by David Andrew Wiebe | Sep 29, 2023 | Productivity
Is AI quickly making modern business tools – productivity apps, email marketing software, social media automation, and others – irrelevant?
“No,” says businesses from across the internet, “because we’ll integrate our software with AI.”
And this is exactly what’s been happening. Which brings us to the subject of ClickUp AI.
It should be said at the outset that I already have a bias toward ClickUp, given its ability to become just about any productivity tool you need it to be at a moment’s notice – Asana, Notion, Google Calendar, Trello, and more. So, what follows may be little more than gushing for what is already an extraordinary tool. We’ll see…
Either way, here’s my review of ClickUp AI.
What is ClickUp AI?
The ClickUp AI writing assistant was designed to help project managers with mundane, time-consuming tasks, such as generating action items for a specific project.
ClickUp AI can:
- Summarize text
- Write and edit documents
- Generate action items
- Role-based tools & templates
- Comment & thread summary
- Generate subtasks
- Task summary
- Task progress update
- AI search (coming soon)
Ready to try ClickUp? They have a convenient Free Forever plan, as well as several more plans that scale with your business. Just click on the link to get your account set up NOW.
Experiments
So, what is there to do besides play around with ClickUp’s new functionality? I immediately began messing about trying different things to see what I could come up with (and whether I could stump AI). Here is my experience, and the result of my AI experiments.
Experiment #1 – Marketing Plan for My New Year Live Music Event
As my first order of business, I had AI cook up a marketing plan for my new year live music event, slated for January in Victoria, BC.
As expected, ClickUp AI generated a document for me in seconds, just as ChatGPT would.
As anyone who has used ChatGPT or AI writing software will tell you, AI is a great tool for generating ideas you wouldn’t have otherwise come up with.
In this case, I was surprised and/or impressed by the following ideas:
- “The event will feature local and international artists, food vendors, and a fireworks display…” My event probably won’t have all those things (mostly because it won’t happen on New Year’s Eve), but it’s always nice to have another perspective on the matter.
- “Our primary target audience is music lovers aged 18 – 35 living in or around Victora, BC. Secondary audiences include tourists…” This is mostly true, although I have a feeling, we will have a strong contingent of audiences in their 40s as well. The secondary audience part is spot on.
- Marketing Strategies. I doubt we will do everything generated. But it presented me with some great ideas I can use for future events, including advertising, social media, email, influencers, local press, and more.
Experiment #2 – Marketing Task List for My Virtual Assistants
Next, I decided to have AI whip up another new document from scratch. I provided it with talking points (I asked it to generate daily marketing tasks for my virtual assistants), set the tone of voice to “humorous” and creativity to “high,” and let it take over from there.
Within seconds, I had a document that made me smile and laugh. What I did not expect was how the tone of voice affected the specific marketing activities generated. The humor carried over into the tasks themselves!
I don’t think the plan generated would be for us, but no doubt there are companies out there that would love to show off their personality in the manner described in the document.
Just for fun, I also had AI translate the document into Japanese (a language I’m fluent in) and was pleasantly surprised by the results.
There are some cultural references that might fly over a Japanese person’s head, but aside from that, it’s a very on-point translation that’s easy to understand.
Experiment #3 – Drafting a Unique Selling Proposition for My Business
I figured I would try one last experiment before calling it a day. So, just to see if I could stump the AI, I had ClickUp whip up a unique selling proposition for my business.
You don’t often hear the term “unique selling proposition” anymore (many things are personality-, influencer-, or celebrity-driven now), but when comparing products or services, people still like to know what makes one unique versus the other, don’t they?
So, here’s what ClickUp AI came up with based on my prompt:
Well, not only was I unable to stump the AI, but I also didn’t even have to ask for any changes. Again, I’m impressed!
What Else Can ClickUp AI Do?
In my experiments, I mostly had AI generate content or written documents on my behalf, something I knew it would do quite well (but I did not expect it to do as well as it did!).
Besides writing and translating, ClickUp AI can also:
- Summarize documents
- Explain concepts
- Edit/improve writing
- Create action items
- Simplify your writing
- Fix spelling and grammatical issues
- Make content shorter or longer
It’s all in the realm of generating, translating, or expanding on the content you or AI generates, which is now a prevalent functionality. But there’s nothing wrong with that!
Summarily, having AI inside one of the most versatile productivity tools out there is a definite benefit!
The Verdict
So, is ClickUp AI any good?
Yes, it’s better than good.
This really sunk in for me with the third experiment, where I asked it to craft a unique selling proposition for my business. I was expecting to have to sit there and offer more guidance and ask for multiple revisions, but I didn’t.
I didn’t have too many preconceptions about ClickUp AI going in, but I was basically thinking to myself, “This is just another company doing trendy things, isn’t it?”
