What is the most cost effective email marketing platform you use.

[zeedollar]

So just starting out with email marketing and signing up for one the big players like aweber, constant contact, get responce or wordpress plugins which manage email list can really turn out to be a bad idea if you are not able to scale in your business after the first 2 months, because their service cost can prove really really expensive.

Recently i have been looking for the most cost effective way to manage and maintain a list without having to break the bank, especially because am just starting out. Any ideas guys?

 

[Rob Whisonant]

You can go self hosted by using a script like sendy. Then use Amazon SES or a SMTP service to handle the sending of the emails. The cost is drastically lower and personally I have found that I have a higher percentage of inboxing using this setup.

Just make sure your emails are giving the reader value and not just commanding them to buy this and buy that etc. In other words, treat your list like you would want to be treated.

 

[pjprins]

Rob has a point - you can even use gmail SMTP (although most hosting providers will allow you a few hundred emails per hour, so you can go quite far with that).

it also depends on which niche you are in - if you don't market to the internet marketing/network marketing niche, you can use Mailchimp - first 2K subscribers free, and up to 12K emails per month free.

That's how I started.

I tried a number of free services, and none of them had any decent delivery rates.

Tries to get set up with phplist (free software in hosting cpanel) - but I found I couldn't send follow-up emails with it (not to mention it's a nightmare to get all the settings done - everything is manual)

Unfortunately, if you serve the "make money online" niche (or any of the "high risk" niches), Mailchimp is out.

Lastly - keep in mind that if you move your mailing list to another provider later on, many of them will require your subscribers to confirm their optins again.

That does cause substantial losses. But then again, you will keep the ones who are really interested in what you have to say.

I would just suggest preparing them for the move beforehand - send out an email telling them about it before it happens. That way, the ones who want to stay on your list will be on the lookout for the email.

 

[vishwa]

Setting up a SMTP is a tricky task if anyone is new to this field. I have two options for you which is very cost effective. You can go with Mailchimp and Mailerlite. Their plans are very cost effective and won't hurt your budget. Both of them also have pay as you go plan.