AWeber Review
Is Aweber Your Ideal Email Marketing Tool
Our Aweber review introduces you to one of the best email marketing and e-newsletter distribution services. This Aweber review lists all the pros and cons to help you make an informed choice.
Read it before you sign up with Aweber for your email publishing needs.
In a Nutshell: Quick 2-Minute Mini Aweber Review
If you’re new to managing an email list or publishing an email newsletter, and want a good, easy, reliable email service, then take Aweber for a free trial run.
You’ll discover that it will suit your needs really well.
Try Aweber for Free Today – Click here.
If you’ve already decided that Aweber is a good choice for your email marketing, database management, and e-newsletter distribution, then maybe you’re at this Aweber review because you worry there might be serious/major flaws.
Please set your mind at ease. There are none. Aweber is an excellent, trustworthy, and reliable email software solution.
Sign up for Aweber today – Click here.
Why this Aweber review – and why now?
Aweber is an email marketing program that offers the best email autoresponder and full-service e-newsletter publishing solution.
It is an ideal email marketing tool to create, design and distribute email newsletters.
Although Aweber.com has been around for many years, its range of email marketing solutions has swiftly evolved and improved. That’s why it still holds premium position despite the entry of new competitors like MailChimp, Benchmark Email, iContact, Mad Mimi and GetResponse.
In this Aweber review you’ll learn about
- all the email marketing features Aweber offers
- how the tool fares as an e-newsletter solution
- where it stands in contrast to other email services
- the beautiful email templates to design responsive messages
- an intuitive, elegant and easy-to-use interface
… and why your business needs Aweber’s smart autoresponder.
Aweber Review : What’s Good – and What’s Not?
Personally, I have used Aweber for email marketing since 2001. That’s right. For over TWENTY years!
In this time, Aweber has gone from being the first email autoresponder – to becoming a top ranking full-fledged email marketing service.
It continues to be one of the best email marketing solutions even today. That’s because Aweber is constantly innovating. It adds new features and improves upon existing ones all the time.
Aweber Review : Pros & Cons
Pros:
- very easy to use
- loaded with useful features for email marketers and e-newsletter publishers
- versatile and customizable email autoresponders will turbocharge your email marketing efforts
- responsive email templates are included, to help you design stunning email newsletters
- powerful opt-in form builder offers vast selection of templates with high conversion rates
- feature-rich landing page generator quickly and easily creates squeeze pages to sign up new subscribers
- AMP for email permits enhanced interactivity with readers
In addition to this, Aweber also:
- integrates with over 750 third-party apps
- offers flexibility of either a single- or double-opt in process
- makes it easy to import lists from other services into Aweber autoresponders
- follows strong anti-spam practices, which boosts email delivery rates
- is affordably priced, with a sliding scale based on list size
- a free plan is available to get started and test the service
- includes detailed reports on email analytics, including sales tracking
- delivers excellent customer support
Cons:
- you’ll pay even for unsubscribed email addresses in your database
- RSS-to-email templates are difficult to customize and edit
- Aweber’s free plan has a limit of 500 subscribers
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So, should you sign up with Aweber for your email needs?
This Aweber review will help you discover the answer…
3 Important Questions – If You’re In A Hurry…
If you’re busy and don’t have much time for this entire Aweber review, then here are answers to the 3 most important questions.
They will help you decide if Aweber is the right email marketing service for your business…
1. Is There Any Major Problem With Aweber?
No, there are none!
Any Aweber review should state potential ‘fatal flaws’ with the service. And happily, Aweber has none!
That’s right. Aweber is one of the best email autoresponder services available today.
There is absolutely nothing that will make you later regret choosing it for your email newsletter publishing needs.
2. Are There Better Alternatives To Aweber?
While there are several other email marketing programs and services, none of them are superior to Aweber in all aspects.
Other autoresponders like GetResponse, MailChimp, Benchmark Email, iContact, Mailigen, Mad Mimi and Benchmark Email each have unique advantages. On one or a few points, they might even score over Aweber.
But in overall performance and quality of service as an email marketing program and platform, none can beat Aweber.
