Anything that makes email marketing easier has to be welcomed. I’ve run a few of these campaigns in my time and they’re nearly always a nightmare. Validating the people, dealing with dead and bounced email addresses and ensuring no-one’s getting spammed are right up there as genuine business issues you have to address.
MailChimp claims to take the pain out of these problems ‘automagically’ (ahem.) From what I have seen it is a terrific example of ‘doing one thing really well’ at a price anyone can afford. 5,000 email credits – $100 falls well inside my ‘cab fare pricing’ benchmark.
Don’t be put off by the name as I nearly was. The customer list is awesome and there are plenty of design assists for anyone wanting to make email marketing a central part of their marketing strategy but who’s stuck for ideas. Which includes most professionals I know – myself included.
Daft as this sounds, the best part of MailChimp is not the service but the ideas that support it. The MonkeyBrains blog is a one-stop email marketing info gold mine that gives easy to understand answers to questions for which consultants charge a fortune. An example:
“Should I buy an opt-in email list?”
We get that question a lot.
Short answer: Hell no.
Long answer: http://www.btobonline.com/article.cms?articleId=30232
It doesn’t get much plainer than that.
Hat tip to John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing.
Technorati Tags: email marketing
