Sazbean

eNewsletters and eBlasts are a great way to keep in contact with your customers and potential customers. They offer an easy way to send out news and promotions, although they are best-received if they provide valuable information. The best way to send out and manage these emails is through a vendor. I have been using iContact for sales training eblasts for over a year, and they are one of the most cost-effective vendors with great features that I have found.

If you want to get started quickly, they have over 300 templates to choose from, and it is easy to import your contacts as a group. I easily created my own template and had a test eblast out in about 10 minutes. They check your eblast for spam flags and can also send a text version. Their tracking will show you how many sent, opens and clicks you have and, more importantly, who did what. I’ve also had great experience with their tech support through online chats, email and over the phone. I had a problem with some emails not going through (to our own company email!) and it took them a bit to work through it, but they were very professional about keeping me updated throughout.

iContact’s great features (full feature list) come priced for how many recipients you have, starting at just 500 contacts for $9.99/month (with discounts if you pay annually), which makes it actually affordable for even small businesses. Pricing steps up in a fair manner: 1000 contacts for $14/month or $151.20/annually (full pricing). I recommend iContact if you’re a small or medium-sized business looking for a full-featured and affordable email marketing vendor. I would even recommend looking at it you’re a large business without special requirements.

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