Mailchimp VS All Clients Do you need an ESP, a CRM system or both? Both Mailchimp (Email Service Provider) and a CRM system are designed to make you money. They perform in 2 different ways, whilst CRMs are more focused on the sale an ESP like Mailchimp allows you to build and execute email marketing plans that nurture leads and current customers. CRMs are great for sending one-to-one sales emails. Email Service Providers (ESPs) like MailChimp are designed to send one to many. This is where your email marketing strategy really starts to grow. When you cross the line from one-to-one over to one-to-many, you re dealing with a new set of infrastructure issues, deliverability rules, spam regulations, tracking needs, and most importantly etiquette guidelines. How Each Should Be Used Use CRMs to send sales emails. Use ESPs to send marketing emails. Some CRMs and ESPs try to do both, but that s like having one sales & marketing person on your staff. It may work while you're small, but you're eventually going to need different sales and marketing departments, with each focused on doing their specific duty really well. Infusion Soft is probably one of the only CRM s that does both really well without the need for a 3 rd party integration. On the right is a great example of what your email marketing funnel may look like and what role an EPS (Marketing Automation in this example) and a CRM would play in converting your lead.
Here s a breakdown of the cans and cants of most popular ESP Mailchimp and a popular CRM system All Clients Mailchimp (EMS) All Clients (CRM) Send Emails Can send emails to individuals and groups Getting reports You can access a detailed report after each email campaign sent Segment your list Allows you to send different messages to different segments. Mailchimp uses the information stored about a subscriber on their record to create segments Send plain text and html emails Mailchimp allows you to send both but it also has tonnes of great ready designed email templates. Setting up automation It s really easy to set up automation on Mailchimp. You can create and set up the emails as you go along Easily set up how frequently you want the emails to send out. Mailchimp gives you the options to send the emails hourly/daily/weekly or monthly. Send Emails Can send emails to individuals and groups Getting reports You can access a detailed report after each email campaign sent Segment your list Allows you to send different messages to different segments. All Clients uses flags which are basically tags which allow you to group different people together. Send plain text and html emails Allows you to send both. The templates are limited and the overall email designs don t look as good as mailchimp. Setting up automation This can be done on All Clients. You do have to have your emails created and saved as templates before you can set up your automation process. All Clients was only giving me the option to send the first email 1 day after the subscriber had joined. FYI- You must have at least a gold account to set up automation.
FYI-You need a paid account to set up automation. Sign Up Forms/squeeze pages You can easily create sign up forms and squeeze pages using Mailchimp. Can customise the sign up sequence and sign up forms Does require a double opt-in. Importing bulk list Easy to do you can upload from a saved csv, copy and paste from excel spread sheet and link directly from 3rd party systems like google mail and sales force. You don t need your subscribers to confirm they want to be on your list before they are imported. Just simply tick a box to say you have permission. Integration Mailchimp can integrate very well with most third party systems Social Media You can add social media links easily to your email campaigns allowing your subscriber to share your content and follow you on social media. Track your sales If connected with 3rd party software you can track which sales have come off the back Sign up Forms/squeeze page You can easily create signup forms and squeeze pages. Can be customised. Does require a double opt-in. Importing bulk list- Easy to do but can only be done from a saved excel spreadsheet. As with any ems/crm system you are required to have permission from the person you're adding to email them. All clients ask you if you have permission and then it s just a simple case of ticking a box to say you have. Integration Doesn t integrate with many 3 rd party software s FYI- Doesn't integrate with Mailchimp. Doesn t integrate with google analytics. Social media You can t easily add social media links to your emails but you can add your subscriber social media pages to their contact record. You need to know their social media pages before you can set this up. Track your sales You can see in a lot of details how your sales are going. It allows you to keep track of any deals you ve got in one
of an email you ve sent Different access levels Can allow people to have different access levels to your Mailchimp account. You can have: Viewer- Can only access parts of the report Author- Access to reports. can create/edit campaigns, templates, and automation, but can t send campaigns Manager- Has full access except billing, add-ons, user management and list exports Admin- Account user with full access place. You will have to enter the deal amounts yourself but it s a really helpful feature which allows you to keep up to date with all your sales Different access levels You can allow team members to access your All Clients account. There are different access levels available depending on the role your team member plays in the business. You can have: Account owner- Has complete control of everything on the account Administrator- Can do everything the owner can apart from cancel/change the subscription Team Player- Has limited access. Shares access with team leader. Can t make a lot of changes on the system Independent User- Has limited access but manages his/hers contacts and deals Power User- Manages his/hers own contacts and deals. Has his/her s own advance system setup Power users can manage other team users, creating a mini team. FYI- You do have to pay an extra $15/month for every team member you add. Merging You can insert the information you hold about a subscriber into your email. Merging You can use the information you hold about a subscriber to: Personalise an email Print contact card Print Envelopes Print gift labels Print Letter Tracking Conversations You can easily track Tracking Conversations N/A
conversations you ve had with each subscriber. FYI- You do need a paid account. Mailchimp will generate you a special reply to email address which will keep note of all email exchanges and save it on your subscriber s record. Action sets N/A To-Do List N/A Action Sets In a similar way to Infusion Soft All Clients allows you to create action sets Action sets allow you to add/remove flags, assign/stop auto-responder campaigns, add/remove to-do lists, apply notes, send email templates and more after a specific action has taken place e,g someone clicks on a link in your email. To-Do List You can manage your day to day tasks using All Clients built in task management system You can set tasks for yourself or other team members.
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