Last Thursday I introduced email list management. To set up your email list, it’s to use an email list service because they:
- are reliable
- don’t run into issues about spamming when mailing large numbers of people
- help you manage your lists
- make sure you operate within the law and best practice.
They charge for their services but given your list is likely to be your most valuable asset, this is money well spent.
A Point about Terminology
If you are running a complex organisation, you will have more than one list. For example, you may have a prospects’ list that records people who sign up from your website. If one of them makes a purchase, you can programme your site to take them off the prospects’ list and add them to your buyers’ list. Also you may have members and various committees, all with their own lists. For simplicity, when I use the word ‘list’ I mean the total of all the lists you have with your email service within the one account. If I want to distinguish between lists within an account I shall refer to the list by name, eg prospects’ list.
Choosing a Provider
There are several email service providers. The two most common used MailChimp and Aweber. There are high-end providers, such as Infusionsoft that provide a complete business service. These are more expensive.
MailChimp is popular among small voluntary organisations because it provides a free service. Aweber does not provide a free service and may be slightly cheaper once MailChimp starts charging. Some people think they offer a better service. I don’t think there’s much in it.
MailChimp’s Free Service
If you opt for MailChimp’s free service remember it is, apparently, quite difficult to change provider. I know people who’ve done it, so it is not impossible. However, you may want to consider where your organisation is heading when you make this first decision.
The free offer is up to 2000 email addresses. So, if you have multiple lists and some addresses appear on more than one list, then they will count to the 2000 total more than once. You can send up to 12 000 emails a month. So, if you have 2000 on your list, you can send 6 emails per month.
If you exceed these targets, they start to bill you. So, if you’re happy to pay once you exceed the target, there’s nothing to worry about. Most small organisations find they can operate quite happily within these constraints and do so for years.
The big drawback is you can’t send email sequences. If you want to send sequences, then you pay for your membership whatever number of emails you have on your list. You can upgrade at any time, so if you don’t want to send sequences immediately, you can sign up for the free service and upgrade later. However, if you’re going to start with a paid service it may be worth comparing prices with other providers.
Using Your Email Service
Most email services offer the following services. You will need to check out which services you must pay for with any given provider.
- List management
- Advice and guidance about email legal obligations and courtesy
- Sending broadcast emails, where you write an email and send it to everyone on your list.
- Email sequences, where you can schedule several emails to go out over a several days, once someone signs up to your list
- You can schedule emails to go out when you post to your blog. This can happen each time you post or a number can be saved and sent in one email.
- There are usually email templates. I’m not convinced these are particularly useful.
- You can design forms for your website so that people can sign up to your list. The services can also receive emails from forms set up from other sources.
- Help to get started and you can ask for help when you get stuck.
If you’re undecided between two providers, try to find out more about the quality of their support services. If they run a good responsive support service the chances are they provide an all-round good service.
Do you have experience of using these services? What advantages have you found?
