Reginald Chan

Tag: email marketing

  • Is MailChimp Free?

    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 Prohibited Content Affiliate Marketing

    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?

    ConvertKit Dashboard

    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.

  • Hitting 2,000 Email Subscribers Is A Milestone. Here’s What To Do Next

    Hitting 2,000 Email Subscribers Is A Milestone. Here’s What To Do Next

    We all love MailChimp Forever Free plan, don’t we? MailChimp’s Forever Free Plan allows you to keep up to 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 emails per month. What happens when your MailChimp account has more than 2,000 subscribers?

    Here’s what I can guarantee you: Headache.

    Most of us love anything that doesn’t require us to pay for it (for whatever it is). But when we hit 2,000 email subscribers on MailChimp, we panic. We understand that we would need to start forking out money monthly just to maintain the email list.

     

    Read this before you go down that rabbit hole …

    The first thing is you should do right now is start cleaning up your email list. This means that you should remove all your email subscribers who have not interacted with you for some time.

    You need to start identifying those inactive subscribers by creating a segment on MailChimp (fastest way).

    Creating Segments MailChimp

    Once that is done, you need to add conditions to further discover email subscribers who are low in ‘value’.

    Adding Conditions MailChimp

    Due to MailChimp’s limitation, you can only choose a small portion of options as seen above. I use the last five campaigns as that would give me better stats and results.

    Once that is done, the second step is to re-engage with them for one last time before you ultimately remove them from your list. I often send a super personalized message with an urgent email title to ensure that the open rate is high. Don’t be afraid as it is common for them to unsubscribe themselves!

    If they fail to open the email within three days, you can proceed to remove them from your list. By now, you would have a smaller list and probably save you some space.

    IMPORTANT: I recommend you to continue reading the below as it will come in handy real soon!

     

    You should be making money using your email list and here’s why

    When you have more than 2,000 email subscribers, you should already be monetizing your email list. Wait, what?

    Yes, you heard me right. 2,000 email subscribers is not a small number and this means that you can be doing a lot more to generate revenue from your email list.

    Let’s say you take an example of promotion WP Engine on your email newsletter.

    • Revenue per successful WP Engine affiliate sale: $200
    • Open rate for your email: 50% (2,000 email subscriber x 50% = 1,000 email subscribers)
    • Click through rate for your email: 20% (1,000 email subscribers x 20% = 200 email subscribers)
    • Successful conversion (buying): 2% (200 email subscribers x 2% = 4)

    Total revenue earned: 4 x $200 = $800 per email campaign

    No, I’m not kidding you.

    You see, I’m putting a super low figure in all the calculation above and the reason is simple. I want you to understand that even with the lowest count, you can make a lot more money through email marketing.

    And yes, you can start making money NOW.

     

    Wait, I still have 2,000 email subscribers on MailChimp and I am not sure what to do!

    I’m glad you asked. I have gone through that road before and I was puzzled. I have no idea what I should do and my geeky brain told me to do the calculation (see above).

    I understood that I could earn a lot more money in a long run if I continue building my email subscribers. Thus, growing beyond the 2,000 email subscribers limit on MailChimp.

    What you need to do now (which we are going to discuss below) is this:

    Decide on an email marketing software to proceed with your email marketing.

    Before moving forward, take a quick moment to ask yourself this question.

     

    How much is the lifetime value of your email subscribers?

    Take a look at this infographic done by KISSmetrics.

    How To Calculate Customer Lifetime Value

    In short, lifetime value of your email subscriber is often determined if they are going to repurchase in the future.

     

    How to decide the best email marketing software once your MailChimp has more than 2,000 subscribers?

    1. Upgrade your MailChimp account

    You should go for MailChimp if:

    • You have a low lifetime value of an email subscriber (under $5)
    • You are not actively selling anything of high value to your email subscribers
    • Lead generation isn’t a top priority for you at this point in time
    • Segmenting your audience is not important for now

    On average, you are going to pay anywhere between $25 to $30 a month with 2,000 email subscribers on paid MailChimp plan.

    MailChimp is best when you are a small business or blogger which email marketing isn’t the most important thing for your business. Therefore, sticking to MailChimp is not going to hurt you in any way since you will be making more than enough to sustain.

     

    2. Move to ConvertKit

    ConvertKit is a good MailChimp alternative because of its pricing model. ConvertKit thrives ahead of MailChimp, especially with their subscriber’s centric model.

    Using ConvertKit, you will not be charged multiple times if the same subscriber subscribes to multiple lists. Compared to MailChimp, subscribers can be calculated multiple times which is based on the number of lists they are following. Not so good.