But now having tried ClickUp AI, I asked myself whether I’d want to do without, and the thought made me sad. That’s how you know something it’s worthwhile!
So, kudos go to ClickUp for recognizing that its users might want to take advantage of this new functionality. I think it fits like a glove.
Have you given ClickUp a try yet? If not, and you’re interested in improving your productivity, it’s time you gave it a chance! They have a convenient Free Forever plan as well as Unlimited, Business, and Enterprise plans for those who demand more of their productivity software. Get started now.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Jun 9, 2023 | Reviews
Are you looking for an alternative to Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, or GetResponse?
If you want to build a lasting career in music or art, you must face the reality that you need a way to communicate with your audience ongoingly.
Social media is useful, but given its tumultuous history, you truly never know when you might lose access to your precious audiences…
Realistically, you need your audience’s contact information, a way to store and manage this data, and a way to send updates to them ongoingly…
Which is exactly why you need email marketing software.
But the ‘Chimp might be a little too much monkey business…
The AC doesn’t really seem to care about their customers…
And Responders don’t seem to want to respond to negative reviews…
Are there any worthy alternatives to Mailchimp?
Choosing an Email Campaign Platform – Mailchimp Alternatives
So, you’ve tried out an email marketing service or two. Maybe even had a good experience for a while…
But almost every artist I know reaches the crossroads at some point.
Either the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) app doesn’t offer the functionality she needs as her career grows and scales…
Or the pricing starts to get out of hand, and it becomes harder to justify the monthly cost.
It’s not surprising, because many newsletter broadcast apps charge for every little welcome sequence or marketing feature you add (which probably wasn’t obvious from the introductory offer).
Either way, that’s not the way it’s supposed to be, and…
Don’t you think it’s time for a change?
And I know change can be painful. At one point, I was very reluctant to switch from Mailchimp to another provider…
Because I knew I would lose my precious custom email templates. I’d have to move all my lists over. And I’d have to get used to a new, “complicated” system and workflow.
But you know what?
The process was much simpler than I thought it was going to be, and I couldn’t be any happier with the service I switched over to.
So, you’re probably asking yourself…
“What is it, David? Tell me about this alternative to Mailchimp already!”
Okay then, let’s get to the goods…
Enter ConvertKit, an Alternative to Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign & GetResponse
I listen to tons of podcasts.
I’d heard about founder Nathan Barry and his work as an independent creator. I’d heard about ConvertKit (affiliate link). I knew that some of my favorite entrepreneurs used it. It wasn’t in my crosshairs, but it had been on my radar for quite a while…
Which is the short version of how I ultimately ended up switching over.
Do you know why ConvertKit was created? You’re going to love this…
ConvertKit was created because Barry experienced the power of building an email list and communicating with his contacts firsthand. But he noticed that there were no email service providers for independent artists, creatives, and creators.
And so, ConvertKit was created.
You need not look much further than their blog to know that ConvertKit caters to:
- Musicians
- Authors
- Podcasters
- YouTubers
- And more
Even their Visual Automation templates are primarily based on people like us.
Of course, there have been other email broadcast tools for artists in the past…
But most if not all of them didn’t have a solid business model and ended up crumbling to the ground.
So, until recently, the best you could hope for as an artist was a website builder that had some built-in email marketing features…
Not a dedicated email marketing app for creators.
ConvertKit, though, got its start in January 2013, and has now been around for over 10 years… I don’t think it’s going anywhere, not in the immediate future, anyway (it remains to be seen how A.I. will change the world…).
And it’s a worthy alternative to Mailchimp.
So, What’s the Big Deal? Why is ConvertKit Better?
Of course, I asked myself the same thing…
The bottom line is I would not have made the leap if I didn’t think it was worth it…
But if you have nothing to compare it to, there’s no way you would know the difference.
I just want you to know that, as someone who’s been around the block, I can tell you I’ve messed around with a couple of list management tools in my time.
And while there’s no way to compare what I was using in the mid-2000s to what’s available today…
It’s fair to say I know the difference between services that have “got the goods” and those that don’t.
So, here are some of the differences I’ve noticed between what I used to use and what I now use:
Straightforward Contact/List Management
When I finally decided that I wanted to stop monkeying around with my email list…
I was glad to find that ConvertKit didn’t confine my contacts to a restrictive list-based system that was hard to manage or segment.
Once my contacts were imported into ConvertKit, they were assigned tags (based on the names of the lists I’d previously created).
If found this off-putting at first, but I learned to love it fast.
Because whenever I want to send an email broadcast, I can select the audience I want to send my campaigns to, based on how they’d been tagged…
This has meant I’ve never had to duplicate and send the same campaign to multiple lists. I can add multiple audiences at once.
