Help a visual artist improve her mailing list

October 28, 2010 1:12 PM

I'm looking for recommendations on email marketing software. I'm a visual artist sending out periodic e-newsletters. I know about Constant Contact but am wondering what else is out there.

I've googled but want to hear about your experiences - what's great, what's meh? I'm on a mac and obviously want to be able to send jpegs but what other features should I be looking for? Bonus points for ease of embedding sign-up on my soon to be revamped website. Last time this was answered was a couple years ago so I'm assuming things may have changed with new versions.

posted by leslies to computers & internet (10 answers total)

I'm a big fan of MadMimi (affiliate link). Super easy to use, inexpensive, with all the features a small business or one-man operation needs. I've used iContact and Mailchimp before, but found they were overkill for what I needed.
posted by jcmilton at 1:23 PM on October 28, 2010

I set up my son's preschool with Vertical Response, and they've been pretty happy with it AFAIK. For those purposes it was a little complicated, but our requirements (separate lists for each classroom! parents associated with children by name!) were a little complex.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 1:29 PM on October 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

You might look at letter.ly
posted by mattbucher at 1:46 PM on October 28, 2010

Mail Chimp! Free! (or Freemium) Pretty! Friendly! Sign up can be done through a unique link to their site, or a form embedded in your site. It also allows people to self unsubscribe.

Embedding jpegs in mass emails is not pretty or friendly however. Host your images on you website, then link them.
posted by fontophilic at 1:55 PM on October 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

Seconding mailchimp. Great service.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 2:14 PM on October 28, 2010

MailChimp is nice (esp if you have a small list/send only occasionally), I've also had good experiences with Campaign Monitor over a number of years. Both have very attractive email templates, too.
posted by epersonae at 2:33 PM on October 28, 2010

Nthing Mail Chimp.
posted by KneeDeep at 5:26 PM on October 28, 2010

I came here to recommend MailChimp over ConstantContact - I've used both for work. For the reasons fontophilic and epersone mentioned. I find it cleaner and easier to work with than CC.

And seconding the "hotlink your images" advice.
posted by kellygrape at 6:54 PM on October 28, 2010

Have used PeopleLogic and it was pretty pain free.
posted by latch24 at 9:09 PM on October 28, 2010

Another recommendation for Mail Chimp here - it's a pleasure to use and the Free Forever plan will probably serve you quite well to begin with.
posted by ukdanae at 12:18 AM on October 29, 2010