Aweber Review – Is Aweber a Useful Email Marketing Tool?

What is Aweber?

Aweber was launched in 1998. As per the sources, 100,000 individuals and companies are using this platform for their email marketing campaign.

AWeber Free: Email marketing for free. No credit card required.

It’s an email marketing application that allows its users to:

• Build a mailing list and securing data onto it
• Design newsletters to with your subscribers in the user list
• Automate user’s email marketing using ‘autoresponders.’
• observe and analyze statistics associated with email marketing campaigns

In this Aweber review, we will look at Aweber key features, Aweber pros and cons, and how it helps design templates and how it is one of the most successful solutions for creating and sending HTML e-newsletters.

Aweber pricing

Two versions are available for Aweber: one is ‘Pro,’ and another is ‘free.’

For the Pro plan, the pricing structure is as follows:

• Hosting and emailing a list carrying up to 500 subscribers: $19 per month
• 501 to 2,500 supporters: $29 per month
• 2,501 to 5,000 subscribers: $49 per month
• 5,001 to 10,000 subscribers: $69 per month
• 10,001 to 25,000 subscribers: $149 per month

If you own 25,000+ subscribers on your mailing list, then you have to contact Aweber for a quotation.

Moreover, a completely free version of Aweber is available. The free version permits users to use most of Aweber features as long as the user mailing list is shorter than 500 subscribers (after that, users require to subscribe to a paid plan). 

A 14% discount is available if the user pays quarterly; a 14.9% discount is available if the user pays yearly. Aweber also offers some discounts to students and not-for-profit organizations.

Key features of Aweber

Aweber offers users with the following key features:

• the facility to import and host a mailing list
• a wide variety of templates
• autoresponders
• some (basic) marketing automation functionality
• active email designs
• reporting
• split testing
• RSS / blog to-email functionality
• list segmentation options
• a landing page builder
• phone, email and live chat support
• integrations with third-party apps

Let’s move forward and learn more about its features.

Hosting your list / importing data into Aweber

Importing an existent email database into Aweber is a simple and straightforward task.

Users can upload the following file types:

• XLS
• XLSX
• TSV
• CSV
• TXT

Alternatively, users can manually add specific subscribers or copy and paste a series of subscribers into the tool. As users import the data, they get the option to add subscribers to a particular set of autoresponders and tag them. A substantial component of the Aweber import process is the way users can add subscribers to autoresponder cycles.

For anti-spam purposes, users have to answer some questions about how they have collected the importing data. Suppose users have a more exhaustive list (over 10,000 records). In that case, the user may also have to abide until analyzed by Aweber’s anti-spam compliance team (as is the case with other email marketing tools). 

Templates

Aweber provides one of the most massive sets of HTML e-newsletter templates available compared to its competitors: there are more than 700 templates available. Two hundred twenty templates available for Getresponse, 80 for Mailchimp, and around 50 for Campaign Monitor provide a bit of context.

Responsive email designs

Aweber’s email templates are ‘responsive.’ It means that they are device friendly as they automatically resize themselves to fill the device as they are being viewed on due to the digitalization; it’s an essential feature.

Users also have access to preview the mobile version of email quickly within Aweber — users need to click a preview button and toggle a ‘mobile preview’ switch to check how your e-newsletter will have a look on a smartphone.

 Employing web fonts in Aweber templates

Aweber allows its users to use web-fonts. It is a good thing because web fonts are normally more engaging than the standard ‘safe fonts’ (Times New Roman, Arial, etc.). Email marketing apps frequently restrict users to; judiciously used, they can considerably enhance an email’s appearance.

Moreover, depending on the typefaces users apply for the website, they can also support users to achieve more brand compatibility within your site and e-newsletters.

Aweber currently enables users to utilize the following fonts in your emails:

• Arvo
• Lato
• Lora
• Merriweather
• Merriweather sans
• Noticia Text
• Open Sans
• Playfair Display
• Roboto
• Source Sans Pro
• Permanent Marker

Autoresponders

Autoresponders are a range of follow up emails that get automatically triggered by scheduling time or user actions.

