zone (paid feature)
- check-circle-oGood email delivery stats
- check-circle-oStraightforward segmentation and groups
- check-circle-oMerge tags
Top MailChimp Feature – Email marketing automation

MailChimp started rolling out email automation in 2017 for all free accounts. That was a good move to be honest.

What I love about MailChimp is the simplicity of their email marketing automation.

For an email marketing service that doesn’t cost you a single cent, there is definitely no complains here.

With MailChimp email automation, you can set and forget those email automation based on your settings:
- checkEmail delivery based on dates
- checkEmail delivery based on action (open, clicks, etc.)
MailChimp Feature #2 – Email templates

I have to give this to MailChimp. It has one of the best, most intuitive and interactive email templates among most of the email marketing services.

You can start choosing the right templates through a set of layout options.

I recommend you to work with layouts if you love to customize your emails.

What I love about MailChimp is that all its preloaded email templates are mobile responsive (as the image above).

MailChimp Feature #3 – Email delivery rates

MailChimp has one of the best email delivery rates in the market because it is extremely strict. This means that it doesn’t allow much affiliate links (or affiliate marketers) in its email delivery. Of course, this is also leads to massive MailChimp disadvantage.

But assuming that you are sending legit emails to your subscribers, you are bound to get awesome reach rates because the delivery is just so darn good.

Now, if you are an affiliate marketer like me, you got to rethink of your strategy right now. If you are just running a blog and sending daily/weekly/monthly newsletters without affiliate links, then that’s fine under the MailChimp rules.

How much does MailChimp costs?

It’s free — if you have under 2,000 email subscribers and sending less than 12,000 emails a month.

Pretty cool, right?

Here’s the pricing structure for MailChimp for paid plans. As you can see, it starts from $10 a month for 500 email subscribers.

Is MailChimp worth it?

The answer is “yes” — if you are not an affiliate marketer. For the free for life account, MailChimp will always be a great option for many bloggers since there is no commitment (ever) until you break the 2,000 email subscribers mark.

In terms of features, MailChimp certainly offers very competitive features and can easily comparable to big brands such as AWeber.

Create A Free Account On MailChimp Now!

What Are The Differences Between AWeber and MailChimp?

In this part, we will go through some obvious comparison between both email marketing solutions.

1. Pricing structure

Here, MailChimp has the upper hand and won the battle (even before stepping into the ‘battlefield’).

AWeber offers free 30-days trial while MailChimp offers free-for-life account.

The smallest AWeber plan starts at $19 while MailChimp starts at only $10.

Therefore, MailChimp is definitely the clear winner in terms of value for money.

2. Email automation feature

The clear winner is AWeber because its email automation feature is more roburst compared to MailChimp’s.

While MailChimp offers email automation, it is very limited and is not sufficient especially for larger email lists or businesses.

AWeber’s email automation wins the match because it makes MailChimp’s email automation system look like a youngerster fresh from college.

3. Customer support

In terms of customer support, AWeber wins hands down because it has live chat and email support. In business, customer support is utmost important as every second counts.

MailChimp doesn’t offer support for free account (they will refer to to their knowledge base) and for paid accounts, they offer email support. Again, I rather speak to a real person when having a problem than being greeted with an automated support email.

4. Feedbacks and customer testimonials

Last but not least, feedbacks and customer testimonials are important to prove the track record. I could be bias here but AWeber has way more feedbacks and customer testimonials compared to MailChimp.

Personally, I rather work with an email marketing service that has a proven track record of constant delivery and therefore, AWeber is my personal winner here.

Decide now! AWeber vs MailChimp?

Click here for 30-days free trial on AWeber Create A Free Account On MailChimp Now!

Summary: AWeber vs MailChimp 2018

There goes, folks! I hope you find this email comparison between AWeber and MailChimp useful and which is your favorite option?

Leave a comment below and tell me more about your choice of email marketing service!
April 4, 2024
How To Get 2,000 Email Subscribers Under 30 Days?
Everyone wish to get more email subscribers because email subscribers are the ones that are mostly likely to convert and buy your products/services.

