Why I prefer Aweber over Constant Contact and Mail Chimp
September 01, 2015
Why I prefer Aweber over Constant Contact and Mail Chimp
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Overall Satisfaction with AWeber
I am an independent marketing consulting agency offering website development and email marketing services for clients. I have used AWeber for my own email newsletters and set up client newsletters on aweber as well.
Business problems addressed: Growing a customer database / email list and communicating with prospects and customers efficiently.
Business problems addressed: Growing a customer database / email list and communicating with prospects and customers efficiently.
- Gets email past spam filters and into recipients' email inboxes
- Customer support is great - love the telephone support when I have a question or am stuck.
- Makes it easy to identify who has opened emails, who has not, and send emails to list segments based on opens / non-opens
- Allows you to segment lists by other criteria, such as birthday. We have used Aweber to send out birthday offers to people on the list who have birthdays that month.
- I like the wide selection of ready made opt in form designs that can be customized and embedded on client websites
- I like the hosted opt-in form option where you can send people a link to an opt in form without having to host it on your own website .. great for people who need to build a list but don't have a website yet.
- Double opt-in requirements. While I understand the rationale for double opt-in, I wish Aweber did not require double opt-in when importing email addresses from the client's existing client database as I feel we end up losing a good number of people who are existing customers and have given the business permission to email them but who either don't notice or don't take the extra step to confirm their subscription to the Aweber list.
- The user interface when designing and setting up html newsletters is not as clearcut and obvious as Constant Contact; it takes more time to get the newsletters to "look right" using Aweber's existing templates.
- I wish Aweber made it easier to embed a video message simply by inserting the video link or embed code into the email body. The process it seems to require (the last time I tried) was to create a screenshot of the video or insert the video thumbnail image and then link to the video in the right column link section .. it's a 2 step process and would be nice if it were a one click process. Not a deal breaker but I just feel like it could be faster and more efficient to embed video messages in an email.
- Made it easy and fast to grow a database of customer emails
- Made it simple and easy to communicate with customers via email broadcasts
- Made it easy to identify the most engaged customers by analyzing email open statistics and follow up with those customers to make more offers and increase sales
Compared to Constant Contact, AWeber offers a better deliverability rate and a better selection of opt-in form designs.
AWeber Feature Ratings
Evaluating AWeber and Competitors
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Prior Experience with the Product
- Vendor Reputation
- Existing Relationship with the Vendor
- Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
The most important factor for me was AWeber's reputation for getting past spam filters and into recipients' inboxes.
Don't have any comment here
AWeber Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
No - I don't have a need for premium support; I get adequate / sufficient report at my existing monthly subscription rate of $29 per month.
I always get exceptional support; can't think of one specific instance that stands out.
Using AWeber
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Convenient Feel confident using | Not well integrated Lots to learn |
- Setting up opt-in forms
- Embedding opt-in forms
- Integrating opt in forms into Facebook
- Customizing email design -- Constant Contact has been more intuitively easy for me
- Importing existing customer email lists and getting Aweber approval without double opt-in requirement
Yes, but I don't use it