ConvertKit also comes with easy-to-understand (and easy-to-find automation tools) for assigning tags to specific contacts based on their behavior…
This was either a pain in the butt or impossible to do with Monkey Mail.
Which is a good reason to be looking for an alternative to Mailchimp.
But I’ll be talking more about automation a little later. Next up is….
Plain Text Email Campaigns (That Work)
Sure, there are companies out there that send beautiful email newsletters to their audiences and even do well at it…
But the top marketers know that if your emails don’t have a singular focus, you can’t expect a high response or conversion rate.
This is probably why, to this day, many marketers still use plain text emails for their weekly broadcasts.
Wouldn’t you know it – this function never worked all that well with the email sender services I’d tried.
I mean, I just wanted to do what I saw the other gurus and giants doing… was that too much to ask?!
Time to toss the banana broadcasts aside, because ConvertKit makes it easy for me to send plain text emails that WORK, without all the fuss.
Now, I still use a highly stylized email footer because I can see the benefit in that…
I’m not going to lie. I lifted this from a certain marketer…
But I don’t want a bunch of links and flashy graphics crowding out the message I’m trying to get across to my audience.
And now I don’t need to worry about whether that’s something I’m going to have to use custom coding to achieve.
Easy-to-Use Automation Features
I’ve made a lot of products over the years… Probably TOO many.
But I like to interact with new customers. It’s just good customer service.
If I had to send emails to my buyers manually, I’d NEVER leave my computer (and I already have that problem, if I’m being honest…).
I want to be able to set up email sequences, so my audience feels cared for. And I don’t want to have to make a template, copy, and paste the same messages into Gmail, and schedule them to go out at the right times to the right people.
Nope. What’s the point of investing in an email marketing service if you can’t automate these processes?
It’s an innocuous question, but you’d be surprised at how some email software handles this (or doesn’t handle it at all).
Some essential email sequences to set up as a creative might include:
- Welcome sequence (for anyone who joins your email list)
- Onboarding sequence (for customers who’ve bought your product – you can ask them for reviews down the line)
- Abandoned cart sequence (for those who add products to their shopping cart but don’t check out – following up can help you convert way more customers)
- And much more
Wouldn’t you love to use an email marketing service that makes setting up sequences effortless? ConvertKit does.
Of course, there are many other automation tasks you may require your email promotion platform to handle, and ConvertKit has other useful features.
Built-in Monetization Features
We all know how this works…
Even “free” email services start charging at some point.
It could be because of an increase in subscriber numbers, it could be add-ons, or it could be after the free trial, but ultimately, nothing comes for free. At some point, you will start paying for your email marketing habit.
And if you’re building an email list, it means you take your career seriously. Money isn’t everything, no, but you’d love for your career to be sustainable, and if possible, profitable even…
The sad thing about most electronic mail promotion tools is they don’t set you up for success in this regard.
Sure, they might talk a big game, maybe they even have a few blog articles on how to monetize your list…
But at the end of the day, they aren’t there to help you reach your career goals let alone your revenue goals.
I know because I’ve been there.
(ChatGPT is probably a better friend in this regard…)
While ConvertKit doesn’t make any HUGE promises or guarantees on how much money you can make using their platform, they do have built-in monetization tools to help you boost your chances of earning an income.
You can sell digital products and subscriptions and even set up tip jars, right from inside the ConvertKit dashboard.
The bottom line is that ConvertKit is an advocate of you earning an income from your creativity. And it’s obvious from the way they’ve set up their navigation bar.
Pricing That Makes Sense
I’ve hammered on this point throughout this guide…
But don’t you find it upsetting when what initially appears to be a GREAT deal…
Turns out to be a money-sucking vacuum?
Yeah, it happens A LOT, whether it’s web hosting, email marketing, team chat, or other tools.
It’s almost as if most services have NO IDEA what it’s like to be an artist…
And don’t cater to their needs at all.
I don’t know about you, but I would rather pay one flat monthly fee and not have the billing be a guessing game at the end of the month.
If you’re charged for every autoresponder, sequence, or add-on with your email service provider, it’s inevitable that your costs will increase, sometimes without you even noticing.
And I get it. Email marketing services need to make money too. They do need to tack on some costs for bigger email lists, for example.
Well, so far, I have found ConvertKit to be very fair in what they charge. I am on their Creator plan with over 1,000 subscribers paying month to month, so my costs are quite predictable.
I’m not charged for the features I want to use unless those features happen to fall outside my plan (and so far, I haven’t had the hankering for advanced reporting features and the like).
I know that if my list size doubles or triples, I will pay more. But I’m very comfortable with that, and it’s very fair.
