BigMailer Review - Cost-Effective Email Marketing

What Is BigMailer?

This platform gives you a tool with which you can create and maintain email marketing campaigns with a variety of automation and design options. Integration with Amazon SES means they can save on costs and concentrate more on the product, passing these benefits onto the customer.

BigMailer Pros & Cons

Pros

• Simple interface - Navigating your account is easy once you get used to it, with clearly labeled sections and little descriptions at each step to understand what you’re doing. The campaign design all happens in one place, with an included option to test what the final product looks like before sending

• Live support - An integrated live chat widget gives you easy access to help at any time you need. If you decide to upgrade to a paid account, you can benefit from free setup assistance as part of the plan

• Low costs - By operating through Amazon SES, BigMailer is able to keep its operating costs down and then pass those savings on to you. Their cost friendly pricing plans start at just $10 for a very generous 10,000 contacts and unlimited emails. Bargain!

• Multiple accounts - Being able to add multiple SES accounts to your plan is a massive bonus for those working with multiple brands or clients with different needs, and with the higher plans there’s no limit to how many accounts you can integrate

Cons

• No form/landing page creator - While there’s an option to make a form and paste the URL of an existing landing page, there isn’t any option to design your own within this tool. If you want to create your own, you’ll have to use external tools and import the end product

• No A/B testing - You always want to ensure your marketing emails are well received, and being able to trial two campaign variations before sending the best is a great way to increase interactions. Unfortunately, you won’t be doing any of that here

Who Is BigMailer Recommended For?

Email marketing platforms can sometimes come at a hefty price, but BigMailer turns its back on that trend with prices that won’t leave a burning hole in your pocket. If you have an Amazon SES account, or are going to be setting one up, this integrated service will give you everything you need to start automating your email campaigns.

Who Is BigMailer Not Recommended For?

There isn’t much to offer in terms of integration other than Zapier compatibility, which might put you off if you already have other systems in place and after some deeper integrations.

It probably goes without saying now if you’ve read up to here, but you’ll need to set up your own Amazon SES account before you can start sending campaigns; although, you can still sign up and test the interface before then.

BigMailer Pricing

BigMailer generously gives you access to the software and all its features in its entirety, even on the free Startup plan. The main difference in price lies with how many contracts you’ve subscribed to and the number of accounts you want to set up. The “white label” feature, introduced in the Agency plan, gives you permission to outsource your account to other clients.

Cancellation / Refund Policies

While these plans are priced monthly without any long-term contracts, you’ll still be entitled to a refund on request provided you haven’t used the service during this time and have removed all your contacts. 

Downgrades and cancellations are granted if you’re below the contact limit for the price you’re downgrading to - after which you can change your subscription in your account settings.

BigMailer Features

As well as saving operational costs by integrating with Amazon SES, BigMailer has been able to focus more on their software. Let’s take a look at what features they provide and see if that time has been put to good use!

·       Ease of Use

If you’re wary about adopting a new piece of software, you’ll be at ease with the built-in tutorials provided here. When you first enter the platform, you’re given an interactive tour with a visual overview of important functions and usage tips and access to a live chat widget for help at any time.

·       Multiple Accounts

Do you have a business with various branding needs? Maybe you provide consulting for various clients? With the potential to add multiple accounts to one subscription comes the added benefit of organization, so you can easily ping templates between different accounts and share your mailing lists.

·       Free Plan

Where some other email marketing platforms restrict certain features on a free plan, BigMailer gives you full access to all the tools available on paid plans along with unlimited sending. So, if you have a contact list under 1,000, you don’t have to pay a penny for a fully capable marketing machine.

·       Email Templates

With a library containing over 50 editable templates to choose from, you’ll be able to find somewhere to start when designing your own campaigns. You can choose between a HTML and drag-and-drop editor, with templates available for each. If you have multiple linked accounts, you can take advantage of being able to freely transfer designs between different brands.

·       Multiple Email Purposes

Bulk sending capabilities combined with some advanced automation means you can cover all grounds for your email sending needs. This platform allows you to send marketing, automated drip campaigns and transactional emails all from one place.

·       Drag-and-Drop Editor

The built-in email designer turns designing email campaigns into a quick, easy process and comes with a library of over 500,000 stock images to use. You can quickly access a preview window to test how your layout fares on different screen size and make sure your designs are optimized for mobile before firing them off.

·       Geolocation Marketing

Sign-up forms come with the option to import the IP address of anyone who uses it. BigMailer can then use that data to track where your customers are most active; information you can then feed into your marketing emails to create more effective, personalized campaigns. 

FEATURES SCORE: 4/5

BigMailer Automation Features

RSS automation - Send an automated email to keep your users updated whenever you make a new change to your site. This could be especially useful for bloggers to keep your audience coming back.

Transactional - Automate follow-up emails for specific product sales through APIs with confirmations and follow-up promotions to keep customers engaged.

Email marketing automation - Selecting “Automation Campaign” when creating a new campaign gives you the ability to create email drip sequences, which will be sent when meeting set triggers and rules.

BigMailer Software Integration

Before you get up and running, BigMailer requires you to integrate your Amazon SES account to start sending your campaigns. 

In terms of compatibility with other applications, BigMailer relies on Zapier, where you can set up simple integrations between different applications. Decent use of this is for importing new contacts through signup forms if you have a shopping or blogging platform with Zapier functionality.

For more advanced reporting, you can integrate your campaigns with Google Analytics if you’re comfortable with a bit of coding to get set up.

BigMailer Alternative Brands

Constant Contact - If you’re wanting your business to grow, this platform will help you build your brand with features ranging from website building to marketing and selling. An emphasis on export support to help you through this process makes for a formidable service.

MailerLite - For the more creative minds, this will give you an email marketing service with some solid features for email, website, and form design. Plus, it comes with some advanced automation capabilities and ways to finetune your campaigns.

Benchmark Email - With its unlimited email sending on paid plans and competitive pricing, Benchmark provides a solid platform for bulk sending needs without having to break the bank. You’ll get sophisticated automation features and advanced reporting with over 1,500 integrations to dive into.

Conclusion

For a cost-effective email marketing tool, you can’t really go wrong with BigMailer! The low price in no way means low quality, and if you’re fine sacrificing a couple of features like A/B Testing and advanced integrations, you’ll find yourself with a powerful tool for automating your campaigns.