Mailchimp vs Express Email Marketing

I have enjoyed high-fives for sending one of my client’s newsletters via MailChimp for about a year now.

Recently, we ran across an old list of contacts. Afraid of jeopardizing our MailChimp list (by people forgetting who we are and marking us as Spam or unsubscribing), we decided to write to those people via Express Email Marketing from www.HarmoniousHosting.com (my GoDaddy reseller account). Now that I have experienced both, here is objective review:

Ease of use

Both of these programs seem to have a learning curve as you get used to them. I have read others state that Express Email Marketing has a more confusing backend, but for me it was the easiest. Perhaps they read the other reviews and revamped?

Both programs have easy links to create, send, and replicate/copy campaigns. (Replicate a campaign to make small edits, give it a new name, and send it to a different group.) Express Email Marketing also has a link to re-send the campaign to people who have signed up since last time it was sent.

Dashboard / Overview Page

Upon logging in, Express Email Marketing greets you with a simple “Overview” of your last campaign. You can see how many people you emailed, how many opened, and the click through rate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The MailChimp Dashboard compares the click-rate and open rate of your most recent campaign against your lists’s average and against your industry average. It also shows a chart of how many subscriptions we have gotten over the last 12 months, your top 5 campaigns, and “Chimp chatter” (recent activity … new subscribers, unsubscriptions, facebook likes, etc…)

Reports

MailChimp’s initial report page charts years of campaign open rates, click rates, and your indistry average open rate. Hovering over each point also shows the campaign name and what group it was sent to.

 

Price

MailChimp offers a free plan if you have less than 2,000 subscribers. The catches? You can only send 12,000 emails per month and they will put their logo at the bottom of each message. If you want a paid subscription, Express Email Marketing from Harmonious Hosting is cheaper:

Express Email Marketing Prices

• Up to 1,000 subscribers, $9.99/month.
• Up to 2,500 subscribers, $14.99/month.
• Up to 10,000 subscribers, $19.99/month.
  ( $14.95 per additional 10,000 subscribers )

MailChimp Prices

 

MailChimp Extras

(( compare to industry reporting ))

Express Email Marketing Extras

From a company that offers more than “newsletter” services.

 

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MailChimp

• Very popular
• Has free, pay as you go, and monthly subscription levels.
  A small business with 5,000 subscribers can expect to pay $50/month
• Excellent chat and email based support
• If you copy / paste a newsletter draft from word, you will have to redo the formatting.
  ( Images will have to be uploaded and placed separately. )

 

Express Email Marketing

• Only has paid subscriptions, starting at $9.99 per month for 1,000 subscribers
  A small b usiness with 5,000 subscribers can expect to pay $19.99/month
• Excellent phone-based support. I have seen email and chat links, but they are harder to find.
• If you copy/paste a newsletter draft from Word, it comes over with correct formatting.
  ( Images will have to be uploaded and placed separately. )
• I had an easier time making the Express Email Marketing newsletter look how I wanted.
• Less

Both have

• Unsubscribe links on every email to discourage recipients from marking you as Spam
• Reports to let you know how many opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscriptions you recieved.
• Tells you who has subscribed / unsubscribed / bounced.