Your. Your own. Your precious list of subscribers. It’s yours; you can access it anytime and you’re not limited by social media’s reach. It won’t be shut down without providing any reason, which may happen with any Facebook group that you admin. You already know 12 reasons why your business needs a blog, so now it’s time for a newsletter! It is the best way to keep in touch with your community and it is most effective way of communication for your readers or clients because, as much research shows, people pay the most attention to e-mails, rather than the news feed present in their favourite social media platform. Even if you still don’t have your subscriber list, it is surely worth taking under consideration because there is a whole spectrum of advantages to having your own. There are free tools that can help you send e-mail campaigns easily and quickly, without having the requisite coding knowledge. Let’s take a look at the most popular e-mail marketing software that is available free of charge.
MailChimp
MailChimp is undeniably one of the leaders when it comes to free e-mail distribution. MailChimp is free to 2000 subscribers on your list, as long as there are less than 12,000 e-mails per month. It is enough for small companies that occasionally send their subscribers a newsletter. A huge advantage of MailChimp is their powerful and step-by-step Knowledge Base, complete with not only blog posts, but also with the tutorial videos. MailChimp e-mail creator is intuitive and works as a drag-and-drop editor.
Unfortunately, the free version doesn’t offer the full automation options; an autoresponder is available for users who choose a paid version of MailChimp. Autoresponders are useful if you want to offer your subscriber something valuable in return for signing in, for example, an ebook, a checklist, a mindmap, a discount code for your products, etc. It is a part of automation process, which helps your workflow. You set the software up once and you don’t have to think to reply, manually add an attachment or send it when somebody new appears on your list.
MailerLite
Your account will be free of charge as long as your list has less than 1000 subscribers. Furthermore, you don’t pay for the number of sent emails. MailerLite is a young tool and it is gradually developing and collecting its fans. The interface and the e-mail editor are simple and MailerLite will be suitable for beginners who need clear guidance on what to do to achieve their goal. MailerLite offers basic options of automation in their free plan, so an autoresponder is available. Their e-mail editor is very intuitive and they have a informative blog and helpful customer service.
Freshmail
Freshmail is free if your list is smaller than 500 subscribers, or if you send less than 2000 e-mails per month. Unlike MailChimp, Freshmail’s free offer includes the option of one autoresponder. Freshmail is professional and provides a great range of advanced possibilities: A/B testing, a WordPress plugin or optimising by a weekday. A lot of beautiful newsletter campaign templates are available. The resources are full of videos, written guidelines and Freshmail’s own blog, which is a superb source of knowledge not only about newsletter campaigns, but also about internet marketing in general. Furthermore, if you’re a subscriber to their newsletter, you can access free webinars that will live answer your questions regarding internet marketing. Two payment options are available: the first is for frequent senders (the number of your subscribers matters) and the second is for those who send newsletter occasionally (the number of sent e-mails).
Addendum: The Personal Data Protection
In some countries, for example in Poland, an e-mail is formally the personal data. If you collect people’s e-mail addresses and send newsletter campaigns, you ought to inform the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection by filling in their detailed form, declaring that you’re in control of your list and you’re conscious of the responsibility. Make sure you know the the legal requirements to distribute your e-mails according to the applicable law in your country.
Image Credits: https://mailchimp.com/ , https://www.mailerlite.com/ , www.freshmail.com
Nice to see our app here! Just want to add up – a month ago we have launched new automation workflows ( https://blog.mailerlite.com/introducing-new-automation/ ). Its really powerful now and it is added into FREE plan too. Feel fry to try it.