Are you looking for the best email monitor software? One of the best starting points is to analyze the features of the campaign monitor vs Mailchimp. These two products are the industry leaders when looking for the best email marketing platforms. However, the features of each vary and you need to choose one depending on your needs.
How to start an email campaign is not hard as long as you have the right tool. If you are a beginner, you need to look for a platform whose interface is easy to use. At the end of this article, you will be able to make a better choice between campaign monitor vs Mailchimp.
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What is Campaign Monitor?
Campaign Monitor is an easy-to-use email marketing tool that allows marketers to send personalized and beautiful emails, create reliable channels for growing engagement with subscribers, and promote loyal readership and conversions.
The tool has engagement-based segmentation, a drag-and-drop builder, and beautiful templates which allow marketing professionals to deliver targeted content to a long subscriber list with no technical expertise. It is among the best email marketing tools in the market.
What is Mailchimp?
Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing platforms in the market. The primary function of this tool is to send automated emails and newsletters to grow the results of your business. With email marketing, you will connect with your clients, and engage and build long-lasting, meaningful relationships with them.
It is an email service provider (ESP) that helps businesses with online and email marketing. Mailchimp was founded in 2001 and now ranks among the top email newsletter services in the market. The platform allows you to send automated emails and newsletters.
You can use a form to build an email list or just import the known contacts. The tool offers a drag-and-drop email builder and pre-designed email templates. Mailchimp also has inbuilt email analytics. Therefore, it is an attractive software that any business can start within email marketing.
Campaign Monitor Features
- Personalization and segmentation tools
- Easy template language
- Update in browser
- Roll your own designs
- Social sharing
- Dynamic content
- Mobile-ready templates
- Content customization
- A/B testing
- Template designer
Campaign Monitor Ease of Use
The interface is among the things that you will really love when it comes to Campaign Monitor. The designer has put in a lot of thought in making this platform clutter-free, intuitive, and clean. In fact, Campaign Monitor is among the most user-friendly email marketing tools in the market and there is no doubt about the same.
You will get an ‘Apple-like’ experience when interacting with this tool. It is not very different from iOS. You can think of the white space, clean fonts, big toggle switches, and buttons that are easy to spot.
Everything is quite straightforward when it comes to the Campaign Monitor. The system is highly appealing even to individuals who are new to e-mail marketing or those who are not tech-savvy.
It is a tool that you can recommend to anyone. If you would like to send mass mailouts but are not comfortable with the same, take advantage of Campaign Monitor’s easy-to-use interface. You will really enjoy the experience that you will get with this tool.
Campaign Monitor Security
Campaign Monitor has a commitment to securing the data of its customers to the highest degree possible. The companies serve more than 200,000 companies from 180 countries.
The customers range from governmental agencies, financial services, educational institutes, and health providers. It also has several small to medium size businesses that trust the company with its sensitive information. It explains why trust forms the basis of the data security and privacy of the companies.
The operational support included a dedicated security team, data processing, and storage locations, security policies, and awareness training. The application security entails security testing, security controls, secure code development, data encryption, user access, and logging and cookie development.
These security measures will make sure that you can use the platforms comfortably.
Customer Reviews and Support
Campaign Monitor has email-only support on the ‘Basic’ and ‘Unlimited’ plans. You can get phone support only when you are on the expensive campaign monitor pricing premium plan. However, the email support is still sufficient. If you are on the ‘unlimited’ plan, you will get quicker responses to your emails.
Previous users state that the response of the team in answering customer queries is quite impressive. However, it would be better if the company would provide a broad range of support options. Most users state that they would like to access chat and phone support in addition to the email support on all the plans.
The fact that you are limited to email support denies most people the flexibility that they need most.
Mailchimp Features
- Mailchimp mobile
- Geolocation
- Automation
- SMS for events
- RSS-to-Email
- MailChimp VIPs
- MailChimp Snap
- Mobile Signup Forms
- Email Templates
- Integrations
- Merge Tags
- Groups and Segmentation
- Email Client Testing
- Email Delivery
- Campaign Archives
- Social profiles
- Delivery by time zone
- Custom Forms
- MailChimp Coupon Scanner
- Social Sharing
- Subscriber profiles
- A/B Testing
- Email Beamer
- MailChimp Editor
- Reports
- Multi-User Accounts
- Spam Filter Diagnostics
- Email Designer
Mailchimp Ease of Use
It is quite simple to sign up for a Mailchimp account. All you need to do is enter your name and email address and you will be good to go.
Some of the information you will need when signing up include the name of your organization or website, physical address, Twitter or Facebook account, and a personal blog or page. You also need to upload your profile photo and subscribe to the series of Mailchimp on how to get started.
MailChimp uses the element of color sparingly on the dashboard in order to strategically draw your attention. However, it is simple to understand even for beginners and clean. You will initially get access to three main options.
