Is your team looking at Mailchimp alternatives for communications professionals? Like you, we know that Mailchimp has good features for marketers who are focused on lead generation. But eventually, communications professionals find themselves looking at the Mailchimp alternatives on the market.
Mailchimp is simply not made for communicators, who have a different mission, serve different stakeholders, and need different tools. (One of the main features comms pros needs it the ability to send important emails even to unsubscribed contacts. Marketers don’t need this functionality, but communicators absolutely do.) Mailchimp doesn’t offer it, and it’s one of the key reasons communications professionals jump ship.
Are you a communicator working at an organization like a university, an association, or in the public sector? Is your work centered on informing and educating stakeholders (rather than selling stuff) but you find yourself stuck using marketer’s tools? You can do better! This blog will break down the problem and consider the solutions. We will:
- Discuss how communications professionals’ needs are distinct from marketers.
- Survey some key features communicators need from an email marketing platform.
- Review the best products on the market to meet those needs. Some of them are cheaper than Mailchimp.
(Perhaps your research is complete and you’re ready to try the best Mailchimp alternative for communications professionals. Envoke is email marketing software purpose-built for communication – not lead generation. We prioritize data in Canada, offer robust subscription and list management, and uniquely offer the ability to send opt-in or mandatory emails. Give us a 30-day trial for free. )
Try Envoke today: Create a free trial account.
Email for communication, not lead generation.
- Includes ALL Envoke features.
- No credit card needed for trial.
- Free, unlimited support.
- Free coaching call with tech support (not sales).
3 Ways Communicators are Different from Marketers
Their skill sets overlap, but communicators and marketers have distinctly different missions. Communications professionals are relationship builders who inform and educate their stakeholders. Marketers deal with leads and look to increase revenue by driving customer acquisition, retention, and loyalty.
Marketers sell. Communicators tell.
1. Communicators and marketers have different goals
Communicators strive to build trust, establish credibility, and protect their organization’s brand. They accomplish this by communicating and sharing information across multiple platforms including email and social media.
Marketers promote products and services to boost a company’s revenue. They work across similar channels: email, social media, paid media, and events.
2. Short-term vs. long-term focus
Communicators are almost always focused on long-term relationship building. Their stakeholders might include alumni, staff, union members, association members, and constituents. These relationships often last for years.
Marketers’ relationships are defined by leads and conversions. Their work is by necessity short-term because their goal is to attract leads and convert them into customers. (Once the leads have converted into customers, the relationship changes significantly, and likely moves to a different department.) Marketers are typically focused on the next campaign. Long-term relationships are not their focus or their goal.
3. Different KPIs to measure success
Communicators do not deal in ROI the way marketers do. They measure success through engagement metrics, the number of emails opened and even simply the number of emails delivered.
Marketers are looking for conversion. Engagement metrics matter too, but the real goal is to turn contacts into leads. If there is a call to action in an email, marketers are completely focused on encouraging their contact to act on it.
Mailchimp Alternatives Like Envoke Have the Features You Need: Not the Ones You Don’t
These distinct needs mean communicators eventually find themselves perusing the Mailchimp alternatives on the market. It’s not just that Mailchimp doesn’t have what you need. It also can feel cluttered with features that communicators don’t need like complicated e-commerce integrations.
“Envoke has very customizable features. We used to use Mailchimp and Envoke is an excellent alternative!”
Samantha Bruin / BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Shopping for Mailchimp Alternatives?
Features Communications Professionals Need
Mandatory Messaging
One thing a Mailchimp alternative designed for communications professionals must do is differentiate between optional and mandatory consent – and allow you to send messages even to unsubscribed contacts.
Mailchimp (and other email marketing platforms like Constant Contact) will absolutely not allow you to do this. That’s because anti-spam legislation including CASL and CAN-SPAM strictly prohibits sending commercial emails to unsubscribed contacts.
But communications professionals at organizations including universities, associations, municipalities, and regulatory bodies, do not send commercial messages and frequently require this functionality.
Their emails update stakeholders with mandatory information such as health and safety briefs, contractual updates, and staff scheduling changes. Their contacts are required to receive this information, regardless of their subscription status.
There is only one email marketing platform with this feature: Envoke. Purpose-built for communicators, Envoke understands your unique needs and has a straightforward, but very robust Mandatory Messaging feature that serves organizations with a contractual or regulatory requirement to send messages even to unsubscribed contacts.
Next-Level Email List Management and Segmentation
Too often, communicators find themselves shoe-horning their well-crafted content plans into the confines of their email marketing program. The best email marketing platforms will offer you new possibilities that you haven’t considered – not force you to execute your plans their way because there’s only one option.
