Hi mtreptow-ga,
You've touched on a subject close to my heart. :-) The Google Editors
sometimes frown on researchers solely using personal experience as a
basis for an answer (as punishment they make us write "Where is Kurt
Jahnke?" 5000 times on an electronic tablet), but I'm in the
electronic newsletter business, among many other things, so I think I
can speak with some expertise.
My personal favorite Web-based email marketing program is "Constant
Contact", from Roving Software, http://www.roving.com/.
I've not only used it myself, but have recommended it to various
clients who have been very pleased with both its capabilities and low
cost. Constant Contact allows you to quickly and easily build email
newsletters, customer letters, and promotions. You can create
professional-looking, personalized newsletters with it in minutes.
Using Constant Contact's templates, you can deliver your email to your
readers in HTML, AOL and text versions. You add copy (headlines,
sub-heads, body copy) simply by filling in form boxes. You can also
link to your own images and photos on the Web. You don't need to know
any HTML to use Constant Conttact, but if you do, you can also use it
to create a fully-customized newsletter or flyer.
An important part of any electronic newsletter campaign is your
mailing list, of course. With Constant Contact, you can import your
own mailing list, have vistors sign-up to your newsletter through your
web site, or add names online. Constant Contact also rents opt-in
email lists to customers (opt-in is important. You *do not* want to
rent a spam mailing list). Constant Contact allows you to track the
results of your campaign, how many emails were sent and delivered, how
many people actually opened the email, and so on.
The price is also right, in my opinion. Pricing is based on number of
subscribers, starting at $10 for up to 250 subscribers to $250 for up
to 50,000 subscribers.
Roving Software offers a free 60-day trial, and I recommend you try
them out.
As you can tell, I'm obviously high on Constant Contact, but to give
you something to contrast it to, I'd also recommend that you take a
look at iMakeNews http://www.imakenews.com/
In general terms, I feel iMakeNews is more suited to the larger
enterprise, while Constant Contact is probably a better fit for the
do-it-yourselfer small business.
I've also used iMakeNews to create electronic email capaigns and
newsletters. In my opinion, it's somewhat more powerful than Constant
Contact, gives the more knowledgable Web editor better control over
content and tracking, but is harder to use and to manage. Pricing is
on a monthly basis, and varies per customer, but would probably be
significantly higher than the cost for Constant Contact. iMakeNews
also offers a free 30-day trial of its software. Between the two
different packages, I think you'll find what you need. Best of luck
with your newsletter!
rico |