However, it is always easier said than done. The competition is tough and building a 2,000-strong fan base on email isn’t a walk in the park.

In this post, I’m going to share with you how you can get 2,000 email subscribers under 30 days.

Step 1: Craft a plan to generate email subscribers

You need a plan, especially when you are trying to get 2,000 email subscribers in a short time period.

What should the plan include?

Here are a list of considerations you need to ask yourself, during the planning stage.
- Who are you targeting?
- What are you offering to the email subscribers?
- What makes your visitor want to sign up for the newsletter?
- check-square-oWhat are the perks you are offering them?
Important note: Most people doesn’t sign up for an email list for nothing. They sign up because it gives them some sort of value/solve their problems.

Step 2: Setting up the right lead generation forms

By now, you should have an email marketing service ready to keep track of all your subscribers and if you are not, you should try out ConvertKit (one of the best in the market and used by Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income).

What is a lead generation form?

A lead generation form is where interested and potential subscribers will be lead to, in order for you to grab their details. This is where you hope that they will share all their details with you and press the ‘Submit’ button!

Every email marketing service in the planet offers lead generation forms. So, you don’t need to create one from scratch (unless you insist to do so).

MUST READ:MailChimp vs ConvertKit vs Drip – Comparing The Best Email Marketing Automation Software 2017

Step 3: Install a lead generation plugin

A lead generation plugin allows you to display more than just the forms. It allows you to create beautiful designs to further attract your readers to leave their email addresses.

Make no mistake, this is a crucial step for you to get 2,000 email subscribers in 30 days!

I use Thrive Leads and it works like charm because it doesn’t interfere with cache plugin or CloudFlare. You can click here to see Thrive Leads demo and to understand how it works.

Why do I use Thrive Leads to grow my email subscribers?
- Thrive Leads integrates with dozens of email marketing services (offering zero downtime)
- Thrive Leads comes with many conversion-focused lead-in form designs that are ready to be imported and use
- Most importantly, I don’t need to have coding skills to create any forms (thanks to the Thrive Leads inbuilt drag and drop builder)
See Thrive Leads in action

Step 4: Solve your reader’s BIGGEST plain

Do you think that your readers are going to subscribe to your newsletters just because they like you? Probably not.

Unless you are as famous as Seth Godin or Tim Ferriss, chances are you will not be able to convince them to sign up without offering anything.

Therefore, give them a reason (or reasons) to sign up. You should offer them something they cannot resist — a proven solution to their biggest problems.

Here are some samples to give you some ideas:
- How to lose {x} weight in 30 days?
- How to be debt-free in 12 months or less?
- 101 ways you cna take action right now to become a better parent
Note: A great offer will gives the readers NO OPTION to reject/ignore it.

Step 5: Test everything

You should test your email marketing strategy and that’s how you know what works, and what doesn’t.

Most WordPress lead generation plugins doesn’t offer multiple A/B testing simultaneously but Thrive Leads does. Using Thrive Leads, you can go crazy with the split test. And that’s another reason why I use Thrive plugins.

For example, you can test floating bar to slide in, or exit intent vs inline forms. The best part? You can test everything at the same time instead of just A vs B. You can opt for A vs B vs C vs D type of testing which is super important and awesome.

Pro tip: You should also test email subject lines and different sending time to get the best response rate from your email marketing campaigns.

Step 6: Analyze the results weekly

I analyse my results once a week and 7 days is a decent time to judge if you are generating enough email subscribers.

For example, I noticed that I get better response rates (sign up rates) when I offer free courses than eBooks and offering downloadable cheatsheets helps with conversion rates but not long lasting email subscribers.

How to get 2,000 email subscribers in 30 days?

I hope that you are ready to work on your email marketing strategy now and tell me what you think in the comments below!
April 4, 2024
Best Email Hosting Malaysia: Top 5 Email Service Providers Compared (2019)
Are you finding for the best email hosting in Malaysia? You came to the right place!