You can investigate other services if you want. But I think you will find the same thing I did, that at some point, with most apps, you end up paying more for stuff that seems like it should be included.
So far, I have not had that problem with ConvertKit (affiliate link).
Alternative to Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign & GetResponse, Final Thoughts
There are many Mailchimp alternatives out there.
But when it comes to alternatives to Mailchimp that are tailored to artists, creatives, and creators… Well, your options are going to be limited.
Ultimately, you need a solution that’s got the flexibility, features, and tools you need to be able to grow and scale with you as your career grows and scales.
Down the line, when you’ve got thousands of fans and a team of 10, you might need to find a more comprehensive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or marketing automation solution.
But until then, ConvertKit should more than meet your needs.
So, give it a try. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Sign up for a 14-day free trial (affiliate link) with ConvertKit now.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Jun 5, 2023 | Reviews
What are the best email marketing services for artists in 2023?
As we look to the future of marketing, email marketing will likely remain a staple in an artist’s marketing mix. If used correctly, it can prove one of the most effective digital marketing tools there is.
If you’re trying to figure out which email marketing service to use as an artist, here is a look at the best tools available and how they compare to each other.
The Best Email Marketing Services for Artists of 2023
- ConvertKit: Best overall selection for artists.
- Mailchimp: A good beginner tool, dubious for artists who’ve been at it for a while.
- ActiveCampaign: An excellent solution for artists with established teams and business models.
- GetResponse: Enduring email marketing service – quite possibly the best among old-guard tools.
- Constant Contact: Classic email marketing still packs a punch and is forward-looking too.
- AWeber: Old guard mail marketing service and a good all-rounder.
ConvertKit, Best of the Best Email Marketing Services for Artists
ConvertKit (affiliate link) was founded by Nathan Barry, an independent creator who wrote three books and two courses. Barry is well-acquainted with the ebbs and flows of being a creator and saw a gap to fill in the email marketing software for creators realm. Thus, ConvertKit.
Price
- Free: $0 USD
- Creator: Starting from $15 USD per month
- Creator Pro: Starting from $25 USD per month
Standout Feature
Easy to understand. Effective list growing, email campaign templates, automation, and monetization tools.
Pros & Cons
| + All the features you need to grow and manage your email list and send campaigns out of the box
+ Flexible tag-based system for segmenting and managing your audiences
+ Useful, easy-to-understand analytics
+ Excellent automation functionality
+ Features to monetize your list
+ Solid deliverability
+ Free migration |
– ConvertKit targets creatives and creators as customers, but the interface does not feel artistic or creative |
In-Depth
I make no bones about it. ConvertKit (affiliate link) is our top recommended email marketing software for artists.
And this is not one of those generic recommendations (“Yeah, it’s pretty good, you should check it out”) you can find anywhere on the web. No, I’m speaking from personal experience.
I signed up for ConvertKit a couple of years ago and had every intention of moving my lists over from Mailchimp. I delayed and delayed until I couldn’t justify the cost of Mailchimp anymore.
Mailchimp doesn’t just charge based on the plan you’ve selected. Every little add-on (like automation), costs you extra. But I will get to that a little later.
And just so there’s no confusion – I am on a paid plan with ConvertKit right now.
Either way, I also thought it would take me a long time to figure out ConvertKit’s workflow. Initially, that was a point of hesitation.
And, sure, it took me some time to find my way around. But overall, ConvertKit could not have proven much easier to acclimate to. So, if you’re worried about moving yourself over from another email marketing service, you’ll be glad to know the process is straightforward (and that includes importing your existing lists).
I like ConvertKit’s email campaign templates. There are great-looking templates out of the box, and you can customize them to suit your needs. Additionally, sending plain text emails (the kind you see most marketers sending) with Mailchimp was impossible (I tried, and eventually gave up) – basically, it always formatted incorrectly. With ConvertKit? No problem!
I love ConvertKit’s automation tools. They make it easy for me to create custom sequences for my customers. I have many products, and the ability to tailor my communication to different customer segments is very important to me.
ConvertKit also has better landing pages and form tools for building your audience compared to some of the alternatives mentioned in this guide. Dare I say it – ConvertKit’s arsenal of tools almost makes list growth apps like Leadpages irrelevant.
Finally, ConvertKit knows its audience as well as the fact that monetizing their work is a priority. Although I don’t sell digital newsletter subscriptions or ask for donations via email myself, it’s nice to know it’s something you can do with ConvertKit.
For the price, ConvertKit is very competitive, and their email delivery rate is 99.73%. I find my campaigns get opened more since moving to ConvertKit.