3. Where Can I Sign Up For Aweber?
You can register for an Aweber email marketing account from the official website here.
JOIN A PRO AWEBER PLAN HERE
Once you’ve experienced how easy and convenient it is to craft, design and distribute email newsletters, and for marketing to your email subscribers, prospects and customers, you can confidently order the most suitable plan.
SIGN UP FOR A FREE AWEBER TRIAL TODAY
What is Aweber?
Aweber is an email marketing tool and service.
It helps you:
- design attractive emails and/or email newsletters
- build your mailing list of subscribers, prospects and customers
- automatically send out follow-up email messages for marketing
- review email marketing statistics to turbocharge your campaigns
Founded in 1998 by Tom Kulzer, Aweber has served the email marketing needs of more than 125,000 businesses and individuals.
Aweber Review : What Does It Cost?
Let’s get the biggest question out of the way first.
For many entrepreneurs, business owners and freelancers, price is often a major constraint.
That’s the reason why Aweber offers a ‘FREE’ trial option – as well as an affordably priced ‘paid’ Pro plan.
Get Aweber – For Free… Forever!
To compete more effectively against other service providers, Aweber has now introduced an entirely free plan!
Under the current free trial plan, you can still try out Aweber and use nearly all its features to see if the email marketing service is right for you.
There is however a limit of 500 subscribers during your indefinite free trial.
Take Aweber on a free trial : Click here
You’ll have unrestricted access to Aweber’s email marketing and e-newsletter services (with very few exceptions like e.g. split testing).
By contrast, most other vendors will restrict your free trial/plan strictly to only a very few features.
Also, Aweber will display ads within your email newsletters and messages. These are not glaring, and won’t detract from your brand – but still, it can be an unnecessary distraction. But hey, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, right?
Learn more about the FREE Aweber plan : Click here
Aweber Professional Plans
Even Aweber’s Pro plans are not expensive.
Prices are tailored to your needs.
For businesses just starting out with small email lists, the basic plan to host your list and send out emails to subscribers costs just $19.99 per month.
According to a rule of thumb that most email marketers use, a well-managed email list can generate an income of at least $1 per subscriber per month… which makes this a really appealing price point.
As your list grows in size, the monthly charge becomes modestly higher.
- For 501 to 2,500 subscribers, you’ll pay $29/month
- For 2,501 to 5,000 subscribers, you’ll pay $49/month
- For 5,001 to 10,000 subscribers, you’ll pay $69/month
- For 10,001 to 25,000 subscribers, you’ll pay $149/month
SEE ALL AWEBER PRICE PLANS
In addition, paying in advance for a year or quarter can get you a discount of upto 10% on your monthly rate. Similar concessions are available for non-profits and students.
Bigger lists for established, thriving businesses may have special needs. For these, contact Aweber to receive a quotation.
A special aspect of Aweber’s pricing is that you can access ALL features on each pricing plan – whereas many other email marketing services only offer the best features and tools for users on their most expensive plans.
Is Aweber Affordable?
Does Aweber offer value for your money?
That’s a question only you can answer. And there are many ways to look at it.
For one, it is certainly LESS expensive than many other email autoresponder services – like iContact or MailChimp.
GetResponse is the only other good email autoresponder that is priced more affordably, while offering similar services to Aweber.
But it is extremely difficult to compare different email marketing programs side by side. That’s because each one includes a slightly different set of features with each plan and price.
So how does Aweber stack up?
Most Aweber reviews call it a mid-range service – and one that delivers excellent value for your money.
That’s why the rest of this Aweber review will take a closer look at these features.
Aweber Review : Key Features And Benefits
Aweber’s email marketing service includes excellent features like:
- hosting your email subscriber data online
- importing subscribers from another email service
- superb email templates to design beautiful, responsive emails
- landing page builder to allow code-free programming
- autoresponder functions to schedule email blasts
- automation of email marketing through campaigns and broadcasts
- detailed reports on email statistics like open rates and click-throughs
- split testing for higher-performing headlines and copy
- RSS feed distribution
- integration with other email marketing apps
- list segmentation and targeting
- excellent, responsive tech support via phone, email and chat
Who Should Use Aweber?
