Cheap / simple email newsletter - any recommendations?

[Jheath]

We rent out our holiday cottage in the welsh borders via our website http://www.littlecottagewales.co.uk It was very popular last year with lots of positive feedback despite the rather wet summer.

I'd like to include a newsletter signup box on the site, and link it to a mailing list managment programme so we can send out regular news and offers, both to previous and potential guests. I understand there are some that can manage "unsubscribe" requests automatically, we don't want to send anything people didn't want to receive.

Does anyone use this kind of thing and any recommendations? We would only have a small number of subscribers initially (around 50 maybe?) but hopefully this would grow.

Peoples thoughts and ideas, as ever, highly appreciated!

Jeremy

 

[Jheath]

One I've found that seems to do the job is here:
http://www.aardvarkmailinglist.net/
but any better / recommended alternatives?

 

[iboxsecurity]

we design and manage newsletters for many of our customers and im sure we could help out and customize a plan to suit your budget. We would be very interested in hearing from you so drop us an email [email protected] to discuss further.

 

[HSLS]

I use 'your mailng list provider' who are very reasonably priced, and I manage to use it, so must be fairly simple.

 

[Jheath]

I use 'your mailng list provider' who are very reasonably priced, and I manage to use it, so must be fairly simple.

yeah but you speak, teach and translate foreign languages and that's not simple!

Thanks Helen, I'll take a look at it, thanks for the suggestion!

(BTW I just got "The Works" through my door at home and noticed your advert in it - it looks very professional. Will be in touch after new year about translating product descriptions on the website as promised)

 

[nateski]

Hey

When people sign up to your site you could have a pre written auto responder that gets sent to them every xxx days, weeks or months etc.... you could write top ten places to visit when staying at (your cottage) or top ten tips to booking a holiday cottage and have it pre written, make sure every autoresponder that gets sent has a link and contact details on the bottom!!!

 

[Jheath]

Thats a great idea about an auto responder - many thanks!
I've signed up for aardvarkmailinglist but it's too clunky. It's a double opt-in with too much info required and not enough control and customisation.

yourmailinglistprovider looks much more flexible and customisable. We can import all the previous customers / enquirers too! Brilliant

 

[HSLS]

yeah but you speak, teach and translate foreign languages and that's not simple!

Thanks Helen, I'll take a look at it, thanks for the suggestion!

(BTW I just got "The Works" through my door at home and noticed your advert in it - it looks very professional. Will be in touch after new year about translating product descriptions on the website as promised)

Look forward to hearing from you. Hope you've had a relaxing time over Christmas.

 

[Sunburn]

my recommendation is www.mailchimp.com

fantastic newsletter/mailing service used it several times.

If you need a low cost but professional solution Id be happy to help, feel free to pm me or check out my portfolio.

www.geoff-moore.co.uk

 

[nateski]

i am actually getting into this forum, most forums are useless, but this is excellent.

 

[Silky]

Hi Jeremy,
we use www.constantcontact.com for exactly the service you describe. It's free to trial and the monthly cost depends on the volume of contacts but it's very reasonable. We have a sign up box on our front page, provided by constant contact, their software manages the opt-outs and they have a great choice of templates that you can customise with your own logos/ colours/ images etc or basically just redesign.

Silky

 

[Jheath]

Thanks Silky, I'm spoiled for choice now! Very tempted by Helens experience with youmailinglistprovider.com, it seems to tick all the boxes for almost no cost. But I'll take a good look at constantcontact too - many thanks!

 

[computaguy]

i am actually getting into this forum, most forums are useless, but this is excellent.

There are serious issues between me and the wife.... I spend so much time on here in the evening she thinks I am having an affair!

 

[F1SEO]

We run an email/newsletter manager, it's not a free one though. It's Active Campaign http://activecampaign.com/12all/ - it's a great piece of software and is something I don't know what we'd do without it. It generates the signup forms, complete with Captcha, has autoresponders and unlimited lists, and personalisation of the emails. It's got it all.

We bought this about 1yr ago, and it cost $199 then , which translated to about £120 when the exchange was really good. Now it's a bit more expensive and the exchange rate isn't so favourable.

If you're going to be paying £10-£15 a month on a hosted solution think about having your own software. In yr 2 it will save you money.

 

[sjt]

www.youmailinglistprovider.com

....just comes up with a page full of adverts for me....?

 

[HSLS]

....just comes up with a page full of adverts for me....?

try this http://www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/

 

[sjt]

doh!
Thanks

 

[AndyBlack]

I created my own opt in mailing list for one of my sites. Just adds the details to a database and builds up from there. I then created an admin area where I can create my newsletter and send to all members with a click of a button. If you have a little php / mysql knowledge, it is quite simple to do.

 

[seo_uk]

would also vouch for yourmailinglistprovider.com, have found it very good value.

 

[Jo-WHG]

I use and would recommend mailchimp, I've used them for well over a year and found them to be reliable, easy to use, produce easy to understand reports on campaigns, great support and it's cheap - $15 for 500 emails sent. (not sure what the exchange rate is at the moment).

 

[sjt]

I use and would recommend mailchimp, I've used them for well over a year and found them to be reliable, easy to use, produce easy to understand reports on campaigns, great support and it's cheap - $15 for 500 emails sent. (not sure what the exchange rate is at the moment).

Looks pretty good...
They compare themselves with the rest here

http://www.mailchimp.com/

 

[jonlogix]

HI Jeremy,

Without trying to plug our own system but we work with a number of holiday cottages around the country who use our email marketing system (design-logix dot co dot uk) and it works very well for them and only costs £5.99 for 500 emails. If you want to have a look or need some advice on how to put a signup form on your site don't hesitate to contact me.

Also as others our saying Mail Chimp is a good solution or alternatively dotmailer i know their support is also very good!

All the best