Blog Archives - Page 15 of 16 - Nadine MullingsNadine Mullings

May

26 2015

8 Mistakes to Avoid when Blogging for Business

As an independent business owner, coach, or consultant, you already know the importance of creating a platform, and being known as an authority or expert in your field. When people view you as an expert in your field, you start to attract more clients, instead of having to find clients, clients are finding you.

One of the best ways to become known in your field is to consistently create or curate awesome content, and the best platform to do that is on your own blog.

However, starting, maintaining, and keeping up with a business blog can be difficult. In this blog post I cover the 8 mistakes to avoid when blogging for business:

Mistake #1- Not creating a blogging plan

I know I say this all the time, but no matter what type of marketing activity you choose to participate in, you must create a plan for that activity, so if you decide you are going to start a business blog, you have to have a plan for your blog. The plan should include answers to the following questions:

Who is your target audience?
What topics do you want to cover?
How often will you blog?
What will your calls to action be?
What are your blog goals?

Mistake #2- Not having a specific audience in mind

If your blog is for everyone, then it really is for no one. You have to be specific in who you are talking to, and who you are trying to reach with your blog posts, that is why selecting your target audience is the first thing in your blog plan.

Mistake #3- Not choosing specific topics

Random blogs aren’t successful unless maybe you’re a celebrity blogger, but even celebrity bloggers keep their blog topics around what they are known for or what they enjoy.

When creating a business blog, select up to five main topics that you want to be known for. All of the topics should fall under or supplement your business. For example, I blog about Marketing. There are 1001 ways you can market your business, but I mainly focus on my four key topics, blogging, social media, texting, and email marketing. If I blog about something outside of these topics, it always falls under my main topic of marketing.

Mistake #4- Not being consistent with how often you publish your blog

This is something that a lot of independent business owners, coaches, and consultants struggle with. They decide to start a blog, and at first they are pretty consistent with blogging, but as the weeks and months go on, and things get busy, their blogging becomes inconsistent. The weekly blogging turns into monthly blogging, the monthly blogging, turns into every other month.

When you decide on how often you are going to blog (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.), you must stick to that schedule. Figure out what works best for your business and stick with it. Blogging daily is a difficult task for the average coach or consultant, weekly is a little more realistic, but can still be hard to keep up with, bi-weekly is a good schedule for starting out or if you feel that’s the most amount of time that you can dedicate to blogging for your business. Once a month is the least amount of time that you should commit to blogging for your business.

Mistake #5- Not having strong call to actions

I have been guilty of mistake #5 for the first few years of blogging. One of the goals of your blog should be to have your readers not only view you as an expert in your field, but to also have them take some type of action. Having strong call to actions with each blog post helps you to achieve your goal. If your goal is to build your email list, then you should have strong call to actions within your blog post and/or on your page about joining your email list. If your goal is to promote an upcoming event, then you should have strong call to actions throughout your blog post about the event (the event should also relate to the blog post topic). If your goal is to promote a product or service that relates to the blog post, then you should have strong call to actions throughout you post about the product or service.

Mistake #6- Not having goals for your blog

Having a blog is great for many reasons as already mentioned, but not having a goal for your blog is a big mistake. Is the goal of your blog to create brand awareness, if so, how do you measure brand awareness? Do you measure brand awareness by the amount of views on your blog posts? Is your blog to showcase you as an authority or an expert? If so, how do you measure becoming known as an authority or expert? Establishing and setting goals will help you to achieve the results you are aiming for with your blog.

Mistake #7- Having someone else write your blog who doesn’t understand your company voice, story, or goals

We are all busy, so it is okay to have someone write or contribute to your business blog, but if that person doesn’t understand the tone or voice of your brand, this could be a huge mistake. You want the feel of your blog to stay consistent, so if someone is writing or contributing to your blog, they have to understand the tone of your blog, the voice of your brand, and the goals of your blog. Otherwise they could do more harm than help in your business.

Mistake #8- Not promoting your blog posts

Just because you write it, doesn’t mean they will read it! You have to promote your blog posts on your other platforms. If you have an email list, you should promote your blog posts to your email list. If you are on social media, you should promote your blog posts on social media. You need to promote your post several times to get the exposure you need, and for people to actually read your posts, so be sure to promote, promote, promote!

Are you blogging for business? Have you made any of the mistakes listed above? Be sure to comment below and share your blog with us, by listing it in the comments below.

