Aweber Review

It doesn't matter if you own an ecommerce store, write for a small blog or have the largest authority site ever, having the ability to store emails and information about potential customers or newsletter readers is essential.

This Aweber Review will allow you to see if this is the right platform for you and your needs.

What Is An Email Marketing Platform

Before diving into the main part of this Aweber review, I wanted to touch on and expand on the 'Email marketing platform' term, especially as for many, they would see GetResponse or may of it's competitors as simply an email autoresponder, but these days, that is no longer true. 

Many such as ActiveCampaign and GetResponse also now include additional features (that are improving over time), for example a lot of them will come with a basic, though still useful landing page builder. Allowing you to create a simple, but still useful landing page to capture leads.

Before you would be required to use something such as Thrive Architect or maybe ClickFunnels to building something that is really at the heart of it, just a few boxes, some text and maybe 1 or 2 additional selling points. 

This Aweber review will look at diving into these extra bits and features, beyond the normal email responder tool. 

What Is An Email Auto-Responders

Before getting into this review, it's worth just going over what the point of services such as Aweber are and why they exist.

The basic concept behind auto-responders is a service or platform to help build an email list, as well as a way of mass emailing those on that email list with a newsletter email, a eCom offer or possibly a follow up series designed to recover an abandoned checkout. 

They range from fully automated services that are set up once and forgotten about, to more simple follow ups that are sent on a trigger.

Some will include the ability to build landing pages, others simply give you the code needed to embed the fields required onto a web page via HTML or something similar. 

You may also get ready made templates or emails as part of the service, though this is not the same for every email responder.

Aweber Platform Features

Since I started this Aweber review, they have updated and grouped a lot of their features into quite clear 'areas', so it makes sense to stick to those areas to help determine what they have to offer and how they themselves coordinate their work. 

As such, they have been grouped into Design, Automation, Reporting and CRM. Which to be honest, is quite similar to how other platforms group all the features they have.

Pre-Built Email Templates

This should be a standard for any email responder, no matter how cheap or basic they are, having just a small number of templates created makes life a lot easier for the users. 

Templates allow you to create awesome looking emails and newsletter without needing to have a degree in graphic design. 

You can simply add your text, logo and then change colours if you want, and you have a ready to go email. 

They have a good variety of these templates, from simple emails to more impressive looking newsletter or eCommerce offers. 

Smart Designer 

This nifty little feature allows you to utilise the templates, but it will take images and logos for your templates.

You will now have a template that looks and feels, just like your website. 

Adding your website you will then be shown a variety of templates based on the website used. I have used my home page, which contains a large amount of white and some images, so the template builder will never be that crazy!

You are given a number of different template layouts, with your images and logo already set up. 

For eCommerce sites or websites that use a lot of newsletters and updates, I think think it's a great feature. 

Landing Pages

This particular feature is another that I feel every auto responder should have some version of. 

Even if they are simple ones, such as a capture widget in the middle of a screen with a nice background, then a responder should provide it. 

I say this because not everyone using these services will have a website, or landing page builder such as ClickFunnels or Thrive Architect, they may simply have a social media account or YouTube channel.

Aweber provides you with 6 standard templates for you to choose from, that throw in a few images, backgrounds or different layouts. 

You are then given the option to then edit and change these as you see fit. 

Though if you are using them, then it makes sense to just to update the images or text on it. You can edit background images, text and even the page that a user would see after they click the signup or submit button.

It's worth noting, this editor is not going to be as powerful as something like Kartra, Thrive Architect or ClickFunnels, it's here to be a decent way to capture emails and leads for your business, not a crazy multi tiered funnel builder or page builder. 

AutoResponders & Automations

Another staple of any email marketing platform has to be the autoresponder, or automation tool. Aweber comes with an easy to build 'campaign' creator, that allows you to send emails based on a number of triggers or actions. 

An example of this is sending a set of emails based on a new subscriber being added to an email list, for example if you sign them up to hear about the latest blog posts or new things happening in a certain space, you can automate sending those emails.

A number of triggers can be used, but they are mainly Tags or Subscriber signup. Different elements can also be used, such as sending messages, waiting or applying new tags to help section up your subscribers based on actions or length of time on the campaign. 

Tags can also be used to kick off other responders, for example if a subscriber is given the 'welcomed' tag once they have got that first email, another campaign can be used to kick off a separate load of emails, based on that tag. It can get quite messy though, and I personally find it difficult to keep track of all the campaigns. 

Reporting 

There are a number of places that reporting can happen, much like other platforms. You will find that almost any email or campaign will have the core reporting numbers such as open rates and clicks rates. 

As well as individual emails or 'broadcasts' as Aweber calls them, having their own set of statistics. 

These will include open rates, purchase values (if set), unsubscribe rates, types of email handlers etc. 

You can also run reports on your account as a whole, building up more in-depth reports looking at different aspects of email campaigns, looking at types of email providers etc to help analyse your email sending. 

