We are always on the lookout for software and applications that are more affordable and can help make our clients’ lives easier. That is why Design Grid recently bought into Mailpoet for our customers to use as a Mailchimp alternative for newsletters. In this blog post, we will be looking at what Mailpoet is, how it works, and how it compares to Mailchimp.
Newsletters vs Social Media
You may be surprised to learn that newsletters are still considered one of the most successful marketing strategies available for businesses. Studies show that the average ROI (Return On Investment) for Newsletters is around $38 for every $1 spent, giving newsletters an ROI of 3800%. In comparison, Social Media, which you may expect to now be more popular, has an ROI of around 28% – so approximately $0.28 for every $1 spent.
Newsletters have managed to maintain their popularity because there are more email users globally, and users tend to check their email more frequently than social media. Globally, around 58% of adults check their email as the first thing they do in the morning, with 85% of people using their smartphones to access email.
When you combine this with a decline of organic Facebook reach and the fact that email generally has a higher deliverability rate, it may be time for you to invest in your Newsletter marketing.
So, if you have a new business and would like to jump on board the newsletter train through MailPoet, Design Grid can help you.
What is Mailpoet?
Mailpoet is a WordPress plugin that offers its own sending service, allowing you to send news items from your webpage and business. Although it only offers newsletters – rather than additional services like its main competitor Mailchimp, which we will look at in more detail later on – it does this exceptionally well. Mailpoet has some key features that make it a great option to use for a WordPress plugin newsletter. These include its range of easily modified newsletter templates, access to premium features for free for up to 1000 subscribers, and all features being accessible from the WordPress dashboard.
A significant addition in a recent Mailpoet update was the inclusion of Woocommerce as a new function. This allows you to now include products from your store straight into your newsletter. As part of the Woocommerce update, you can keep your customer database on your website, making the system clean and easy to access and use.
Mailpoet features
Some other great functions that MailPoet offers include:
- Minimal learning curve. It takes around half a day to learn the functions and put together your first newsletter;
- You can design, build, and send manual and automatic email campaigns directly from your WordPress dashboard – you don’t need to register or activate your account. Simply install the plugin and go from there;
- You can customise templates and schedule newsletters;
- Best email plugin for WordPress with more than 300,000 websites currently using it;
- The plugin will help your newsletters reach the inbox of customers, rather than the spam folder;
- GDPR compliant;
- Allows you to stop sending to inactive subscribers. Sending to inactive subscribers can harm your sender score and mean your newsletter may register as spam. Mailpoet automatically recognises inactive subscribers and stops newsletters from going to these email inboxes.
An example of a recent success story from using this system includes one of our clients who has over 1500 subscribers using our separate mailing system – widely recommended when sending emails.
Mailpoet vs Mailchimp?
So, now that we know a bit about Mailpoet, let’s look at how it compares to an equally popular email solution: Mailchimp. Mailchimp is another newsletter design program but is more of an ‘all in one digital marketing service for small or new businesses.
In addition to the newsletter design, Mailchimp offers marketing services, including landing page creation, digital ads, social media and postcard creation. It has a similar set-up to Mailpoet, with 100+ email templates and automated sending and scheduling of newsletters. However, as it is not WordPress centric like Mailpoet, you will need to install the various plugins to use it on WordPress and upload images and other items you want to include in the newsletters.
Value for money
In terms of cost, both MailPoet and MailChimp offer free plans for businesses with up to 2000 subscribers, meaning you can try before you commit to signing up for a yearly paid plan. However, one advantage that Mailpoet has in this section over Mailchimp is that Mailpoet allows you to send emails to unlimited email lists. In contrast, MailChimp only enables you to send emails to one list at a time. You also have a lot more access to useful functions on Mailpoet compared to Mailchimp, which makes it a better value option if you have a WordPress hosted website.
Useability and functions
In terms of useability, Mailpoet seems to be better as a user friendly, easy to set up and simple email marketing solution. Learning how to use the functions of Mailpoet as well as designing and setting up a newsletter template is relatively quick and straightforward, given that you are using it in conjunction with your website on WordPress. Therefore, you already have all of your content, reducing the amount of time you will spend uploading the media files and content- it will all be there and ready to go.
However, MailChimp is better at providing a range of digital marketing services, as well as access to more in-depth insights and statistical analysis of your newsletters. This includes details like how many of your customers are opening and reading the emails, comparison to industry averages, top links, top locations and others. Mailchimp also provides access to almost double the amount of templates that Mailpoet offers, meaning you have more choice from a design perspective.
Woocommerce
One area where MailChimp does seem to have an advantage over Mailpoet is Woocommerce. Mailpoet only relatively recently introduced Woocommerce, whereas Mailchimp has supported email integration via their official plugin for a longer period.
However, Mailpoet has been working on integrating Woocommerce. Via their WordPress plugin, you can now add a GDPR-friendly sign up form, send personalised follow-up emails based on the products they have been browsing, recover abandoned carts and other useful email features.
Which option is best for my company?
Both WordPress and Mailchimp are excellent choices for newsletter or EDM (Electronic Direct Mail) services for your customers, but which one is best for your business depends on your aims for your newsletter subscriptions.
MailPoet is for businesses whose focus is on newsletters and want a simple email marketing solution that is easy to install as part of WordPress, and you can access everything through the plugin. If you want to keep your website and email marketing under one roof, then Mailpoet is the better option.
Mailchimp is perfect if you are looking for a more all-in-one simple marketing solution, with a few extra bells and whistles on top of the newsletters. If you are happy to pay a bit extra to have additional features centralised on the Mailchimp dashboard, then it is a great program to use.
If you need help setting up your Mailpoet newsletter template today on your WordPress hosted website, give Design Grid a call today, and see how we can help you set up and started.