In this article, I’m going to share with you some of the best email hosting in Malaysia for 2019 that is both affordable and best in performance.

If you are looking for free email services, you should sign up for MailChimp which is free to use up to 2,000 email subscribers and up to 12,000 emails monthly.

Important disclaimer: I highly recommend these email hosting Malaysia and you should focus on the number of email addresses that come with each email hosting package. You should only get the email hosting package that fits your needs.

Most of us understand the importance of using a reliable email hosting provider. You certainly wouldn’t want to miss out on important emails, you want hassle free import contacts feature, on the go email client (mobile email client) and unlimited storage to name a few.

Don’t worry. You will find everything you need to know about the best email service in Malaysia in this post. Carry on reading!

Top 5 Email Hosting Malaysia 2019
- Exabytes
- ServerFreak
- SiteGround
- GoDaddy
- NameCheap
1. Exabytes — Affordability and popularity

If you are looking for common and popular email hosting in Malaysia that doesn’t cost an arm and leg, Exabytes is the best email hosting for you.

What are the features of Exabytes?
- One of the best business email hosting Malaysia that works perfectly across all devices
- Access webmail, desktop and mobile at anytime
- Powerful team collaboration feature
- Accessible and user-friendly webmail interface
- Advance features such as message prioritization and throttling (limit the number of messages send per hour and/or the amount of bandwidth used per hour to send messages
- Extra layers of protections such as intrusion detection (IDS) and active directory integration to protect you and your business
- Synchronization of calendars, tasks, notes and contacts on desktop applications and sync with smartphones
- Two-way synchronization for Microsoft Outlook (users can now fully utilize Mircosoft Outlook beyond the capabilities of most mail servers
- Remote wiping of mobile devices
- SSL/TLS, SPF and DKIM included
- Daily backups
- Anti spam filtering
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- 24/7 and all year round support
- Enterprise-grade email servers
Is Exabytes worth it?

Exabytes is one of the leading business email hosting provider in Malaysia for years. Apart from that, they have been offering their services to both bloggers and business owners within the region.

Not only that they are a reliable email hosting provider, they offer generous storage space especially when you are sending emails with large attachments.

In terms of pricing and features, Exabytes is definitely worth it.

How much does email hosting with Exabytes costs?

Pricing starts at RM 17.99 per month and it is best fit when you have less than 5 users (up to 5 email addresses).

2. ServerFreak — A Good Alternative To Exabytes

ServerFreak calls themselves “Malaysia Web Hosting.” As a paying customer with them, I got to tell you that they are pretty good!

Decent price and excellent support to name a few, ServerFreak is definitely one of the best email hosting in Malaysia.

What you need to understand that ServerFreak doesn’t offer email hosting services. Email hosting services are bundled along with the web hosting package that you take up.

Basically, you need to host your website with ServerFreak before you can utilize their email services.

What are the features offered by ServerFreak?
- 30-days money back guarantee
- 99% or higher uptime guarantee
- 24/7 and whole year round technical support
- Super affordable pricing and rate structure (web hosting services)
Is ServerFreak worth it?

I used ServerFreak around 7 years back. Back then, I was a complete newbie in WordPress and no matter what questions I asked the support, they will always reply and try to guide me with the task.

Yes, most of the questions are basically out of their ‘work scope’ but they took the time to reply me. And until now, the service level remains the same.

It is also important to note that you can easily integrate ServerFreak email hosting services with your custom domain. While you might need to know how to do it, the support team is available when you need help configuring that on your server.

How much does email hosting with ServerFreak costs?

For shared web hosting, it costs a mere RM 90 per year (that’s RM 7.50 per month). If you need more firepower, there’s Cloud Hosting and Dedicated Servers which starts at RM 75 per month.

3. SiteGround — Comprehensive Support And Scalability

When it comes to the best email hosting Malaysia 2019, nothing come close to SiteGound as my personal favorite.

