Software Shortlist » contest

Congratulations to our March 2010 survey winners

xavier — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:58:45 +0000

Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete our March 2010 survey on email marketing software. We realize it was a big survey, so we’ll be taking on board the feedback from many of you and streamlining our future efforts.

After reviewing the completed entries, our judges have awarded the prizes to J.Sutton and P.Rountree. Congratulations to you both! You should already have received an email from us with your complimentary copies of the Email Marketing Review Packs (valued at US$149).

For those of you who missed out on winning this time, keep an eye out for our future survey contests or simply go buy yourself a copy of the review pack. You won’t regret it!

What’s your experience with email marketing software?

xavier — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:37:54 +0000

When we ask people how they choose software, one of the most important factors is always “feedback from other people”. It’s a fact of human nature that we look to others and their experiences to help us make up our own mind. Yep, the good ol’ customer review is critical … and it can range from the glowing testimonial all the way down to the disgruntled flaming, and somewhere in the middle, a mostly objective reference check.

We’ve just had our expert reviewers look at 19 leading web-based email marketing systems, and give us their judgement on each. But we’d like to extend this by finding out what YOU think about your email marketing software. Once we get enough responses, we’ll build this customer feedback into our email marketing review pack as additional information to help people make the right buying decision.

So, we’re running a short survey on email marketing software to collect your feedback. And to make it worth your while, there are two free review packs (valued at US$149 each) up for grabs. Simply complete the survey by the end of March and you’re in the running. Plus you’ll have the nice glowing feeling that comes from helping another business make the right choice (or avoid the wrong one!)

Take the survey now…

Price does not equal quality for email marketing software

xavier — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:14:11 +0000

It turns out that a high price is not a good signal of quality for email marketing software. In fact, our independent review of 19 leading web-based email marketing solutions found an inverse relationship between price and quality.

Yes, you heard right. The higher the rating, the lower the price …even though price was just one of ten factors we considered. See the graph below for a summary of average price by star rating for the solutions reviewed.

This finding is great news for small and mid-sized businesses who want to get started with (or ramp up) their permission-based email marketing. You can rest assured that there are great solutions out there at a very affordable price. However, it also means you need to choose carefully as price, functionality & usability vary considerably.

For example, looking at the scenario of a business sending 5000 emails per month to a list of 2500 subscribers, the products given five-star ratings cost an average of $31 per month, compared to over $166 per month for the two-star products. The most expensive solution in our list cost a remarkable 17 times more than the most affordable, but was actually much less useful. Ouch!

Launch of our Email Marketing Software Review Pack

The findings above are based on the reviews in our new Email Marketing Software Review Pack, which we’re pleased to officially launch today.

This comprehensive 33 page report contains detailed independent reviews of 19 leading web-based email marketing solutions, including AWeber, Benchmark, Campaign Monitor, Campaigner, Constant Contact, Email Brain, Ennect Mail, GetResponse, GraphicMail, iContact, inwise, JangoMail, MailChimp, newzapp, Savicom, SimplyCast, Streamsend, Vertical Response, and Vision 6.

Buy the Review Pack

You can purchase the Review Pack on Software Shortlist and download the report immediately.

Win a Review Pack!

To celebrate the launch of the Review Pack, we will be giving away 2 free copies.

For your chance to win, simply complete our email marketing software survey, including the final question about the challenges you’ve faced in choosing email marketing software and why you want to win the Review Pack. We’ll choose two (2) winners based on how interesting & insightful your answers are. Entries close 31st March 2010. For full terms & conditions, see the survey.

Enter now!

Previous Winner: Congratulations to David M. from Australia. He completed our February survey about email marketing software and his answer was judged to be the best by Software Shortlist staff. David will be receiving his free copy of the Email Marketing Software Review Pack today.