If you need help with coming up with a Blogging Plan, we can help! Be sure to contact us for a FREE Blogging Success Strategy Session

Posted by Nadine Mullings | 2 Comments | in Blog, Business, Business Development, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Uncategorized

May

12 2015

The Secret to a Successful Business Blog

I have seen it over, and over, and over again. Independent business owners, coaches, or consultants who decide to start a business blog because they have heard that it is important to have a blog for your business. They usually have all intention to keep up with the blog, but after a few weeks or months, the blog ends up in the blog grave yard. Why does this happen so often? Because most people start blogging without a plan.

It’s true that there are many benefits of blogging, I wrote a blog post about how blogging can help you gain the know, like, and trust factor, which is so important when growing your business, but other factors include helping to identify you as an authority or expert in your field, or making it easier for people to find you and your business due to the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefits that occur from blogging.

However, without a real blogging plan, you can easily be doomed to head to the blog grave yard. Here are 5 things for you to consider when starting a business blog: [Tweet “Without a real blogging plan, you can easily be doomed to head to the blog grave yard. #Blogging #MarketingEssentials”]

Why do you want to start a business blog? Basically, what is the goal of your blog, this could vary from:
1. Building your expertise in your field
2. Becoming known as a thought leader in your field
3. Becoming known as an authority in your field
4. Providing valuable information to your current customers/clients
5. Attracting new customers/clients
6. Building your SEO so you can be found in online searches
Who is your target audience? Who are you trying to reach with your blog posts? You can answer this question by deciding the following:
1. Are you talking to your peers in your industry?
2. Are you talking to your current customers/clients?
3. Are you talking to potential customers/clients?
What do you want to talk about? Pick a particular topic or several topics that will be relevant to your business and your target audience, and decide to consistently blog about that topic or topics. When you have a business blog, you want to stay on topic and not venture off on to topics that do not relate to your business or can’t tie back to your business in some way. You also want to make sure that the information that you are sharing is relevant and will resonate with your target audience. What do they want to hear about? What are their struggles or concerns?
How often do you want to publish your blog posts? Decide how often you are going to publish your blog posts and stick with it. The biggest problem I see when it comes to business blogs, is a company will decide to blog, but then they don’t stay consistent in publishing to the blog, because they get busy and the blog is secondary. If you decide to select a day and time to publish your blog posts then stick with it. If you decide the frequency to publish (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.), then stick with it.
How will you measure success? Now this is a touchy subject, because you could be blogging for months, even years and have no way to really measure the success of your blog. Some people measure success by traffic, how many people have visited the blog posts. Some people measure by shares, how many people have shared the post on social media. Others measure by blog comments, how many people actually comment on a blog post. Others measure based how many individuals have taken action based on the blog post (i.e. visited a sales page, visited a landing page, signed up for their email list, etc.). Depending on what your goal is from #1, that will determine how you need to decide what you will use to measure the success of your business blog.

Do you have a business blog? Do you feel like your business blog is successful? Share your comments and/or links to your blog below.

If you have a business blog and you would like to take it to the next level, or you are thinking about starting a business blog, we can help, contact us to schedule a free blogging success strategy session.

Posted by Nadine Mullings | 2 Comments | in Blog, Business, Business Development, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants

January

27 2015

The Truth About Blogging for Business

There are many advantages to starting a business blog. In fact, I talked about one of the major benefits of a business blog in my blog post, How to Use Blogging to Build the Know, Like, and Trust Factor for Your Business, but what most people don’t necessarily talk about is the “truth” about blogging. So in this blog post I will uncover some of the truths about blogging for your business:

