We have seen that e-commerce, as an industry, relies on the art of sending emails as well as advertisements that entice the users to buy things.
Now, you would have seen that email marketing is a thing that does exist and we also know that it works for a lot of companies.
However, it is also seen that there are certain features required in order to do email marketing and therefore we need to use tools for the same. This is much better than writing emails by hand and sending them which might end up in user’s trash since they are not fine-tuned.
Instead, a good marketing tool will help you understand the user’s requirements as well as what they like and fine-tune the email according to those specific details which the user is likely to open.
For this reason, digital marketers use email marketing tools and two of the best email marketing tools in 2021 are Aweber and Mailchimp.
Therefore, we are going to tell you about the feature sets of both Aweber and Mailchimp and we are also going to highlight the battle between Aweber vs Mailchimp in this detailed article.
One thing that we need to tell you first and foremost is that both of these tools are industry leaders and while one of them comes above the other, you will not go wrong with either of them.
So if you have already purchased a subscription for one of them, don’t go rushing to cancel your subscription after reading this article.
With that being said, let’s get started by understanding what these tools are what is MailChimp since a lot of you might not have heard about it since Aweber is somewhat popular outside the digital marketing circles as well. So without any further ado, let’s get started and understand both of these tools better and in detail.
One thing to do when looking for an email marketing tool is to look for what a user would want when they are in your position.
For example, if I am the user who is receiving an email then it is likely that I would want an easy way to subscribe or unsubscribe to the mailer since the email might be good or bad.
Apart from that, good customer support is also needed if you are a customer since you might need to troubleshoot something and you don’t want to keep searching for solutions on the internet.
Another aspect of a great email marketing tool is the deliverability and both Aweber, as well as Mailchimp, are great in this department.
Mailchimp vs Aweber
So next comes your personal choice as to what you want from the email marketing tool and look at Mailchimp vs Aweber to decide which service provides you with the things you need.
It has to be said that both Aweber and Mailchimp were also started at around the same time. While Aweber was launched early in the late 90s, Mailchimp was founded and launched as a service in 2001.
Both these services provide you with the ability to choose from different templates for sending emails. You also get the features of using stock images as well as autoresponders so that none of your user’s replies gets unnoticed.
Signup process
One thing to note is the first step in signing up for the email marketing tools and we will tell you about the process for both these services. It is worth noting that both Aweber and Mailchimp have a free trial period which will let you use their services for free.
However, it should also be noted that Aweber has a 30-day free trial period and it also requires you to fill information such as name, email, address, as well as credit card information which will be charged when your trial period ends.
Now, if you are someone who forgets to cancel your trial period or want to use the free version of email marketing tool then you will prefer Mailchimp here because it has a clear edge here.
Mailchimp allows you to signup for the free trial as well like Aweber also does. However, you will not have to enter your credit card information on the platform which is what many privacy-focused users would like.
Also, since you are not being asked for credit card information means that there is something the company is doing differently. And the different thing Mailchimp does from Aweber is that it offers users an unlimited trial period.
While it is understood that the Mailchimp has many limitations compared to its paid plan which has all the benefits unlocked, it is interesting to see that both the companies are so different when it comes to their working method.
Now, you would say that Mailchimp is a clear winner when compared to Aweber in this department. However, we would like to tell you that both tools have their own set of advantages and if you want to remain a free user forever, Mailchimp is your way to go but Aweber can also be used if you are likely to pay since it has a better interface.
Email Import process
Now that we have discussed the signup process for both Aweber and Mailchimp in detail, we can go to the most important parts of these tools which are the ways to take advantage of them.
Once you start using either of these tools, you would want to import your existing email subscriber list in order to start sending emails to your potential clients.
Talking about importing the email lists, it is seen that both Aweber and Mailchimp offer you to import email lists from a different type of documents such as PDF, Excel sheets, CSV files etc.
However, it must be noted that when it comes to picking between the two, Mailchimp takes the lead because while the process is similar for both, Aweber makes it harder due to not putting much focus on user experience while Mailchimp does that perfectly.
Signup form creation
Going on the next and possibly the most important part of email marketing which is creating a signup form where users will be able to enter their emails and you will be able to create a list of email ids for marketing purpose.
