•
Need email marketing software? Our 33 page review pack can help you choose.
Launched recently, the Email Marketing Software Review Pack contains independent reviews of 19 leading web-based email marketing systems. Taking the perspective of a small to mid-sized business, the reviews are designed to give you the hard facts and opinions that you need to cut through the marketing spiel and reach an informed decision. Here’s what a couple of customers have to say so far:
“This report is awesome. It’s comprehensive and concise at the same time.” (Yoel, Paralert.com)
“Excellent service and analysis. We are actually searching for a eDM system and this report has now made that easy.” (David, Leadmaster.com.au)
One of the most popular elements of the Email Marketing Software Review Pack is the convenient feature matrix. Here we looked in detail at 39 key features that are critical for email marketing and identified which of the 19 products offer each feature. As one reader explained:
“I really like the matrix of product features because it is very easy to identify things that I know I need and confirm or not whether a package provides them. It also triggered some thoughts about features that I hadn’t considered and maybe I should.” (Yoel, Paralert.com)
Also in the report, you’ll find plenty of information on each email marketing system. We’ve given each product we reviewed a full page and ensured it is in a consistent format so you can easily flip between pages and compare products. Information on each product includes:
- Written review about what our independent reviewer liked and didn’t like
- Overall star rating
- Ratings on ten key dimensions, such as ‘ease of use’, ‘powerful reporting’, ‘grows with your business’, etc
- Pricing information (with actual prices cited for all products)
- Vendor contact details
Interestingly, we’re finding that software vendors are buying the report for competitive intelligence reasons. They aren’t our primary audience – we focus instead on SMBs looking to buy software – but it is encouraging that they see the value of an independent perspective on how they and their competitors compare.
To find out more about the review pack, or to buy yourself a copy, visit the Email Marketing Software Review Pack page on our website.
•
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 (RRP $149) 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.
•
Are you planning to invest in new software for your business this year? Your competitors probably are!
After a slowdown in the financial turmoil of 2009, spending on software and other technology is expected to rebound strongly in 2010 according to a recent report by Forrester Research. Global IT spending dropped 8.9% last year, but is predicted to bounce up in 2010 by about the same amount. Software is among the sectors leading the charge, with spending predicted to increase by 9.7%.
We wrote last year that the upside of a downturn is that it can prompt companies to re-examine processes and improve operations. The statistics show that many companies do the opposite and bunker down. Now many firms are again starting to open up their wallets and invest in software, hardware and other technology.
So, if you haven’t already, now is a good time to think about how new software can help drive your business in 2010…
