Mail Chimp

[skip.knox]

Does anyone here use Mail Chimp? I don't even have readers yet, but I'll soon have three works self-published, with my novel following in a few months, so I'm looking seriously at *shudder* platform-building.

If you do use Mail Chimp, do you use the free version or one of the paid versions? Any thoughts on the choice?

(I did a search here on "mail chimp" and came up empty, which rather surprised me)

 

[BWFoster78]

I do. I haven't sent out a campaign yet (9/1 will be my first), but everything has been super easy so far. I listened to advice of several KBoarder's in selecting it, and I don't think there's any reason to pay for the premium version. Note that you will have to pay once you reach 2000 subscribers.

On general email list note: even with the free acct, you can track who opens your emails and who doesn't. A lot of the experienced users say to drop people who never open the emails. That will up your conversion rate. That way, but the time you reach 2000, the profit from the list will far, far outweigh the cost.

 

[Russ]

I have used it very successfully in business. Not only can you track who opens your e-mail, if you have a link inside it you can track who clicks through.

I think it, or something similar is an essential tool to a writer who has any business aspirations.

 

[BWFoster78]

And check this out:

The Official Newsletter of Author Brian W. Foster

That's the Mail Chimp generated link to my email signup. It's fully customizable (though I didn't do anything in that respect) and you can put it in all your books, FB, your website, sig files. Easy peasy.

There are debates about which service is the best, but my takeaway was that Mail Chimp was free for longer than the others and that you don't really need anything other than the free part until you get a really big business going.

 

[PaulineMRoss]

I use MailChimp too. It's absolutely fine for small numbers, super easy to use and the newsletters are very professional looking. The paid version gives you some sophisticated automation features, I believe, but I've never needed anything that didn't come with the free version.

I also use a plugin called SumoMe to generate a discreet popup window to encourage signups. It works on WordPress sites (the self-hosted version).

 

[acapes]

I like MailChimp too, as other folks have said, easy to use, good tracking info and free while your list is small. All good, I reckon

 

[skip.knox]

Thanks all. I'm not quite ready to dive in, but at least I've changed into my swim trunks!
(I really, truly do not know what to make of that metaphor ... maybe I'm drowning?)