SiteGround adds various third-party and in-house developed solutions to guarantee you a secure, spam-free and lightning fast email experience. It will make sure that both your email and website run smoothly on our servers and that your website is safer, faster and better supported than anywhere else!

Important: Just like ServerFreak, SiteGround doesn’t offer a standalone email hosting service. All email hosting is bundled with web hosting packages.

What are the features offered by SiteGround?
- Email at your domain name
- Comprehensive and complete email tutorials
- Considerably less spam with advanced spam control
- Easy email management
- Availability of secure protocols
- Free email accounts
- 24/7 support through phone, live chat and email
- A large selection of webmail clients
- Built in anti-spam solutions
- Easy email management from cPanel
Is SiteGround worth it?

The answer is yes. I recommend SiteGround to everyone I know and the core reason for me to do is because of the server performance.

Security flaws and patches are done by the SiteGround team automatically, therefore, you do not need to worry about security matters.

Plus, the support via live chat is definitely a killer reason to go with SiteGround. Any problems are always solved within minutes and their live chat works 24/7!

Personally, SiteGround is a great email hosting provider and the only downside is that it doesn’t come with an office suite with it (unlike what NameCheap does).

How much does email hosting with SiteGround costs?

If you are just starting up, a shared web hosting services starts at $3.95 per month. If you need more server performance, scalability is not an issue as SiteGround team will monitor and advise you when it is time for you to upgrade to a new package (of course, it’s entirely up to you for the upgrade).

4. GoDaddy — All-Time Favorite For Beginners

If you are looking for a save bet, GoDaddy is your best bet. With support and servers all around the world, GoDaddy is definitely one of the best email hosting provider 2019 in Malaysia.

What are the features offered by GoDaddy?
- Professional email hosting service
- Business email that matches your domain
- Award-winning 24/7 support
- Unlimited access to email, contact and calendar anywhere, on any device
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- World-class data security and spam filtering
- 30-days money back guarantee
- Outlook web application
Is GoDaddy worth it?

If you are looking for hassle-free email hosting in Malaysia, GoDaddy is an awesome choice. Prices are very affordable and support is best to none.

How much does email hosting with GoDaddy costs?

Email hosting with GoDaddy starts at RM 17.99 per month, per user. I would rather pay for this price if you want a complete worry-free email hosting service for your business.

5. NameCheap — Great GoDaddy Alternative

If you are looking for a great alternative to GoDaddy email hosting Malaysia, then you should consider NameCheap.

Note: Did you know that NameCheap is slightly cheaper than GoDaddy?

What are the features of NameCheap email hosting services?
- POP/IMAP/Webmail enabled
- Secure email storage
- Secure file storage
- Anti-spam protection
- Mobile support
- Collaboration tools between users (higher plans only)
- NameCheap allows you to manage multiple email accounts from different providers under one roof
- 24/7 support via live chat, email and phone
Is NameCheap worth it?

One of my business is using NameCheap private email services and it is secure as hell. The NameCheap spam filtering is state-of-the-art and you are guaranteed to have a clean mailbox, every day.

In terms of service and support, it is extremely easy because of the live chat availability daily.

I use NameCheap Private Email services for affordability and reliability. NameCheap comes with mobile app / mail app which is a nice bonus and its spam filters is one of the best in the market.

How much does email hosting with NameCheap costs?

NameCheap doesn’t offer any services in Ringgit Malaysia. Therefore, I’m going to convert it on an average of 4.05 (USD:MYR).

The lowest package starts at $9.88 per year (RM 40 per year) and it comes with all the basic features and integrated mailbox. There are also higher plans that you can choose from, for bigger organization.

What is my favorite email hosting solution?

Personally, I use NameCheap because it is really reliable (and most of my clients are from the United States).

What about you?

Leave a comment below and tell me whcih is your favorite email hosting provider in Malaysia!
April 4, 2024
Top 10 Email Marketing Tips 2018
Are you planning to start doing email marketing for 2018?

