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| Aweber HONEST REVIEW 2021 |
Continue reading for a detailed breakdown of Aweber's benefits and drawbacks, as well as a look at its pricing, features, templates, and user interface.
By the end of this article, you'll know whether Aweber is the best email marketing solution for your business and what the alternatives are.
Let's get this bash going.
What exactly is Aweber?
Aweber is an email marketing tool that lets you do things like:
- Make a mailing list and add information to it.
- Create newsletters that can be emailed to your list's subscribers.
- Use 'autoresponders' to automate your email marketing.
- look at and analyze data from your email marketing efforts
Aweber was formed in 1998, and the company claims that 120,000 people and businesses have used the platform for email marketing.
Although it is smaller than some of its competitors (most notably Mailchimp and Getresponse), it is nonetheless a well-known brand with a significant user base.
Price of Aweber
Aweber comes in two flavors: professional and free.
The following is the pricing breakdown for the Pro plans:
- $19 per month for hosting and emailing to a list of up to 500 people.
- $29.99 per month for 501-2,500 members
- $49.99 per month for 2,501-5,000 subscribers
- $69.99 per month for 5,001 to 10,000 members
- $109.99 a month for a group of 10,000 to 25,000 subscribers
You'll need to contact Aweber for a quote if your mailing list has more than 25,000 subscribers.
(This is uncommon because, while most email marketing providers offer bespoke plans if you reach a certain amount of subscribers, the threshold is often much larger - 100,000 subscribers or more.)
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| Aweber pricing |
Aweber also has a completely free version. As long as your mailing list is under 500 members, you can use most of Aweber's services for free (after that, you'll need to upgrade to a commercial plan). The free version of Aweber can be obtained here.
You will receive a 14 percent discount if you pay quarterly, and a 14.9 percent discount if you pay annually. There are also certain discounts available for students and not-for-profit organizations.
A feature that potential users may appreciate about Aweber's pricing structure is that all features are available on all paid-for plans — unlike other competitors, you don't have to be on more expensive plans to use particular features. (The majority of them are available even on the free plan.)
The price discrepancies are attributable only to the mailing list's size.
The number of subscribers is something to keep an eye on.
The fact that both subscribed and unsubscribed contacts count as ‘billable' subscribers are important to remember when it comes to Aweber pricing.This implies you'll be paid for maintaining someone's information in your Aweber account even if they unsubscribe from your list.You can prevent this fee by periodically deleting unsubscribed contacts from your account, but you must remember to do so.Aweber isn't the only email marketing service that charges this way (Mailchimp does too), but the approach isn't ideal because it adds needless costs or administrative labor to clients (or both!).
How does Aweber's pricing stack up against its rivals?
Aweber is, in general, a good service.
- Campaign Monitor is substantially more expensive.
- a lot less expensive than iContact
- Approximately the same cost as Mailchimp
- Getresponse is slightly more expensive.
- Quite a bit more pricey than Mad Mimi (but Mad Mimi's feature set is far more basic).
Of course, we're comparing apples to oranges in certain cases, but all of these rival programs offer various feature sets on each plan, as well as subscriber restrictions, which will make Aweber cheaper or more expensive depending on the circumstances.
The fact that unsubscribed contacts are chargeable in Aweber (see above) also skews the image.
Aweber is priced in the center of the email marketing tool spectrum, in my opinion.
Of course, the cost isn't the only thing to consider when making a purchase...
The more crucial factor to consider when exercising is the amount of bang for your cash.
Let's have a look at some of the features of Aweber.
Aweber's main characteristics
The following major features come standard with Aweber:
- Importing and hosting a mailing list is possible.
- a large number of options
- autoresponders
- Automated marketing features
- email templates that are adaptable
- reporting
- testing in two groups
- Feed-to-email (RSS) and blog-to-email (Blog-to-e
- Options for segmentation are listed here.
- a page builder for landing pages
- Support is available over the phone, by email, and through live chat.
- third-party app integration
Let's take a closer look.
Importing data into Aweber and hosting your list
Importing an existing email database into Aweber is a rather simple process.
There are several file kinds that can be uploaded:
XLS
XLSX
TSV
CSV
TXT
You may also manually enter individual subscribers or copy and paste rows of subscribers into the program.
You have the option of adding your subscribers to a specific set of autoresponders and tagging them as you import your data.
