Who is Aweber?
Email marketing is the most effective digital marketing channel out there. It may sound shocking, but it's true.
According to A 2019 study, 73% of marketers said that email marketing offered a great or good return on investment.
This number is higher than any other digital marketing channel.
Only 54% of marketers think that content marketing offers great or a good return on investment, while social media ranks even lower, at only 38%.
But Email marketing can also take a long time. You need to follow a variety of measures, automate emails effectively, and find a way to make your emails even more engaging.
Luckily, email marketing platforms like AWeber simplify email marketing to help businesses like yours get more out of every email sent.
AWeber includes a ton of features to meet all of your email marketing and automation needs, such as autoresponders, responsive newsletter designs, email templates, subscriber segmentation and tracking, A/B split testing, and more.
In this AWeber review, we study the pros and cons of the platform by taking an in-depth look at all of its features and functionalities, including pricing, support, alternatives, end user experience, and ease of use for marketers.
By the end of this article, you'll know exactly how AWeber can help you make more money with your email marketing campaigns.
AWeber was founded in 1998 and has since grown to become one of the most popular email marketing platforms in the world.
With over 300,000 users worldwide, the software is packed with a ton of features to meet all of your email marketing and automation needs, including autoresponders, responsive newsletter designs, email templates, email templates, subscriber segmentation and tracking, subscriber segmentation and tracking, A/B split testing, and much more.
What is AWeber for?
AWeber is perfect for anyone who wants to create and grow their subscriber list, create responsive newsletters, and collect data to better inform their email marketing campaigns.
Here are some use cases that will give you a better understanding of what this powerful software can do for you, your business, and your brand:
- Web push notifications : You can take advantage of AWeber's web push notifications feature to reach your email subscribers even outside of their inbox and let them know when a new email arrives.
- Subscription function : The platform's subscription function allows you to generate passive income by setting up recurring payments for donations, subscriptions, etc.
- Communications Management : Send and publish communications, track and monitor communications, and more.
- Commitment Management : With AWeber, you can easily create automated campaigns and stay in touch with your customers.
- Campaign Management : AWeber also provides you with powerful campaign tracking and analysis tools.
- Automated email functionality : You can create, schedule, and automate messages so they reach your target audience at the right time, allowing you to effortlessly build relationships and retain customers while saving time and money.
- Analytical monitoring : You will be able to consult detailed analyses and measurements that will give you the information you need to optimize your email campaigns.
Plus, AWeber includes tons of third-party integrations that allow you to easily create streamlined processes across multiple digital marketing channels.
Features
AWeber comes with a ton of incredible tools that take your email marketing to the next level, including:
1. Automation
Few things are more important than automation when choosing the best email marketing platform.
AWeber has a comprehensive set of tools to help you automate almost every aspect of your email campaigns. The platform allows you to go far beyond the basics of typical travel campaigns to create complex workflows that use IFTTT logic (if-this-then-that).
You can create organization charts for your sales and marketing processes, so that emails are triggered based on specific user actions, for example:
- Opening emails
- Link clicks
- On-site visits
- Initial email registration
- Purchases made on site
- Cart abandonment
... and many others.
Overall, the platform's automation solutions allow you to do more than just respond automatically by email.
You can access this feature through the “List Options” tab on your dashboard, after which you can launch user actions such as opens and clicks, etc.
You can also add specific tags that allow you to send different types of content to subscribers in different segments.
2. Email and newsletter templates
Choose from dozens of email templates that perfectly align your emails with your brand culture. If the templates aren't right for you, you can also create your own emails exactly how you want them to be.
Whether you use templates or your own creations, you can add various elements to your emails, for example:
- Standalone or carousel images and videos
- Social sharing buttons
- Products and coupons
- Logo signatures
- Integrated links and articles
- RSS feed
- A variety of headings and text elements.
AWeber also has an extensive collection of HTML newsletter templates. According to the website, there are over 700 model options, which is much more than its competitors. For example, GetResponse only has 135 templates, and Mailchimp has around 85.
That said, some of AWeber's designs could use an update to make them look a bit more modern and contemporary.
Of course, you can simply opt for the new “Smart Designer” tool that will help you create your own model.
Simply enter your website URL, public Facebook page, Instagram account, or an AWeber landing page you've previously created, and the Smart Designer tool will create a model that's aligned with your brand.
Overall, I was impressed with the designs and the ease with which they were created.
It's also interesting to note that AWeber is the first email service provider to have a direct integration with Canva. This allows you to quickly and easily edit any image in your email with all of Canva's powerful tools.
Smart Design templates and Canva integration alone allow AWeber to stand out from the competition. Personally, I really like using Canva to create emails, and AWeber makes that super easy and enjoyable.
