Email marketing has the *only* advantage over the likes of social media in that it’s an asset that you own˳
That’s not to say that you can do “whatever you want” with it – but compared to the likes of a Twitter feed (who could ban you), a YouTube channel (who could de-monetize you) or Facebook page (who could censor you), an email list is *still* by far the most effective and resounding way for a business to keep in contact with its community˳
Of course, strategy and functionality aside, the way that an email marketing system fits into the modern business landscape is to provide an extra “step” in the world of a “funnel” – allowing users to engage much deeper and more effectively with companies / people they value˳ This is pretty much where we’re seeing the rise / resurgence of the various email platforms (especially paid ones)˳
In the present landscape, there are several email marketing offerings used by the majority of online marketers˳ These include:
- MailChimp (free)
- AWeber (starts at $20/mo)
- GetResponse (starts at $20/mo)
- ConvertKit (starts at $20/mo)
Being honest, the “business software” market is massive – with many different providers fulfilling different needs˳ For example, MailChimp is used primarily by bloggers who want to increase their reach through the use of a “free” email system˳ Once they start to make more money from their blog, they tend to move onto the more premium offerings˳
Two of these premium offerings – Aweber and ConvertKit are now considered the “best” mid-tier email marketing solutions˳ They are both premium-only (no free tier) and provide users with various levels of functionality to help them send emails to their subscribers in both a “singular” (broadcast) capacity and “automated” (autoresponder) capacity˳
Understanding the difference between the two is the most important step towards creating a marketing stack that actually works to generate results…
ConvertKit
Founded in 2015 by Nathan Barry, this is targeted at bloggers / “creators” who wish to enhance their offer with users through email˳
The service is focused around providing an underlying mechanism through which the curator is able to share their content through a series of “automation” features – autoresponders which work to give subscribers the ability to receive particular content at particular times˳
This system – coupled with ConvertKit’s focus on providing users with the ability to publish “courses” for their audience – has lead to a large number of bloggers and creators signing up for the service˳
It’s now become one of the largest “email marketing” companies by revenue (their numbers are publicly available on BareMetrics) – with strong growth˳
We’ve found a large number of Twitter influencers have adopted the system˳
Aweber
AWeber was founded in 1998 and has enjoyed a huge amount of success, particularly because it was the first to introduce a true “autoresponder” system to the email marketing scene˳
Whilst its popularity has waned somewhat with the “new” generation of marketers, it’s still easily one of the top 5 email marketing systems˳
The main benefit of using Aweber lies in its simplicity – allowing you to send emails a number of days after someone subscribed to your various email lists˳ This allows you to continue providing updated content for the duration of their subscription˳
The main downside of Aweber lies in its inability to integrate well into the “social” age˳ It doesn’t have much by way of intractability, and thus means you’re pretty much stuck trying to get a 90’s tool to work in the 2010’s˳ If you just want to put a “subscription” box on your website, it works well… but if you need anything more specific, you’ll be better using the likes of ConvertKit˳
Conclusion
Ultimately, the choice is between which service you feel more drawn to˳
Aweber is for more regimented “Internet Marketers” who perhaps have a real consultancy practice, or are in some way involved with a more “industrial” type business (manufacturing or whatever)˳
Convertkit is designed to be more forward-thinking, “hip” and focused on “creators”˳ This gives is a distinctly different set of “DNA” to the likes of Aweber, and thus has attracted many “new generation” marketeers who are typically much more “social” savvy˳
For this reason, the best thing you can do is look at how you’re going to be using the various applications˳ Aweber is mainly for people who need a simple service that is going to work regardless of where it’s posted… ConvertKit is more for those who are focused on providing blog viewers with a reason to “sign up” for extra content˳
If you’re an artist, author or another “creative” type – ConvertKit is going to be better˳ If you’re a marketer, salesperson, “brick and mortar” business – AWeber is going to be much more effective˳ Again, they both work in the same way (deliver emails to users) but the way in which they do it differs˳
Source by https://ezinearticles˳com/?Best-Email-Marketing-in-2018—ConvertKit-Vs-Aweber&id=9922691