Blogging for business has become very popular in the last five years or so, which has created a crowded blogging world and with so many things grabbing people’s attention, it takes time to get results from your business blog (it can even take years), so if you think blogging for your business will bring you a ton of clients quickly, think again.
Creating content for your blog takes time. You have to think about the content you want to post, then you have to create the content, and then you have to promote the content, this can take a lot of your time and effort. For example, on average it can take up to two hours to create the blog post, it may take an additional 10-20 minutes to promote the posts on your various social networks, so one blog post can take almost three hours, so depending on how many blog posts you produce per month, this can be very time consuming
A large percentage of business owners, coaches and consultants manage all aspects of their blog themselves. According to coSchedule, 58% of business bloggers are solo bloggers. That means they are the content manager, the copywriter, the graphic designer, the promoter, and everything else for the blog, which can become overwhelming because of the different elements of running a business blog as well as keeping up with running a business!
Many blog posts go largely unnoticed. You put all the time and effort into creating content for your blog, and then nobody reads it. That is why promoting your blog post is an important part of blogging for your business. You can promote your blog posts to your email list, on social media, etc.
A large percentage of business blogs die after a few months because many business owners, coaches and consultants can’t find the time to keep up with the blog. In fact, according to a recent survey by coschedule, 22% of respondents said their biggest challenge when it comes to blogging is finding time, which makes it easy to see why so many business blogs end up in the blog grave yard.
Most people will not comment on your blog. One of the great things about blogs is the ability to create conversations, because people are able to comment on your blog posts, but the statistics show that the majority of people who may read your blog, will not comment on your blog post, which can make it hard to gauge if you are engaging your audience.

So, if you decide to start a business blog, keep these truths in mind and check out my blog post The 5 C’s of a Successful Business Blog.

Do you have a business blog? Are you thinking about starting a business blog this year?

Posted by Nadine Mullings | Comments Off | in Blog, Business, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Uncategorized

January

12 2015

The 5 C’s of a Successful Business Blog

As a business owner, coach or consultant, blogging can play a key role in your marketing strategy. As mentioned in my prior post, How to Use Blogging to Build the Know, Like and Trust Factor For Your Business, blogging allows you to build those key factors that can allow you to have an advantage in the marketplace.

In order for your blog to be successful, you need to follow the 5 C’s of Blogging:

Content
The first and most important part of your blog is your content. You should decide on the main topic for your blog (i.e. business, gardening, etc.) and then decide up to three sub-categories for your topic (i.e. business- marketing, leadership, productivity; gardening- fruits, vegetable, flowers; etc.).Once the topic and sub-categories have been decided, then the next thing is deciding whether you are going to come up with original content or content that you curate.In order to show your expertise in your particular area, having original content is very important. That is how you showcase what you know and show your knowledge in your area. However, coming up with original content consistently can be a difficult task, so sometimes it helps to curate other people’s content. Use what they have posted about your area or expertise and write a response or a differing opinion to the original article, or just reposting what they have written also works too. As long as the content is relevant and will resonate with your audience then using other people’s content is fine. The biggest thing when it comes to curating content is giving credit to the original source of content, your goal is not and nor should it ever be to take their content as your own, so always give credit where credit is due. This is especially important when it comes to copyright infringement, you do not want to plagiarize, so be sure to site where your content is coming from.
Community
Your blog posts should be targeting a specific community. Your goal in blogging is not just to add value by informing your readers, but to also create followers who become your community. Having a community of people who are like-minded and enjoy your content can do wonders for your business. When you create a community, you create loyal followers who can become loyal customers, so knowing that you are creating a community for your blog is also helpful.
Conversations
You want your blog posts to create conversations. The great thing about blogs compared to regular online articles is the fact that blogs allow people to converse about the particular topic that you have posted. You want to create conversations around your topic, so it is not a one-way street, but a two-way conversation with the writer of the blog and the audience. The ability to have a conversation, adds another level of connection with you and your audience, so make sure that your blog posts create a level of conversation around your industry or topic.
Consistency
I believe there is a Blog grave yard, so many people have good intentions to start a blog, but couldn’t or didn’t keep up with blogging consistently, so their blog died! When you make the decision to start a blog for your business, you have to be consistent with posting on the blog. You have to decide what makes sense for your business. If you are able to blog weekly that’s great, if you can only blog bi-weekly that’s fine too, the least amount of commitment would be blogging once a month. Of course there are benefits to blogging more frequently especially when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and people finding your content online, but you want to take on a frequency that will be able to fit into your business. Blogging on a daily basis is not viable for the average business so you have to figure out what frequency works best for your business.
Convert
As a small business owner, one of your blogging goals should be to convert your followers to customers. By sharing your content with your readers people start to view you as knowledgable or an expert in your field. Once they have that level of trust in your knowledge and your blog talks about solutions, if they are in the market for what your company offers, they will naturally see you as a solution and become a customer, which ultimately is what you want. Having strong call-to-actions (i.e. click here, sign-up now, learn more, etc.) on your blog helps with converting people to your website pages, or sales pages for your product or service.

