Email Newsletters

/0 Comments/in /by

Choosing the right email newsletter platform depends on your specific needs, budget, and technical expertise.  For beginners and startups, here are five platforms that are worth consideration. I do not have an affiliate account with any of them but I will offer my experience with them to help you determine what may be a good fit for you.

  • Mailchimp. I used Mailchimp for years. I found it easy to make great looking newsletters with their ready-made templates and drag-and-drop interface. Mailchimp is rated #1 for lots of important reasons, but I especially like that they offer a fairly inexpensive plan for startups that includes the ability to create landing pages and customer segmentation. This means even if you don’t have a website, you can use Mailchimp to capture leads for your services, or sort your audience based on which services they’ve purchased from you.
  • MailPoet. This is my new, preferred newsletter platform and the one I currently use to send my newsletters. I get almost giddy when I get to create a newsletter in MailPoet. It’s soooooo easy to use and offers all the features I could wish for. The only catch is that you have to have a WordPress website in order to use it. I realize that eliminates those of you who have Squarespace, Wix, or some other type of website. 
  • MailerLite. Full disclosure: I have not used MailerLite. However, it gets great ratings and appears to offer great services at a lower price than MailChimp. 
  • Constant Contact. This platform has been around since the dark ages of digital newsletters, so I felt obligated to mention them. To be honest, it’s been a few years since I’ve had to work with it, but sometimes I have a marketing client that uses them and have to dip my feet in their pool. To me, they aren’t as easy to work with and their interface is not as intuitive. That said, it’s not a wrong decision to use Constant Contact if their price and features fit your needs.
  • Substack. If building your audience depends mostly on your writing, then you should definitely take a look at Substack. You can offer free articles and you can also create a paywall so only paid subscribers can read your content. You are in complete control of how you use it, and many writers are building their audience with it. Everytime you publish a new article, Substack sends a newsletter to your email list so your subscribers (free and/or paid) know you’ve got new content.

Get started for FREE with Systeme.io

/0 Comments/in /by

A few weeks ago, I tested out a fairly new-ish platform called Systeme.io. Frankly, I was suspicious because well, you know…once bitten, twice shy. Usually free services are limited, omitting the features you really need unless you go choose a paid package. Or the free offer is for a limited time which is often too short of a time frame to really test the service. However, Systeme.io is forever free and right out the gate has most of the key features startups and small businesses need. I created a test site in just a few hours, poked and prodded, did online research…and came out a believer. I am getting all kinds of ideas for how to use Systeme.io.

To give you some context, Systeme.io will let you build your website, blog, email marketing, sales funnels, online classes, shopping cart, and share affiliate links for FREE. You only need to start paying when you get more than 2,000 newsletter subscribers or need more funnels or online courses than is allowed in the free plan. But the free plan is solid enough to get you started and will help you build your audience at your own speed.

Sean Elliott photo

In November 2024, our guest speaker will be Sean Elliott, owner of Zero2Income. He also has a heart for startups and bootstrapping businesses and is equally enthusiastic about Systeme.io. He has a lot more experience with it than I do, and I’m thrilled he’ll be our guest. He’ll be able to answer all your questions and help you determine if Systeme.io is right for you.

All links in this post are affiliate links, but the platform is still 100% free for you to use. I get a small fee if you ever move to a paid subscription. The beauty of their affiliate system is that you can ask your peers on Systeme to share links to your courses or services, and they’ll get a payment for everyone who signs up for your offerings. It’s just one more of those helpful features that supports you, your friends, and keeps the platform alive and well.