Anyone have feedback on MailChimp?

I've been using Aweber for a long time in addition to a self-hosted autoresponder on my own server. Recently, I signed up for MailChimp. Can't beat 1000 leads hosted for free.

MailChimp seems to have all the power of Aweber and even seems to be more feature-rich in some ways, especially since you don't have to jump through major hoops to import your existing lists. But I don't want to rely on it before I get some feedback.

Anyone have any long-term experience with it?

I actually have been using Mailchimp for some time now. In terms of features and integration, Mailchimp is light years ahead of the other email services. It actually allows you to view the social demographics of your list by pulling data from twitter, facebook and other social sites. The potential for this is incredible if you want to integrate your marketing with the social side of things.

The downside is that their forms are kind of clunky.

Originally Posted by skoh

They put an advertisement in your footer.

You're now an affiliate for mailchimp.

Great service!

The ad goes away when you start paying for the service. The service is free, sure...but there are trade-offs, and rightfully so, right?

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

And the irony of that is that they don't even allow affiliate marketing: it's expressly prohibited in their terms of service! :confused:

This is the biggest downside to MailChimp. If you are an affiliate marketer and want to use them to sell stuff, stick to aweber. MailChimp will shut you down if they even sniff that you are an affiliate marketer.

However, sometimes building a list is made for more things than simply to sell other people's junk. I actually use mail chimp for informative newsletters from people that have bought from me before as a way to build the relationship further.

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Alexa Smith Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Ldimilo

MailChimp will shut you down if they even sniff that you are an affiliate marketer.

This is what I've heard from others, too.

But also interesting to read your experiences and views for non-affiliates; thank you.
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- Tina Golden 14 years ago
  
  They also make judgment calls on your own products. I know someone who they recently shut down and she doesn't do affiliate marketing. They said she was promoting "get rich quick schemes". Obviously, they didn't actually look at her products since she teaches real business methods. She tried to talk to them about it and they refused to even look.
  
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  Sandra Martinez 14 years ago
  
  So... mailchimp seems like a good option for local clients with retail businesses, especially if they are building a social face as well...
  
  can it work for them?
  
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Alexandre Valois 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

And the irony of that is that they don't even allow affiliate marketing: it's expressly prohibited in their terms of service! :confused:

Alexa,

That would be a misunderstanding of their terms. They do not accept any lists whose main objective is to promote a product or service in high-risk SPAM niches, such as adult products, get rich quick, and yes, affiliate marketing as well, amongst others.

But they have nothing against users promoting affiliate programs as long as it is done correctly. I already covered this in a similar thread, but here is the official confirmation I received from them:

Original Message:
We are an online publishing company, mostly creating and selling information products and homestudy courses online, and our business model involves working closely with partners to recommend their products to our customers through affiliate marketing.

There is a lot of debate on whether MailChimp supports this kind of cross-promotion, and I would like to have some clarifications on this issue before we start building lists with your service.

Reply:
We do require that the data has to be collected through the domain that is being promoted through the message. So as long as the primary branding is from your company and you introduce the newsletter as your company saying you thought your subscribers may be interested in this product from this company then that would be ok.

Hope this clears some confusion.
Alex.
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IndigoJack 14 years ago

Originally Posted by skoh

They put an advertisement in your footer.

You're now an affiliate for mailchimp.

Great service!

You can remove the footer ad if you become a paid MailChimp subscriber can't you?

I've been using MailChimp for about a year now (refugee from ConstantContact) and I have nothing but praise for it. I find it very easy to use and the report detail is great.
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mywebwork

14 years ago

I'm also considering Mail Chimp and am eying this thread with a lot of interest.

I'm not an affiliate marketer, I market my own products and services. Is it correct to assume that this would be acceptable under Mail Chimps terms of service?

Thanks

Bill

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IndigoJack

14 years ago

Originally Posted by mywebwork

I'm also considering Mail Chimp and am eying this thread with a lot of interest.

I'm not an affiliate marketer, I market my own products and services. Is it correct to assume that this would be acceptable under Mail Chimps terms of service?

Thanks

Bill

Yes, you'll be ok because that is what I do - only market my own wares.

You will only run into trouble if, as mentioned in other posts, you become an affiliate marketer or if you repeatedly spam people who have 'complained' or asked to be removed from your list.

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Steven Carl Kelly

14 years ago

I've used MailChimp and like it a lot.

Bill:
Promoting your own stuff is ok with MailChimp.

Also, just so you know, if you contact MailChimp support and inquire with them, you'll find that they won't smack you for an occasional affiliate offer sent to your list. But anyone who primarily does affiliate marketing to their list should consider an alternative solution. For affiliate-heavy stuff, I have ImnicaMail.

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skoh

14 years ago

I never said I didn't like mailchimp, I think it's great, I have the service myself.