This is a wonderful feature to have because not all rival systems allow you to import data directly into autoresponder cycles.
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| The ability to add subscribers to autoresponder cycles is a powerful feature of the Aweber import process. |
You'll be asked a few questions about how you gathered the data you're importing for anti-spam purposes.
You may also have to wait for your list to be assessed by Aweber's anti-spam compliance team if your list is large (over 10,000 records) (as is the case with other email marketing tools). It could take up to one business day for this to be completed.
In conclusion, Aweber's importing feature is excellent; there are no issues.
Templates
In comparison to its competitors, Aweber has one of the most comprehensive collections of HTML e-newsletter templates, with over 700 to choose from.
To give you some perspective, Getresponse has about 115 templates and Mailchimp has about 80.
To be honest, I don't adore all of the designs; some of them appear to be a little dated. Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, and Getresponse all have templates that look a little more modern.
However, because of the large number of templates accessible, you should be able to find one that works for your e-newsletters with a little tinkering.
Of course, you may always make your own template by coding it yourself.
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| Example of an Aweber template |
Responsive email designs
The email templates provided by Aweber are all ‘responsive.'
This means they automatically resize to fit the device being used to view them. This is a must-have feature in today's world of smartphones and tablets.
Within Aweber, you can see a preview of the mobile version of your email by simply clicking the preview button and toggling the ‘mobile preview' switch to see how your e-newsletter would appear on a smartphone.
(However, sending some test emails and checking them on a smartphone or tablet is still a good idea.)
Aweber templates using web fonts
Aweber, unlike many other email marketing tools, allows you to use online fonts.
This is a good thing because online fonts are usually more appealing than the traditional "safe fonts" (Times New Roman, Arial, etc.) that email marketing tools sometimes limit you to, and when used correctly, they may significantly improve the appearance of an email.
They can also help you create better brand consistency between your website and e-newsletters, depending on the typefaces you use on your website.
You can presently use the following typefaces in your Aweber emails:
- Arvo
- Lato
- Lora
- Merriweather
- Merriweather sans
- Noticia Text
- Open Sans
- Playfair Display
- Roboto
- Source Sans Pro
- Permanent Marker
Aweber's templates get a thumbs up in general, with bonus points for using web fonts.
However, it would be nice to see a few additional typefaces added to Aweber; the ones that are now available are a little bland.
RSS to email templates
Aweber, like comparable e-marketing tools, can convert your site's RSS feed into e-newsletters that are sent out according to a timetable you choose.
This is referred to as 'Blog broadcasts' in Aweber, though you may utilize this feature with any content that has an RSS feed.
This feature is very useful for bloggers who wish their mailing list subscribers to automatically receive e-newsletters including their most recent postings (or, indeed, a monthly digest of blog posts). In essence, it implies that you may send out newsletters directly from your website, which can save you a lot of time.
It's worth mentioning, though, that you can't use ordinary Aweber template designs for RSS-to-email conversions; instead, you'll need to select from a selection of templates created particularly for this purpose.
(To be fair, Aweber isn't the only one who does this.)
On the bright side, there are more RSS templates to choose from than I've seen with most other e-marketing platforms I've explored.
On the downside, many of them don't look fantastic – they're reminiscent of web design from the 1990s!
You can't change them using the usual Aweber email drag-and-drop interface – you have to use a different editor (which isn't as user-friendly).
With a little tinkering, you should be able to come up with something that works, but I believe there is still space for improvement.
Autoresponders
Autoresponders are a set of follow-up emails that are sent out automatically in response to user actions or time.
You could, for example, set up an autoresponder system to ensure that your messages are sent to the right people at the right time.
- When someone joins your email list, they are greeted with a greeting from your company.
- They get a coupon code for a purchase a week later.
- They get an invitation to follow you on social media three weeks later...
…and so on.
They are usually a significant component of any e-marketing strategy because they may help you save time and money.
Because Aweber claims to have created autoresponders in 1998, you'd expect its autoresponder capabilities to be phenomenal.
Surprisingly, it's merely 'okay'.
On the bright side, setting up follow-up emails in Aweber based on time intervals is incredibly simple — for example, sending subscribers an onboarding email immediately after signup, a promo code two days later, and a ‘follow us on social media' email a week later is extremely simple. This is a common usage of autoresponders, and it's simple to do with Aweber.
