The best mailing services. The effectiveness of email campaigns

You have found yourself in the email marketing section, where you will learn what it is and what it is needed for. I will also tell you how email marketing on the Internet works and how to improve its effectiveness. And for dessert, at the very bottom there will be cool cases and articles with free lessons on this topic.

What is email marketing

Email Marketing- This complex activities, aimed at establishing interaction with subscribers and clients through email and mailing tools.

The purpose of such communication is to strengthen audience loyalty ( customer retention and return). That is, you need people who learn something about you not to leave after a certain action, but to stay close and support you. We would monitor how you develop, what you offer, and so on.

In fact, it is also a good one. After all, with the help of such mailings you can generate additional traffic to your resource. This is especially noticeable with a large base of active subscribers.

Why is this so important?

According to statistics, 98% of Internet users have email. 91% of them check it every day.

As you can see, email is one of the main sources of communication. This is the biggest reason why email marketing still works.

Misconceptions

Many people still have misconceptions about email marketing. Basically, they are divided into two parts:

Many people think that this is banal spam. But that's not true! This is communication with subscribers of our own database of email addresses with their prior consent.
Also some people think that it is banal mailing By e-mail. However, in reality, in addition to the usual action, communication strategy plays an important role. If you sent a person only one email and didn’t send anything else, then this is not email marketing.

Let me give you an example.

A person wants to buy a tablet, but doesn’t know which one is better. As a result, he starts looking for information on the Internet. Through a search, he goes to some site and sees that they offer a free training course.

The user agrees!

He enters his data into the subscription form and agrees to the terms. Then this course is sent to him by email. He begins to study it.

Then, after some time, the person receives a second letter. There, in general terms, there is an introduction to the author of the course. A brief biography of the person and a history of working with tablets is given.

The subscriber learns a lot about the author and sees that he has already encountered a similar situation. In addition, the letter promises to solve the problem. The author also warns the subscriber that he will send new lessons and additions to the course in the future.

After a certain series of lessons, a final letter is sent. There they sum up various results and at the end there is an offer to buy the product. And not just buy, but buy at a good discount.

It is also said that if a person makes an order during the day, he will be provided with free accessories for the tablet.

As a result, the subscriber agrees to purchase!

Some will think, why bother so much! After all, online stores immediately provide the same advantageous offer.

But the fact is that at first a person does not have trust in the company. Therefore, in the example here, the author of the newsletter has a greater chance of selling something. After all, the author himself became a good friend to the subscriber and helped him solve the problem. This is what it's all about the essence of email marketing!

That is, do not use sales directly. First, make friends with the person. Try to solve his problem. Show your expertise and provide cases.

But the most important thing is that you are working for a long-term relationship. This is not just a site where the user came, looked, left and forgot.

No! With the help of a series of lessons, you are constantly in contact with your subscriber, thereby reminding them of yourself and strengthening your brand.

Advantages and disadvantages of email marketing

Below I would like to list the important benefits of email marketing:

This is an additional source of traffic to the site
Cheap channel support. You can collect information about your subscribers and send emails completely free of charge.
The ability to collect a current subscription base of your audience. That is, exactly those people who are directly in contact with you at the moment.
Creation of communication ( regularity of touches) between brand and consumer
Establishing a strong relationship with the client
Effective engagement necessary actions. For example, sharing information, viewing recommendations, purchasing, etc.
Increase efficiency through personalization based on customer information ( who he is, where he lives, what his interests are, etc.)
You can quickly replenish your database of email addresses
Increases the average check - you can use upsells

Disadvantages of Email Marketing:

Spam filters are constantly being improved - sending out mailings is no longer as easy as before
We need a clear strategy and segmentation target audience— if you send uninteresting information, people will unsubscribe or send it to spam
It is not suitable for everyone - for example, such marketing will not work for funeral services ( no one wants to be reminded to buy a coffin or a wreath)
Setting up your service for mass mailings will seem very difficult to many
Tariffs of mailing services for intensive work with large databases are not cheap
You constantly need to check and clean the database of inactive subscribers
Regularity is necessary - otherwise the subscriber will forget about you and at the first uninteresting letter he will simply unsubscribe

Email Marketing Performance Indicators

There are certain indicators that help measure the effectiveness of email marketing:

The number of subscriptions is the size of the subscriber base
Open Rate - email open rate by subscribers (50 - 60% is considered a good indicator)
Click Rate - how many recipients who opened the letter completed the target action
Number of unsubscribes
Messages marked as spam
Recipient conversion rate - the rate of donations or purchases made after clicking on a link in an email

Typically, all this data is available through the email newsletter service you use. It is worth noting that the accuracy of determining such indicators may vary greatly for each service. Some give better statistics, others worse.

