Recommendations for newsletter/list-building software or services

[Unseen Force]

I've searched the forum and google site searched BuSo, but haven't really found much in terms of specific email list building/newsletter software.

I was reading about Traffic Leaks in the digital strategy crash course and wanted to try some of the methods to start building a small list while I angle on long-term content site niches.

I know there are a ton of listicles with this kind of into, but it's information overload. I thought I would ask around here first to narrow it down.

I'm thinking about things that allow for segmenting, surveys, demographics, autoresponders, timed automation series, etc. I'm looking at convertkit atm.

 

[Unseen Force]

Update: Researched pricing for the most popular newsletter services like MailChimp, ConvertKit, etc, which seemed quite expensive.

Then found an article about using Gmail as a mass email sender for lists using a Chrome extension called "gmass".

I then checked out AWS SES, as I have experience setting this up. The prices for SES are a fraction of the cost of the major newsletter SaaS options, but SES doesn't offer many of the value-added features like easy segmenting, tagging, list tools, etc.

I was thinking that I could parlay my developer skills and set something up on Digital Ocean for that, but eventually found "MailBluster" which adds in the missing SaaS features to your SES account.

I'll investigate these further over the weekend. I want to get started trying some basic traffic-leaking techniques and building and segmenting lists and I need a place to add subscribers. I'll post what I'm doing in the Lab ASAP.

I'm also thinking about posting some videos on odysee. Not sure if there is an embedded option. I'll cross that bridge if/when I come to it.

 

[Ryuzaki]

but SES doesn't offer many of the value-added features like easy segmenting, tagging, list tools, etc.

Check out Sendy.co, which handles all the SES integration and then provides you with a user interface where you can create and manage lists, segment, handle bouncing, set up autoresponders, and all that. It's a self-installed software so be aware that you'll need a hosting environment. Getting access to the cheapo SES prices with all the tools needed is fantastic. Write your own or buy an HTML email template and you're off the races.

 

[alexapaladino]

I use Mailwizz. It is a self-hosted software that has almost all the features I was using in Mailchimp - list keeping/bulding, autoresponders, drip and regular campaigns. One thing it doesn't have (at least my version of it) is a comprehensive subscriber profile, but you could hire a dev to do this and other cool things, since it is self-hosted and therefore completely yours to extend however you want.

You would still need to connect either Amazon SES or other SMTP of your choice to send emails.

P.S. There is also a survey feature, but I haven't used it yet.