    You should go for ConvertKit if:

    • You are looking for a robust email marketing automation but as easy as MailChimp
    • You want to increase conversions with automated emails that feel personal
    • You need to organize and understand your subscribers
    • You need landing pages (this is a killer, ladies and gentlemen!)

    ConvertKit’s pricing is very flexible and it is one of the best deals in the marketplace. You can check out the ConvertKit pricing and the pricing starts at $29 per month.

     

    3. Move to Drip

    Drip is dope and I’m using it for my business (including this blog). Drip is really powerful because it allows you to take automation to whole new levels.

    [clickToTweet tweet=”If you are using email to sell online products and courses, you need to consider Drip today!” quote=”If you are using email to sell online products and courses, Drip does it better than any other email marketing solution. Period.”]

    Drip is also the main reason how I can sell thousands of dollars worth of affiliate marketing products every month!

    BONUS: Want to know how to make MASSIVE money through affiliate marketing? Learn more for free.

    You should go for Drip if:

    • Automate anything and everything (tagging, list cleaning etc.)
    • Selling online courses or products
    • Inbuilt different types of forms (slider, pop up, exit-intent)
    • Workflow technology (that brings automation to whole new level)

    I would say Drip works as powerful as Infusionsoft but just at a cheaper and lower pricing scale. If you are an advanced marketer, consider using Drip as it is guaranteed to grow your list. Don’t take my word for it. Click here to head over to Drip’s demo!

     

    Summary: What do you do when you hit 2,000 MailChimp email subscribers?

    You have three options right now; upgrade to MailChimp’s paid plan which will save you more money, migrate to ConvertKit if you want to start segmenting your email subscribers, or upgrade to Drip to take email marketing to whole new level and ultimately, make your email subscribers fall in love with you.

    Do you have more than 2,000 subscribers on MailChimp? What do you do? Tell me all about it in the comments below!

  • Thrive Themes Review: Is Thrive Themes worth it?

    Thrive Themes Review: Is Thrive Themes worth it?

  • 6 No Brainer Reasons Why AWeber Is The Best Email Marketing Service

    6 No Brainer Reasons Why AWeber Is The Best Email Marketing Service

    You probably have heard me saying this a few times now, “You need a mailing list even if you are a blogger” and I will repeat if I got to.

    A mailing list is extremely important especially when you are trying to build an audience and creating not only website traffic but a very sustainable one instead.

    A good mailing list is important for both novice and professional bloggers as it will help to:

    • Increase the number of return visitors
    • Keep loyal readers updated with important updates and information
    • As a medium to communicate with your loyal followers
    • And probably a dozen more

    We all know how hard it is to build a great mailing list and there is obviously no reasons why you need to make the process even harder. Setting up multiple signup forms and email autoresponders could indeed be a very tedious job. Therefore, choosing the right email marketing solution is a must!

    Still not convinced? Take a look at these slides on the importance of a mailing list.


    By now, you should have probably hear about AWeber from either your friends or on the net. Some call AWeber the best email marketing solutions and honestly, I really think so!

    In this blog post, I will be sharing with you some reasons why I rather use AWeber compared to any other email marketing solutions out there.

    Before that, let’s see what AWeber really is, shall we?

    *p/s There’s also a video at the bottom of this post to show you how AWeber really works.

    What are the features AWeber are offering?

    AWeber is an email marketing software and autoresponder tool that is easy to configure and use.

    What makes AWeber so popular is the fact that it is highly affordable and with the price tag of $16.17 per month, you might think that I am out of my mind.

    At least, I would definitely have something under my sleeves right?

    When you signup for AWeber (click here to signup for $1 for the first month as trial plus a 30 days money back guarantee), you are not only paying for their services but as well as the rich email marketing features.

    And, I believe ‘rich’ could be a very understatement of the day!

    Here are a complete list of what AWeber is offering to all its members:

    1. Ability to create custom professional email newsletters within minutes
    2. Multiple ready-made signup forms available to use instantly
    3. Segmenting subscribers to different categories for easier management
    4. Automatically deliver sequence messages to new subscribers according to date and time of your choice (autoresponder)
    5. Over 600 beautiful HTML email templates to create great looking emails
    6. Ability to perform split testing in anyway possible (title, names, colour, Call-To-Action etc)
    7. RSS to email ability – Automatically create emails from your newest blog posts
    8. Email analytics to track on number of clicks, opens and delete
    9. Easy to integrate to popular WordPress mailing list plugins such as OptinSkin and Hybrid Connect
    10. Extremely high email delivery rate thanks to the Anti-Spam policy
    11. 24/7 customer support through phone and email
    12. A wide variety of free training and guides for bloggers to build more subscribers
    13. Free access to live webinars for mailing list building strategies

    I got to admit this; When I first saw the features, I was like “Okay, this sounds like the right email marketing solution for me” but I wasn’t sure if I should get it.