Below I want to give you some useful tips and cases on email marketing. To start, personalize, but don't use automatically inserted fields like “Dear [insert name].” It’s just that the name during registration may not match the real data.

People also often fear that it is phishing or spam. After all, most of these letters are usually fake.

So make your personalization more natural. It's done well through segmentation subscription base by gender, age, social and other characteristics.

The more clearly you segment your base, the better your email open rates will be. After all, in this case, you will offer your subscribers only what is interesting to them.

Also in letters you need to address header length. There is no specific answer as to what works best. Long titles or short ones.

But there is a title length that is called the “Dead Zone” (60 to 70 characters). You should try to avoid it. That is, do either less than 60 or more than 70 characters.

Also try to choose the best time for email newsletters. There is no clear answer here either. It will be different for each target audience. Therefore, you need to conduct A/B testing and see at what time the open rate is best.

The next tip is free gift. Give something to your subscribers so that they will be grateful to you. It could be some eBook, webinar recording, templates and so on.

Must also be present adaptive design letters. Then the messages will look good on different devices.

Still not bad send emails on weekends. On such days people are less stressed. Therefore, they have more time to check email. However, again, there is no clear answer here. Therefore, this point also needs to be tested.

Sometimes remind yourself. That is, there should not be too long pauses in the mailing. You can also use subscriber segmentation based on email open rates. Those who open emails frequently can be interacted with more often.

Well, definitely track statistics. It is she who makes it clear how effective your actions were.

Types of letters in the newsletter

Informational are different stories, useful tips, cases or lessons
Active - we offer to take a survey or invite you to some events
Commercial - we offer to buy some product or order a service
Transactional - an email that is automatically sent after a target action is completed on the site ( subscription confirmation, reminder of items in cart, etc.)
Autoresponders ( trigger letters) - configured for specific user actions ( for example, an automatic series of emails to complete a course)

It is worth noting that newsletters should be at least twice as much. After all, if you often ask people for some help, there will be a high probability of unsubscribing.

So give people more information. For example, news, some stories, useful cases, articles, and so on.

How to improve email open rates

Many people have a problem with how to increase the open rate of emails. To begin with, we can highlight two important indicators. This is From Name ( who did the letter come from?) and the subject of the message itself.

If you are sending letters as an organization, you have two options. Can From Name name on behalf of the organization or simply write the name of the employee.

But there is no specific answer here! Therefore, you need to test everything and see how it will be better in your case.

A lot depends on how well the audience knows you. Of course, it is much more pleasant to receive a letter from a specific person whom you already know.

Well, about subject of the letter don't forget either! The shortest and clearest headlines work best in many topics.

It also has a big impact on open rates. dispatch time. Largest quantity emails are opened on time lunch break and in the evening.

Opening rates are worse in the morning. People at the beginning of the working day are focused on work. Therefore, some letters will be ignored or even deleted.

And one more tip is database segmentation subscribers. You need to know your subscribers and what will be interesting to them.

Best day to open emails

Industry	Day
Hotels	Monday
Accounting	Monday
Veterinary services, animal care	Saturday
Art, culture, entertainment, museums, music, cinema, theaters	Wednesday
Cars	Friday
Products and services for children	Saturday
Associations, clubs	Monday
Consulting, trainings	Monday
Education	Monday
Finance	Friday
Fitness centers, yoga studios, bowling clubs, gyms	Monday
Government organizations	Monday
Healthcare, dentistry, hospitals	Monday
Real estate, construction, landscape design services	Tuesday
Insurance	Wednesday
Manufacturing companies	Tuesday
Marketing, advertising PR	Monday
Cleaning companies	Wednesday
Photo studios	Wednesday
Publishers	Monday
Real estate	Tuesday
Religious organizations	Monday
Restaurants, bars, cafes	Monday
Retail	Monday
Beauty Salons	Monday
Development of websites, online stores	Tuesday
Transportation	Sunday
Tourism	Thursday
Other	Monday

It is very important not to end up in spam when sending emails. To start, avoid safe words. The easiest way is to use the Glavred service ( glvrd.ru). It immediately highlights such words in the text. For example, buy, sell, advertising and so on.

