Sendy Review - Email Marketing On A Budget

What Is Sendy?

Sendy is a tool for sending email newsletter campaigns through Amazon SES with an array of features to help increase your ROI. Their one-time fee makes them stand out from other similar services, resulting in one of the cheapest bits of kit for email marketing currently out there.

Sendy Pros & Cons

Pros

• One-time fee - Unlike many other similar platforms, Sendy doesn’t operate on a subscription payment plan. Instead, they give you full access for a one time fee of $69. An absolute bargain if you ask me!

• List management - Break down your contact list by using set conditions to create custom groups for specific email campaigns. Keeping your lists tidy is important, and the ability to automatically clean them up and remove subscribers who don’t interact with any campaign is a good way to improve overall deliverability

• White label your account - If you offer email marketing services to clients, you’re able to white label your Sendy account as a tool for others to use, sending through different emails and group contacts separately. You can then adjust permissions and impose sending limits on each account too

• Low sending costs - Sending large amounts of emails can be costly with some services. But by integrating with Amazon SES, you’re able to send an unlimited amount of emails for next to nothing. As a quick example, sending 10,000 emails will only cost you a measly $1

Cons

• Limited advanced features - Certain features can be quite basic in comparison to some advanced capabilities offered elsewhere. There’s the lack of a drag-and-drop email builder, A/B testing and advanced tagging if those are on your list of requirements

• Initial sending caps - If you’re new to Amazon SES, you’ll be capped with the amount of emails you send (200/day initially). You’ll only be able to increase this limit gradually by request, where you’ll have to state your purpose and have a proven track record. This can take time

• Requires tech knowledge - When you first purchase Sendy, you’ll have to download it, create a path, integrate an SQL database with a bit of coding, and integrate it with Amazon SES. Sounds a bit complicated, but if you don’t mind spending a bit extra, Sendy can do all that for you

Who Is Sendy Recommended For?

This software is great if you need a simple, albeit capable, tool for conducting email campaigns. Why pay over the odds for advanced features and integrated CRMs if you’re not gonna use them? 

The low cost here makes it extremely accessible for anyone to jump on without the price barriers usually associated with advanced tools.

Who Is Sendy Not Recommended For?

If you’re planning on using this to send email which could be deemed as spam or low quality, you might run into problems here. 

Amazon SES has a strict anti-spam policy and demands a high reputation, so if you don’t meet their standards, you could face limitations or a block. Seeing as this is through Amazon’s policy, Sendy won’t be able to help you if you face any deliverability issues.

Sendy Pricing

$69

“Is that it?” I hear you shout. Yep, really. For a one time fee of $69, you’re given full access to all the features this software provides. You’ll still need to pay for the amount of emails you send through Amazon SES, but the low cost of using this service means you save literally hundreds compared to other sending platforms. Take a look for yourself with these comparisons.

Cancellation / Refund Policies

You’ll be given a full refund for this product if you make a request within 60 days from the day of purchase. As this is a one time fee, there’s no subscription costs and therefore, there’s no need for cancellation. Although updates are given for free, Sendy reserves the right to charge a small fee for major updates, which is always below the price you initially paid.

Sendy Features

While not offering the super fancy features and advanced capabilities available on other platforms, there’s still loads of things for you to sink your teeth into here.

·      Visual reporting

See all your campaign data clearly in one place without having to export anything or transfer data between software. This makes for an easily digestible overview which you can analyze and then use to benefit your next campaign.

·      Multiple Brands

If you have the purpose for multiple branding, Sendy allows you to send from multiple email domains; conduct one campaign from “johndoe@company1.com” , and another from “johndoe@company2”. Within each brand, you can then make unlimited lists to control your sending. If you’re using this for multiple clients, you can impose limitations on sending and permissions for each one.

·      Dark Mode

Looking at brilliant white screens all day can’t be doing any good for our eyes. While this feature might not be a deal-breaker, I for one love a dark mode and it’s something I don’t really see as much as I’d like to, so it’s a welcome addition here for me.

·      Stupidly Low Price

I wouldn’t usually list the pricing as a feature, but here it’s hard not to. Probably the biggest pull of using this software is the fact you only have to pay for it once and at a cost equivalent to taking someone out for lunch. It’s a steal.

·      Custom Tagging

As well as an email and name, you can create and store custom tags that you can then segment by to create custom lists based on specific characteristics. You can use this information to then send personalized emails. For example “Hi John, here are some local vendors for you near Austin, Texas”, where the underlined name and country are automatically assigned.

·      Autoresponders

The ability to send an automated response can open the door to more possibilities and better engagement. This autoresponder isn’t as sophisticated as others (I’ll be getting into that next) but still presents as a useful feature for launching campaigns or welcoming new subscribers.

·      List Segmentation

Being able to filter your contact list by different parameters makes it easy to quickly get a group of customers with similar characteristics together for an effective, targeted marketing campaign. 

FEATURES SCORE: 2.5/5

Sendy Automation Features

I mentioned the autoresponder feature earlier, which is fit for purposes such as launching blanket campaigns and sending personalized welcome emails or scheduled newsletters. However, it comes with its limitations. These automations are set from the get go, meaning you can’t make advanced drip campaigns to react differently for customers based on how they engage, or create funnels which rely on tracking customer behaviors. 

A useful automation feature sits within list management, where you can automatically remove users, bounced addresses and unsubscribed users. List maintenance is a good way of keeping a solid sending reputation, so it’s very useful.

Sendy Software Integration

To initially set up your Sendy account, you’ll have to manually download the app on your workstation and integrate it with servers, databases and websites. This can be a bit fiddly, but there’s a step-by-step guide and the option for a setup service if you opt into that. 

For third-party integrations, Sendy is compatible with over 2,000 apps in Zapier through automation queries. To make things easier, their website gives you a list of pre-made Zaps that you’re free to use and know will work.

Sendy Alternative Brands

EmailOctopus - Giving you some powerful yet simple features to play with, this tool is a great way to give your campaigns some flair and have them up and running quickly. The payment plan also comes with the option to link your Amazon SES account for even cheaper sending.

MailerLite - For those that just want a basic tool to easily design and automate marketing campaigns, MailerLite will give you just that. A simple, user-friendly interface without all the fancy gimmicks makes it a great tool for efficiency. 

SendX - Top notch customer support, unlimited emails on every paid plan and some expansive features for creating targeted campaigns. You get all the tools you need here to start enjoying the benefits of email campaigning and a helping hand to guide you through the process.

Conclusion

For simple but effective marketing needs, you’ll find it difficult to come across another service that offers the same value for money that you see here. 

As long as you’re not going on spamming sprees and are committed to maintaining a healthy delivery rate, you shouldn’t have any problems here. Saving potentially hundreds every month isn’t a bad incentive, either.