MailPoet Review - Make Your Emails Sing

What Is MailPoet?

MailPoet is an email marketing plugin created for WordPress and more recently, WooCommerce. It makes it so that you can capture potential leads when they interact with your page, allowing you to grow your contact list. They also give you access to email marketing and sending tools to communicate and engage with your contacts.

MailPoet Pros & Cons

Pros

• Sending service - Making sure your emails get delivered to inboxes is important. MailPoet’s own sending service allows you to send bulk emails from its dedicated servers, decreasing the likelihood that your emails end up in that dreaded spam folder 

• Free account - You’re able to use MailPoet’s platform and all its features for free with up to 1,000 subscribers without any time limitations. If you’re just starting up and looking to grow, you might not want to commit to a paid plan until you can see the benefits. This can be a great chance to get used to the service without any financial burden

• Easy setup - This software works as an app integration, so you’re able to conduct all your email marketing tasks from the same place. You’ll already be familiar with the WordPress or WooCommerce interface if you’re looking at adding this service, so the fact you don’t have to learn a whole new UI makes for an easy tool to implement

• Integrated live support - On joining the premium plan, you’ll receive an integrated live chat feature for easy access to help and support. The app is very user friendly so you shouldn’t have too much trouble, but it’s there for you just in case!

Cons

• Only for WordPress/WooCommerce - This tool is only available to use as an add-on within the app marketplace of these platforms. A fairly obvious drawback of this is that if you don’t have a site or store on here, then you can’t use this service

• Basic forms - While MailPoet does have the capacity to create forms to be designed and applied to your site, you’ll find creative possibilities can be quite limited. There are other complimentary form building applications that you can then import into this tool, though

Who Is MailPoet Recommended For?

It’s ideal for small businesses, entrepreneurs and bloggers operating through WordPress or WooCommerce. If you already have a website using this platform, the free plan up to 1,000 subscribers is a very cost-effective way to start expanding your mailing lists and email sending capabilities.

This also gives you several functions in one, instead of having to download multiple integrations for the same uses.

Who Is MailPoet Not Recommended For?

In case you’ve been skimming (don’t worry, we all do) and you didn’t catch it before, you’re unable to use this tool if you don’t have an account with WordPress or WooCommerce. They also have a firm anti-spamming policy, something you should probably be aware of!

The prices, while starting competitively, can become ill-suited for large subscriber pools with advanced needs; some missing features such as A/B testing and advanced reporting are available on other platforms.

MailPoet Pricing

MailPoet has one single “Premium” plan including all features with the option to scale up based on the size of your contact list. If your contact list goes above 70,000, you’ll need to contact the company for custom pricing. While the above prices are for monthly payments, there are discounts available if you agree to a yearly contract.

There’s also the option of paying a flat-out fee for all the features without the email sending capabilities.

Cancellation/Refund Policies

For the flat-out payment option without the MailPoet sending service, you’re entitled to a 30-day refund if you’re unhappy with the product. This 30-day refund policy only applies to the monthly and annual subscription plan if you’ve not sent emails from the account during the requested time; or, in exceptional circumstances.

Cancellations are actionable through your account and the provider will let you know how long before it’ll come into effect.

MailPoet Features

MailPoet stands out from many other similar apps in that it can conduct multiple functions in one place, where you might otherwise have to use multiple integrations for the same purpose. Let’s get into what these are!

·       Ease of Use

The fact that this app integrates directly with your WordPress and WooCommerce platform means it operates using the same interface. Not having to learn a whole new system can save a massive hassle, but if you do get stuck, there’s still an integrated live support chat.

·       Website Forms

You can create opt-in forms that come in many varieties, including banners, pop-ups and direct placement. These can be placed in your WordPress site or during a purchase via WooCommerce to capture new leads so your email campaigns can reach more people.

·       Subscriber Cleanup

Sending emails to unresponsive subscribers can hurt your sending reputation and open rates. MailPoet comes with a function to automatically mark subscribers as inactive to overcome this problem, which you can then filter by to remove the deadweight. Pricing is based on the number of subscribers, so you could also save yourself a bit of money in the process.

·       WooCommerce Cart Rescue

This automation feature will send an email reminder to customers who’ve abandoned a potential sale on your site. An abandoned cart means the potential of a lost sale, which makes this a great way to improve sales and increase your ROI.

·       MailPoet Sending Service

Sending emails directly from WordPress can result in bad deliverability, but by having their own delivery infrastructure, MailPoet swerves around this problem. Boasting a 98.5% delivery rate, you can be assured your campaigns are hitting the right places.

·       Free Premium Account

Having all the features available to you on a limitless free plan is a very generous gift and if you have a subscriber list under 1,000, it becomes an absolute steal! There’s no commitments, and there’s always the option to upgrade if the tool works and your list starts growing.

·       Email Designer

The built-in email designer with its drag-and-drop functionality gives you all you need to create a unique, captivating email campaign. There’s a range of templates available to edit for multiple purposes, from newsletters and promotions to personalized reminders.

FEATURES SCORE: 3.5/5

MailPoet Automation Features

Email marketing automations - With MailPoet, you can schedule emails to send to specific subscriber lists at custom times. The aforementioned function is quite limited in that you can only automate one process at a time. This means that if you want to create a drip campaign, for example, you’ll have to repeat the process to schedule every email individually.

WooCommerce automations - Integration with your WooCommerce store comes with some really useful automation processes. Welcome messages, abandoned cart reminders and related product emails for specific purchases are all ways to increase your ROI, and all can be automated.

MailPoet Software Integration

Currently, MailPoet is only compatible with WordPress and WooCommerce, but the integration between these services is seamless and very easy to set up.

Despite only being able to integrate with these two platforms, you’re able to download other complimentary applications which will work in conjunction with your MailPoet account. These include multiple form designers and page builders.

MailPoet Alternative Brands

MailerLite - This platform also comes with a WordPress form plugin to capture leads and a form for WooCommerce amongst many other integrations. It has a limited free account with a 14 day premium trial, and a price plan which will scale with your business.

EmailOctopus - Also available as a WordPress plugin, EmailOctopus is an email marketing tool that gives you a range of great features to design, perform and analyze marketing campaigns. They have a free plan and scalable; plus, very affordable prices to allow your business to grow.

Sendx - This can be a great alternative if you need a tool with more advanced email marketing needs, but is still easy to use and affordable. Like the other presented alternatives, Sendx has an app within WordPress as well as many other integrations.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a great tool to take your WordPress site to the next level in terms of how it can grow your customer base and increase your marketing capabilities. 

However, I’d be more inclined to recommend this to smaller scale businesses with simple marketing needs. Some missing features, and limitations with others features, makes it less powerful than some other tools currently on the market.