Here, we know that Aweber gives you a great interface for creating the signup forms while Mailchimp is also not behind as it also provides you with a similar signup form creation process.
Also, templates on both these tools are similar and user-friendly meaning that users are likely to enter their emails inside the form.
But we must tell you that Aweber takes the lead here because of a few key differences. First of all, Aweber offers signup forms in non-techy form meaning that someone with basic knowledge of email marketing can also create these signup forms whereas Mailchimp is a tool where you might need to take help from a professional.
Aweber also allows you to test different signup forms on your website or anywhere you want so you can understand which form is working for you. Mailchimp does not allow you to do so and this is where Aweber clearly has an upper hand.
Campaign Creation process
When it comes to the type of emails that you can send from Aweber and Mailchimp, Aweber once again has an upper hand because it offers five types of different emails campaigns you can create where Mailchimp only allows you four different types.
Talking about these emails, Aweber allows you to create email campaigns in terms of drafts, campaigns, legacy follow up series, broadcasts, as well as blog broadcasts.
In contrast, Mailchimp lets you create campaigns which are called regular campaigns, plain text, automation and A/B testing.
If you look at the sheer numbers, Aweber is ahead since it gives you the versatility of choosing between more types of campaigns.
Now that we have sorted out the signup process, email list importing, signup form creation and even email creation, we have to complete the most interesting and fun part of this process which is selecting email templates.
Template selection
The only thing that a user sees inside your email is the text and design which is basically known as a template which can either be pre-made or you can customize it.
Now, Aweber has an advantage here in terms of template selection since it gives you the option to select from more than 700 different designs.
However, Mailchimp is not behind in this department because the best part about it is that you can customize your email design. This makes your email look different from the other Mailchimp users that a user might already receive emails from.
And the basic rule of email marketing is that the user should not know that the email has been sent using a tool. Instead, the user should feel like the email is personalized and has been sent to them exclusively.
Email Deliverability
Another important factor when it comes to email marketing is email deliverability. This is the part of email marketing which gets overlooked by a lot of professionals but it is one of the most important parts.
Basically, email deliverability is where you ensure that your sent emails are landing in your user’s inbox. Now, you would be thinking about how an email sent to your user does not reach them.
Well, the email will definitely be sent from your side and the user will also receive it but it might not reach their inbox. Instead, the email blockers might detect it as spam and directly forward them to the trash section which means the user will never see those emails.
Now, this is one area where neither Mailchimp nor Aweber stands out because both of these tools provide the best of services and they have a great reputation as well.
Aweber and Mailchimp both claim that they can give you 99% results meaning that 1% of your emails might end up in user’s spam folder.
However, if you ask an email marketer about these results then they would say that this is more than acceptable.
Pricing
Now comes the most important part, and we know we have used the term “important part” a lot in this guide, but this really is a very important one which is the pricing of these tools.
When you are running an email marketing campaign, you would know that optimizing costs is one of the important things and you would try to cut costs as much as possible without sacrificing on the quality.
So talking about the Aweber pricing and comparing it with Mailchimp, you can get a fair idea as to which email marketing tool is the best for you in 2021.
When it comes to pricing, we feel that Aweber has a better breakdown of plans since it allows small, medium and even large campaigns to be done on the platform with affordable rates for everyone.
While this does not mean that Mailchimp is charging you more, the platform provides you with only three plans to choose from which can be too much for some and too less for others.
Talking about Aweber pricing, the basic plans start at just $19 per month and these plans give you the ability to add up to 500 email subscribers and everything else is included. The maximum plan inside Aweber gives you the ability to include up to 25,000 email subscribers at $150 per month after which you have to take a quote from Aweber support for customized pricing.
On the other hand, Mailchimp can be simpler for some as it provides the free plan, a “Grow” plan which costs $10 per month and a “Pro” plan which will set you back $199 per month. Mailchimp does not detail any restrictions based on subscribers but its free plan is quite limited in functionality.
So there is a question floating around where people are asking that is MailChimp really free?
While the simple answer is yes, it depends on the type of work you need to do from there. If your work allows you to pay, Aweber is a better option in our opinion.