    The price tag of $16.17 per month does sounds a little pricey for me (I bet you are thinking of that right now too!).

    So, what really makes me use AWeber?

    AWeber autoresponder is one of the best email marketing provider for bloggers

    1. The $1 deal for the first month trial and a 30-days money back guarantee is a no-brainer for me

    Yup, you hear me right. The $1 deal is too good for me to say no to. Go ask around and many bloggers will tell you that they are using AWeber for their email marketing.

    I am sure that if I wouldn’t like it, I could just hit the refund button. Furthermore, it’s just $1 right?

    If that $1 doesn’t convince you, here are a list of famous using Aweber email services:

    Now, tell me if you are convinced enough to try on AWeber right now 🙂

     

    2. AWeber email marketing tool comes with autoresponder ability

    If you have no idea what autoresponder means, I would be delighted to share with you.

    Autoresponder is a feature where you can set a sequence to send emails (within a specific time frame) for every ‘trigger value’.

    For example, you can set the autoresponder to send a welcome email to all new subscribers after one day of signing up for your newsletter.

    Isn’t this cool? Basically, you don’t have to type a new welcome email numerous times every time a person signs up. And, you don’t even have to copy and paste the scripts as well.

    Here’s a video of the autoresponder feature on AWeber:

    Try AWeber’s Autoresponders for $1
     

    3. Professional signup forms and templates

    Creating a professional mailing list form is easy with AWeber. All you need to do is:

    • Choose a template or design as the base of your email
    • Choose the colours, fonts and even words to make your signup form more ‘lively’
    • Select any redirection such as to a thank you page or back to the current page
    • Copy the codes and place them on your blog

    AWeber allows users to create beautiful HTML email templates to wow their future followers
    You can easily produce beautiful email templates with the help of AWeber

    4. Easy integration with nearly all WordPress mailing list plugins

    I don’t call myself a ‘techie’ and thus, I love to have things simple and straight forward. This is where I rather use AWeber as my email marketing provider since it is extremely easy to use.

    Upon completing a custom design, you can choose to either:

    • Install the codes personally
    • Send to your web designer to do it for you
    • Or asking AWeber to host the form for you

    For example, I am using Hybrid Connect and I could easily integrate AWeber codes with it and build my followers close to immediately.

    As for the record, I tried both FeedBurner and MailChimp email marketing solutions before using AWeber and to be very honest with you, I felt that AWeber is the best email marketing tool especially when it is so easy to integrate it.

    Well, at least for me!

    5. Detailed analysis for your newsletters and followers

    AWeber is an email marketing service that focuses in email analytics
    With the simple but detailed dashboard, AWeber users are able to easily analysis their email strategy to increase click and open rates.

    For those analytics lovers out there, this is probably the best feature AWeber can ever offer. On the dashboard, you are able to see simple yet complete report at one glance.

    This means that you are able to see the number of new subscribers, scheduled broadcasts and even broadcast history on email clicks and opens.

    Not only that, AWeber offers a very indepth information on the report tab which I will show you in a video shortly below.

    6. RSS to email

    Simple RSS to Email by AWeber Communications
     

    Honestly, I am not a fan of automated stuffs and recently, my buddy Gilbert asked me why I didn’t use this godly feature.

    I told him that I rather have something ‘not automated’ for my mailing list but that question really struck my mind.

    Since Neil Patel (I am a huge fan of his) is also using the RSS to email service provided by this lovely mailing list tool, I see no reasons why I shouldn’t right?

    Truthfully, I haven’t REALLY use this feature much but this is one feature that will save you a lot of time.

    Imagine that you want to keep your blog followers updated on your new post and creating a new newsletter could be very time consuming. With AWeber RSS to email feature, you are basically putting technology on good use!

    To think about it, having a tool to that automates email notifications to your readers at any time of your choice is indeed indispensable.

    Why should you REALLY use AWeber for your mailing list building?

    Now, I know how tired it is to read such a long blog post right? So, here’s another video which I had done personally explaining what AWeber is and how it can actually save you more money (plus improving your sign up rates).

    Basically, I will be showing you around:

    • What AWeber autoresponder is all about
    • How the dashboard looks like
    • How to create a broadcast on AWeber
    • How to setup simple but beautiful signup forms
    • AWeber analytics as well

     


    Back to you

    What do you think of this blog post? I hope you enjoyed reading this article and watching the video as much as I do. So, tell me. What is your favorite email marketing tool?

    It doesn’t really matter if you have one right now as you can easily signup for AWeber for only $1 with a full 30-days money back guarantee right now!

    Click here to get best AWeber discount

    All you need to do is to click right here: Try AWeber today for only $1 or 100% money back guarantee!