Sign up for ConvertKit (affiliate link) now.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp initially built its reputation on being a free-to-use (up to a point), full-featured email marketing service. The company was founded in 2001, and upon its launch, it was revolutionary. Since then, Mailchimp has added an array of new features to enhance its marketing capabilities.
Price
- Free: $0 USD
- Essentials: Starting at $13 USD per month
- Standard: Starting at $20 USD per month
- Premium: Starting at $350 USD per month
Standout Feature
Mailchimp has grown from a simple email marketing service into a more comprehensive offline and online marketing tool.
Pros & Cons
| + Free to use up to 1,000 subscribers
+ Basic tools for growing and managing your email list, as well as sending email campaigns
|
– Difficult-to-use interface, poor navigation, bad menu labeling
– Not cost-effective long-term unless your email list is especially profitable
– List-based system makes segmentation, tagging, and managing your subscribers harder than it should be |
In-Depth
Mailchimp is a reasonably good starting point for beginners, given that its off-the-shelf functionality will get you familiar with email marketing. Getting subscribers, managing them, and sending campaigns can all be done with relative ease using Mailchimp’s built-in tools.
But. Mailchimp seems to get worse with age. I don’t know why no one seems to want to broach this subject – maybe because they’re shilling Mailchimp – but I will.
First, its user interface has never been that great, and it only gets more complicated as they add more features. Monkeys evoke a sense of mischief and fun. Mailchimp evokes a sense of overwhelm, industrial complex capitalism, and frustration, especially with the puzzling navigation bar (arguably, that’s where the mischief is at work, right?).
With all the changes they’ve made through the years, I thought they might be able to nail the email equivalent of eating bananas and swinging from trees, but I haven’t seen it yet.
Mailchimp primarily uses a list-based system to manage contacts, and ironically, it’s much less flexible than email software utilizing a tag-based system. This makes segmenting your audience and sending different messages to different people at different times impossible without annoying, complex workarounds.
Delivering the right message to the right people at the right time is the essence of effective marketing! You don’t want this to be any more complicated than it already is, and Mailchimp doesn’t make it easy on you. So, by default, you lose out on opportunities to engage and monetize your audience.
The cost of Mailchimp can also add up much faster than their pricing scheme would seem to indicate, especially once you’ve exceeded over 1,000 subscribers. They charge for every add-on, and that includes automation – a basic feature every artist, creative, and independent entrepreneur will require (especially if you’ve got more than a few products), as their business grows!
You might think that if you’ve got 1,000 subscribers and you’re sending them weekly messages, you’d be making bank, but that’s not always the case. So, you end up dolling out $30+ USD per month for the privilege of sending messages to a subscriber base you worked your ass off to build. Yeah.
Mailchimp could still be a worthwhile solution during the early years of your development. Long-term, you will want to be able to do more sophisticated things with your email list, and when you get to that point, you will need an easier-to-use, more flexible tool to get the job done.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign was founded in 2003 in Chicago. They have over 180,000 customers, and they are well-known for their automated workflows, advanced features, integrations, and great customer support.
Price
- Plus: $49 USD per month
- Professional: $149 USD per month
- Enterprise: Depends on the organization
Standout Feature
Automation is ActiveCampaign’s greatest strength.
Pros & Cons
| + Powerful automation, advanced features, and integration
+ In-depth reporting
+ Exceptional deliverability
+ Speedy and friendly customer support
+ Free migration |
– Steeper entry-level price
– Horrible customer service |
In-Depth
ActiveCampaign is generally considered a step up from free to low-cost email service software solutions and is the preferred choice for many independent entrepreneurs. That has a lot to do with its flexible and powerful feature set that extends well beyond conventional email marketing.
It is a very popular solution for independent entrepreneurs like me who use KLEQ to build their memberships, courses, forums, or online coaching platforms. I still settled on ConvertKit, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like ActiveCampaign.
We all have a specific tool stack, and if you’re looking for an email marketing service that integrates well with apps, eCommerce platforms, and other services, then it’s well worth considering integration as a key factor during the buying process. That’s a blanket statement that applies to all Software-as-as-a-Service (SaaS) purchases.
Either way, as you may have guessed already, ActiveCampaign’s greatest strength is marketing automation. In addition to autoresponders, list, and contact management can be automated too. If you choose to take advantage of their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) features, you can also use their “Deals” system to manage your contacts, appointments, direct messages, and more.
That is perhaps too much power for the independent creative, especially if she doesn’t have a marketing and sales team, but it’s nice to know ActiveCampaign can scale with her.
ActiveCampaign’s interface is also one of the easiest to understand. Most email marketing services could learn a thing or two from the way ActiveCampaign has set up their navigation.
ActiveCampaign is a great email marketing service overall, but it’s not recommended for those just getting started. Its cost is steeper than alternatives already covered, and that cost will only increase as your subscriber base grows.
