What Are Cost-Effective Alternatives to iContact for Managing 1200 Contacts?

[PamperedK]

I did a search but it came up with 500 results and none looked relevant.

I'm looking for an alternative to iContact. I currently have 1200 contacts, and I don't anticipate adding hundreds more in the next year. The problem I have with iContact is it only has 1000 contacts or 2500 - nothing in between. So I'm paying an additional $120 / year for 200 contacts.

I tried going through to pare out those that are bouncing, etc...but I don't know if I can pare it down under 1000.

Any suggestions for other services?

 

[PampChefJoy]

Email Marketing and Email List Manager | MailChimp
Email Marketing Solutions from Constant Contact
www.emailbrain.com
Email Marketing Software - YMLP
Mad Mimi Email Marketing : Create, send & track emails with Mad Mimi.

Of these, I have used YMLP and iContact. I just tried MailChimp, and it was okay - just a learning curve I have to get used to. I think the ease of using any of these programs depends on what you want to do. For example, I usually create my HTML emails in FrontPage and then paste the code into the email program, so the WYSIWIG editor or creative templates is of less importance to me. What is important is fewer clicks to get to what I need. I think it's also important to have an intuitive interface to see your clicks and opens (MailChimp did not seem super intuitive to me, but I am used to iContact.).

 

[Jewel]

I used https://app.verticalresponse.com

 

[PamperedK]

Thanks guys!!MailChimp didn't seem much cheaper to me but I liked the idea of it. I was really looking at Vertical Response or EmailBrain but I can't figure out if there is the copy/paste contacts option like iContact has. When I come home from a show, I email my guests from Outlook right away and I like that I can just copy and paste the addresses into iContact instead of entering them one at a time...anyone know if these will do the same thing?

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Email Marketing and Email List Manager | MailChimp
Email Marketing Solutions from Constant Contact
www.emailbrain.com
Email Marketing Software - YMLP
Mad Mimi Email Marketing : Create, send & track emails with Mad Mimi.

Of these, I have used YMLP and iContact. I just tried MailChimp, and it was okay - just a learning curve I have to get used to. I think the ease of using any of these programs depends on what you want to do. For example, I usually create my HTML emails in FrontPage and then paste the code into the email program, so the WYSIWIG editor or creative templates is of less importance to me. What is important is fewer clicks to get to what I need. I think it's also important to have an intuitive interface to see your clicks and opens (MailChimp did not seem super intuitive to me, but I am used to iContact.).

I keep seeing this - what is it????

 

[PamperedK]

What you see is what you get.

 

[PampChefJoy]

I forgot about Vertical Response!

I'm pretty sure you can copy/paste contacts with any of them. I do recall at one time when I was researching, that one of them REQUIRES double-opt-in, which was a dealbreaker for me. There's no way I want to re-confirm my contacts when I'm just migrating a mailing list. I know it's better for a cleaner list, but the reality is that you will lose people if they're required to double opt-in. Some customers won't have the patience to go through the confirmation process.

 

[PamperedK]

Ok I found it and so far I'm really liking EmailBrain but for some reason copying the HTML into it is screwing up the layout of my newsletter! I sent an email to their support staff so we'll see what they say.It's hard to get used to a different program! I'm having a tough time figuring out how to get everything to work properly.

 

[PampChefJoy]

If you are using Tasty Tidbits: I write in old school HTML with tables, which is not the norm for coding anymore. I've tried to update using CSS but the recommendation for email newsletters is actually to keep it in HTML with tables. This sometimes does not work well with email programs that have their own internal editors that re-interpret the code. My code works well with iContact and YMLP, which is why I recommend them.

I wouldn't be surprised if EmailBrain told you that your writer needs to update her coding Unfortunately, the last time I tried to do that, it screwed up a whole lot of other people who weren't have any trouble with the newsletter to begin with.

 

[PamperedK]

If you are using Tasty Tidbits: I write in old school HTML with tables, which is not the norm for coding anymore. I've tried to update using CSS but the recommendation for email newsletters is actually to keep it in HTML with tables. This sometimes does not work well with email programs that have their own internal editors that re-interpret the code. My code works well with iContact and YMLP, which is why I recommend them.

I wouldn't be surprised if EmailBrain told you that your writer needs to update her coding Unfortunately, the last time I tried to do that, it screwed up a whole lot of other people who weren't have any trouble with the newsletter to begin with.

Hmmm I actually use myemaildesigns...but that's an interesting point....

 

[PampChefJoy]

I think Mike writes in CSS, but I haven't seen one of his actual newsletters to say for sure. I'm curious to see what they say because I'd like to make my newsletters as headache free for my subscribers.