Are you looking for the best alternative to MailChimp? For any site that plans on keeping visitors engaged, MailChimp has been a must-have tool. Getting an email address from a new user is the goal of any site that wants to optimize traffic and user data. Email marketing is still one of the go-to ways to keep in touch with users, but it’s magic is wearing off a bit. The average open rate is just 24% with a click through rate of just 4%. That isn’t ideal for anyone who wants to engage users and get them clicking through to what’s new.
Beamer is an alternative to MailChimp for announcing new features and updates that has boosted user engagement for the sites using it by 10 times. Beamer is an in-app or site newsfeed that allows you to announce just about anything in a visual and effective way. Beamer sits right within your user interface so visitors to your site get an interactive stream of everything new going on with your site or product without ever having to leave the page they’re on.
Here is how Beamer can be a more effective, more simple alternative to Mailchimp for boosting engagement on your site:
Be more visual and interactive with users with Beamer.
There is only so much you can do with your emails to make them engaging enough to get users back to your site. There’s a ton of steps users have to go through to actually end up where you want them to when you send an email: they have to open it, read it, make it to your CTA, click through, and stay engaged long enough to explore the update on your site. That’s a lot to ask online in 2018. Users are unlikely to make to that far no matter how nice your emails look. The best thing to do is eliminate a few steps. Beamer helps you do that. With Beamer, all users have to do is click a “What’s New” tab in your navigation or a simple icon right within your website’s interface to open up an interactive feed that users can explore. Because Beamer is directly in your site, your updates are more “in context” and users don’t have to go far out of their way to explore what you’re announcing. You can also make your updates very eye catching and engaging with photos, videos, and GIFs to capture user attention.
Avoid sending important messages to the spam folder using Beamer.
When sending emails, it’s possible that your emails from Mailchimp can end up in the spam folder for many of your users. There are many things that can trigger an email to be sent to a spam folder like links, photos, videos, attachments, etc. For a visual and effective update email you’ll want to include these but it could also be a problem. With Beamer, you don’t have to worry about important updates ending up in the spam folder, users see the update directly on your site.
Encourage feedback from users with an alternative to MailChimp.
When you send out an announcement via email, even if you directly ask for feedback, you’re not likely to get much beyond your open rate and CTR. With Beamer, it’s intuitively interactive. The Beamer newsfeed looks like a familiar social feed that they are already used to. Users can leave comments and reactions just like a Facebook feed. You can directly ask for feedback and they can leave it right under the update. Users don’t have to go far to share their opinion. Or they can simply leave a reaction which gives you a quick gauge on how users feel about your updates. You’re much more likely to get active responses and specific feedback from users using Beamer to share your updates.
Segment updates for specific user groups just like with email.
One of the big draws of services like MailChimp and Hubspot is that you can get very specific in terms of your personalized marketing. You can segment and automate updates for specific user groups based off certain qualifications. You can do the same with Beamer, and even reach brand new users whose info you don’t have yet with specific content. You can set your updates to be segmented by users’ language, demographics, location, and past behavior on your site. Once they’re set live, you can leave them and not have to worry about importing information to lists or even collecting emails. For example, you can set up certain updates to send to only returning users and other to appear only for users who are entirely new to your site for a more tailored, relevant experience.
Use Beamer integrations to simplify your process for engaging users across platforms.
Users expect often times to have multiple points of communication with your brand across various platforms. Beamer makes this easy. You can use the Zapier integration to share the same content of your Beamer updates across all social platforms and also via email so you don’t have to spend time duplicating the message. Zapier is a tool that allows you to connect different platforms to trigger actions across them. For example, you get set up a “Zap” to send out a quick tweet and email every time you create a new Beamer update on new features. It saves your team a ton of time. All you have to worry about is creating the update in the most important place: your site. The Beamer WordPress plugin makes installing and managing Beamer even easier for those who aren’t necessarily tech savvy. You can simply install the plugin and anyone on your team can begin creating updates and checking analytics from your dashboard right away.
Take advantage of more detailed Beamer analytics.
As briefly mentioned earlier, your emails in Mailchimp only provide a certain level of depth of data. You can see how many people opened and clicked through your email but that information doesn’t tell you a lot. In many cases, just the subject line, maybe 10 words, is the reason for that open rate. Or maybe the way you laid out your CTA is why people clicked through. But did they engage the way you wanted them to on your site? Did what they find strike them as relevant and interesting? With Beamer, you get more specific data from your updates. You can see reactions, comments, open rates, location and personal data of users, CTR on your CTAs per update so it’s more clear what users are interested in and what caught their attention. These more specific details can help you understand your audience better and make better long term decisions. You can also quickly learn how to make small changes to boost engagement and lower bounce rate.
Beamer is a much cheaper alternative to Mailchimp.
Mailchimp is a pay-per-user model like many mailer options. The bill can rack up quite quick. For full functionality of Mailchimp, the pro plan starts at $200 a month and then it increases based on the number of users you accumulate. For just 10,000 users, which is not very difficult to reach quickly, the price jumps to $275 a month. Beamer is a flat price of just $49 a month for any amount of users and all functionality.
Although email may be the default method of communication for updates, its magic is fading and it’s limited. You may want to consider a way to communicate with new and returning users that is more effective and dynamic. Try Beamer for free today as an alternative to Mailchimp in updating all your users and boosting engagement on your site.