GetResponse
GetResponse was founded in 1997 in Poland. Besides email marketing, the company has expanded into website builders, marketing automation, and even eCommerce marketing. A forward-thinking company, GetResponse has recently added a ChatGPT-powered email and subject line generators into their feature set.
Price
- Free: $0 USD
- Email Marketing: starting at $13.30 USD per month
- Marketing Automation: starting at $41.30 USD per month
- eCommerce Marketing: Starting at $83.30 USD per month
Standout Feature
GetResponse comes with a built-in webinar feature, which, so far as I know, is unique to GetResponse.
Pros & Cons
| + Free-to-use plan available
+ Its Email Marketing plan is more affordable than many of its competitors
+ Comes with sophisticated marketing automation tools
+ Built-in webinar feature
+ Built-in “Chat” feature for your website
+ Comes with a landing page builder with A/B testing functionality
+ Customer support in an array of languages |
– The drag-and-drop landing page builder is clunky
– Split testing is only available for subject lines and content
– The website builder is a little lackluster compared to competitor alternatives
– Paid-for webinars are only available on the priciest GetResponse plans
|
In-Depth
GetResponse has exceptional and in-depth autoresponder functionality assuming you are on one of its paid plans. They are probably the best in the business, at least in this regard. You can create time- or action-based messages based on opens, clicks, subscriptions, birthdays, changes to user data, and more.
Naturally, GetResponse also comes with sophisticated automation tools. For better or worse, though, you can only access its full range of capabilities if you’ve purchased the Marketing Automation plan. The marketing automation tool features a drag-and-drop editor to create sophisticated and customized user journeys – it’s probably the best of its kind.
GetResponse comes with nearly 200 responsive templates, most of which are modern, varied, and easy to edit. GetResponse lets you choose from several categories based on the intended goal of the campaign – celebrate, educate, promote, sell, etc. – which is a handy feature.
If anything is lacking here, it would be that you can’t set global styles for headings and text. That means if you want to change the style of a single paragraph, you end up having to change all paragraphs. On the upside, you can take advantage of a bevy of Google Fonts.
For those who were drawn in by the buzzword A.I., yes, you’ll be happy to know GetResponse comes with a few handy Artificial Intelligence features. And even though they are new, they are remarkably effective.
The A.I. subject line generator will provide you with five suggestions for your campaigns, and the email generator can create a campaign – text, layout, and design – based on the prompts you give it. You can also choose from six “voice tone” settings.
GetResponse also comes with competent analytics/reporting, split testing, landing page builder, webinar, conversion funnels, website builder, Chats, push notification tools, and more, depending on the plan you purchase. We’d be hard-pressed to cover them all here, but you can refer to the pros and cons section above for an overview.
GetResponse may well be the best among the old-school tools like AWeber and Constant Contact, also seen below.
Constant Contact
Founded in 1995, Constant Contact is an “old guard” email marketing service. That means they’ve had plenty of time to earn the public’s trust. But that doesn’t mean they’ve fallen behind the times. They continue to evolve, and they’ve recently added A.I. tools to their repertoire too.
Price
- Lite: Starting at $12 USD per month
- Standard: Starting at $35 USD per month
- Premium: Starting at $80 USD per month
Standout Feature
Constant Contact empowers you to stay in touch with your contacts using email, texting, and social media.
Pros & Cons
| + Good entry-level pricing
+ Easy to use
+ Brainless audience segmentation features
+ Stats displayed in the dashboard; more detailed stats available in the Reporting section
+ An array of attractive templates
+ Great automation features |
– The best automation features are reserved for higher-priced plans
– Prices increase rapidly as your list size grows
– The user interface is a little buggy
– While there are plenty of templates, many are a little dated at this point |
In-Depth
Constant Contact has managed to keep up with the times. Since they’ve been in existence for nearly three decades, their efforts to remain relevant are commendable.
One of the things users love most about Constant Contact is its easy-to-use interface. Setting up your first campaign is a breeze, and that goes for just about anything else you might set up using the service – newsletters, landing pages, social media posts, and more.
The interface is sort of a double-edged sword, though, in that it can be unresponsive at times, especially in embedding video content. While Constant Contact does have mobile apps, they are lacking the functionality users expect from them.
As I mentioned earlier, all growing creators and businesses need automation, and I’m happy to report this is one of Constant Contact’s strong suits. You can create audience segments yourself and organize your lists by location, tags, email activity, and more. If you don’t mind paying for the additional functionality, you can get Constant Contact to organize your audience into four categories – most engaged, somewhat engaged, least engaged, and everyone else.