3. Responsive designs
Responsive designs automatically adapt to screens of various sizes. This means that your emails and newsletters will automatically resize to look perfect (and have full functionality), whether opened on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone.
That's why it's important to have an email marketing tool that offers a responsive design, so that your emails look neat and professional, regardless of what device your subscribers use to read them.
The truth is that if your users open an email message designed for desktop computers on their mobile device, they're not going to spend time trying to read the message. They're probably going to remove it and move on.
AWeber includes responsive design functionality to make sure that never happens.
When creating your emails, AWeber allows you to preview them as they will appear on different devices. This allows you to see what you need to change to ensure that each subscriber has a great experience with your brand email content.
Keep in mind that it's always helpful to test emails on a variety of real devices. This allows you to see how they will be viewed on desktop browsers, phones, and tablets.
4. Enrollment forms
AWeber provides you with beautiful registration forms that can be easily integrated into your e-commerce site. Whether you use a plugin like WooCommerce to create an e-commerce store on a WordPress site or e-commerce site builders like Shopify or BigCommerce, AWeber's registration forms help you create your email list more quickly.
It's worth noting that AWeber's signup forms are beautiful, well-optimized, and easy to customize in order to align with your brand.
Even without prior knowledge, AWeber's dynamic forms allow you to create quality interactive experiences for your audience to get more responses and conversions.
To create a registration form on AWeber, simply click on the “Registration Forms” tab in the navigation menu.
Then click on the blue “Create a registration form” button, where you can choose to create a registration form for your website or for a landing page.
Then, follow the instructions to choose a template and customize it accordingly. You can then copy/paste the code (it will be provided to you once you have registered your registration form) to integrate the form on your website or landing page.
5. Landing page creator
A landing page (also known as a “squeeze page”) is a standalone web page designed to encourage visitors to take a desired action, whether it's completing a sale, registering for an event, downloading an ebook, or providing an email address.
All of these goals also allow you to gather user data, which you can then use to optimize landing pages to encourage users to take the next step.
Landing pages are perfect for promoting your business and growing your subscriber list. AWeber offers a wide selection of pre-designed landing page templates, all optimized to allow you to get the best results from your marketing or sales campaigns.
AWeber's landing page template categories include:
- Virtual business cards
- Payment plans
- Donations
- Personal coaching
- Exhibition gallery
- E-book deals
- “Thank you” upsell
- The online course offers
... and dozens more.
One of the benefits of AWeber is that you can also create your own landing pages.
To get started, click on the “Landing Pages” tab in the navigation sidebar. You will then have access to a blank canvas where you can create professional-quality landing pages using an intuitive drag-and-drop editor.
This platform has a robust landing page builder that allows you to create, customize, and publish professional landing pages for any purpose in just a few minutes.
You can also create multiple landing pages according to your needs and combine your own landing pages with AWeber's template landing pages as part of the same email marketing campaign using the drag-and-drop editor.
To start using this feature, click on the “Landing Pages” tab in the navigation and you'll be taken to the drag-and-drop editor where you can customize your chosen template (or create your page from scratch, if that's what you prefer).
6. Sales pages and e-commerce solutions
Additionally, AWeber offers a variety of sales landing pages with unique e-commerce features to help you increase conversions while growing your email list.
The subscription service landing page, for example, allows you to create membership levels for different subscription levels. This allows you to easily create subscription plans with distinct offers and prices, from basic to plus and to pro.
There are also many other e-commerce solutions that AWeber offers for landing pages:
- Integrate Stripe with landing pages to allow users to pay quickly and easily, with lower fees than on Etsy or Patreon.
- Add payment buttons to e-commerce pages to encourage sales organically.
- Use donation buttons strategically to increase visitor revenue, even on non-commercial sales pages.
- Apply labels to people who make purchases to better segment and automate email campaigns.
- Track sales on all landing pages and use analysis tools to optimize future campaigns.
- Create distinct payment options, including one-time payments, subscription payments, and payment plans.
7. Automatic answering machines
Autoresponders are follow-ups or series of emails triggered by user actions. These types of emails can save you a lot of time and help streamline your marketing and sales funnels.
AWeber allows you to set up several different autoresponders for different purposes.
For example, if someone subscribes to your list, you can set up AWeber to send them an automatic email confirming their subscription.
You can also use automated follow-ups to follow up after a user has taken an action and encourage similar future actions, including purchases.
For example, when a customer buys a product on your website, you can automate sending a thank you message shortly after the purchase is complete. This can encourage first-time shoppers to come back for recurring purchases or to share their positive experiences with peers.