Also avoid capital letters in words (except for the beginning of sentences). Spam filters react very harshly to this.

Still don't need to use much bright fonts and colors. I recommend using simple email templates.

Also, don't insert large images(both in size and weight). This has a very bad effect on loading information. Especially for mobile devices.

The field of the letter should contain minimum 200 text and numeric characters. Avoid large quantities exclamation marks.

Use subscription confirmation. This is when, after filling out the form, a confirmation email is sent to the person. To finally subscribe, the user must follow the link in the email.

Be sure to use this double confirmation!

Firstly, it helps to get rid of inactive mailboxes. After all, sometimes people can accidentally enter the wrong email address in the form.

Secondly, a person will not simply sign without his final consent. That is, you need ironclad confirmation of the owner of the box.

Also, a person must be able easy to unsubscribe from the newsletter. If this does not happen, then it will simply send the letter to the spam folder. The robots will take this into account and, of course, will worsen the deliverability of letters to other recipients.

More spam filter criteria:

Checking the IP address in blacklists - if you get there, then it is better to use your smtp servers
Pay attention to SPF, DKIM and DMARK records
Check email and sender name
If you link to bad and suspicious sites, your letter will be filtered. Hiding links through java scripts improves email deliverability. I also recommend making all links through a redirect from the sender’s domain.
Monitor the number of messages and the speed of their sending - for large values they turn on blocking
They take into account complaints from email recipients - if people put your emails in the spam folder, then the mailing list begins to be blocked
Pay attention to the frequency of the email database - you need the majority of addresses to be active. That is, for users to go into the mailbox and check it. But if there are many inactive and deleted mailboxes, then it may be blocked from sending letters. You also need to avoid email traps. These are boxes that were not initially subscribed to any mailing list. If there are any, the systems will track you and then block you. Therefore, do not use third-party databases under any circumstances.
Look at information about the company and so on

I really want to give you tips on how to increase your email subscriber base. To begin with, come up with A good reason to subscribe.

To do this, people need to be given some kind of bonuses for subscribing. Usually these are free books, webinar recordings, checklists, and so on.

When people unsubscribe, you can also give them some additional bonuses. Even when unsubscribing, do a survey asking why the person decided to unsubscribe. To do this, you can insert a short questionnaire with answer options. Or, after a typo, direct the person to a page with a survey.

I also recommend offering educational content. Through an automatic series of emails, you can offer subscribers to take a course. That is, after subscribing, you will automatically receive emails with lessons at a given time.

This gives additional user engagement.

Plays a very important role in collecting the subscription base. subscription form. She must be attractive. If you are offering a book or course, be sure to include a beautiful cover of the product in the form.

It is worth considering the number of fields in the form. The more there are, the less likely it is that a person will subscribe.

Pop up window with form

Use the tools attention grabber. Pop-ups work very well in this regard. Also use beautiful buttons and links with calls to action. Additionally, you can add animation.

How email marketing works

You need to understand that any email newsletter service consists of three elements:

SMTP server - deals with sending email messages.
POP server - accepts incoming correspondence.
Spam filter - controls the SMTP and POP server. It monitors emails and evaluates them as spam based on a number of criteria. A message is blocked if it meets at least several of these criteria.

Your letter first goes to the servers of the mail.ru service. That is, it first goes to SMTP and then is checked by a filter from mail.ru. If the spam filter approves the letter when sending, then it is sent to another mail service. For example, on yandex.ru.

How email marketing works

Your message first leaves the mail.ru spam filter and gets to the yandex.ru spam filter. Yandex will already have its own criteria for selecting letters.

That is, different systems have one such filter. However, for each of them it works according to its own specific algorithms.

So, the Yandex spam filter checks your letter. If it is approved, then the message goes to the POP server of the same Yandex and then goes directly to the recipient.

If your letter meets at least several criteria that violate the spam filter, then they either go to the spam folder or simply do not end up in the inbox.

If the recipient decides to send you a reply message, then the principle of sending is absolutely the same.

First, the message goes to the SMTP server and is checked by the spam filter of the outgoing mail service (for example, Yandex). Then it goes into the spam filter of the receiving mail service (for example, Mail.ru) and is sent to your email via the POP server.

This is how a regular email newsletter works between two users who use regular services.

If sending occurs within one service ( for example, between mail.ru mails), then it simply goes through the SMTP server. And then, passing through the spam filter, it returns through the POP server and is sent to another user.