All email marketers and e-newsletter publishers can benefit from Aweber.
But let’s try to further refine which kind of users will get the greatest value from this email marketing service.
1. If you need to track sales using an email automation tool, Aweber is a great choice. It offers excellent reporting, and automates most elements of tracking.
2. If you want a way to easily organize your email lists and set them up to run on auto-pilot, and even use ‘triggers’ to switch subscribers from one list to another automatically, Aweber has the ideal tools.
3. If you’re just starting out and want a simple, easy to use, and yet powerful, versatile email marketing solution that will scale as your list grows, you can’t do better than Aweber.
4. If you’re a cost-conscious email marketer with some budget constraints, you’ll find Aweber less expensive than other alternatives, even at larger list sizes.
Who Should NOT Sign Up?
Aweber may not be your best choice for an email marketing solution if
– you need extreme automation flexibility
– you need to retain even past subscribers, but have a limited budget
In these cases, one of the other email marketing solutions like GetResponse or MailChimp may be a better fit for your needs.
Aweber Review : Host Lists and Import Subscribers
To migrate your email list from another service is simple and quick with Aweber.
You can automatically transfer subscriber data in one of several formats including CSV, XLS, TXT and TSV files.
In addition, you can manually add subscribers to your Aweber database.
Aweber takes spam-protection seriously. So before importing email addresses into the autoresponder, you will have to provide information about how and when the data was gathered.
For larger lists, approval by the anti-spam team is required before your import begins.
Aweber Review : Email Autoresponders
At the heart of Aweber’s success and appeal to email marketers are its powerful smart autoresponders.
These are email software programs designed to send out a series of follow up emails to any email database. Each successive email message is automatically triggered by a pre-set duration or user behavior.
- deliver a welcome email message immediately after new subscribers join your mailing list
- send them the next email with a download link to a free gift or exclusive content
- follow up after a few days with another message making a special offer for your product or service
- remind them once again after a week, if they didn’t buy – and entice them with a discount code that will save them money
What makes these follow-up email autoresponders ‘smart’ is that you can adjust the sequence of emails based on a subscriber’s behavior.
So if a reader clicks your link to buy a product, you can program the autoresponder to automatically move that email address to another ‘buyers only‘ list.
This will stop sending them ‘reminders’ for the same product they’ve already purchased!
The nice thing is that you only have to set it up once!
After that, the system runs like a charm on auto-pilot… even if you sign up thousands of new subscribers to the list.
It’s because smart email autoresponders help save time and boost sales and profit from an email list that so many email marketers rely upon Aweber as a cornerstone of their business.
Aweber is the original inventor of these amazing email marketing tools. And their email software offers extreme flexibility. It can be programmed in ways that only few other services allow.
Aweber Review : Adding New Subscribers To Your List
The opt-in process for new email subscribers is simple and smooth with Aweber.
As a list owner, you get to decide whether you want to follow a single opt-in or double opt-in approach.
In the former, a user is instantly added to your list when they submit details through your opt-in form. This improves opt-in rate, but runs the risk of spam complaints.
In the latter, the new opt-in subscriber must click on a link inside a confirmation email before being added to your mailing list. The downside is that at least a few people will not take the next step. So you’ll lose the chance to connect with them.
Very few other email marketing services offer clients this choice.
Most will determine which is best for you – and you don’t have any other option. Aweber is flexible about this, just as long as you don’t abuse the process – and end up with many spam complaints!
Aweber Review : Landing Pages & Opt-In Forms
Email list building relies heavily on the so-called ‘Name Capture’ (or ‘Lead Generation‘ or ‘Squeeze Pages‘).
These are standalone web pages designed to collect a visitor’s email address and add it to a list database.
These list building forms usually are hosted on a ‘landing page‘ with a simple design including
- a compelling piece of text inviting a viewer to sign up
- a few attractive images
- an email opt-in form
- a button to click and join your list
Landing pages are effective at boosting opt-in rates because they offer no distractions. In other words, they literally force a visitor to either sign up… or leave your website.