Additionally, you can create autoresponders based on inactivity. If someone made a purchase two or three months ago, you can send them an email with a coupon to encourage them to come back to your store.
Another great feature of AWeber's autoresponders is the ability to schedule emails to be sent to new and existing subscribers as part of segmented email marketing campaigns. This allows you to promote your blog, social media, send discounts, notifications, and other information to the right audience at the right time.
8. Campaign Management
AWeber has a campaign manager that uses a simple “drag-and-drop” editor. You don't need development or technical skills to create and manage complex email marketing campaigns with AWeber.
Compared to most other email platforms, AWeber's campaign management feature is extremely easy to use and has a very short learning curve.
It's designed to simplify all of your processes and tasks in order to save you time, energy, and frustration when designing and running your automated email campaigns. All you need to do is point, click, and drag.
9. Subscriber segmentation
If you've been in business for a while, you know the importance of customer segmentation. The more you segment your list, the more personalized and relevant messages you are able to send.
AWeber allows you to segment your list based on the content of various fields in your database, including:
- Open emails (open rate)
- Links clicked (click rate)
- Visited pages
- Time spent in the email
... and a wide range of other parameters.
Data segmentation helps you optimize your email marketing strategy and is especially useful for anyone who runs an online store.
When you send general, non-segmented emails to everyone on your list, you get fewer conversions than if you send emails that are specifically designed to targeted subscribers based on actions they've already taken.
Subscriber segmentation will help you target the right people with the right message in order to help you increase your conversions.
Likewise, if you have customers or subscribers that you consider to be VIPs, you can use AWeber's segmentation feature to send those people an email that won't be sent to the rest of your subscribers.
10. E-commerce integrations
If you're already using other marketing and sales tools and applications, you'll be happy to hear that AWeber has a ton of third-party integrations, including:
- PayPal
- Etsy
- Shopify
- woocommerce
- Clickbank
- Zaxaa
- Magento
- Moon Clerc
... and many others.
So, for example, if you want to place your AWeber registration form on your WooCommerce site, there is a simple plugin for that that can be combined in an instant, giving you the option of placing your registration form on different parts of your website.
These integrations make AWeber one of the most powerful email marketing options currently available, especially for e-commerce sellers running an online store.
11. A/B testing
By getting to know your customers better and how each of them reacts to your emails, you can find ways to optimize your email marketing campaigns.
There are a lot of campaign optimization tools on AWeber, one of which is A/B split testing.
AWeber's A/B testing tools allow you to send different variants of your newsletters to specific parts of your mailing list in order to see which version performs best.
You can track the different results you get when you make simple changes to different elements of your emails, including text, CTA, images, titles, subject lines, and more.
This way, you can continuously improve your chances of conversion while maintaining strategic relationships with each member of your audience.
12. Analytics and reports
AWeber has comprehensive tools for tracking email openings, clicks, and other parameters. The email analytics feature helps you take your marketing strategy to the next level by allowing you to visualize the content or products that people are most interested in.
This gives you the data you need to effectively segment your user list using real user data based on reports created on the AWeber platform.
Thanks to these easy to consult reports, you will be able to track your key performance indicators for all your email marketing campaigns.
You will find all the information presented in a modern way on your dashboard, under the “Reports” tab.
There you will see the following data:
- Openings over time (broadcasts or campaigns)
- Clicks over time
- Sales over time
- New subscribers
- Subscriber totals
- Broadcast totals
- Tracking totals
- Total locations
You can also create charts based on data to make them easy for anyone to understand, even for those who don't have a marketing background. Additionally, you can export reports in CSV format to access them outside of the platform and more easily share them with your team members.
There's also a handy AWeber Stats app that lets you keep an eye on things on the go.
13. AMP for emails in AWeber
The new AMP email technology gives AWeber a distinct advantage over many other email platforms in its category.
In most cases, email newsletters were designed to be static, with simple combinations of images and text.
However, AMP for emails changes that by allowing you to create interactive emails where recipients can perform simple actions directly in the email. This means they can sign up for an event, book an appointment, buy a product, etc. without leaving the email program or having to click on a website.
This technology also allows the email sender to insert dynamic content, such as live survey results, sports scores, weather updates, etc.
The ability to add dynamic content to emails makes them more powerful and engaging tools for your marketing strategy.
Note: implementing this feature in AWeber requires a lot more technical expertise. If you want to add interesting dynamic components, such as surveys and quizzes, to your emails, you'll need to get familiar with developing your own templates or using AMP HTML.
Alternatives to AWeber
All in all, AWeber is a great email marketing and automation tool, but it's not the only option available to you.
There are a few other options to consider, including:
1. GetResponse
GetResponse is one of AWeber's main competitors. It is an all-in-one email marketing platform that also offers landing pages, advanced automation, and CRM.