Email distribution within one mail service

In any case, even if messages are exchanged through one mail service, all letters are still checked for spam.

Email distribution to the database

Bulk email distribution to a database differs in that the message is automatically sent to several recipients at once. That is, there is a mass phenomenon. To organize it, you need programs to automate the above-mentioned process.

This software is installed on a computer. Then in this program you can create message texts, place images and various files.

But the main thing is that you can upload a list of email subscribers into the software for whom the newsletter will work.

Sending email via a free SMTP server

This is a simple protocol for sending a letter. You can connect it to your program and then send messages. But this has its limitations.

Service	SMTP server	Sending speed
gmail.com	smtp.gmail.com	500 emails per day
hotmail.com	smtp.live.com	200 emails per day
yahoo.com	smtp.mail.yahoo.com	100 emails per hour
rambler.ru	smtp.rambler.ru	200 letters per hour
mail.ru	smtp.mail.ru	60 emails per hour
yandex.ru	smtp.yandex.ru	150 emails per day
aol.com	smtp.aol.com	500 emails per day
lycos.com	smtp.lycos.com	250 emails per day
meta.ua	smtp.meta.ua	200 emails per day
ukr.net	smtp.ukr.net	250 emails per day

I note that if you send emails very quickly through such free SMTPs, your mailing may be blocked at any time. That is, the email that you used as the SMTP server will be blocked.

Therefore, this mailing method is only suitable for a small subscriber base. If you have a large database, then this method can also be used. However, in this case you need to connect proxy servers. They allow you to hide your computer’s IP address and make it seem like the sending is coming from different devices.

Sending email via free SMTP

Sending emails via your SMTP server

For hosting you need to buy a VDS or VPS server. Next, you create your SMTP and POP server on it. Then you set everything up and carry out mailing list.

Advantages of your SMTP servers in Internet distribution

What are the advantages of your own smtp servers for internet distribution? To begin with, here no restrictions by the number of letters sent. Everything depends only on the power of the VDS or VPS.

You can still customize your entries:

DKIM electronic signature domain
SPF - domain permission to send letters using your mailbox
DMARK - DKIM and SPF identification

All these entries increase the number of successfully delivered SMTP server emails!

Another advantage is that here there is no spam filter. That is, for outgoing correspondence, your letter will not be checked for spam. After all, this is your smtp.

Another advantage is the possibility blocking ip address sender when using multiple SMTP.

Sending emails via your own SMTP

If you send a message, your computer's IP address is blocked. Therefore, other spam filters of mail systems create the impression that you are sending from several smtp servers.

If you are sending from one smtp server, then the filters will see that you are sending from one IP address. Then, once the letter has passed the spam filters, it reaches the end user.

Third party email marketing services

For example, they have a very convenient one. This allows you to conduct a normal analysis of your email newsletter. Some other services may offer a set of beautiful subscription forms and letter templates.

Email service statistics

You will also receive active technical support. For many beginners this will be a big plus.

Good services:

SendPulse - there is a free plan ( up to 2,500 subscribers and 16,000 letters) for beginners with good support and useful features. There are many mailing options available. And the presence of artificial intelligence will help you easily increase the effectiveness of email marketing. The system itself will compose a suitable letter for you and select the necessary elements. Tariffs here are cheap. There are a number of free bonuses and big discounts. They provide cool subscription form designers, templates and many other interesting features.

MailerLite is aimed at beginners and small businesses only. The rates here are reasonable. In terms of functionality and prices, it is inferior to the previous service. However, the basic tools here are quite sufficient for small businesses. There is also a free plan for up to 1000 subscribers.

GetResponse - has everything you need marketing functions. Therefore, it is suitable even for large players! A powerful landing page builder, a flexible system for automating processes and more than 500 letter templates. You can create stylish subscription forms and surveys, warm up people using webinars, and so on. Tariff prices here are not high. The only thing is that there is no free option. However, for testing they give 1 trial month with all the functionality for free.

Disadvantages of third-party services

Such services also have their drawbacks! For example, some companies have strict rules for loading their subscription database.

They also make sure to check the validity of the subscription database. That is, they look for inactive email addresses and decoy boxes.

Depending on the tariff plan, services may limit the number of subscribers and emails sent.

Well, don’t forget that you have to pay for everything!

