MailChimp Review: Can you really use a free autoresponder for business?

OK, I have to admit — being the owner of a business called Tame the Internet Monster, I felt a certain kinship with the whimsical folks behind mail chimp.  When they unrolled their free forever program a few weeks ago, I had a good excuse to give MailChimp a try.

One of the community groups I belong to wanted to have an e-mail newsletter.  There are around 200 members in the club — too many to really (legally and logistically) send through outlook or a contact manager - but not enough to really be investing serious money in an e-mail program.  Mail Chimp certainly met our budgetary needs. Free for up to 500 list members and up to 3,000 "sends" a month (that means if you have 200 people, you can send around 15 e-mails to to the group).   Mailchimp does require that you display a small logo on the e-mail — but they are nice about it and link it to their referral program.  For everyone that signs up as a paying customer, you get $30 credit in your account (and so does the person who is creating the account).  A win-win-win

Creating a nice looking "e-newsletter" to send was pretty straightforward.  The program also has a cut and paste your html version for those who are more DIY, or they can pull design info straight from your website. I was impressed with how good my e-mail looked in gmail, outlook, explorer, firefox, etc.  If you are really concerned, you can buy 3 inbox inspections for $14 that will test your e-mail in 30 different browsers, platforms, e-mail clients, etc.  I would have done it if I could buy 1 inspection for $5 (I guess I'm cheap…)

As I prepared and sent the e-mail, I noticed that there was a lot of power under the hood.  The stats were the easiest to use of any autoresponder service I've tried (and I think I've tried most of them).  The segmentation was also very easy to use (and useful for fixing bouncing e-mails). The more I used the program, the more features I uncovered — including paypal integration. This is a huge deal.  Many of my virtual assistant clients start out using 1Shopping Cart even through they are taking payments exclusively through Pay Pal just so that their clients end up in their mailing list without having to resubscribe (like you have to do with aweber). This integration makes MailChimp a great recommendation for people who are just starting to build a presence online- it is free until you get your feet wet (500 subscribers) and then it is 30 dollars a month.  A great risk-free way to start out (and have more money available to pay your virtual assistant).

Nothing is perfect (especially nothing that is free) and the program  does have a few downsides.  First, there is a lot there - but it is hard to find.  I realize that the developers were trying to keep things simple - but some of the vocabulary wasn't what I was used to.  For example, Mail Chimp calls a broadcast message a campaign.  To me, campaign means an autoresponder series…

Second, the autoresponder feature isn't very intuitive.  It took me more than a minute to figure out how to add more than one message to my autoresponder series.  Maybe I just don't have a chimp brain …  Finally, I didn't get a chance to set up a sign up form for my community group.  I checked it out and seemed that the forms are easier to customize in other programs.  There are plugins for many different programs, that make this easier.

All in all through, if you are looking for a powerful e-mail system at a great price.  I would strong recommend that you give MailChimp a try.