Are you currently blogging for your business? If so, what other C’s do you think are an important part of blogging?

Posted by Nadine Mullings | 2 Comments | in Blog, Business, Business Development, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Uncategorized

December

10 2014

How to Use Blogging to Build the Know, Like, and Trust Factor for Your Business

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, standing out from your competition is really important. Creating a unique statement that tells why you’re different is good, but as we know, people really like to buy from people they know, like, and trust, and a simple statement as to why you are good, may not be enough.

A great way to establish the know, like and trust factor is by blogging. Blogging is a great marketing strategy because if you consistently blog and promote your blog posts you will build an audience who will begin to know, like and trust you based on the content that you publish.

So let’s break down the way you can use a blog in order to establish the know, like, and trust factor and grow your business:

KNOW

Your blogging goal as an entrepreneur or small business owner is to become known as an expert in your field. People like to buy from people who are knowledgeable, helpful, and show that they care. Through your blog you can become known for providing valuable tips, tools, and techniques in your industry. If you consistently put out good content on your blog and that content is shared, this will help you to grow your “Know” factor.

LIKE

Another blogging goal is for people to get to like you. Your tone, writing style, and the content you provide on your blog should help with the like factor. Keep in mind your goal is not to be liked by everyone, but to be liked by your ideal target audience. When you know who you are talking to, and what their needs are, then you will be better able to create content that resonate with your target audience. Therefore, they will end up liking your content, and therefore, liking you.

TRUST

And lastly, your blogging goal is to build trust with your audience. This is a big one because people may buy from people that they don’t know that well, and may even buy from people they don’t always like, but they have to have a level of trust in you, your company, or your service in order to buy from you, so building the trust factor is really important. You can build trust with your audience by practicing what you preach, by doing what you say you are going to do, by being professional, by being reliable and consistent. When you show up on your blog consistently and provide good information, you are helping to build the “Trust” factor with your audience.

There are many factors why you should consider blogging in your marketing strategy and growing the know, like, and trust factor is just one reason why entrepreneurs and small business owners should be considering blogging. Are you currently blogging for your business? If so, do you feel blogging helps to build the know, like, and trust factor for your business? Share your opinion in the comments below.

Posted by Nadine Mullings | Comments Off | in Blog, Business, Marketing, Small Business, Uncategorized

September

10 2014

How to Grow Your Business with Relationship Marketing

Dictionary.com defines a relationship as a connection, association, or involvement. It also defines marketing as the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer.

My definition of Relationship Marketing is the activities involved in building a greater connection with your clients, prospects and partners. This strong connection often leads to the sale of products or services, and also increases loyalty to your brand or company.

With that said, Relationship Marketing is a key part of your overall marketing strategy, and should occur both online and offline.

In this blog post I will mention a few activities that you should include in your Relationship Marketing:

ONLINE

In order to build a connection online with your clients, prospects, and partners, it is important to have an online presence. Included in your online presence should be the following activities:

A Company Blog– In addition to having a company website, a company blog can help to build the relationship that you have with your audience, because a blog allows you to show your expertise, knowledge and personality in ways that a website alone does not accomplish. The key to a successful business blog is:
1. It should be updated frequently
2. It should contain valuable content relevant to your audience
3. It should showcase the personality of your brand
A Social Media Presence– It’s not necessary to be on all the popular social networks out there, but it is beneficially for your company to be on social networks that have a high percentage of your target market, and networks that will showcase your business well. Social Networks are a great way to strength your connection with your clients, prospects, and partners because it allows you to create a conversation around your company, industry, products, services, values, beliefs, etc. The key to a successful social media presence is:
1. Know your audience
2. Post content that is interesting to your audience
3. Create conversations
An E-Newsletter or EZine– An email publication that your company produces is a great way to strengthen the connection that you have with customers, prospects and partners. It is a great way for your audience to get to know you and get to know what your company stands for. The key to a successful E-Newletter is:
1. Know your audience
2. Give valuable information in each ezine
3. Provide 80% valuable content and only 20% company promotions

OFFLINE

Events– Plan events to show appreciation for your customers and partners. Taking the time to host these events can build a strong connection with you and your customers and partners. It also helps to solidify their loyalty to your company. You can also have events to introduce your prospects to your business or your brand. Grand Openings, Launch Parties, etc. are all great ways for people to get to know more about you, your company, and your brand.
One-on-One Meetings– When possible, schedule one-on-one meetings with your clients, prospects and partners. This is a great way to build a strong connection, and for people to get to know, like and trust you.
Send Cards– It is important to send your customers, prospects and partners cards on various occasions. This could include birthdays, anniversary, Thank You for Your Business, Thank You for Your Time, Happy Holiday cards and more. Taking the time out to send your customers, prospects and partners cards really helps to create loyalty and build trust.