On the negative side, the choices for triggering autoresponders based on user activities and purchases are far less than in comparable programs.
You can use Aweber to create 'goals' or combine automation rules with tagging to make autoresponders behave in fairly sophisticated ways — but if you want to use autoresponders in really advanced ways, you'll probably need to look at other products, particularly Getresponse, which has a lot more marketing automation functionality.
And while we're on the subject of marketing automation...
Marketing automation
Email marketing systems like Aweber are increasingly including marketing automation as a feature.
I call it "Autoresponders 2.0," in which you go beyond standard "drip" campaigns to design complicated user journeys utilizing "IFTT" (if this, then that) type processes.
You create a flowchart with marketing automation to send emails based on user behaviors like email opens, link clicks, site visits, purchases made, and so on.
Marketing automation
Aweber has a marketing automation component called "Aweber Campaigns" that provide some of these capabilities.
You can use this functionality to determine what should be delivered to whom and when based on user activities such as opens and clickthroughs, as well as the application of tags (which can be triggered if a user views a specific page on your site) (see above).
However, I believe that this functionality could go much further - solutions like Getresponse and Mailchimp offer far more flexibility in terms of which user behaviors can trigger mailouts.
In Getresponse, for example, you can send messages based on triggers like a purchase, a certain page visit, a subscriber's "score," and the stage of the sales pipeline. In a similar way, Mailchimp functions.
As a result, Aweber lags behind its competitors in this category.
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| Getresponse's marketing automation is far more advanced than what you'll find in Aweber. |
Spotlight on… Aweber’s free plan
Aweber now provides a full free plan, maybe in an attempt to compete with Mailchimp. Most similar products give a free trial but not indefinite access to the product, which is rare in the email marketing field.
The free plan from Aweber is both less and more generous than the one from Mailchimp.
It's more generous since, with the exception of a few capabilities (most notably split testing and abandoned cart emails), the majority of Aweber's capability is available for free. Mailchimp's free plan is limited to a few key features; for example, you can't use any automation.
Aweber's free plan is less liberal, allowing you to work with a list of 500 contacts or less; Mailchimp's free plan, on the other hand, allows you to work with a list of up to 2,000 subscribers.
Both products include advertisements for their brands in the e-newsletters that come with their free plans; however, these are rather modest.
You can try out Aweber's free plan here.
AMP for email in Aweber
A new technology called AMP for email is one area where Aweber has an advantage over most other email marketing systems.
E-newsletters have traditionally been pretty static affairs, consisting of just text and photos. All of that changes with AMP for Email, which allows recipients to perform simple tasks (such as setting an appointment or RSVPing to an event) immediately within an email, rather than having to leave their email program or go to a website.
It also enables email senders to include dynamic content in their messages, such as real-time survey results, weather updates, and football scores.
The ‘dynamic' character of AMP emails encourages users to check back in with them on a regular basis, transforming e-newsletters into far more potent and engaging content.
For a quick introduction to the world of AMP for email, watch the Google video below.
Opt in processes
Aweber has a lot of freedom when it comes to how you manage the opt-in process.
You have the option of using either a single opt-in or a double opt-in method to subscribe to your consumers (single opt-in is when a user is subscribed immediately after completing They must complete their membership by clicking on a link in a confirmation email; double opt-in occurs when they must finish their subscription by clicking on a link in a confirmation email).
Both ways have advantages, so it's great to see Aweber being versatile in this aspect – not all rival systems offer this option.
Split testing
Split testing (also known as A/B testing) is sending different versions of your e-newsletters to different parts of your mailing list, tracking how well they work, and then sending to the rest of your list, add the 'best' version.
Most e-marketing platforms take care of this for you: you write a few alternative versions of your email (with various content or subject headers), send them to a sample of your data, and your e-marketing solution distributes the best-performing version to the remainder of your mailing list automatically.
When split testing an e-newsletter with Aweber, you may send up to three variants, and you can mix and match them – unlike many rival solutions, you're not limited to testing subject headers against each other, sender names against each other, and so on.
As a result, Aweber gets a thumbs up for its adaptability.