An email marketing platform for communicators should:
- Increase engagement and build stronger relationships with next-level segmentation and personalization tools.
- Segment your lists to target users with the correct content and use a tool like Envoke’s merge fields tool to display custom, personalized data from your contact’s profile.
- Go beyond the basic first name in the salutation, and let you include data from any custom fields you set up, like a student ID number or an account number.
- Save time and reduce error with dynamic content blocks that let you prepare and send a single email to a large list – but show (or hide) specific blocks of content, depending on recipients’ interests. For example, an email with mostly static content can include a specific section shown only to board members, and another only to staff.
- Offer a customizable unsubscribe page to reflect your brand and style. This lets you empower your users and build trust by giving them control over their own subscriptions.
- Envoke ticks all of these boxes.
Really Great Human Support
Your email marketing platform should have friendly, accessible, human support with every plan. Look for free onboarding, and support via chat, email, or phone.
Customer-centric companies like Envoke will even hop on a Zoom call or screen-share if a complex problem arises. Envoke’s support is provided by our in-house technical team – it is not outsourced – and our chat responses are personalized to your problem. For simple how-tos, our self-service knowledge base is always available, with hundreds of support articles and easy-to-follow videos.
When you’re shopping for Mailchimp alternatives, be sure to check out a company’s Capterra reviews and customer testimonials. And look for a free trial period where you can experience the complete product with full support and a customized coaching call from a technical support team, not a salesperson.
Pricecheck: Are There Mailchimp Alternatives That Are Cheaper Than Mailchimp?
If you’ve been shopping for better Mailchimp alternatives for communications professionals, you may know that Mailchimp offers a free tier and low-cost entry-level plans. These may work for you if you are a very small business or organization.
TIP: Do a careful audit of your email needs before setting your sites on a free Mailchimp tier and deciding to scale with the product. Mailchimp’s pricing tiers are complicated with caps on number of contacts and mails sent. If you go over those parameters, you’ll incur costly overages which can add up very quickly.
Mailchimp’s free account is very limited.
- Max. 500 contacts. (You will be charged if you go over.)
- No dynamic content.
- No on-going support.
Depending on your needs, there are Mailchimp alternatives that are better-suited for communications professionals, and cheaper than Mailchimp, too.
Straightforward Pricing and Robust Functionality From Envoke
Envoke offers straightforward, contact-based pricing with unlimited email sending, plus unlimited subscription lists, tagging, and segmentation options. All accounts get full, unlimited support.
- Visit Envoke’s pricing page: a quick scan will show you exactly what you’ll pay.
Most of our customers find that Envoke’s pricing compares very favorably to Mailchimp. And if you’re a communicator – not a marketer – you’ll find our features much more suitable to your needs.
Ready to give Envoke a try? Create a free account for a 30-day trial period. You’ll experience Envoke’s full functionality and even receive a free coaching call from our tech support team, not sales!
Try Envoke today: Create a free trial account.
Email for communication, not lead generation.
- Includes ALL Envoke features.
- No credit card needed for trial.
- Free, unlimited support.
- Free coaching call with tech support (not sales).
Best Mailchimp Alternatives for Communications Professionals
Envoke
Purpose-built for communication (not lead generation) Envoke is an email marketing platform made specifically to meet communicator’s needs. Communicators looking for Mailchimp alternatives with purpose-built features to suit their distinct needs should know about Envoke.
Read our Case Study from McGill University
Trusted by communications professionals at post-secondary institutions, associations, and municipalities, Envoke makes it easy to manage multiple subscription lists, while sending secure, compliant email. Our Mandatory Messaging feature which lets you email even unsubscribed contacts with essential information is a game-changer for most organizations. Envoke is flexible and straightforward to use, without the feature clutter of products like Mailchimp. For communicators, Envoke is one of the very best Mailchimp alternatives on the market.
Features:
- Mandatory Messaging that lets you send email even to unsubscribed contacts
- Data in Canada
- Powerful, unlimited lists and segmentation
- Dynamic content capabilities
- Friendly, accessible, human support
- Straightforward pricing
- 30-day free trial period lets you test drive our full platform.
Other Mailchimp Alternatives for Communications Professionals
Contact Monkey
Cloud-based email marketing product for internal communications.
Pros: Easy email creation for internal communications.
Cons: Focused on internal communications only. Customer satisfaction for support is very low.
Constant Contact
Well-known email marketing platform focused on SMB.
Pros: Good deliverability rates.
Cons: Made for marketers, not communicators. Segmentation only available on higher tiers.
Campaign Monitor
Email marketing service with rich templates, and powerful analytics.
Pros: Powerful analytics and intuitive interface.
Cons: Difficult to import contacts and lacks live support with some tiers. Made for marketers.
