Benchmark Email a good option for education-related non-profits
Updated September 25, 2017
Benchmark Email a good option for education-related non-profits
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Other
Overall Satisfaction with Benchmark Email
Our non-profit family/faculty organization needed a way to distribute a monthly newsletter to approximately 450 families and 850 family members.
Benchmark Email has a generous free pricing tier, discount for 501(c)(3) non-profits, and a completely free option for Parent/Teacher educational associations. This was the hands-down deciding factor at the time for our organization.
Getting up to speed was quick and the product initially served us well. In time, small quirks in the editor became annoying and slowed down the time to assemble and publish the newsletter. Reception of test emails could be quick at times and painfully slow a few minutes later. The data collection custom fields were not well suited to the types of data we needed to track.
Support was always friendly and attempted to be helpful, but some issues seemed to be related to features that were not well thought out. I do not recall any updates or improvements in the platform during the period we used it.
Delivery metrics were impressive; however, for our limited-geographic group and small size, they were not highly necessary.
Benchmark Email has a generous free pricing tier, discount for 501(c)(3) non-profits, and a completely free option for Parent/Teacher educational associations. This was the hands-down deciding factor at the time for our organization.
Getting up to speed was quick and the product initially served us well. In time, small quirks in the editor became annoying and slowed down the time to assemble and publish the newsletter. Reception of test emails could be quick at times and painfully slow a few minutes later. The data collection custom fields were not well suited to the types of data we needed to track.
Support was always friendly and attempted to be helpful, but some issues seemed to be related to features that were not well thought out. I do not recall any updates or improvements in the platform during the period we used it.
Delivery metrics were impressive; however, for our limited-geographic group and small size, they were not highly necessary.
- Ease of use - required minimal training to get started.
- Value - free service for non-profits, with powerful features.
- User Experience - flow of the process is logical and easy to follow.
- Glitchy editor - powerful drag and drop features, but precise formatting can have issues.
- Stagnant platform - few notable features or fixes over the past two years.
- Delivery Success - anecdotal customer reports suggest high percent of emails are diverted by spam filters.
- Enabled our organization to increase communication reach from less than 2% of our audience to over 30%.
- Provided a distribution channel with minimal training.
- Given the free cost for our non-profit, the ROI was undoubtedly positive; however, a fee may have turned minor frustrations into deal breakers for the value proposition.
At the time of the decision, we anticipated a larger audience and a high potential cost of MailChimp. We also believed that Benchmark Email would be less complex and therefore quicker to implement and learn. Given the current needs and pricing, I believe MailChimp may be competitive and provide a more refined UI.