These are just a few ways you can use Relationship Marketing to GROW your business. What other ways can you think of in which you can use Relationship Marketing to grow your business?

Posted by Nadine Mullings | 2 Comments | in Blog, Business Development, Email Marketing, Event Marketing, Marketing, Small Business, Social Media

June

23 2014

Business Blog v. Business Website

It may seem like a silly question, but what is the difference between having a blog and having a website? And when it comes to your business strategy, do you need both?

With the popularity of blogs and social media, some companies are thinking they may not need a website. Although a business can be successful without one, I feel it is important to have one. Your website is your home base, the place on the internet where your company/brand lives. All other places on the internet like blog platforms, or social networks are places that you rent space, so if you are serious about your business you don’t want to just RENT, you want to OWN!

WEBSITE

According to dictionary.com, “A website is a connected group of pages on the World Wide Web regarded as a single entity, usually maintained by one person or organization and devoted to a single topic or several closely related topics.” Your website really is the place where people will go to learn about your company. Since people go there to learn about your company, your website should include the following:

The story of your business, including the who, what, where, when & how
A showcase of your products and/or services
Appropriate messaging directed to your target audience
A way to capture leads by offering an email opt-in form
A way to convert your visitors to purchases with the use of links to sales pages
A way for people to contact you
Connections to your social media networks
Connection to your blog

BLOG

So what is a blog and how does it differ from your website?

According to dictionary.com, “A blog is a website containing a writer’s or group of writers’ own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other websites.” Your blog is where you express your opinions and share your insights about your particular topic with your audience. Your blog should be used for the following:

To show your expertise
To offer advice, tips, techniques related to your products and services, or your industry
To build an audience
To subtly promote your products and/or services
To build a community
To spread the word about your business
To capture leads when people subscribe to your blog
To convert visitors to purchase your product or service by using links to sales pages

So now that you know the difference between your website and your blog, do you need both? It depends! If you want to be known as an expert in your industry and you are committed to consistently blogging (posting articles) on your blog, then blogging should be included in your online marketing strategy, but if you are not sure you will have the time to consistently blog and be committed to maintaining your blog, then you should not start a blog. Although it has many benefits, blogging is not for everyone!

On the other hand, having a home base for your business/brand is important, so I feel having a website is a MUST for a business while having a blog is OPTIONAL.

So what do you think, does a business need a blog and a website? Do you have a business blog and a business website?

Posted by Nadine Mullings | Comments Off | in Blog, Business, Business Development, Marketing, Uncategorized

June

10 2014

The best way for people to know, like and trust you online!

We’ve all heard the saying, “People do business with people who they know, like, and trust“. I find that one of the best ways for people to get to know you, like you, and trust you ONLINE is by BLOGGING.

So what exactly is blogging some may ask, according to dictionary.com, a blog is a website containing a writer’s or group of writers’ own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other websites. I will also add that a blog allows others to communicate with those writers by commenting on what they have posted!

First let’s take a look at a brief history of blogging. The first “blog” started in 1994 and was known as Links.net, and the term “weblog” was coined in 1997, a few short years later “weblog” was simplified to just “blog” in 1999.*

So how can blogging help your business? Well, the fact that a blog allows you as a business owner to write about your experiences, observations, and opinions, helps people to know more about you, your business, your business style, and the culture of your company. Therefore, helping you to build on the “know” factor in the know, like, and trust formula.

In addition, the content that you post on your blog helps people to figure out if they “like” your style, your information, your point of view. This helps with the “like” part of the know, like, and trust formula.

And thirdly, how consistently you post, how much you care about providing valuable information to your readers, and how knowledgable you are about your topic helps to build the “trust” part of the know, like, and trust formula.

In addition to helping you build your know, like, and trust factor online, blogging also helps you to become known as an expert in your field, which can lead to more business for you.