Aweber has an in-built Landing Page generator. It lets you quickly and easily design simple, but effective pages.
With Aweber’s powerful Landing Page tool, you can
- pick from a choice of landing page templates,
- insert free stock images, and
- use the simple point-and-click interface, to
- build really attractive squeeze pages.
You can then host them on your own website.
Or if you don’t have one, Aweber even lets you host the landing page on their servers.
You just have to buy a domain name – and point it to your hosted squeeze page.
Then drive traffic to the page through ads or social media campaigns, and watch your list grow.
What’s more, Aweber’s landing pages can also let you collect payments or donations. You can even set up recurring subscription payments for your products or services.
But those options are either expensive or time-consuming.
Sure, you’ll get some extra functionality such as GDPR compliance and A/B split testing, both of which are missing on Aweber. So it’s up to you to decide if these services are worth paying extra to use.
Aweber Review : Campaigns vs Broadcasts
Aweber email autoresponders are extremely simple and easy to set up. You can preload a series of email messages to be sent out on a ‘drip’ schedule for weeks, or even months to come.
This means you can plan entire sequences of relationship-building communication with new prospects.
- Start by welcoming them to your list, and introducing yourself.
- Then nurture your budding relationship with an exclusive gift or freebie that showcases the value you have to offer.
- In another email, you can invite them to connect with you on social media channels like Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
- Then make them an offer – along with an incentive such as a discount coupon to save money.
- And afterwards, if they haven’t yet purchased, hit them with a gentle reminder to grab the deal before it ends.
Campaigns:
You can create such a ‘follow up’ email sequence in a ‘Campaign’ – and it will go out on schedule to every new subscriber added to your list.
Broadcasts:
Or you can program this series of emails to be distributed to ALL subscribers on your database, starting from today – by using the ‘Broadcast’ function.
More advanced users will find the ability to trigger autoresponder responses to subscriber actions useful.
By setting ‘Goals’ for your email campaigns and using ‘Automation‘ rules that are triggered by ‘Tagging‘, you can customize your email autoresponder to carry out rather complex and sophisticated marketing tasks.
Aweber Review : Segmented Distribution
You can use Aweber to send email messages and e-newsletters to specific lists that you own.
Or even smaller SUB-segments within a list’s database!
This can be useful to run targeted email marketing campaigns.
For example, let’s say you want to send a follow up reminder message only to people on your list who have NOT opened a previous email. Then you can create a segment of only those subscribers. Your follow up email will be sent ONLY to those email addresses.
Imagine what happens when you combine this flexibility with the capacity to build lists by segmenting your audience. You’ll enjoy great marketing firepower.
Are you beginning to appreciate how versatile and powerful Aweber email autoresponders can be?
You can send out product-specific mailings exclusively to subscribers who are most likely to find them interesting.
If you sell aquarium equipment, for instance, you’ll mail offers for salt water aquariums only to owners with those models… and not to others who might have fresh water systems.
Such targeted campaigns deliver better results, and foster deeper engagement with your audience.
In a similar fashion, you can EXCLUDE specific segments from within your email database.
You may not want to bother someone who hasn’t shown any interest to your three prior emails about a specific offer. Then you can create a segment made up of such subscribers – and exclude them from your next mailing.
Many other email autoresponder services – especially GetResponse and MailChimp – also offer segmentation.
Each handles it in a slightly different way. I personally find Aweber’s very intuitive and easy to use.
Aweber Review : A/B Split Testing
Split testing or A/B testing is a useful tool for e-newsletter publishers and email marketers.
It helps determine the best combinations that achieve good response rates to your email marketing campaigns.
Using this feature, you can run campaigns that test variations of your email message – each with different SUBJECT lines, or other content elements – to small sections of your overall mailing list.
By studying their response rates, you can determine the best performing version or combinations… which can then be mailed later on to the entire email database.
Aweber allows you to create 3 versions of your email message.
There are no restrictions. So you can combine different variables like:
- headings/subject lines,
- content,
- sender name and
- other elements of your message
Other email marketing services will only permit fixed combinations. Aweber is once again extremely flexible in its split testing options.