Luckily, many companies offer us free initial plans. But as a rule, the functionality there is greatly reduced. That is, it will no longer be possible to engage in full-fledged email marketing here.

And if you switch to paid options, then good companies They usually charge high prices. Therefore, high cost is another disadvantage of such services!

Email distribution through third-party services

Email distribution via third party services

Also, initially the service itself checks your subscription base and the letters you send. If, for example, there are a lot of spam words, then sending by email database will be blocked. However, before this you will be notified that there are violations and you need to review the format of the letter.

If letters begin to end up in spam or there is a large wave of complaints from recipients, then spam filters report technical support service about suspicious mass email distribution.

But if you send to a small subscriber base, then your letters are likely to end up in inboxes, since such SMTPs are on the white list of spam filters.

Your own email newsletter service

A distinctive feature is that such a service is located and installed on your SMTP servers to which your domain is attached.

Here Main advantages email newsletter scripts:

We host everything on our own server
User-friendly web interface available
No restrictions on email newsletters
Very convenient statistics
You can hide the IP server on which the script is installed
SMTP servers without restrictions - if some part is blacklisted, they can be replaced with new ones
Good tools for randomizing texts and message topics

Bulk email sending through your service

Now let's figure out how to send mass emails through your service. You use it through your web interface. It's on your domain.

Bulk email sending through your service

If the setting was correct, the server IP address will be blocked. Only the SMTP IP will be visible. Sending comes as if from each separate server with a separate IP and maximum randomization.

As a result, spam filters of mail services see that the mailing is coming from different people. This advantage makes it possible to effectively create large mass emails and at the same time not end up in spam.

That is, despite the criteria of spam filters to limit the emails sent, you can significantly increase the number of subscribers and the sending of emails without getting spammed.

So, if you have a very large base and are closely involved in this area, then this option is perfect for you! There are no restrictions here. Everything depends only on the power of the server.

In general, now you know what email marketing is, why it is needed and how it works. Below are free cases and articles with training lessons on this topic. They will help you improve the effectiveness of your mailings.

Say thanks using the buttons below:

18.01.2018

When creating newsletters, an email marketing strategy is very important. However, to create it, you need to try hard. Therefore, to make your life easier, I have prepared especially for you step by step instructions to develop such a strategy. There will be interesting examples and useful cases.

The easiest way to attract or retain customers is through direct marketing methods. The oldest, but still effective method interaction with the target audience is.

What are mailings?

Mailings - budget method marketing communications. Sending emails allows you to market quickly various goods and services (advertising and PR), as well as actively interacting with an existing customer base (loyalty, informing about new products), therefore it is a good way to promote.

The most popular forms of email newsletters are:

letters and commercial offers;
advertising brochures and catalogues;
Greeting Cards and invitations.

Initially, such letters were sent manually to a pre-prepared list of recipients, which took a lot of time and effort - monotonous work completely killed motivation valuable employees. Times have changed! Now it is much more profitable to carry out automatic sending using online email marketing services.

Mailing services operate on cloud technology, which ensures a high level of reliability in the delivery of letters and relative ease of passing spam filters.

This tool allows you to create a huge online database of contacts from different sources, manage multiple mailings and conduct an accurate analysis of their effectiveness.

Paid and free mailing services

Modern services are rarely 100% paid or free - competition in this area is too high to lose customers. Most services offer both options, albeit under different conditions.

Payment for services is mainly carried out through electronic money(most often Webmoney, Qiwi or Yandex.Money), payment is much less possible bank cards(usually Visa or MasterCard, sometimes credit cards).

Most popular services

Subscribe (Sendsay) - leader of e-mailers

Subscribe (after rebranding Sendsay) is one of the oldest email newsletter services on the Runet - it has been in steady demand since 1999. It occupies a stable position in the market (more than 5 million subscribers and 50 thousand subscriptions) and is even included in the top 20 of the world's best mailing services. I am pleased with the reliability and ease of management, but I am saddened by a number of limitations associated with managing the client base and the abundance of self-promotion in each newsletter.

The free service package divides letters into three conditional groups: “Gold”, “Silver” and “Bronze”, which on the one hand is quite convenient, but on the other hand may not always correspond to your vision. Service administrators distribute letters into categories, focusing on what materials will potentially be of interest to recipients.

Delivery efficiency is: 99.9%

official site .

