Which Email Marketing Provider?
This is a feature list, feature comparison and brief overview for the main email marketing providers out there: Mailchimp (and Mandrill), Aweber and GetResponse.
Features important to us are:
- Nurturing emails - automated campaigns AKA Auto Follow Up
- Email open (and click on) stats AKA Analysis Reports and Google Analytics Integration
- Update customer list/db from our website AKA API
Feature Comparison
| AWeber | GetResponse | Icontact | Mailchimp | Mandrill | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto Follow up |
Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Analysis / Reports |
Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Google Analytics |
Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| API | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| A/B Testing |
Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Mobile Friendly |
Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Subscriber Profiles |
Y | Y | Y | ||
| Preview / Testing |
Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Email Editor |
Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Subscriber Segmenting |
Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Signup Forms |
Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| 10k Monthly Cost |
$69 | £45 | $250* | $75 | **note |
*Icontact advertise a plan for 10000 subscribers at £48.84 on their website, however a plan with all the features mentioned in the table would cost in the region of $250 per month.
**Mandrill charges per email, whereas the other providers charge per subscriber with unlimited emails to each subscriber. This is free for the first 12k emails, then $0.20 per 1000 emails for the next million emails, etc. So to send 100,000 emails in a month, you’d pay $17.60. See here for details.
Feature List
AWeber
AWeber has a well laid out feature list on their site (click on the “Learn More” links). They also have lots of info about their API, so I won’t duplicate either here.
GetResponse
GetResponse has a well laid out list of top features on their site. They also have some info about their API, so I won’t duplicate either here.
GetResponsse offer a landing page creator add-on wich allows you to create mobile ready landing pages, at an additional cost of £12/month.
When asked, this is what the GetResponse sales team said differentiates them from their competitors:
Besides the big difference in the pricing, as you can see yourself, we do have an array of features that we are constantly improving. Last year we released the new Landing Page creator, and soon we will be releasing the new Webform creator. We also have a 24/7 Customer Success team that is available for our customers.
Icontact
Icontact does not have a huge amount of information on their website, but were able to provide some details directly (as listed above and detailed below). For a starting point to using their “Open API”, see here.
Premier Account Features (the account which includes all the features listed in the comparison table) includes:
- Business Discovery
- Best Practices Review
- Expert Message Assistance
- Split A/B Testing
- Strategy and Tactical Optimization
- Reputation & Deliverability Management
- Campaign Planning
- Expert List Assistance
- Training
- Performance Feedback
- Integration with Google Analytics
- Dedicate Strategic Advisor For Email Marketing Assistance
Mailchimp
Mailchimp has a well laid out feature list on their site. They also have lots of info about their API, so I won’t duplicate either here.
Mandrill
Mandrill is an email infrastructure service, used to send automated one-to-one email like welcome messages, one-to-one marketing emails and customized newsletters.
Mandrill has a well laid out feature list and price calculator on their website. They also have lots of info about their API, so I won’t duplicate either here.