Aweber Review : Email Templates
What makes a big difference to open rates and reader engagement is the design and appearance of your email newsletter.
Aweber has a large and growing collection of beautiful and elegant HTML email templates.
Where other services offer 100 to 150 choices, Aweber’s service gives you a range of 700 different email marketing templates. You are sure to find a template design that you like for your email newsletter.
With some minor modifications, you can customize any template for your needs.
You can even insert your own logo, slogan and brand colors into a template, making it uniquely your own.
If you are technically proficient, you can even design your own email template from scratch and store it on your Aweber account. The Smart Designer tool comes in handy for this purpose.
Use Unlimited Web Fonts:
A real advantage of these e-newsletter templates is that you can use attractive web fonts.
Most other email marketing services only allow standard fonts like Arial, Georgia and Times New Roman. Aweber places no such restraints on your choice of web fonts.
You can pick from standard web-safe fonts like
- Arial,
- Verdana,
- Helvetica,
- Tahoma,
- Trebuchet MS,
- Times New Roman,
- Georgia,
- Garamond and
- Courier New
Or you can select other more exciting ones like
- Merriweather,
- Roboto,
- Lato,
- Playfair,
- Noticia Text,
- Arvo,
- Lora and
- Source Sans Pro.
Another nice thing about Aweber’s HTML email templates is that they are all responsive.
Messages render nicely in various devices, ranging from smartphones and tablets to desktop computers, laptops and more.
A neat little ‘preview’ feature has been recently introduced. At a click you can preview how your email newsletter will appear on different devices and screens.
I’ve often used this to make quick tweaks to my emails – with some changes boosting click-through rates by an extra 3% to 5%.
Aweber Review : Blog Broadcasts
If you publish a blog and want a semi-automated system to notify followers whenever you add a new post, then you’ll love Aweber’s Blog Broadcasts.
The email autoresponder uses your blog’s RSS feed to generate an email newsletter which it distributes to your list subscribers on a schedule that you decide.
You may choose to notify blog subscribers by email once every week or month about new posts you’ve added.
Or you can set up the autoresponder to send out an email after you’ve published a certain number of new posts – or even for each update.
This is a great time saver.
And by designing a nice e-newsletter using Aweber email templates, you’ll drive a flood of fresh traffic to your blog from an email list.
Aweber Review : AMP for Email
An exciting new addition to the range of services offered by Aweber is the technology known as AMP for email.
This brings a degree of interactivity and engagement to your email newsletter. Recipients can now RSVP or make an appointment from within their email client, without having to visit another website.
As an email publisher, you can insert nifty little devices like a ‘vote’ or ‘poll’ or ‘donate’ button along with your e-newsletter.
Imagine having a live update of scores or sports results. Or a dynamic update of election results. Or the latest weather update. All of this included automatically along with your email content.
Doing this helps more effectively engage subscribers and improves response rates for click-throughs and sales.
Aweber Review : Third Party App Integration
Depending on your use of email autoresponders, you’ll either love how Aweber integrates with almost 750 other third party apps… or it will leave you cold!
App integrations let you associate your Aweber mailing list with
- website builders like Shopify,
- automation/sync scripts like Zapier, or
- CRM tools like Capsule.
Although Aweber has done a great job at simplifying these integrations, you’ll still need a little technical knowledge to implement them. Some require inserting code snippets into your webpage. Others ask you to install a widget.
Still, depending on your use, these integrations may well be a blessing. And they’ll help extend your value from this email marketing service.
Aweber Review : Email Marketing Reports
Email marketing stats and analytics offered by Aweber are excellent and informative.
You can monitor key elements like
- bounce rate,
- open rate and
- clickthrough rate.
In addition, you get easy-to-understand graphs that display
- how fast your email list is growing
- where your new subscribers come from
- what is the best time zone for open rates
You can also granularly track an individual subscriber’s record, viewing their history of previous open rates and clicks.
The advantage is that you can intelligently use this information to plan future email campaigns.
