MARKETING - 07.09.2012

The cheapest way to e-mail

E-mail costs less

A simple e-mail rather than an expensive flier sent in the post can save you money, but an e-mail might not always get to the right place or be noticed - it may end up in your potential customer’s “SPAM”, for example. So is there a better way to manage e-mails en masse and still save money?

Specifically designed

Your ordinary e-mail program can be used for sending out mailings, but these generally lack specific mailing functions.

We tried out three dedicated mailing services: iContact (http://www.icontact.com), MailChimp (http://www.mailchimp.com) and JangoMail (http://www.jangomail.com).

These three tools allow you to import existing mailing lists, e.g. from Excel. They can track duplicates and allow you to bring specific customers together in separate groups - which is convenient for targeted mailing.

Creating and sending mailings

Only iContact and MailChimp offer a handy setup wizard. The three services let you fully customise your mailing using templates. Adding weblinks, surveys, forms, an unsubscribe link and graphical elements is straightforward.

Note. Image hosting on the iContact server is limited to a mere 0.5MB, while MailChimp and JangoMail apply no such limit. Conversely, JangoMail is the only service not to offer integration with social media, such as Facebook.

A nice touch

The three services first send a test mail and check whether your mailing will be considered SPAM by e-mail servers - this ensures you’re not wasting your time. Tip. These mailing functions allow you to analyse the effectiveness of your campaign. The three tools tell you the number of mails that have been opened and forwarded, plus the click-through ratio for the links contained in your mailing. You’re also informed about the unsubscribers. Only MailChimp doesn’t keep track of the number of undeliverable mails.

How much does it cost?

The monthly prices are fairly similar (about £21 for up to 10,000 mails). You can try out the three services for a limited period, but MailChimp allows you to send out mailings to up to 2,000 addresses without taking out a subscription, though there’s a limit on the total number of sent e-mails of 12,000 per month. Tip. Taking into account all of the above elements, our pick is MailChimp, except for mailings of between 10,000 and 15,000 addresses, where JangoMail is cheaper.