Direct Email Marketing Reviews

Pros:

• Excellent email creation tools (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• High quality contact management system (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• High quality campaign reports (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Can create A/B test campaigns (to test subject line, from name, time sent)
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses
• Can import contacts from Gmail and Mac Contacts
• Unlimited Image Hosting

Cons:

• Phone support not available

Conclusion:

MailChimp is a very popular, email marketing tool with lots of integrations and frequent improvements. However, they DO NO offer phone support, but do have live chat support from friendly, knowledgeable customer service reps. If you don't mind not be able to talk to someone on the phone, MailChimp you will have a hard time finding a better email marketing service.

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Pros:

• High quality customer service (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• High quality campaign reports (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Excellent email creation tools (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Can create A/B test campaigns (to test subject line, from name, time sent)
• Can import contacts from email accounts (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail)
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses
• A real person manually reviews your email campaign before it's sent

Cons:

• At the time of this review, we did not identify anything that we felt should be labeled as a con.

Conclusion:

Benchmark scored 5 out of 5 stars in three categories and is an excellent email marketing service. We were very impressed by their solid contact management and statistics reporting, as well as the quality of their customer service. They also have excellent email creation tools that make designing and sending your campaigns very easy.

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Pros:

• Excellent email creation tools (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• High quality campaign reports (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• High quality customer service (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses
• Can import contacts from email accounts (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail)
• Can create A/B test campaigns (to test subject line, from name, time sent)
• 1 GB of image hosting (Market Standard is 5-10 MB)

Cons:

• At the time of this review, we did not identify anything that we felt should be labeled as a con.

Conclusion:

GetResponse offers a very easy-to-use product with a lot of templates to choose from and tons of flexibility in designing your emails. They have excellent customer support that is very knowledgeable, and their reporting is top notch, displaying all the statistics that you would want to know about your email campaign. They also have good features such as a spam checker, A/B testing, and Google Analytics integration.

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Pros:

• High quality contact management system (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• High quality customer service (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Can import contacts from email accounts (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail)
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses

Cons:

• 1.7 MB of picture hosting (Market Standard is 5-10 MB)

Conclusion:

Constant Contact scored 5 out 5 stars for Ease of Use and Customer Service. It is especially easy to import contacts into your Constant Contact account as their software is compatible with Excel, Outlook, Salesforce, and many others. However, their image hosting is below our Market Standard. Such shortcomings are outshined by excellent customer service, detailed graphical reports, and other features.

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Pros:

• High quality customer service (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses

Cons:

• Cannot remove the vendor's logo from emails for free

Conclusion:

iContact scored well on Customer Service for their quick and helpful support. However, you cannot remove the vendor’s logo from your emails for fee. Their contact management is easy to use with the automatic removal of unsubscribes and bounces, and they also have an autoresponder feature that keeps readers informed and up-to-date.

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Pros:

• Excellent email creation tools (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• High quality customer service (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Can import contacts from email accounts (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail)

Cons:

• Cannot remove the vendor's logo from emails for free
• Spam checker not available

Conclusion:

Campaigner scored very well in Customer Service and Ease of Use. Their 24/7 availability for phone and email support is not matched by many competitors, but they do not offer standard features such as spam checking tools or A/B test campaigns. However, their intuitive contact management and email creation systems are great tools for email marketing users.

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Pros:

• Excellent email creation tools (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• High quality campaign reports (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• 25 MB of picture hosting (Market Standard is 5-10 MB)
• Can import contacts from email accounts (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail)
• Can create A/B test campaigns (to test subject line, from name, time sent)
• A real person manually reviews your email campaign before it's sent

Cons:

• Cannot import contacts with cut-and-paste
• Spam checker not available

Conclusion:

Vertical Response scored high on Ease of Use and Campaign Reports. However, they do not offer a spam checker and you cannot easily cut and paste your contacts into their contact management system. They scored high on Ease of Use for their large amount of image hosting space and their WYSIWYG editor.

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Pros:

• Unlimited picture hosting (Market Standard is 5-10 MB)
• Can create A/B test campaigns (to test subject line, from name, time sent)
• High quality campaign reports (scored 5 out of 5 stars)

Cons:

• Fewer than 100 email templates available
• Long wait times for customer support
• Live chat support not available

Conclusion:

Campaign Monitor is great for email marketers who know HTML coding and the average user who wants to create professional-looking email campaigns. Their Customer Service did not have the fastest response times, but they are very thorough and helpful. The highlight of Campaign Monitor is their Reporting as the reports generated by the service are accurate and incredibly detailed. Another perk is their unlimited image hosting space.