Smart Responder - great opportunities for mass mailings. (Updated: The service has been closed)

Smart Responder is a very popular domestic service focused on the needs of medium and small businesses. Known in Runet since 2002 as a useful tool for direct marketing. Analysis of the effectiveness of mailings is facilitated by the ability to add to letters and redirect recipients to a specified site (after subscription). (Updated: The service has been closed)

The free package allows you to interact with 1000 subscribers, sending them 50 thousand emails monthly.

The email design is quite simple - users can only choose from 10 ready-made templates. Database import from Microsoft files is available, integration via API is possible, and interaction with some CRM systems is also possible.

Delivery efficiency is: 99.8%.

You can use the service by going to the official website.

MadMimi is an excellent business tool

MadMimi is an extremely simple and effective mailing service. The main disadvantage is the small number of functions, which is compensated by the excellent free version. An important advantage for small and medium-sized businesses will be prompt service technical support.

The free version allows you to manage a base of 25 thousand subscribers and send 12,500 emails monthly. The design of messages is laconic, there is a choice of different shades for block templates.

The letters are optimized for mobile devices, there is integration via API and with some platforms for online stores, it is possible to manually import client databases from Microsoft documents.

Delivery efficiency is: (exact data not specified).

You can use the service by going to the official website.

Mailchimp - simple, fast, reliable

Mailchimp is a worthy favorite of the Russian Internet community. A nice interface and simple controls make it indispensable for sending mass mailings.

The main disadvantages can be considered the high cost of the paid version, as well as the possible the language barrier when interacting with technical support (English only).

The free version is designed to send 12,000 emails monthly and create a base of 2,000 subscribers. Personalization of mailings is carried out at a high level - in a matter of minutes you can create a pleasant design based on ready-made templates(more than a hundred interesting solutions). I'm pleased with the ability to import a contact database (manually), the availability of API integration, as well as with different CRM systems and platforms for creating .

Delivery efficiency is: 96-99%

You can use the service by going to the official website.

GetResponse - ideal for reputation

GetResponse is the brainchild of Polish developers. The service will be useful to companies operating not only in the CIS, but also abroad. Technical support is provided in Russian, English and Polish.

It is possible to import a database (manually from Microsoft documents, automatic from Google services). The postal service has powerful internal analytics that allow users to easily evaluate the effectiveness of mailings.

The free version is available for a month after registration.

Unfortunately, the “trial” package is very limited - you can create a very small database of recipients (up to 250 people). But the letters are designed extremely attractively thanks to a large number of extraordinary templates (more than 500 design varieties).

The effectiveness of email campaigns

Email newsletters are effective if they hit the target. Are you trying to reach your target audience and minimize the percentage of emails ending up in spam? Follow the basic guidelines:

Intriguing subject line. The headline should be relevant to the essence of your proposal and grab the reader's attention. Let's allow moderate humor and “selling” tricks. Do you constantly notify your customer or partner base about new changes? Try to come up with the most original names for each shipment.
Clear content. Brevity is a must for email newsletters. The first two paragraphs of the letter should contain 60-80% of the main message. Would you like to provide more information? Add a more extensive attachment to the “selling” part.
No unnecessary investments. Avoid sending a large number of attachments. Ideally, their number should not exceed 2-3 documents (text and graphic). An interested client will find a way to contact you (don't forget to include up-to-date contact information). You should definitely not send archives via email - such letters are instantly sent to spam.

Using a decent email marketing service

Will it come? email to the addressee depends 30-40% on the quality of the service you choose. Especially when it comes to large-scale and frequent mailings. You should not get involved with “quarrelsome” email mailing services, which, upon receiving several complaints about spam, arrange real quests for their clients (requests to reactivate a huge database of email addresses, blocking mailings until the complainants provide a written apology for spam, etc.)

high rates of opening letters (in comparison with the total mass of ignored ones);
the frequency of recipients clicking on the link specified in the text (or the number of live calls);
minimal sending to spam.

However, competent letter writing and cooperation with powerful email marketing services make the task much easier. Popular services show a very high delivery rate - from 98 to 99.5% hit rate!

SMS mailing and notification service

The most in a fast way delivery of short messages from high level readings are still SMS distribution. Preparing and sending a short text message(SMS) takes a minimum of time and, as a result of a small time investment, will help notify the maximum number of clients.

Preparing and sending a newsletter takes a few minutes - just upload a list of subscribers and come up with an SMS text. After sending an SMS campaign, you will also know how many customers you can expect to respond to in the future, and which mobile numbers are no longer valid so you can remove them from your mailing list.