Reporting
Aweber's email analytics are excellent. In addition to crucial numbers like open rate, clickthroughs, and bounces, you can look at a variety of other useful analytics and information, such as:
- the evolution of a list over time
- a rundown of the different ways to sign up
- where your email is being opened (i.e., geographical location)
- the history of a person's activities – On a subscriber-by-subscriber basis, you may see prior opens, clicks, and other activities.
plus a whole lot more.
The bottom line is that Aweber will give you a good overview of the efficacy of your email campaigns, as well as enough data to make informed judgments on future campaign structuring.
Segmenting data in Aweber
In Aweber, segmenting data is a simple process. You can construct segments based on user activity as well as the contents of any field in your database – emails opened, web pages visited, links clicked, things purchased, and so on. It's all highly adaptable and simple to use.
However, getting to the screen where you create the segments is a little complicated - you basically have to go to a ‘manage subscribers' section, search for specific subscribers, and then save the result as a segment.
To be fair, some platforms (like Getresponse) take a similar approach to segment creation, while others (like Campaign Monitor and Mailchimp) have a more prominent ‘segments' area.
However, Aweber does not allow you to send emails to many segments at once. Some customers will have issues because they need to ‘pick and mix' pieces in their mailouts on a frequent basis.
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| Aweber, unlike some competitors, only allows you to send emails to one section at a time. |
Assume you're a vehicle salesman with a mailing list that includes a field for "car model." This field was used to divide your email list into VW Polo, Golf, Passat, Tiguan, and Toureg owners.
You've created an offer that's only applicable to Polo, Golf, and Passat owners, and you'd like to send a message to all three segments at once.
In an ideal world, you'd be able to just select the appropriate parts and send the message to those three groups. This isn't doable with Aweber, however. Either send three separate emails or create a new segment with the keywords "Polo OR Golf OR Passat."
If you want to exclude certain portions from the broadcast, you'll have a similar problem: while you can omit entire lists from a mailing, you can't exclude individual segments.
On the plus side, Aweber allows you to send emails to numerous lists, which is something that key competitor Mailchimp does not allow. As a result, there may be a workaround.
Landing page builder
Landing pages, often known as "squeeze pages," are web pages that are intended only for the purpose of collecting data. They usually include of a form, some appealing images, and a tiny amount of text explaining why providing your email address is beneficial.
Landing pages are more effective at capturing data than forms on conventional websites because there are fewer distractions – no navigation, offers, or content to divert attention away from a sign-up form.
Aweber just added landing pages as a new tool, allowing you to use the platform to create simple landing pages that can be used in combination with advertising campaigns.
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| An Aweber landing page example |
On the bright side, the landing page builder is simple to use, and you can incorporate some free stock photographs into your design. You can also include a Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics monitoring code on your pages, which is useful for evaluating the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
On the downside, no automatic A/B testing is available. One of the biggest benefits of using a landing page builder is the opportunity to test several landing pages in real-time to discover which one works better.
And, while the ability to add Facebook and Google Analytics tracking code to proceedings is handy, there doesn't appear to be a method to make this GDPR legal - if you use these cookies, you'll need a system that lets EU visitors to consent to them being run (i.e., before they're triggered). Because of the unavailability of this feature, some people will utilize the landing page creator to disobey the law.
(Competing platforms like Mailchimp and Getresponse, for example, have yet to implement adequate cookie management on their landing pages.)
Overall, the inclusion of a landing page builder gets a thumbs up, but it clearly needs to be improved.
Integrations with third-party apps
Around 800 integrations with other online apps are accessible through Aweber.
These allow you to link the platform to other important cloud-based solutions, such as web builders such as Wix or WordPress, e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, CRM systems like as Salesforce, landing page builders such as Instapage, and so on.
Some of these require specific widgets, while others just a piece of code to be added to a website, and still, others require the use of a sync tool such as Zapier or Pie Sync.
Aweber rarely integrates with other software as effortlessly as Mailchimp (which appears to be the default ‘standard' email marketing option for many apps), but you shouldn't have too much trouble getting it to operate with a decent selection of other SaaS (software as a service) apps.
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| Aweber connectors allow you to link the tool to a variety of different websites. |
Aweber customer support
Aweber's customer service is one of the product's most notable characteristics.
All paid-for plans include phone, email, and live chat help, which compares favorably to other significant competitors such as Getresponse, Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, and Mad Mimi, which do not offer phone support on standard subscriptions.