To make it easier to analyze your performance, Aweber even lets you download segmented data in the form of a CSV or XLS file. You can sort the information by open rates, link clicks, purchases made, and websites visited.
In a nutshell, Aweber email marketing reports give you most, if not all the information necessary to make intelligent and informed choices.
And these decisions will boost effectiveness and profitability of your email marketing campaigns.
In Conclusion
Hopefully this Aweber review has convinced you that this is a solid, high quality and comprehensive email marketing tool.
It is
- affordably priced,
- rich in features,
- reliable in email delivery, and
- robust in performance.
Many an Aweber review has emphasized major advantages such as
- ease of use,
- email templates,
- a landing page builder,
- AMP for email, and
- comprehensive reporting and analytics.
So you won’t take any risk or make a long-term commitment.
You can put the email marketing service through its paces. And then, decide whether it is right for your e-newsletter publishing needs.
Aweber Pro plans are priced attractively, with costs rising along a sliding scale as your list grows in size.
So you can start small, and as your email database increases and profits go up, you’ll easily afford the modestly higher monthly charges.
When compared against other extremely popular alternative email software solutions like GetResponse, iContact and MailChimp, Aweber is really quite cheap for the extent, quality and versatility of its features.
You simply have to remove them periodically from the account database. Otherwise, you’ll end up paying a higher monthly rate, even for those email addresses you’re no longer mailing.
Another minor nuisance is that marketing automation features take a while to get familiar with.
But once you learn how to use list segmentation, and mail out to smaller, better targeted subgroups of your email database, the improved response will fully justify your time and effort.
Hopefully this Aweber review helps you make an informed decision.
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Aweber Review : Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can I use Aweber for free?
Yes, Aweber offers a free plan with access to all features.
The only restriction is that you can have only 500 subscribers on this plan. Aweber’s ads will also be displayed on your email newsletter.
2. Is Aweber very expensive?
Aweber has a Pro plan that is affordably priced. On a sliding scale, it will cost more as your list grows in size.
So the monthly charge will range between $17 and $149.99 per month, based on a list subscriber base of 500 to 25,000+.
Paying for a year or three months in advance can get you a further discount.
3. Does Aweber offer all features for email marketing?
Yes, Aweber is an excellent choice for email marketing services.
It offers features such as
- unlimited email autoresponders,
- list statistics and analytics reporting,
- integration with over 750 third-party apps and
- AMP for email functionality.
While there are other email marketing services available that also provide similar features, they are much more expensive and have other drawbacks as compared to Aweber.
4. Are Aweber’s email deliverability rates good?
Yes, Aweber does an excellent job at delivering your emails and e-newsletters to subscribers’ inboxes.
With a stringent watch over abusive practices and a strict anti-spam policy, Aweber ensures that delivery of client emails is always at the highest possible level.
5. Can I import my list into Aweber from another service?
It is relatively simple, quick and easy to import email lists currently hosted on another email distribution service into Aweber.
Before you can import larger lists, you might be asked to provide evidence that the lists were built using ethical email marketing practices.
This is to ensure against spammers invading the service, and jeopardizing deliverability rates for everybody.
6. Can I design my emails and e-newsletters on Aweber?
There is an excellent email template library included with your Aweber membership. Using this, you can create beautiful HTML emails and e-newsletters.
Even stock images can be inserted from a collection of themed graphics. Your own brand images and logo can be included in your email template.
7. Does Aweber allow landing pages to be generated and hosted?
Aweber’s landing page generator offers an easy point-and-click way to create squeeze pages for list building.
You can host a landing page on your own website, or may keep it on Aweber’s servers while directing visitors to it from your own domain name.
8. Is Aweber a good choice for my business?
Only you can answer this question convincingly.
Aweber is an excellent email marketing service with a wide range of features that make it a good choice for various kinds of businesses and clients.
There is a free plan which gives you access to all features. You can sign up for a free trial today and try out the service before deciding whether Aweber is a good fit for your needs.
SIGN UP FOR A FREE AWEBER TRIAL TODAY
Or if you’re already sure, sign up for a Pro Plan right now.
REGISTER FOR A PRO AWEBER PLAN TODAY