There are also technical reasons to blog for you business which includes Search Engine Optimization. Now I am no SEO expert, but the basics of how blogging helps with your SEO is:

It allows your website to stay current. Search engines prefer to share up to date information with the people searching for a particular topic, and if your blog is posting current information about a particular topic this could help you to rank higher in the search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.
The use of keywords in your blog can also help with your SEO. If someone is searching for a particular keyword and your website ranks high for the use of the keyword organically (existing on the page), then this can help you rank higher in the search engines.
When people find the information on your blog useful and link to it from their websites, this creates backlinks to your website, which is great for SEO.

This is a short and simple list of how blogging helps with SEO, as SEO is a whole other topic that could be a whole blog itself (and as I mentioned, I am not an expert on SEO).

So what do you think? Do you think blogging is one of the best ways for people to get to know, like, and trust you online? Are you using blogging in your business?

* Source- New York Magazine

Posted by Nadine Mullings | Comments Off | in Blog, Business, Business Development, Marketing, Uncategorized

February

09 2014

4 Reasons Your Business should be on Social Media

When it comes to social media for businesses, the question really isn’t if you should be on social media, but which social network your business should be on. There are so many social media networks out there that it can be hard to decide which social media network is right for your business, but for those business owners who are still undecided as to whether they should even be on any social networks, here are 4 reasons why your business should be on Social Media:

To Stay Top of Mind with Your Current Customers- Social Media is a great way to keep the conversation going with your customers. It allows your customers to be able to see another side of your business through the posts that you include on your social networks. This also helps to build a stronger connection with your customers. Statistics show that people who follow a company on social media are more likely to purchase than if they do not. Being in someone’s news feed is a great way for them to remember your business and when they are in the market for what you have to offer, your business will be top of mind.
To Reach New Prospects for Your Business– Social Media is also a great way to reach new prospects and potential customers. You can reach new prospects through two main avenues via social media:

Organically– When one of your followers or fans share your information with their networks, it gives your company an opportunity to be introduced to a new group of people. If they like what you posts you could also get some new followers and fans.

Paid– If you have a marketing budget, you may want to consider investing in some advertising on your social media networks because this allows you to reach individuals who are not current fans or followers and potentially get new fans and followers.

3. For Market Research– Social Media is a great place to conduct market research. No need to hire a market research company, you can question, survey and poll your followers on social media. This is a cost effective way of finding out the needs of your market and to make sure you are providing the right solutions.

4. To Remain Current– As much as we don’t like to admit it, customers kind of expect that your business will be on social media. You want to show that your business is current and involved in the newer ways to communicate. It’s kind of like when businesses first started to get websites, after awhile if you didn’t have a website your business did not look current or up to date, so it is important to stay current, which includes being involved in social media.

What reasons do you have for your business to be on social media?

Posted by Nadine Mullings | Comments Off | in Blog, Business, Marketing, Small Business, Social Media

January

15 2014

How to pick an Email Marketing Service Provider

Are you using email marketing for your business?
Are you trying to decide what email marketing service provider to use?

If you are using email marketing for your business, or you are considering using email marketing, you have probably found out that there are hundreds maybe even thousands of email marketing service providers out there. So how do you decide which one is right for you? It would be impossible for me to mention them all in this post, so I have narrowed it down to the top three that seem to be at the top of everyone’s list; MailChimp, Constant Contact, and AWeber. Based on the popularity of these companies, I decided to do a post that compares these companies on customer base, price and product features.

MailChimp

MailChimp has the largest customer base with over 4,000,000 customers according to their website. I suspect that their large customer base may have to do with the fact that they have a “Forever Free” product that allows small businesses to use their product and several of the main features for free as long as they don’t have more than 2,000 subscribers. In addition, if someone opted to upgraded to a paid account, MailChimp has the lowest priced monthly package of the three companies at $10/month.

Another advantage MailChimp has over the other Email Marketing Services providers is that they have several great features like automated list segmentation. Their system allows you to segment your email list based on several already defined factors that you can select or adjust (i.e. member rating, subscriber activity, location, etc.). MailChimp is also great if you want to upload an unlimited amount of images to use in your email. Constant Contact and Aweber have limitations on the amount of images you can upload to their systems or the storage size available for the images you upload.

