MailChimp vs. iContact: User Feedback and Cost Comparison

[babywings76]

I'd like to get some feedback on how people who use MailChimp are liking it. I currently use iContact, but I'd love to get away from having a monthly fee.

 

[NooraK]

I love MC. It has all the features of iContact, but I don't have to pay for it. I can even create shortened URLs for my web-version newsletters for posting on FB, and MC gives me stats for it.

The only thing I missed was having a WYSIWYG editor after I pasted in the HTML from TT, but then Joy showed me an online WYSIWYG HTML editor, and I use that: Online-HTML-Editor.org - The free online WYSIWYG Editor! (click the <> icon for a window to paste HTML in).

 

[babywings76]

So have you figured out how they can afford to offer this service for free? Are there ads and sales e-mails or something that you get? Do they offer extras that you can just decline or something?

 

[NooraK]

There was a post in their blog about it a while back. There is a MC "badge" at the end of my emails to advertise the service, but iC had that too. My understanding is that they get enough of their clients to sign up for paid services, that it allows them to provide a limited service for free for clients with smaller lists.

 

[NooraK]

Here's the post:

Going Freemium: One Year Later | MailChimp Email Marketing Blog

 

[babywings76]

Thanks for the info!

 

[chefjeanine]

Can I import my email address list from my comcast address book? I don't know how else to move this information over to chimpmail.

 

[NooraK]

Most email programs will have some kind of an export feature that will put the data into a .csv file, which you can then import into MC. If you call the tech support for Comcast, they should be able to help you figure out how.

 

[chefa]

Great info; thanks for asking about it Amanda!

 

[chefjeanine]

Most email programs will have some kind of an export feature that will put the data into a .csv file, which you can then import into MC. If you call the tech support for Comcast, they should be able to help you figure out how.

Thank you! that will be my next stop.

 

[heather223]

So when I have my newsletter emailed to me, how to I send it to my customers using MC?

 

[NooraK]

So when I have my newsletter emailed to me, how to I send it to my customers using MC?

I open the newsletter in Outlook, and then use the options menu to view the Source. I take that HTML, edit anything I want in an online HTML editor, and then paste the edited HTML into MC for sending.