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Pros:

• Unlimited image hosting (Market Standard is 5-10 MB)
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses
• A real person manually reviews your email campaign before it's sent

Cons:

• Fewer than 100 email templates available
• Spam checker not available
• Phone support available only upon request

Conclusion:

Overall, MadMimi has great customer service, as they take personal care of their clients by having developers and owners answer all support queries. Although they only have phone support available upon request, with no direct number, and they don't have a large number of templates, their outstanding quality of customer service and high flexibility of these templates makes MadMimi’s email marketing service a good choice for customers.

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Pros:

• High quality customer service (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Unlimited image hosting (Market Standard is 5-10 MB)
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses
• Flexible email templates

Cons:

• Fewer than 100 email templates available
• Cannot import contacts with cut-and-paste

Conclusion:

Emma’s customer service is outstanding, as they scored a perfect 5 of 5 stars in this category by having many types of  helpful support . Although they don’t meet our Market Standard for their number of templates, the high flexibility of these templates should make this number enough to design the perfect email campaign.

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Pros:

• Excellent email creation tools (scored 5 out of 5 starseaaigh quality campaign reports (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• High quality campaign reports (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• High quality customer service (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Unlimited image hosting (Market Standard is 5-10 MB)
• Can import contacts from email accounts (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail)
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses

Cons:

• Spam checker not available

Conclusion:

MyNewsletterBuilder scored earned 5 out of 5 stars for Ease of Use, Campaign Reports, and Customer Service. Although MyNewsletterBuilder lacks a spam checking tool, the vendor scores high marks for offering unlimited image hosting and having an easy contact management system. The addition of high quality customer service make this a great service.

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Pros:

• Excellent email creation tools (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• High quality customer service (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Unlimited image hosting (Market Standard is 5-10 MB)

Cons:

• Live chat support not available

Conclusion:

GoDaddy scored very well for both their Customer Service and Ease of Use. They offer 24/7 phone support which we found to be very helpful. However, they do not provide autoresponders, and we found that their reports do not accurately reflect user actions. But they do offer unlimited hosting space, and their contact management is simple and easy to use.

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Pros:

• High quality customer service (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses

Cons:

• No image hosting offered (Market standard is 5-10 MB)

Conclusion:

AWeber’s scored a perfect 5 of 5 stars for Customer Service by having all types of support available seven days a week. Although the service doesn’t have any image hosting on the interface, the high number of templates offered, WYSIWYG editor, and ability to drag and drop images into templates helps make this service useful for most any type of user.

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Pros:

• Unlimited image hosting (Market Standard is 5-10 MB)
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses

Cons:

• Live chat support not available

Conclusion:

JangoMail was above average in most categories. Their unlimited image hosting is a great benefit for users who want the convenience of having numerous images within the email marketing tool. JangoMail lacks a true drag-and-drop content block editor and live-chat support, but we were very pleased by both their spam checking software as well as live email testers in order to reduce users’ email campaigns being labeled as spam.

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Pros:

• Unlimited image hosting (Market Standard is 5-10 MB)
• Can create A/B test campaigns (to test subject line, from name, time sent)

Cons:

• Cannot automatically remove unsubscribed readers from your contact list
• Live chat support not available

Conclusion:

StreamSend scored well on Features for offering a WYSIWYG editor and an autoresponder, making both editing emails and sending welcome messages to new subscribers easy. However, they do not allow you to create an A/B test campaign, and they do not offer live chat customer support. They do offer unlimited picture hosting and have Google Analytics integration with their reports.

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Pros:

• High quality customer service (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Unlimited image hosting (Market Standard is 5-10 MB)
• A real person manually reviews your email campaign before it's sent

Cons:

• Cannot remove the vendor's logo from emails for free
• WYSWIG editor not available

Conclusion:

Elite Email performed well on Customer Service by earning 5 out of 5 stars for having 24/7 customer support options and scored adequately on the Ease of Use and Features categories. However, Elite Email does not offer a WYSIWYG editor or very detailed reporting features. Their contact management is intuitive, and we were very impressed to see that campaigns are inspected by live people before they are sent out in order to prevent spam.

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