Being around for longer has certain advantages, and Constant Contact has had time to add a ton of mobile-friendly email templates to its platform over the years. The placeholders offer some ideas on what to include in your campaigns. You can also have Constant Contact automatically create a custom template based on your website’s design.
Again, its strengths are sometimes its weaknesses too, and Constant Contact’s templates aren’t exactly fresh off the press. While you can customize the templates to an extent, the options are kind of limited.
Overall, though, Constant Contact is a solution that can scale with use, and it has the right goods to be worthwhile for those just getting started and more advanced marketers alike.
AWeber
AWeber is another old-guard email marketing service. Founded in 1998, over a million entrepreneurs, small businesses, and non-profit organizations have used AWeber to communicate with their audiences and grow their ventures.
Price
- Free: $0 USD
- Lite: starting at $12.50 USD per month
- Plus: starting at $20.00 USD per month
- Unlimited: starting at $899 USD per month
Standout Feature
AWeber is a good all-rounder and doesn’t necessarily have any standout features. It comes with autoresponder functionality, reporting, list segmentation, a landing page builder, integration, basic eCommerce features, and more.
Pros & Cons
| + Free plan to get started
+ Reasonably priced plans
+ Easy to use
+ Solid selection of templates, newsletters, and landing pages
+ Build-in landing page builder
+ Excellent customer support
+ Basic eCommerce features
+ Decent integration features |
– You pay for unsubscribed contacts sitting in your account
– You can’t use multiple segments when sending campaigns
– More affordable options exist
– No A/B testing functionality for landing pages
|
In-Depth
Not surprisingly, AWeber has a huge library of mobile-ready newsletter templates, with over 600 available (although some are merely variants on established themes). With the Free and Lite plans, however, you can only access a limited number of templates, so users beware. You need at least the Plus plan to be able to access all.
As with Constant Contact, some of AWeber’s templates look a little dated. In this case, quantity mostly makes up for quality. Plus, you can still create customized templates if you prefer, and there is a “Smart Designer” option, which will analyze your site’s formatting and attempt to duplicate it (with mixed results).
AWeber makes a rather bold claim, that they invented autoresponders in 1998. That may be true, but AWeber’s autoresponder feature set is about average. AWeber has multiple templates for autoresponder campaigns, though (like welcome sequences, lead magnet series, YouTube newsletter, and more), and these do come in very handy.
AWeber’s autoresponder functionality probably isn’t good enough for growing creators and businesses, however, as there’s no way to complete more advanced autoresponder tasks.
AWeber does come with “AWeber Campaigns,” the closest thing they have to marketing automation. But it can’t keep up with Mailchimp or GetResponse’s automation features.
AWeber’s strong suits also include split testing as it lets you create and send up to three variants of your campaign. It offers very competitive functionality when it comes to A/B testing too, with subject lines, different content, etc.
Additionally, AWeber has good reporting out of the box, though you cannot access some of the more advanced features unless you’ve purchased the Plus or Unlimited plan.
Constant Contact and AWeber share much in common in terms of features, which makes AWeber another capable all-rounder.
Best Email Marketing Services Honorable Mentions
- Bandzoogle: Bandzoogle isn’t strictly an email marketing service and rather a website-building and hosting platform for musicians. That said, they do give you the ability to grow your list and send campaigns or newsletters from inside your account. If you ever need to export your list and take it elsewhere, Bandzoogle lets you do that too.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the best email marketing service for artists?
In our assessment, the best overall email marketing service for artists is ConvertKit. That said, the best service will still depend on the exact nature of your activity and business, as well as your needs and goals. Most platforms offer the features and functionality you need to get up and running, but it makes sense to home in on the right solution for you as your audience starts to grow and you’re paying for your contacts.
Why do I need email marketing software?
First, sending mass broadcasts to your list manually (e.g., using Gmail) is thoroughly impractical or in some cases, a violation of privacy and laws. Second, email marketing software makes the management of your contacts, growth of your list, and sending of campaigns and newsletters a much more manageable task, with reporting on every campaign sent (open rates, click-through rates, etc.).
What types of email marketing are there?
All email marketing is effectively the same, in that all types involve sending campaigns to your audience, or an audience segment. But some marketers do like to think of updates and sales messages as separate from newsletters. Automated “Thank you for your purchase” type messages may also be considered separate, and not “marketing” in the strictest sense.
Which email marketing service is the most affordable?
Mailchimp has long been touted to be the most affordable email marketing service, but ConvertKit is close on its heels, and can even prove more cost-effective over the long haul. Other services offering free plans are also worth checking out, like GetResponse or AWeber.
How can I make money with email marketing?
As with any type of marketing, making money is not a guarantee. But any time you’ve got a new musical release, book, wearable, piece of art, or otherwise, you can send your audience a campaign and include a link where they can go to purchase your offer.