SMS notifications

SMS notifications ( transactional SMS) - This good way remind the client of the need to use the already purchased service - inform about the start of a webinar, an upcoming concert or flight for which a ticket has been purchased, in order to increase satisfaction with the service and motivate repeat purchases and recommendations to friends.

Email newsletter service

Reliable delivery to your inbox

To fully comply with the requirements, in your FEEDGEE account you will find SPF and DKIM settings for your domain's DNS, which will help ensure that your messages are fully authorized and that mail services trust you as a sender. Setting up DNS takes no more than 10 minutes, but at the same time helps users of email marketing services to ensure the expected effect of sent messages. Description .

Email newsletter (or Internet mailing) - this, as you should already know, is a way of creating trust with readers through regular mailings useful information in the form of E-Mail letters. Electronic distribution can be carried out either in manual mode(although I can hardly imagine this), and automatically - with the help of special services.

Although this service is paid, it also has a free account. And if earlier this meant that in your letter Necessarily If there will be advertising, then from January 23, 2012 it was decided not to publish advertising in free accounts.

In order to register for this service, click on the button “ Registration", choose a suitable package for yourself and, entering the necessary data, go through all 5 stages (or 4 - if without payment)

After successful registration, log into your account by clicking on the button " To come in»:

Please note that in the window that appears, you can choose how to log in to the system - as an author, as a reader or as a partner (I focus on this, because for a long time I myself could not find the login form " as a partner"after changing the design of the service website).

Once you log in, you will see something like the following window:

If this is your first time here, I recommend “climbing around” and clicking all the buttons and links to get a little familiar with the system. And if it seems difficult to you, this is only at first. As soon as you start using this service, you will immediately see that everything is simple and easy.

In addition, do not forget that for each section there is a very detailed video instruction - be sure to use it.

On September 13, 2016, many RuNet information businessmen were thrown into a state of shock. It was on this day that Max Heeger publicly announced the closure of his project on November 1 in the blog of the Smartresponder service:

Let’s not talk about why Higer closes the smartresponder, what actually prompted him to do this, etc. This is his project and his personal business, especially since he explained everything quite clearly himself in the video. Let's just take this as a given and not fall into hysterics like many dozens of people in the comments to this news on the company blog :)

We’d rather dwell on what worthy analogues and alternatives to smartresponder exist, compare mailing services and try to answer the question that is relevant to hundreds of people: “What can replace smartresponder?”

In this article we will look at the 10 best email marketing services, in our opinion, among which there will be two English-language ones. We could not ignore them because they are of very high quality, very popular and have earned a lot of positive reviews, including among the Russian-speaking audience. Let’s also make a reservation that this is not a rating where the best come first, then the worst, or vice versa - this is just a sequential review of services.

If the service has a free mailing list plan, this will be mentioned in the text. To compare prices, we will focus on a base of 5 thousand subscribers.

1. getresponse.ru

700+ professional templates to create beautiful newsletters
Designer of letters and landing pages (landing pages)
Platform for holding webinars and online conferences
Triggered and automatic mailings
A/B testing of up to 5 versions of the letter
Detailed email analytics

Getresponse has a free 30-day period to test all its functionality.

Maintaining a subscriber base of 5 thousand contacts will cost from $38.25 (Email tariff for beginners) to $41.65 per month (Pro tariff, designed for small and medium-sized businesses).

2.pechkin.com

Conducting A/B tests
Online editor with a set of letter templates
Statistics and analytics of sending letters, Google analytics
Subscriber segmentation and personalization
Automatic mailings and trigger mailings

It is very convenient that Pechkin has both a monthly payment for mailing (if you send letters regularly) and payment for the fact of mailing. This was sorely missed on the smartresponder. Even if you sent one letter a month there, you had to buy a monthly rate.

Maintaining a database of 4 thousand subscribers on Pechkin will cost 1,800 rubles/month. For sending 5 thousand letters you will have to pay 1000 rubles. (0.2 rubles per letter).

For beginners in the information business, there is a free plan: maintaining a database of up to 100 subscribers and sending up to 500 letters per month.

3.unisender.com

Convenient visual editor for composing letters
100+ newsletter templates
Advanced delivery reports, connection to Google Analytics and Yandex.Metrica
IP integration with popular CMS and CRM
Subscriber personalization
Mailing segmentation
Setting up sending emails by event

We have previously reviewed the unisender.com service, so you can learn more about it from.

