When owning a blog or small business, you must take care of many different things. It may be overwhelming to research everything and pick the best option if you are starting. To help you out, let me share my experience and help you choose the best newsletter provider for small businesses.
What is Newsletter Provider?
Before we can pick the best option, let’s start with the basics and explain what it is and why you need it. Newsletter Provider, also called a Subscription or Mailing List Service Provider, is a website that helps you collect your website visitor’s e-mails and send them messages with news and updates.
It is a great tool for growing your business and converting visits into sales if you run a shop.
For more, read: 4 Reasons Why You Need a Mailing List
The Best Newsletter Provider
There are hundreds of companies to choose from. At first glance, they look really similar, so most people just go with the most popular one, which is usually Mailchimp, which is a huge mistake. We also fell into a Mailchimp trap years ago because it was one of the few companies that offer a free account if your number of subscribers is low. It is an awesome option if you are just starting; however, once your mailing list starts growing, the costs become really high. We have been using Mailchimp for about 8 years because I always thought that if it works and so many people use it, it must be good.
Finally, by a total accident, I found Flodesk, and I’m so happy I made the switch a few months ago. I saved a huge amount of money, and even though it has fewer options than other providers, I’m not missing anything.
Even though I will prise Flodesk to everyone who asks, I know that you may need more than words to encourage you to switch from your current subscription provider. Because of that, let’s make some comparisons and talk about real numbers.
The comparison
I’m comparing the two providers I personally used for at least a few months. I have worked with other providers like MadMimi, MailerLite etc, for our customers, but I have never found them much better than Mailchimp. They may have a bit better pricing, but the difference was not high enough to be worth switching.
The most popular one
Price:
Depends on the number of subscribers. From as low as $20/month for 500 subscribers to even $700/month with the standard plan
Relatively new but works great
Price:
35$/month, no matter how many subscribers you have! With this link, you get 50% off for the first year.
If you are starting a fresh mailing list, Mailchimp may be tempting with their free account for a low number of subscribers, but if you think seriously about growing your list, you will quickly realize that you are paying a huge amount of money for options you are now even using
Features you need
If you want to save your money, then Flodesk is the obvious choice. How about the features? Mailchimp is here for a long time, so it offers almost everything you can think of; however, do you really need that? I have been using it for a few years, and even thou I’m a technical person who likes new features and innovations, I was really using two or three options they were offering. When I was switching to Flodesk, I was terrified that I would not be able to do something important for my business but to be honest, I have everything I need.
After a few months of research, I know that on Flodesk, you can’t set up an automatic newsletter that would notify your subscribers automatically every time you post something on your blog. It was a popular feature in the past, and I was even encouraging people to use it on Mailchimp but nowadays, I think that sending e-mails manually and adding personalized messages to each of them is more effective for small business owners.
What should I choose?
For me, the choice is simple – Flodesk. It has great pricing because it is relatively new, its drag-and-drop e-mail creator is super easy to use, and have lots of templates you can use for professional-looking emails even if you are not a designer.
You can try it for free with all the possible features for a month. With our mailing list guide, you can learn how to create a Flodesk account and set up your opt-in forms.
Make sure to use our affiliate link to support us and get 50% off your first year with Flodesk.
I hope that you will love Flodesk as much as I do. If you need help with your mailing list or opt-in setup, let us know in the comments below or contact us via our contact form.
For more, read: How To Dramatically Increase Mailing List Subscribers
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Author: Kate