Furthermore, there are no hoops to jump through to contact support - appropriate phone numbers and email addresses can be found quickly on the company's contact page, with no need to rummage through "knowledge bases" or fill out any forms ahead of time.
Furthermore, throughout the last few years, the organization has won multiple Stevie Awards for customer service, which bodes well for the kind of help you'll receive when you contact them.
If you're new to email marketing, this type of easy access to high-quality support is a compelling reason for using Aweber as your email marketing provider. The main drawback is that help is only provided in English.
Aweber's phone support service is available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, and its email and live/chat help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Overall, Aweber's assistance is one of the better aspects of the service.
Aweber review: the verdict
Aweber is, in general, a solid email marketing provider in my opinion. It isn't the greatest product of its kind on the market, but it is dependable, reasonably priced, simple to use, and has the majority of the main features you'd expect from an email marketing solution.
The ease-of-use, web fonts, landing page builder, AMP for email capability, and extensive support are the primary features that would sway me toward Aweber. Its free plan is quite generous, granting users with modest lists indefinite access to all of the essential features.
The support feature may be especially significant for people who are new to e-marketing and don't have a lot of technical knowledge (since difficulties can be solved by talking to a real person on a real phone line!).
When compared to some competitors, such as Campaign Monitor and iContact, Aweber is also fairly priced.
The fact that you are charged to host unsubscribed contacts in your account, its rather minimal marketing automation tools, and the fact that you can't broadcast to many categories of data at once are the main reasons that would discourage me from using Aweber.
I hope you've found this Aweber review Helpful so far, but if you're still undecided about whether this is the right e-marketing option for you, I've included a quick overview of the primary benefits and drawbacks of utilizing it below.
Pros and cons of Aweber
Pros of using Aweber
- There is a completely free option.
- It's simple to operate.
- It includes a far larger number of templates than its main competitors.
- Support options are broader than those offered by several significant competitors, and customer service levels should be strong based on Aweber's Stevie awards.
- It's affordable - while it's not the cheapest product of its sort on the market, it's less expensive than a number of similar options.
- A landing page builder is included.
- It supports AMP for email, which is a first in the world of email marketing software.
- It gives you the option of allowing individuals to subscribe to your list using a single or double opt-in method.
- It offers good import capabilities, with the ability to import a variety of file kinds and instantly add the email addresses you're importing to an autoresponder cycle.
- It works with a good number of third-party tools and apps.
- It's pretty simple to set up simple time-based autoresponders with it.
- All of the email templates are mobile-friendly.
- Aweber allows you to utilize web fonts in your e-newsletters.
Cons of using Aweber
- If you keep unsubscribed contacts on your account, you will be charged.
- When sending an e-newsletter, you can't include or remove many portions at once.
- There are less expensive choices available that provide far more capabilities in the marketing automation field.
- While the landing page builder is great, it lacks A/B testing and a GDPR-compliant way to incorporate Facebook pixels and Google Analytics cookies.
- Some of the templates appear to be out of the current.
- The RSS to email templates are bad, and they can't be modified with Aweber's drag-and-drop email builder.
TRY AWEBER FREE
Alternatives to Aweber
There are numerous Aweber alternatives accessible.
Getresponse is an obvious contender if you're looking for something a little more feature-rich at a similar price point. Aweber not only allows you to do the types of email marketing jobs that Aweber does, but it also has webinar and e-commerce capabilities. Our Aweber vs. Getresponse comparison can be found here.
Mailchimp is another better-specced tool, but its pricing structure has recently changed, and it does not always provide good value for money. For more information, see our Getresponse vs. Mailchimp comparison.
Hubspot is another tool worth investigating; it's a CRM, but it also has some excellent email marketing features.
If you're searching for something a little less pricey, Mad Mimi is a good choice (but bear in mind that Mad Mimi is a much more basic solution than Aweber). For more information, see our Mad Mimi review.
If you have a lot of cash, Campaign Monitor is also worth considering - it has a lot of useful capabilities, particularly in the template and automation departments, but it's rather expensive compared to the other options.
Any thoughts on Aweber?
We'd love to hear from you if you're an Aweber user or thinking about becoming one - scroll down to share your opinions or questions about the product in the comments box below! Also, please share this Aweber review if you found it helpful.
