by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I’ve used MailChimp for years, but I’m one of the many writers who is now abandoning ship as the platform experiments with new pricing and a different direction (toward customer relationship management). For many writers, the costs won’t make sense for basic email newsletter marketing.
I have dreaded making a change since I realized I’d need to. I changed banks in March and it was a heinous task, taking two 8-hour days to dump a bank I’d used for the last 20 years. It did end up being worth it, though, as I’m sure this change will be.
One reason it’s a pain is the fact that MailChimp is everywhere in regard to my stuff…on Facebook, integrated through WordPress on my site, as an email signup link for over 30 books, on my Amazon author page…the list goes on and on. I’m not sure why I didn’t set up a landing page on my own site and then use the service’s form on it…but apparently, that’s exactly what I did. I even had a splash page, but didn’t use it to host my newsletter signup. I certainly won’t be taking that approach again, obviously.
If you paid for a MailChimp pay-as-you-go plan, as I did, you may have to delay leaving (not sure how or if they refund that money, so I just decided to send out one last email). All of my final changes are taking place after my last MailChimp newsletter. So far, I’ve set up a new account with the new service and have transferred my subscribers (the audience is still also at MailChimp for that last newsletter).
So far, the change has been easy because it’s been automated.
More Information on Why You Should Consider a Change
I’m going to direct you to the most-detailed and easiest-to-understand post, written by David Gaughran.
My Choice for a New Provider
I looked at various options and decided on MailerLite, which has an option to pull over MailChimp subscribers and is relatively inexpensive. Other popular options that writers use are ConvertKit, Mad Mimi, and ActiveCampaign.
If You Decide on MailerLite
David Gaughran has yet another great post on how to change from MailChimp to MailerLite.
Another helpful post is from Rachel McCollin with the ALLi group. She also details how to switch from MailChimp to MailerLite, plus offers ideas for ‘future proofing’ mailing list sign-ups so we won’t be in the same boat if we have to switch newsletter services in the future (heaven forbid!)
I’ll update everyone later as to how the switch went from my end. :)
What email service do you use? Are you considering switching?
Changing Newsletter Providers: Resources: Share on XPhoto credit: Felinest on Visualhunt / CC BY
I wonder if Mailchimp will reconsider when everyone abandons ship?
Squarespace introduced its own mail service. The first year has been free, but I’m about to send out DLP’s last free newsletter. But I’ll pay the small fee to keep it, as it’s all part of the website, which is nice.
From what I’ve read, I think they’re almost trying to run customers like us off.
Good tip about Squarespace!
Thanks for sharing your experience, Elizabeth. I keep going back and forth about whether to do a newsletter. Perhaps at some point I will, and it’s good to know what Mailchimp’s doing. Lots to think about here…
The good thing is that there are options!
I haven’t sent a newsletter in a really long time, but I was using a service called Mailgen. I tried MailChimp first, but for me, it was a pain in the buns. Mailgen was really easy, so I stuck with it. Then again, I had like a dozen subscribers last I checked, so your mileage may vary.
Good luck with your transition!
MailChimp was not intuitive! They did have a pretty good help section which I used…a *lot*. I won’t miss some of my challenges there. And thanks for the tip!
I haven’t actually sent out a newsletter yet. Wondering if I might be switching before I even start :)
If you’re looking at MailChimp, I’d go ahead and make the change! Their ‘forever free’ is going to be radically changing. :(
This sounds terribly familiar! I made the switch a few months ago, including changing all the links in my books and elsewhere to a landing page on my website. I did it because the amount I was paying MailChimp every month for barely over 2,000 subscribers was a whole lot more than what MailerLite would charge me.
There are a few differences, but overall, I’ve been happy with the change.
Now, as another cost-cutting measure, I’m not going to renew my self-hosted WordPress site. I’m going back to Blogger, which is not only free, but a lot simpler to use. I never intend on selling anything from my website, Blogger now supports SSL on personal domain sites (it didn’t a couple of years ago, which was one of the reasons I switched), and I hate all the constant theme and plug-in updates on WP. IF I need more functionality in the future, I’ll pay for it then.
Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking! I must have been in a fog to link to MailChimp for my newsletter signup. Ugh. So sorry you went through this, too!
I’ve been happy with WordPress, but I know exactly what you mean: it can be a major pain in the neck to operate the site. It’s definitely not intuitive and sometimes it has odd quirks that I have to hire help to fix. As you mentioned, there is also quite a bit of oversight in terms of updates (unless you hire your hosting company to handle that for you…and that’s not cheap). Good to hear that Blogger supports secure sites now!
If they are trying to run off customers then this is the way to do it.
I always say that change in the long run is usually a better deal than from we came, but I understand why people hate change. Sooo much work. :)
The only newsletter I’ve had sent out was at my job– a social worker newsletter where I kept parent informed of resources that I had. We use our website now to inform the parents on what the school is doing.
Teresa C.
A lot of work, for sure! But I’ll do it right this time. :)
A good idea to use the school website that way!
I only use Mailchimp to send news updates to the members of a writing group I belong to. Needless to say, we’re looking for another service also. They must be losing tons of users with all the changes they’re making.
What a pain for all of us! The only good thing that’s coming out of it, for me, is that I’ll be even more careful in the future as to how I set up things. Everything needs to be based from my own website to make changes easier.