1. Send email to lists that want to hear from you

The biggest mistake you can ever do is to send emails to everyone — regardless their interest. Email marketing is a super targeted marketing strategy. Therefore, you need to ensure that emails delivered are highly cusotmized and targeted to specific audiences.

Pro tip: The best way is to create different email lists or tag your email subscribers properly. Tools such as ConvertKit and Drip allow you to tag your audience based on their actions.

2. Have a goal for each email before you press send

Setting a goal is critical and it is definitely one of the top 10 email marketing tips for 2018. Goals doesn’t need to be complicated and you certainly don’t have to have dozens of them before sending out an email.

Simple goals such as number of open, open rates, click through rates (CTR) and number of reach are great goals to start with.

3. Personalize and test your emails

Don’t just send out cold emails. Instead, make sure you spend 30 minutes customizing each email before sending it out. For example, I make sure that the tone of each email is accordance to the reason the subscribers subscribed to my list. If they are interested in WordPress, I’ll make sure they get WordPress related news and not other topics.

Once that is done, test your email! Work with both long and short forms email title, content and even different forms of media. Analyze through the reporting feature of your email marketing software and determine which is the one that best fits your business.

Need help? Here are the top 3 email marketing tools for 2018 that come with detailed analytics reports.

4. Send emails from a personalized account

Are you sending emails through Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook?

Please. Stop. Doing. This.

It doesn’t make you look professional and instead, use your domain’s email address. This bring authority to the email and more importantly, it tells Google and other email service providers that your email is genuine and not spam.

5. Experiment with sending emails on different days of the week

There is no such thing as “the best time to send email” because it is highly dependent on your subscribers.

The best way is to test this out with your email marketing tool.

How to gauge the results?
- Open rates
- Click through rates (CTR)
- Number of reach
Personally, I prefer using open rates and number of reach as it gives me a good idea about my audience.

Pro tip: The process of testing different times in a day and different day on the week is tedious. However, this is one of the best email marketing tips for 2018 if you want to make email marketing work for you.

6. Keep engaging with your subscribers

It doesn’t matter if you are sending once a day, weekly or monthly emails to your subscribers. Keeping up with the pace and making sure that you deliver every time is important to build trust with your subscribers.

Don’t have enough time? Do it once a month and even schedule the emails in advance!

7. Clean up your un-engaged subscribers to avoid sending graymail

When is the last time you clean up your list? I do it once every quarter. If you use email automation such as ConvertKit, Drip or AWeber, you can easily segment email subscribers through their level of activeness.

With this, you can easily filter our those who are inactive and take the next course of action; either sending them an email to confirm if they are still interested or simply remove them automatically after a certain time period of inactiveness.

8. Don’t panic when people unsubscribe

People unsubscribe all the time and there is no reason for you to panic if there is unsubscribers on a daily basis. This is the bread and butter of email marketing.

The only time you should be panic is when people starts unsubscribing in large numbers. This means that something is dearly wrong with your email marketing strategy.

Personally, I do appreciate my email subscribers to unsubscribe than I have to clean up the list myself.

9. If people stop opening your emails, figure out what’s going on fast

One of the top email marketing tips for 2018 is to watch your open rates. A research done by the Radicati Group shows that the number of emails receive by each person increases by the year. I am getting around 120 emails in a day and the number is growing by the weeks!

As you receive more emails, it is common that you will stop opening those that are not important. Therefore, when people stop opening your emails, start asking yourself “why” and figure out a solution fast!

Most commonly, it is simply because the content that you share is not interesting for many. Working on your content (title and context) could easily increase the email open rates.

10. If you want to learn more about email marketing, take up free email marketing courses

Last but not least, the best email marketing tips for 2018 is to start learning email marketing today!

Email marketing is not as easy as blogging or content writing. It takes some learning and of course experience. However, here’s a small problem. Experience takes time — months and years of training and experimenting new email marketing strategies.

Lucky for you, I have a solution for you. Introducing ConvertKit’s Product Creation Masterclass.