From a usability standpoint, the amazing design of the site does get in the way of productivity.

At least that's what i've found.

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DireStraits

14 years ago

Affiliates Beware

You gotta understand: the chimp aint no fool.

He knows that there aint 'nuff room in these 'ere emails for the both of ya's affiliate links. One of you is leaving, and it aint gonna be him.

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skoh

14 years ago

A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED!

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cassidywilliams

14 years ago

I have a friend whose account was shut down after a single spam complaint from a 15000 big list.

IMHO you get way more value for the money from GetResponse

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skoh

14 years ago

I'm right now working on offline marketing, thank god, I'd hate to lose all my credits to a crazy chimp with a nine mili

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Kurt

14 years ago

Why would any IMer use a email service where you can't use affiliate links?

I know there's other reasons for email, but I think that's a pretty good "poker read" of how this company feels. And I really can't think of many lists where I would be happy NEVER being able to send an affiliate link.

I agree with others...Very hypocritical to ban affiliate marketing in email while affiliate marketing in your email.

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Sandra Martinez 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Kurt

I agree with others...Very hypocritical to ban affiliate marketing in email while affiliate marketing in your email.

is it affiliate marketing? does the link has your affiliate code embedded? or it is just branding?

That was one of the core strategies hotmail used to grow so much so fast...

it is widely used in freeware, especially if they have a non branded paid option.

Sandra
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Rough Outline

14 years ago

I used the free trial for a week or two, really didn't like it, Aweber is a lot more user friendly.

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skoh 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Rough Outline Writing

I used the free trial for a week or two, really didn't like it, Aweber is a lot more user friendly.

I'm glad i'm not the only one that didn't find the layout very usable.
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AfteraDream

14 years ago

I just switched from MC to Aweber. Why? Even tho you get 1000 subscribers you can only send them 3 emails a month (limit of 3000 emails) and as mentioned before you cant do affiliate marketing. Also, seems to me that MC is more expensive when you switch to paid mode. Also, even tho MC has great reporting on your sent email campaigns (they show who opened email and how many times) Aweber is more user friendly to me and I don't regret switching...

MC looks cooler but Aweber edges it out for me...

Hope this helps

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Josh Anderson 14 years ago

Originally Posted by AfteraDream

I just switched from MC to Aweber. Why? Even tho you get 1000 subscribers you can only send them 3 emails a month (limit of 3000 emails)

That is not quite correct... they allow you to send up to 6000 emails a month with the free account (see the quote on their home page right now).

If you are not in affiliate marketing or bizopp etc. then you really cannot beat that free service. Killer for local biz if you are a consultant... teach your local biz client to use them totally free.
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WD Mino

14 years ago

Hi,

I know that mail chimp is free, so for anyone starting out without a lot of money they could be a viable solution.

I run my own AR which can be dangerous unless you also run a reseller hosting account but it is free and can handle a lot of subs. I don't think Mail chimp is a viable solution for anyone wishing to do more then promote their own stuff. But... if you don't have a lot of options financially it is a good start. Also if I am not mistaken aweber and get response also have free accounts that can be used
-WD

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tsgeric

14 years ago

I started building a list in the real estate niche (not affiliate marketing) because it was free and it looked very cutting edge. It took me a long time to realize why Mail Chimp was not really a player in Internet Marketing -- because of their affiliate marketing policies. However, I think like somebody said, you can't beat free for small lists so I guess I will keep my non-affiliate marketing lists over there.

Oh, that's right, I just remembered MailChimp integrates with BatchBox, which is a CRM system (eg. business contacts), and that's also free and pretty cutting edge (eg. will find your contacts' social media profiles), so I thought that made a nice pair.

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kenharthun

14 years ago

Thanks for the excellent feedback, everyone. I'm going to close MailChimp account and find a more IM-friendly service. I liked the features, but I have to agree it's rather clumsy to use.

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affiliatepro222

14 years ago

i think its the best free autoresponder, however nothing beats aweber

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espradley

14 years ago

I like it because it has a powerful API. But not good for internet marketors though..

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Fitnessdad

14 years ago

Aweber is cheaper in the long run - look at the pricing above 1000 - So my thoughts if your worried about price think long term to.

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BlogPiG.com

14 years ago

We moved from Aweber to Mailchimp a few months ago and have not looked back. It's such an easy system to use (a complete newbie to it, never sent an email broadcast in her life and my partner sent out a broadcast within ten minutes of logging in for the first time), the user interface is just great. The tracking and reporting is also excellent - you can see exactly where people are clicking through on your emails and optimise future messages accordingly. It's robust, compliant and also the customer service is really prompt and helpful. Currently sending out an email a day with it (because it's so easy to use and then track the results our productivity on the email front has come on light years), about to have to subscribe to the next level up (we are already paying customers) and think it's worth every cent.

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Anyone have feedback on MailChimp?

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