These include creating and sending a campaign, creating or importing a list, or starting to build an audience. After starting off, it will be replaced with a dashboard that shows your recent activity, a list feed of recent events, and list growth.
However, the contact importing option is less user-friendly and looks a bit older. However, it is a versatile option and allows you to import from many integrated sources. If the size of the import list will bump you to the next payment plan, you will be notified with immediate effect.
Mailchimp Security
Mailchimp has more than 7 million users and hence it takes the issue of privacy and security seriously. The company has MTAs (message transfer agents) that are located in data centers throughout the US.
It uses both electronic and physical safeguards to protect the centers. MailChimp has DDOS mitigation in place and hence it is not easy for it to be caught off-guard.
It stores large mailing lists in individual databases in order to protect it against data overlap or corruption. MailChimp is PCI DSS and SOC II certified and gives the full SOC II report to users who need it as long as the individual has signed up as an NDA.
MailChimp also has an internal dedicated security team that tests and monitors for vulnerabilities. The company also gives users the resources they need to get a better understanding of their email security. With all these security measures, you will not have any problem using MailChimp.
Customer Reviews and Support
On MailChimp, the available support options depending on your payment plan. If you are on any paid plan, you can contact the support team through email or chat. Those who are on the premium plan have access to phone support. Some teams like compliance and Billing are only available via email support.
Campaign Monitor Pros & Cons
Pros
- Solid analytics and insights
- Convenient custom auto-responders
- Easy to use WYSIWYG interface
- Versatile email templates
Cons
- Lacks solid online support
- Hard to contact support while matching custom fields
Mailchimp Pros and Cons
Pros
- Has now evolved into a fully-featured marketing tool
- Easy to create beautiful newsletters
- Incredible 3rd party options for integration
- A powerful mix of automation tools
- Delivers great results
- Workable free tier and highly flexible pricing
- Serves non-tech-savvy individuals perfectly
Cons
- Reporting functionality needs improvement
- Shift to the marketing platform may leave out small businesses
- Paid tier highly limited
Why we Should Use
Looking at MailChimp vs campaign monitor, the key strength of Campaign Monitor lies in its robust templates, flexibility, and quality. The product is easy to use but shockingly expensive. The functionality of Campaign Monitor is a bit wanting in terms of analytics, split testing, and data import.
However, Campaign Monitor is a great tool when it comes to a great user interface and beautiful templates. With this in mind, you can tell when it is best to use Campaign Monitor or go for its alternatives.
Mailchimp, on the other hand, is perfect for most English-speaking users. It has a broad range of features that are easy to use even on the free plan. However, its subscription plans are relatively expensive in comparison to the competitors.
MailChimp has so many integrations and this could be because of the large number of users. When you compare this with the relatively powerful tools that are on the higher tier plans, it adds up into a very great tool.
If you have specific needs for your business such as marketing automation or wish to use your own tracking domain, you will need to shop for another newsletter tool. However, there is so much that you can get from MailChimp.
Pricing and Plan
Campaign Monitor Pricing
Campaign Monitor basically has three types of plans. These include the Basic, Unlimited, and Premier plans. With all the plans, you can use a drag and drop builder and template library to create messages.
You can also host broadcast messages and a mailing list on all of them. The three plans also allow you to access statistics on how your mailouts are performing and get support via email.
The Basic plan limits the number of emails that you can send per month depending on the number of emails that you have on your list. The plan also restricts how you use autoresponders to the simple drip campaigns. The exact cost depends on the number of emails that you host on Campaign Monitor.
The Unlimited Plan removes the capping on how many emails you can send. It also allows for the use of more sophisticated autoresponder functionality. You will access faster email support and spam testing and inbox options.
The Premier plan gives you access to all the features of the unlimited plan. However, you will also get phone support, advanced link tracking, and template controls that prevent your teams from creating off-brand communications.
The amount that you pay for each of these plans depends on the size of your database. Therefore, you can visit the company website to get to understand how much you will pay. Besides, Campaign Monitor does not have a free trial. The bitter truth about Campaign Monitor is that its pricing is extraordinarily high.
Mailchimp Pricing
How much does MailChimp cost? This question goes through the minds of so many people especially those who are using the tool for the first time. Mailchimp basically has five pricing levels.
The first one is the free plan that does not cost you anything. The other four include the Essentials/PAYG plan, standard plan, legacy plan, and the premium plan. You can analyze each of these plans with respect to Mailchimp autoresponders.
All new free accounts get access to a free 30-day AI chatbot and free email support. The chatbot surfaces the self-help articles that you need most.
Conclusion
This article looks at campaign monitor vs Mailchimp in terms of their feature, ease of use, and customer support. The choice that you make depends on your unique needs and budget. What may be best for one person may not be appropriate for another user. That is why you need an in-depth analysis of both of them in order to make an informed decision. The most important thing is to choose an email marketing tool that will give you the best functionality options that you need most.
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