Times change and years fly, yet the importance of email marketing continues to remain the same.
As email marketing continues to thrive, Mailchimp – a popular name in the domain continues to make waves for itself.
While Mailchimp, also known as monkey email marketing has made a name for itself in the past few years, it still has a few downsides.
Let’s check out its features, ease of use, how it meets business needs and other aspects along with its close competitor – Icegram Express!
Monkey email marketing Vs Icegram Express
Features: Where both tools shine!
We are breaking down both options to help you put a finger on the features that stand out!
Foundation
Mailchimp began as an email marketing software and now offers email templates and options for sending out responsive emails.
Icegram Express is designed as a WordPress native email marketing solution. It provides an easy setup for creating, sending and tracking emails directly from your website. This makes it a perfect option for small and medium businesses.
The focus is based on simple features with minimal technical barriers.
CRM Integration
This feature helps in combining email marketing with customer relationship management capabilities. This helps them track their interactions with their customers.
Icegram Express seamlessly integrates with popular CRM tools such as HubSpot and Zoho. This helps businesses to sync their contact lists, track subscriber behavior, and manage leads efficiently while aligning their email campaigns with broader CRM workflows.
Customer journey tools
Offers tools to automate marketing efforts. This offers the capability to deliver emails triggered by customer actions. Moreover, it allows the planning and tracking of email marketing campaigns. For those who are just starting, many find the features a little too complicated.
While Icegram Express offers automation features to map and enhance the customer journey. You can set up the following workflows:
- Welcome emails
- Drip campaign emails
- Behavioral triggers (for eg, abandoned cart emails)
These tools help nurture leads and improve customer retention by delivering personalized messages at key points.
Pricing plans
For those taking their first steps, monkey email marketing offers a free plan. The paid plans are divided into Essentials, Standards, and Premium, each offering specific features and plans. However, the advanced features are locked behind payment tier plans that can be a bit expensive.
The smaller plans might also experience restrictions in their usage.
On the other hand, Icegram Express offers multiple pricing tiers, which include:
Free plan: Basic features with limitations on email sending.
Premium plans: Unlock advanced features such as automation, segmentation, and analytics with pricing scaled based on email volume or list size.
While the starter plan is free, the pro plan is at $129, and the max plan is at $229 annually.
You can check out more about Icegram Express’ pricing here.
Regulations
The regulations of monkey email marketing might not comply with those with strict regulations of other countries.
Icegram Express adheres to email marketing regulations such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM. It provides tools such as:
- Double opt-in subscriptions
- Unsubscribe links in every email
- Data export and management for compliance with privacy laws.
User experience and support
The new users have to navigate a steep learning curve. The customer response timings might vary for those with a free plan.
Icegram Express prioritizes ease of use with its intuitive dashboard and its pre-built templates. It also offers:
- Comprehensive documentation and tutorials
- Responsive customer support via chat and email
- Regular updates to improve functionality and user satisfaction.
Detailed analysis: A closer look into each feature
| Feature | Icegram Express | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | Designed for WordPress users | Requires time for beginners to navigate complex features |
| Integration simplicity | Easy and seamless integration with WordPress without external accounts and tools | Requires third-party connectors for complete WordPress functionality |
| Automation focus | Easy to implement automation such as welcome emails and post notifications for immediate benefits | Offers complex automation but may require expertise to set up effectively |
| Data privacy | Entirely managed within WordPress giving admins full access to their subscribers’ data | Data is stored in Mailchimp servers, which may raise concerns for businesses that require local control |
| Speed of implementation | Campaigns can be launched on WordPress within minutes after installation | Will require time to import contacts, design templates, and gauge workflows |
| Custom forms | Offers customizable subscription forms that integrate with WordPress themes effortlessly | Limited form customization without external plugins or coding |
| Cost for small users | Cost-effective for small business | Can get expensive as list size grows, even for small businesses |
| Performance with low-traffic | Optimized for websites with low to medium traffic. This helps with quick load times and efficient operations | Performance may lag when syncing data for low-traffic sites due to its reliance on external servers |
| Technical knowledge requirement | Ideal for users without technical expertise | Requires familiarity with digital marketing tools for effective use |
| Community fit | Built for small businesses in mind, offering tailored needs for them | Focused towards larger marketing teams and multi-channel campaign managers |
| Customer support | Dedicated towards WordPress-specific issues | Generalized support that might not directly cater to WordPress-specific challenges |
| Resource consumption | Minimizes server load for WordPress sites | A resource-heavy platform that can slow down smaller websites when integrated |
Conclusion
In a nutshell, before making a decision, you must consider the vital aspects – pricing, complexity, and features to ensure which option works best for you.
If you are looking for an option that is easy to use even for people who are technical novices, Icegram Express is the right choice for you.
Why not give it a try?
FAQ
Is monkey email marketing only for email?
No, monkey email marketing also supports social media campaigns, landing pages, and marketing automation.
How do you create a monkey email marketing account?
Visit mailchimp.com, sign up with your email, verify your account, and complete the setup.
Why use monkey email marketing instead of Gmail?
Monkey email marketing offers marketing automation, audience management, and campaign analytics, which Gmail lacks.