Click to discover how ConvertKit’s Product Creation Masterclass can help you in email marketing

What is the Product Creation Masterclass?
- A four week long project walking you through every step it takes to create a successful product from scratch.
- Daily lessons sent straight to the registrants inbox, Monday through Friday running January 15th through February 9th.
- Weekly live trainings led by the ConvertKit team walking through the lessons and answering questions
- Expert interviews from Melyssa Griffin, Jeff Goins, Chris Guillebeau, and Maya Elious where they share their experience in building online products
- Free trials to Samcart and Thinkific for all registrants, including a 30 day free trial of ConvertKit for new customers
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April 4, 2024
Top 3 Email Marketing Tools To Use In 2018
Experts have forecasted that email marketing will be the top 3 most lucrative marketing strategies for 2018. Regardless you are a blogger, marketer or business owner, email marketing is going to play an important role in determining your success.

Looking for the best email marketing tool can be a challenging task. I’ve been through that rabbit hole numerous times and believe me when I tell you that it is not the most fun thing to do. This post is created to help you with deciding the best email marketing tools for 2018.

Are you ready to dive in and get started?

The Top 3 Email Marketing Tools In 2018

There are a lot of email marketing tools out there and seriously, it is really a pain in the a*s to determine which is the best one to fit you. This review is best fit for bloggers, marketers and business owners who want to save more money while still able to use an email marketing tool that gives you powerful features.

More importantly, year 2018 is the year where it is gone with the days where free email marketing can still dominate the market space. You can still use free email marketing services such as MailChimp but it comes with some serious weaknesses such as these.

If you are serious in making email marketing your baby in 2018, then here are the top 3 email marketing tools you need to use today.

ConvertKit — Affordability And Powerful

When I heard Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income ditched his Infusionsoft for ConvertKit, I knew something was up with ConvertKit. My first experience using ConvertKit was this: It was freaking, darn easy to use and setup. WTF?

I spend days trying to setup my previous email marketing software and with ConvertKit, setup process takes minutes and probably an hour max.

What is ConvertKit?

“ConvertKit is a powerful new email service provider that provides InfusionSoft like automation capabilities without the InfusionSoft price.”

Yes, you heard that right. ConvertKit is powerful and with its automated tutorial/introduction, you can transform from a beginner to an expert in just an hour.

What are the features in ConvertKit?
- Easy-to-embed, customizable opt-in forms
- Simple but yet detailed reporting dashboard
- Simple workflows with “if this, then that” style automation rules make it easy to create your own custom rules
- check-square-oIntuitive drag-and-drop sequence builder helps you create personalized automated emails to grow your list
- check-square-oEasily organize your subscribers from one list with tags and segments
- check-square-oYou don’t get charged with the number of lists but instead, the number of subscribers you have
- check-square-oConvertKit’s plain text emails not only give your marketing efforts a personal feel, they also help you avoid spam filters
- check-square-oConvertKit’s support team offers round the clock support as well as hosting live trainings, weekly workshops, and open office hours
Is ConvertKit worth it?

If you are serious in marketing email marketing work for you in 2018, ConvertKit is definitely worth your money.

What I love most about ConvertKit is that it is easier to use that Infusionsoft, and more powerful that MailChimp. Another plus point is that it integrates perfectly well with third party apps and lead building plugins such as Thrive Leads.

Take a look at the ConvertKit dashboard below. Isn’t that beautiful and easy to understand?

For me, ConvertKit is all about simplicity. Email marketing doesn’t need to be complicated and this is what makes ConvertKit one of the best email marketing tools in 2018.

How much does ConvertKit costs?

ConvertKit starts at $24 per month for up to 1,000 email subscribers. In terms of value for money, ConvertKit doesn’t count your subscribers multiple times if they sign up for more than one email lists of yours.

Try ConvertKit with 30-days money back guarantee!

Drip — Powerful Email Marketing Automation For Ecommerce

Just like ConvertKit, Drip made headlines when LeadPages acquired Drip. Personally, I think that was a huge move and just proves the importance of email marketing (and Drip as an email marketing software).

