I have set up hundreds of accounts with Email Service Providers (ESP’s) including services like Constant Contact, AWeber and MailChimp for clients and individuals. Each has it’s own strengths and ideal customer. I am a big believer in the power of email communication when done right. An advantage that each of these services brings is the requirement that your customer or prospect “opt-in”, to request to have you send them email. It used to be that a new employee came into the company with an empty customer list. Things have changed and now even those newly hired employees might have 500 or more Twitter followers or Fans on Facebook. A simple desire to send out an email to all of their followers and connections about their new role with your company was near impossible and unwieldy at a minimum. Social networks are changing the fabric of relationships. You need to be able to plug into their connections as soon as possible.
The challenge up until now has been that these services are designed to serve the needs of large companies with tens and hundreds of thousands of email addresses in their database, with features that the big guys need. Marketing departments with Email specialists are common. Individual reps and entrepreneurs could use them but they were cumbersome to set up and too complicated for many to use consistently. MailChimp acquired an email company with a different vision this past August by the name of TinyLetter that brings a different solution.
TinyLetter was created from the ground up for the conversations with those you have connected with on social platforms. You can’t use Gmail for this, as they have a limit of a few hundred recipients per day (for security). If you want to send quick notes to your customers, prospects or followers, TinyLetter is your answer. Some have called it “MailChimp Lite” but it is more accurately viewed as “Gmail on steroids”.
What makes TinyLetter so different?
- It was built from the ground up by someone who is NOT from the email marketing world,
- It’s utterly simple (because of #1),
- Being utterly simple will make mobile app development for TinyLetter really easy,
- TinyLetter lets you read replies, so you can continue the conversation with your contacts.
- The signup process is very simple and personal. It’s less like a formal survey (where you’d enter your title, select interest groups, etc), and more like an about.me, or flavors.me page.
- There are no templates. It’s all about your
contentletter.
Notice #4 in the list above. You can actually read replies. Try that with your full-powered Email Service Provider.
If you make a living by selling something, you know the importance of quality communication. TinyLetter gives the ability to have people ask you to communicate with them (via a sign-up form), and then easily provide valued, timely information efficiently and with no hassle.
Here is the link to register for TinyLetter. Give it a try. Then send me your Registration link in the comment area below so we can help you grow your list.
If you want to stay up to date on all the new Web Tools that are coming out in 2012, and learn how they might be of help to you grow your business, sign up for Fill the Funnel’s Web Tool Update by clicking here.
Full disclosure, I have grown past TinyLetter with over 8,000 of you already subscribed to the newsletter, so my newsletter and customer lists are Powered by MailChimp.