Unisender, like Pechkin, has a free tariff (Free): up to 100 contacts. The number of emails you can send is unlimited.

There is also a monthly payment (2193 rubles/month for 5 thousand) and payment upon sending (0.323 rubles/letter). You can also buy a package of letters for a year at once (RUB 10,642 / up to 50 thousand letters).

4. sendsay.ru

Segmentation of the subscription base
Personalization of subscribers and the ability to include a personal promotional code for the client and other “delights”
Detailed analytics for each campaign
Trigger sequences, creation of automatic scripts of any complexity
Transactional mailings
Maintaining an archive of mailings

Sendsay allows you to maintain a database of up to 200 addresses for free (Start tariff) and send up to 1 thousand letters per month. There are no functional restrictions on using the service.

Maintaining a database of 2.5-5 thousand subscribers will cost 2,000 rubles/month. without restrictions on sending letters.

5. sendpulse.ru

Sandpulse is somehow connected with , but I haven’t been able to fully figure out how :). If anyone knows, write in the comments.

Online letter designer
More than 100 preset templates
Smart field substitution, personalization
Subscriber segmentation
Split testing
Automatic mailing
Email scheduler
Detailed mailing reports
White Label – creating “clean” mailings without mentioning the sendpulse service
Generator of unique subscription forms

Sandpulse has a free plan where you can maintain a database of up to 2.5 thousand contacts and send up to 15 thousand letters per month! A very attractive application.

There are both monthly payment rates (1,700 rubles per month for 5 thousand subscribers) and payment for sending (1,200 rubles per 10,000 letters, which is 0.12 rubles per letter).

6. mailerlite.com

Drag-and-Drop email editor
Tracking mailing results
A/B split testing
Web subscription form builder
Automated mailings
RSS email

Mailerlite offers free for beginner infobusinessmen tariff plan: up to 1 thousand addresses with unlimited sending of letters. Maintaining a database of 2.5-5 thousand subscribers will cost $20/month, and the number of letters is also unlimited. There is no payment upon sending, depending on the number of letters.

7. mail365.ru

This service has already existed, so we will not dwell on its characteristics here. As for the price, mail365 positions itself as one of the cheapest mailing services in RuNet. Thus, maintaining a database of 5 thousand subscribers will cost 790 rubles per month.

There is a pricing option where you pay for each letter sent. Payment there does not depend on the number of letters sent, but depends on the amount of replenishment of the account, for example, with a one-time payment of 1000-2500 rubles. one letter will cost 0.3 rubles.

8. mailigen.ru

Smart template builder
Real-time reports
A/B tests
Segmentation by behavior
Integration with social media networks
RSS/XML based newsletter

Depending on the set of available functionality, maintaining a database of 5 thousand subscribers will cost a mailigen.ru user a monthly fee of 1,170 – 14,950 rubles. and higher. There are no free plans, but there is a 30-day trial version.

There is also some kind of somewhat incomprehensible system of “email credits” with payment upon sending the letter. There are no details about her on the website.

9.mailchimp.com

English-language mailing service. It has very rich functionality and is one of the leaders in its field. As for the price, it is quite high. Thus, maintaining a database of 2800 – 5000 subscribers will cost your wallet $50 per month, the number of letters is not limited. Or you can pay $0.02 for sending each letter, provided $100 is credited to your account.

Good news for beginners: Mailchimp also has a free tariff plan that allows you to send up to 12 thousand letters monthly to a database of up to 2 thousand addresses. However, some functions of the service will become available only after payment, for example, automation, delivery in time zones, etc. You can pay for services by credit card or via PayPal.

10. madmimi.com

Another English-language service, which nevertheless is praised by a huge number of Russian-speaking users. Unfortunately, the site does not have a description of the functionality, but it certainly should not disappoint you - a standard set of functions will be required.

Bottom line

Friends, there are certainly many more mailing list services than indicated in the article: Aweber, Expertsender, Subscribe, Verticalresponse, EstisMail, Mailrelay, Justclick, etc. - review them all possible alternatives it is simply not possible for a smart responder. But we have selected exactly the 10 best in our opinion. Let us repeat once again that this is not a rating, but simply a review, a comparison: someone needs more functionality, and the price does not matter. For some, on the contrary, the presence of a free tariff will be a decisive factor, because why pay money right away if you have practically zero base or are at the beginning of the journey to collect it.