For instance, users can build a schedule of autoresponders so that

• whenever somebody signs up to the mailing list, they instantly receive a welcome message from your business
• one week later they get a discount code for a product
• three weeks later they get an encouragement to follow you on social media and so on.

Because it can assist you save time and make money, they are normally a key part of any e-marketing solution.

As per Aweber, they have developed autoresponders back in 1998, and therefore, you’d expect their autoresponder functionality to be exceptionally good. 

In Aweber, it is really simple to set up follow up emails based on the time interval.

For instance, automatically sending subscribers an onboarding email instantly after sign up, a promo code 2 days later and a ‘follow us on social media’ email a week later is much easier.  

But the options available to trigger autoresponders are based on user activities and purchases are less extensive than you will get in competing products.

While using Aweber you can have ‘goals’ or combine automation rules with tagging to create autoresponders that behave in reasonably sophisticated ways. Suppose you need to use autoresponders in really advanced ways. 

Marketing automation

Marketing automation is of the most important features that are offered by email marketing solutions like Aweber. 

Marketing automation in Aweber

Recently, Aweber launched a new marketing automation function, which, to a degree, implements this functionality: ‘Aweber Campaigns.’ In these features, users have choices like- opens and click-throughs and the application of tags (that can be triggered whenever a user visits a particular page on your site) to decide what should be sent to whom and when.

AMP for Email in Aweber

Aweber is one of those email marketing platforms that involves a new technology called AMP for Email.  AMP for Email changes makes it possible for recipients to take actions within an email — i.e., without abandoning their email program or visiting a website.

It enables the senders of an email to include dynamic content into it — for example, live survey results, weather updates, football scores, etc.

Opt-in processes

Aweber allows users to manage the opt-in process.

Users have an option to subscribe either to a single opt-in or a double opt-in basis.

Both methods have their benefits, so it’s good to see Aweber being adjustable in this regard.

Split testing

Split testing (also known as A/B testing) means sending alternatives of your e-newsletters to some of your mailing lists, controlling each’s performance, and giving the ‘best’ version to the remainder of your list.

With Aweber, users can send up to three variants of your e-newsletter when split testing. 

Reporting

Email analytics in Aweber are great. Apart from monitor key stats such as open rate, clickthroughs, and bounces, users can also look at other useful analytics/information, including the extension of lists over time a summary of sign up methods where people are opening your Email (i.e., geographical location) the history of an individual’s activity – you can view past opens and clicks, etc. at a per-subscriber level and much else besides.

Landing page builder

Landing pages are those web pages designed while keeping one thing in mind: data capturing. They typically comprise a form, some attractive images, and a small amount of text telling the advantage of submitting your email address. They typically capture data more efficiently than forms placed on conventional websites, simply because there are fewer disturbances available — no navigation, offers or content to take concentration away from a sign-up form is present.

Aweber has recently started landing pages as a new feature — users can now utilize the platform to create simple landing pages that can be used in association with advertising campaigns.

Integrations with third-party apps

Aweber allows a decent range of integrations with other solutions. There are about some hundred integrations available that allow users to connect Aweber to several types of cloud-based software — web builders like Wix or WordPress; CRM tools like Salesforce; landing pages like Instapage and so on.

Aweber support

Aweber’s support is one of the most compelling features of the product.

Phone support, email support, and live chat support are all available — this weighs very favorably with some key competitors, including Getresponse, Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, and Mad Mimi, none of which offers phone support.

Additionally, there are no loops to go through to contact support: important phone numbers and email details can be seen very easily on the company’s contact page, without any need to trawl ‘knowledge bases’ or fill in any forms beforehand.

Aweber Review: summary

Overall we would recommend Aweber as a reliable email marketing tool. It is not the perfect product of its kind available. Still, it is reliable, reasonably priced, simple to use, and contains most of the key features users can expect from an email marketing solution.