Email Marketing – Icontact, Aweber, ConstantContact, Etc.

Recently I had a marketing friend ask me what I thought was the best service online for “Email Marketing.”  Since email marketing is an important part of what all online marketers do I thought it prudent to do an overview of the different services out there. In the upcoming week or so I will also prepare an article about how to best utilize this technology on your website.

Now I’m going to briefly overview each of the most popular services out there. I have personally used 3 of the 5 services below and will attempt to give you the highlights on all 5. I highly suggest that if you are shopping around you read about each of the services below. At the bottom of this post I have set up links to each of these services so you can go directly to their sites and try out the free trials etc.

• Icontact.com Icontact is among the cheapest programs I have tried out. Their system is very easy to use and I especially like their RSS feed importing tool which I believe is unique to Icontact & Aweber. They do have a free trial you can sign up for to get a feel for the program. Their service starts out at $9.95 per month. That price will allow you to have up to 250 contacts. They have a good number of templates you can use. They allow importing & exporting of contacts and they provide good reporting of your emails.
• ConstantContact.com Constant Contact provides all the same services mentioned above. The only thing I really think they offer than most other programs don’t is there multi-list feature. This allows users to select which types of emails they want to receive from you. Instead of having individual signup forms for each list you have one signup page where users choose from all the options. This could be good or bad for you. I prefer the ConstantContact email creation program the most of all of them. They make it very easy to use their professional templates. Constant Contact is a little more pricy and will charge for an email archive.
• Email Marketer. The Email Marketer program designed by Interspire is my absolute favorite program and the service I currently use. It is the only program I’m reviewing today that has no ongoing monthly fees. You purchase the software for a one time cost and then install it onto your server. You maintain complete control over all the functions since it is installed on your site. It has all the features you could ever want: Stats, Lists, Contact Manager, Professional Templates, SignUp Forms, etc. They even have a spam word search option that is SUPER COOL. This is a large upfront expense but it will save you money in the long run. The other services reviewed here increase your monthly cost as your total number of contacts increases. With Email Marketer you never need worry about a financial burden.
• AWeber.com I have never personally used Aweber. From what I can gather from their website and feedback from fellow marketers that use it the features are similar to icontact & constantcontact. One distinct feature that I was impressed with on their site in potential shopping cart integration. Setting up an easy check out from the email to paypal etc… Sounds cool! Their cost starts out at $19 per month after the free trial but that does include up to 500 contacts.
• GetResponse.com I have never personally used GetResponse. From the looks of things on their website I am once again drawn to conclude they have similar features to the other guys. I do wonder however why I have never found anyone else who uses the program? Are they new in town or simply not as good? Their monthly prices start out at $17.95 per month