Is it possible to market via email for free?
Yes. Most services offer a free plan or a free trial you can use to send email campaigns for free. Free plans are generally better than free trials, though, as you won’t have a time limit on managing or exporting your email list should you choose not to go with a specific service.
Is email marketing better than social media marketing?
As expert marketer Dan Kennedy says, the best thing you can do as a marketer is execute multiple strategies simultaneously with great urgency. We feel the same way. So, while email marketing is more personal and has better visibility, you can benefit from incorporating social media into your marketing mix, especially if you can use it to grow your email list.
Final Thoughts, Best Email Marketing Services
And that’s everything you need to know about email marketing services for artists. If you’re just getting started, your best bet is to take advantage of a provider like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, GetResponse, or AWeber, which have free plans. On the other hand, if you’re on a massive growth trajectory, you might want to look at ActiveCampaign or more comprehensive digital marketing solutions like Ontraport and HubSpot.
Good luck with your email marketing efforts, and let us know if we can help!
by David Andrew Wiebe | May 31, 2023 | News
Over the course of the last three years (almost), I’ve enjoyed the exercise of publishing daily.
I took a bit of a break between May and August 2022, but aside from that, I have been writing and posting fresh, daily content since July 2020.
I’ve learned a great deal in that time, such as the fact that:
- Publishing daily will land you some opportunities. But as with anything else, there are no guarantees.
- Once it becomes a habit, it’s much easier to maintain.
- It’s a great way to write a book.
- Documenting life events makes it easy for you to go into your archives and find those times you burned out, created a new homepage layout, went on a getaway with friends, and much more. Any time you need to recall specific events, dates, and times, you can refer to your archives.
I have not lost interest in publishing daily. But I’ve recognized the importance of producing and publishing strategic content, more than ever. And I admit it is much harder to be strategic about content creation when you’re under the gun to produce daily, even though you squeeze out the occasional search-optimized post.
Ranking in search only becomes harder by the day, though, and while the impact of A.I.-generated content remains to be seen, it does make mediocre writers redundant, and soon, it may make most podcasters redundant as well.
I am busier than ever as a writer, and that’s the opposite of what I thought would happen with the emergence of tools like ChatGPT, but I’m mindful that there are no guarantees that demand will continue to maintain or increase.
To be more strategic, I have:
- Done my keyword research.
- Created a content calendar with at least a month planned.
- Made notes of content opportunities I’ve come across.
- Decided to make video content my priority above all else. This is my primary YouTube channel.
- Decided to dedicate more energy to finishing the seven or eight some-odd books that are nearing completion.
When all is said and done, you may not notice a huge difference in output on my part. I may still post the occasional life update or spontaneous news. But I have decided to put an end to the insanity cycle I have been in. When something doesn’t work for a long enough period, you’ve got to adapt and try something else. And, I have been pivoting faster than ever.
I can’t imagine too many people will be disappointed by this change. But you’re always welcome to let me know.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Apr 13, 2023 | Creativity
Not like it was in-demand until recently.
But generic content is officially dead. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can write it for you. I can guarantee your peers and competitors are already using it and are achieving marketing and sales feats that would turn you green with envy.
There’s no denying that Google’s algorithm updates will see un-doctored AI written content tanking to the bottom of the barrel. As of this writing, AI still offers terrible advice, wanders off into the weeds often, and has trouble establishing proper context.
Yes, AI writing will continue to improve. But the point is AI can already provide people with what appears relatively logical, common-sense, and sensible advice. It doesn’t make it right or even good. But you can have AI write an informative eBook in minutes now, especially if you offer thorough, quality prompts.
I’ve had my share of conversations with other musician coaches on how there is a lot of low-quality advice floating around out there, but how that doesn’t stop people from eating it up. It’s sad but true – many people consume whatever sounds good and makes them feel good, even if a dose of reality is what they really need to improve.
I asked AI yesterday how to get a girlfriend, and it told me the process would be long and hard. Which goes contrary to my experience so far. While I’ve run into my share of frustration in dating, I’ve found that if attraction is present, things can progress rather quickly. Maybe I’m a jerk for saying that but not all experiences are universal.
But I digress. Chiefly, this is the end of generic content. AI can write better than eager guest posters in India or the Philippines (I’m not singling you out, India or Philippines – I love you) and offer what appears cohesive ideas.
More than ever, as creators, we need to look to creative alchemy, a concept I proposed nearly six years ago. How can we combine our skills and gifts to create something unique? How can we synthesize and fuse ideas in a compelling way? How can we innovate and go beyond tired tropes?
It’s the slash / conundrum in full effect, but the alternative is to disappear into the glut of generic, good sounding (but bad) advice.