The platform has a series of advanced features for a fairly reasonable entry price. NGOs also benefit from a generous 50% discount.
If you sign up for one of the premium plans, you can send as many emails as you want, as the platform has no limits on the emails you send during the billing period.
Like AWeber, GetResponse offers a free plan, but you don't get all the features and functionality of AWeber's free option. This makes AWeber a top choice for those who are not yet ready to commit to a paid plan.
2. SendinBlue
When it comes to email marketing and automation, SendinBlue offers the whole package. You have a nice email design tool and advanced features, such as A/B testing, advanced reports, contact management, etc.
It has many of the same features as AWeber and is just as easy to use. The platform also has a generous free plan that allows you to have an unlimited number of contacts and receive 300 emails per day, with the possibility of creating personalized email templates.
Automation tools, in particular, make this platform a worthy rival for AWeber. However, the integration options for SendinBlue are quite limited in comparison, so if you're looking to build omnichannel marketing strategies or simply integrate various parts of your digital marketing together, AWeber is definitely the best choice.
3. Mailchimp
Mailchimp's page builder is cleaner and more intuitive than AWeber's. However, it doesn't offer as many customization options, which means that when it comes to usability features, AWeber comes out on top.
However, Mailchimp has robust autoresponder functionality that makes it a great alternative and the platform has a free marketing plan designed specifically for newbies who want an easy way to grow their audience. That said, if you're a beginning marketing planner, software might be a better fit.
You will be guided through each step of creating your campaigns and communicating with your subscribers. But AWeber's personalization options make it possible to target and segment campaigns more strategically. This is what gives AWeber a head start in my opinion on MailChimp.
Pricing
AWeber offers a free plan, which is perfect for getting started.
With it, you can start building your list without paying a cent.
Even better, you'll never have to worry about your free trial expiring because there's no time limit. Most other competitors limit you to 14 or 30 days at most. But AWeber doesn't even ask for your credit card or payment details. Simply create an account, and you're ready to go.
This plan, of course, doesn't have all the features of the premium plan. While this is a great starter plan, it has limitations.
Let's take a closer look at what you get with the free and premium AWeber plans:
AWeber free: $0/month
- Up to 500 email subscribers
- Send 3,000 emails/month
- 1 List profile
- Landing pages
- Web push notifications
- Drag-and-drop construction
- Email templates
- Enrollment forms
- eCommerce
AWeber Pro: Starting at $16.15/month for 500 subscribers
- Everything included in the “Free” plan +
- Unlimited email lists
- Send an unlimited number of emails
- Unlimited list profiles
- Advanced email automation
- Remove AWeber branding
- Detailed information and analysis
- Tracking web pages and sales
- A/B split testing
You can pay per month, quarter, or year. If your list exceeds 25,000 subscribers, you can contact the support team for a personalized quote.
Customer Support
AWeber offers robust customer support in a variety of ways, including:
- Email support : You can email the support team with any questions or requests, and they will get back to you as soon as possible.
- Live chat : The platform offers live support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, through chat, so you can get instant help.
- Telephone support : If you prefer to have a chat with one of the support staff, you can call between 8 am and 8 pm EST.
- Knowledgebase/FAQ : Here, you can dive into a wide range of articles on different topics to find the answers you need.
- Online training : AWeber also organizes live webinars and on-demand webinars to train users on various aspects of email marketing so they can get the most out of the platform.
Overall, AWeber provides top-notch customer service, and it's easy to see that the team really cares about providing the best possible user experience.
Online store owners, in particular, will appreciate the constant support offered by the platform. After all, the last thing you want to do is lose money because of broken emails.
With AWeber, you have the peace of mind of knowing that there is always someone to help you, whether by email, chat, or phone.
Final Verdict
Short answer? Yes, AWeber is good. It is worth it for anyone who needs to create an email list, communicate with subscribers And of collect data to improve your campaignsEmail marketing.
It's perfect for newbies and startups alike, and since the free plan has all the features you need to start building your email list, the software is also perfect for people on a tight budget.
With the free plan, you have access to hundreds of high-quality email and newsletter templates adapted to mobile phones. There is a beginner-friendly email editor that allows you to drag and drop items onto a page to create professional and highly engaging emails.
You also have access to an integrated generator of Landing pages and registration forms, as well as a wide range of other tools to start creating and managing your email campaigns.
Plus, you get advanced sales tracking and e-commerce features, as well as premium support, even with the free plan.
Overall, it's a compelling piece of software that will help you create quality email marketing campaigns that will deliver real results.
If you're ready to get started with AWeber, sign up for the free plan to find out if this email marketing platform is right for you.