What is Drip?

“Drip is an email marketing software that outsmarts traditional email marketing to help you sell more online.”

Drip isn’t your average email marketing software. It is an email marketing that allows you to create funnels to convert your readers into subscribers, and from scubscribers to paying customers.

What are the features that Drip offers?
- One of the best drag-and-drop visual builders for email marketing
- 18 triggers and 16 actions in Drip’s automation rule builder allows you to automate everything
- Tagging email subscribers based on their actions
- check-square-oDrip’s lead scoring algorithm tracks a number of events to identify your best leads
- check-square-oThree main targeted email features (Drip campaign, broadcasts and one-offs)
- check-square-oWide range of performance metrics to generate the most comprehensive reports
- check-square-oDrip natively integrates with dozens of applications and platforms, including: landing page providers, payment gateways, shopping carts, CRM systems, and many more
- check-square-oHelps you to build an email list through features such as widget, embedded forms, exit-triggered pop-ups and hosted forms
- check-square-oCreate emails that change depending on who’s receiving them and when they’re sent
- check-square-oPre-built blueprints help you build your Drip campaigns using industry best practices
- check-square-oAvailability of split testing (A/B testing)
Is Drip worth it?

Drip is worth every single cent you spend. Seriously.

Drip is really powerful especially if you are selling products or services. I used Drip and I got to say that the best way to describe Drip is “Experience marketing automation built for the next decade.”

Take a look at the image below. With Drip, you can perform any automation, your way!

How much does Drip costs?

Here’s where the unique part is. Drip offers free accounts for anyone — up to 100 email subscribers to test out the platform. After that, Drip pricing structure starts at $41 per month for 2,500 email subscribers.

Get started with Drip for free!

AWeber — Ridicously Simple To Use Email Marketing Software

AWeber has long been in the email marketing industry. For years, it has dominated the market with its affordable and simple to use email marketing solution that fits for both beginners and advanced marketers.

What is AWeber?

AWeber is an email marketing service provider with over 100,000 small business clients world wide. Regardless of industry or business size, AWeber helps its customers keep in touch with with their subscribers, all while upholding email marketing best practices.

What are the features that offers AWeber?
- Automatically create emails from your newest blog posts
- Drag and drop editor with over 700 mobile responsive email templates to choose from
- Create and send professional email newsletters with ease
- check-square-oEasily create automated email sequences with our drag and drop editor
- check-square-oApply tags to trigger automated email campaigns based on clicks and opens
- check-square-oSend a sequence of automatically delivered emails
- check-square-oAutomatically create emails from your newest blog posts (using RSS to Email feature)
- check-square-oEasily collect, track and manage your subscriber list
- check-square-oCreate subscriber segments to send targeted emails and campaigns
- check-square-oTrack email performance with analytics like open rates, click-throughs and more
- check-square-oGet industry-leading deliverability and ensure your emails make it to the inbox
- check-square-o24/7 support to help you with all your email marketing needs
Is AWeber worth it?

If you are looking for a simple email marketing software that doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket, then sure — AWeber is a great choice for you.

AWeber work great for everyone, from bloggers to business owners. Plus, AWeber is so easy to use that it allows you to get started with email marketing in just minutes (even when you are a complete beginner).

This email marketing tool is often considered the best email marketing tool for 2018 because it is extremely easy to setup, send emails and more importantly, super affordable!

Here’s how the AWeber dashboard looks like.

How much does AWeber costs?

AWeber pricing is probably one of the cheapest among the top email marketing tools for 2018. For only $19 a month, you will be able to manage up to 500 subscribers with all the features unlocked!

Try AWeber for 30-days FREE!

What is your favorite email marketing tool for 2018?

As a recap, there isn’t one email marketing tool that fits everyone. However, there are simple ways you can differentiate them.

