From Social Media Just for Writers:
Yep, I gave the boot to MailChimp and am a happy MailerLite customer.
In the past I raved about MailChimp. I wrote blog posts about it. I even recommended it to clients.
But over the years, I liked it less and less. Their customer services degraded as their prices climbed.
A terrible combination.
. . . .
MailerLite’s customer service is superb. Whereas before, I would wait four days for an email response from MailChimp’s tech support, with MailerLite, it’s just a few hours.
Learning MailerLite’s system took a bit of time, but their tech support made it a smooth transition.
And it’s cheaper than MailChimp while offering the same services.
I’m paying $30/month for MailerLite (MailChimp was $75/month) because I want extra features. You can use it for free if you’d like to.
. . . .
Let’s face it; email marketing is more effective than social media marketing.
And consider this fact: if Instagram or Facebook disappeared or changed into a format you couldn’t make sense of, what would you do?
All those people you were connecting with would be gone.
Consider email marketing as an insurance policy and an excellent way to connect with your readers.
Link to the rest at Social Media Just for Writers
Yeah, I read Dave’s posts; they gave me something to think about.
For me, I’m still in camp of ‘I’ll dance with the one who brung me’. Two pen names, and yeah, the backbone of promo & sales is the mailing list.
We’ve (wife & I are full in hand partners in this gig) yet to become paying members of MC. Each of our lists are (((JUST))) under the 2K threshold.
Yet, with that, we’ve established a comfortable life style over the last 7 or so years since we began. MC was a real PITA to set up back then; tech co’s are so insular in their perspective…they have a hard time looking at things from a non techie’s POV. (Quick aside: GPlay’s platform made the decision to go all in w/KU easier to make for example)
On Kboards, during the Dave G debacle this last summer, the owners/operators/what-ever-ers of Mailer Lite were very present on the threads. They were willing to take criticisms for past flaws, and were generous with advice.
Not a peep from MC.
Saying that, if I were to decide to make the switch, it would be to Mailer Lite. Whereas it appears MC is going after much larger org’s than what I’m doing, Mailer Lite appears to be more amenable to newbies in this.
While I acknowledge a degree of loyalty to MC, I also want to avoid having to become competent with a new platform. I mean… I can’t even use Scrivener after trying 3 times! LOL
I LOVE MailerLite, and totally agree with the Support issue. You can online-chat with them 24/7 (they’re worldwide with a base in Estonia, as I recall). I’ve never waited more than 15 minutes for a response. Thumbs up.
David Gaughan has a detailed post on his blog about why he dumped MailChimp and why he thinks other writers should do likewise.