MailChimp also offers the following features that neither Constant Contact or Aweber offer:

Event Triggered Autoresponders– this allows you to send a follow-up email to someone based on an action they have taken within your email.
A/B Testing– this gives you the option of testing elements of your email campaign to see which one works better via A/B testing.
Inbox Preview– this offers you the ability to preview your email and see how it looks over various email providers like gmail, yahoo, aol, etc.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is in the middle of the three companies with over 500,000 customers according to their website. They are also in the middle with price. They offer a 60-day FREE trial option, and their lowest priced package after the trial period is $15/month. One of the features that stands out with the Constant Contact email marketing product is the fact that they offer you an extensive Contact Management System that allows you to treat your list as not just subscribers, but contacts in which you can add additional information on each contact like the person’s phone number, address, special notes, social networks, etc. making the system more of a type of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) instead of just a list of subscribers. Constant Contact also offers its customers direct access to quality stock images to use in their email, but there is an additional cost for this feature.

In addition, although email marketing is their main product, Constant Contact offers a suite of solutions for small business owners (at an additional cost). Allowing you to create a dashboard of online marketing tools that complement your email marketing product. These tools include:

EventSpot- A tool to help you manage events online
Social Campaigns– A tool to help you grow your fans on social media
SaveLocal– Allows you to create offer deals to send to your customers
Online Surveys– Online Surveys, Polls, & Questions to get your customers feedback
And more…

Constant Contact also offers a lot of support. Depending on where you are located, Constant Contact offers many local FREE workshops and seminars to help educate the community about email marketing. Another great feature that Constant Contact offers is FREE coaching for its customers and phone-based customer service.

AWeber

AWeber comes in at the lower end as far as amount of customers served with over 120,000 customers according to their website. AWeber does not offer a free option or free trial, but does offer the first 30 days for $1. After the first 30 days the lowest priced package is $19/month. As far as features, an outstanding feature that is include in the AWeber email marketing system is the ability to convert your blog post into an email newsletter with the click of a button (MailChimp also offers this feature). AWeber also claims to offer some of the best email delivery rates in the business.

AWeber also offers customer service via phone 7 days a week (Constant Contact also offers phone support).

So the key takeaway from this analysis is you have to figure out what features are most important to you and select the company that has those important features!

Please see the chart below for a full comparison:

	MailChimp	Constant Contact	AWeber
Customers	Over 4,000,000	Over 500,000	Over 120,000
FREE Option	Forever Free	60-day Trial	No (first month for $1)
Lowest Priced Package	$10/month	$15/month	$19/month
Features of Lowest Priced Packages:
Subscribers	0-500	0-500	0-500
Emails per Month	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
List Features:
Contact Management System	Limited	YES	NO
List Segmentation Available	YES	YES- Limited	YES
Sign-up Forms	YES	YES	YES
Geolocation	YES	NO	YES
Email Features:
Customizable Email Templates	YES	YES	YES
Image Hosting	Unlimited	Limited (Up to 5 images)	Unlimited (Up to 10 MB)
Access to additional Stock Images	YES- via APP	Additional Cost ($5/month)	NO
Drag & Drop Editing	YES	YES	YES
Mobile Responsive Email Templates Available	YES	YES	YES
Autoresponder Emails	YES- New Subscribers and Event based	Limited- New Subscribers Only	Limited- New Subscribers Only
A/B Testing	YES	NO	NO
Inbox Preview for various Email Providers (i.e. gmail, yahoo, aol, etc.)	YES	NO	NO
Integration Features:
APP & Integration	YES	YES	YES
RSS/Blog Integration	YES	NO	YES
Social Media Features:
Share Email with Your Social Networks	YES	YES	YES
Social Follow Buttons	YES	YES	YES
Social Share Buttons	YES	YES	YES
Reporting/Archive Features:
Campaign Archives	YES	Additional Cost	YES
Reports	YES	YES	YES
Google Analytics Integration	YES	YES	YES
Customer Service:
Phone Customer Service	NO- Text or Chat Only	YES	YES

All information in this posts is based on information on the email marketing service provider’s website or obtained after talking to a representative from the company. Features are based on current (January 2014) information.

Disclosure: I have used both Constant Contact and MailChimp for my clients. I have not used AWeber. Although I like to feel that my analysis is not bias, I believe it is important to mention that I am a Solutions Provider for Constant Contact.

Posted by Nadine Mullings | 1 Comment | in Blog, Email Marketing, Marketing, Small Business