Best email marketing tool for all rounder: ConvertKit

Best email marketing tool for affordability: AWeber

Best email marketing tool for business: Drip
April 4, 2024
Is MailChimp Free?
Is MailChimp free? The answer is yes. The MailChimp Forever Free plan allows you to manage up to 2,000 email subscribers and delivering 12,000 emails monthly.

Is MailChimp safe? Now that you asked, MailChimp is safe for work. If you are sending non-spammy emails, then you are pretty much in a very safe environment. But if you are an affiliate marketer, you may have a problem (or problems if I may).

I wrote a post about problems you will face when using MailChimp and since then, it became one of the most visited posts on my blog.

Let’s be honest. Most of you who are reading this is either a blogger, beginner or an Internet marketer. Either way, your goal is to save more money and aim for the highest yield.

I get it and I have the same thoughts as well!

MailChimp Forever Free plan is always good for us especially when you don’t have to pay until you hit 2,000 subscribers. Plus, most beginners don’t generate over 100 subscribers in a week. So, you are in good hands (at this point in time).

Why do I recommend MailChimp?

MailChimp is great for bloggers, Internet marketers and even business owners who are just starting up in email marketing. Here are some more reasons why you should be using MailChimp Forever Free account:
- MailChimp is free
- You can be worry-free until you hit 2,000 email subscribers
- Beautiful UI and UX design on MailChimp’s backend
- Drag and drop builder helps you create beautiful email templates
- Simple filtering to help you manage your email lists
- Very high delivery rates
- MailChimp is scaleable
Now, allow me to touch on the last point which is scalability. As your business progresses down the road, you would need to scale your email marketing software because you are going to have more subscribers and need better features for marketing.

You can easily move on to MailChimp paid accounts as low as $9 per month and if you need all the analytical features, there is MailChimp Pro which starts at $199 per month and it is on top of your monthly subscription fees.

Signing up for MailChimp is always a breeze. You can start an account in just 5 minutes using this link.

Why do I not recommend MailChimp?

For starters, MailChimp doesn’t go on lightly with affiliate marketers. Now, this means that you are going to face massive challenges if you use MailChimp. Here’s a snippet of MailChimp’s terms of use:

MailChimp doesn’t allow affiliate marketing, along with several other industries.

While I have seen a 50-50 chance of being caught using MailChimp for promotion the prohibited content, do you want to take the risk?

How to use MailChimp and not get banned?

The rule is simple: Do not spam.

Industries such as affiliate marketing, work from home, make money online and lead generation are known for spamming and we should always avoid doing such.

The quick way to solve this is by ensuring that we send only quality materials through email.

Do you know that you can send educational emails (using MailChimp) pertaining to the sensitive subjects and not breaking the rules?

After all, we all hate spam, don’t we?

What are other MailChimp alternatives?

If you are looking for affordable ones, then I would recommend ConvertKit. ConvertKit is known as the MailChimp alternative because it offers very similar features to what MailChimp does, but with some twists.

The biggest and single differentiation between MailChimp and ConvertKit is the way they operate. MailChimp is list-centric and this means that number of subscribers are calculated based on the number of subscribers in the list.

ConvertKit is subscriber-centric and instead of calculating subscriber per list, subscribers can opt into various lists (segments and groups) without being calculated twice.

Do you know that ConvertKit has an awesome dashboard for an all in one view?

In a long run, ConvertKit offers much more saving compared to MailChimp.

But hey, don’t take my word for it. Click here to schedule a demo with ConvertKit and see it live in action. This way, you will have first-hand experience understanding what ConvertKit is all about (and if ConvertKit is a good choice for replacing MailChimp).

Over to you

The answer is “Hell yes” if you are wondering is MailChimp free. As a seasoned Internet marketer, I have seen and gone through some hell weeks using MailChimp myself (due to own carelessness). MailChimp isn’t that bad after all in many sides and it is proven with big brands using it.

As a recap, MailChimp is safe for us if you are in several industries. At the same time, I highly recommend you to take a look at other MailChimp alternatives such as ConvertKit for a more robust email marketing solution.
March 20, 2024