List Management

Aweber, as with many other platforms offer different email lists, each of which can be used to have different subscribers, campaigns or automations associated too them. 

Really helpful if you run multiple websites, campaigns or promote a variety of products (or even sell a lot of different products). 

Aweber actually splits your account up, based on the list, so the emails you currently see or the campaigns being worked upon will be active or based on the 'current active list'. 

 This does make knowing who you are sending your campaigns too a lot easier, especially if you have got 3 or 4 lists that you run. 

CRM And Contact Management

Being able to manage and understand your subscribers is key as well, Aweber has a semi-CRM style section. Allowing you to view and understand what your subscribers are doing, the tags they have associated with them, how they where added, any additional notes and even their activity. 

If they are added to campaigns or sent broadcasts, then the information will show up in their subscriber activity section. 

You can also start to target and segment your subscribers using the pre-determine filters on the left hand side, such as dormant subscribers high engagement, low engagement or even no engagement subscribers. 

You can then mass tag, unsubscribe or even delete these users. The tags could then be used to send broadcasts too those people specifically, offering them a new product or building up confidence with them again. 

Migration Services 

Aweber also offer a concierge migration service, so if you are coming in from another provider, with an email list, they will actually help you import that list properly, at no extra cost. 

Quite a nice service, considering some make it quite tedious to import large lists of people. 

How Much Does Aweber Cost

Aweber actually kept their pricing fairly simple to understand, with a simple subscriber based model, rather than subscriber + feature style pricing structure as many others do. 

The FREE account is free for those who are just getting started out and only have up to 500 subscribers. The reporting options found within the FREE option are limited, you cannot run account wide reports, but you can see individual campaigns and email stats. So if you have just started to build your email list, possibly just getting to grips with email marketing or even run a store or something, then this is a great option to begin with.

Pricing for their 'PRO' account, starts from $16.15 per month, if billed annually, and rises to $146 per month if you have 10K+ subscribers.

Paying monthly, or quarterly does increase the cost, though basically by $3 or $4 per month. For example you will pay the equivalent of $16.15 per month if you paid up front for Pro. Or you pay $19 per month if you pay monthly. 

The same pricing is given if you pay annually for Pro 10k Subscribers, it costs $146 per month, if you decide to pay monthly it will cost $149, which seems like such as a small saving (pretty sure that there calculator is wrong and instead should be saving you $10 per month or $100 per year)

They do state it's 15% saving, but the calculator doesn't seem to offer that pricing model. Strange. If you are going to pay annually, reach out and get the real pricing from them. 

What I Liked About Aweber

The fact that they offer a free account is really good, it means so many people can get started with email marketing, without spending $100 or $20 per month or whatever it might be. 

Yes, that may seem like a low cost, but for some it's a cost they can't afford, especially if they are trying to say get started with affiliate marketing for free this Aweber account could be really useful. 

I also enjoy the campaigns, or the auto responder, I find their process of creating them pretty easy, they are simple to set up and you can create a decent 5 or 6 step autoresponder campaign in a short amount of time. 

Which is also true of their email builder, alongside GetResponse I find them both relatively easy and simple to use, drag and drop style builders with no faff or confusing buttons and menus to walk through. 

Reports are easy to read and view, with the campaign or broadcast reports in an intuitive place. The data is clear and you can then work off it to decide what you want to do with it (send more emails, or removing them etc).  

Issues I Had With Aweber

Aweber is not without their flaws, and one of those reasons was why I eventually moved away and back to GetResponse, and why I decided to also then use ActiveCampaign for my emails. 

Aweber isn't entirely affiliate friendly, so if you are someone who is doing affiliate marketing, much like ActiveCampaign you will need to use bridge pages rather than straight up affiliate links, you also have to not include certain phrases or words, or Aweber will close your account.

Yep, I am not kidding, they will send a waring that they decided they didn't like a word, or a platform name, and then if you do it again (they usually don't tell you the word) they will just remove your account. 

I actually requested a list of the words and platforms that I could not talk about, and an explanation why they didn't like the platforms or words, and they said it was impossible to provide. 

Which means you have to guess what words or platforms you can speak about. Easy1Up is one I know that is definitely off the list, so is Legendary Marketer. Basically, any platform that offers online teaching, that they see as 'may cause a complaint..' is difficult to work with. 

That was my biggest issue, and the main reason I left. I couldn't deal with the constant reviews and trying to guess what I could let my subscribers know about, even if they had specifically asked to know about any of those platforms (be it good, or bad). 

Aweber Alternatives?

There are loads these days, though I don't know many that offer a free account, so that bit may be tricky. 

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign was one of the platforms I eventually moved too, as they offer some decent automation tools and list building tools. Their drag and drop builder is awful though, and actually creating emails takes around 2 or 3x longer than Aweber, which is a huge annoyance for me.

They do offer some great reporting and the email automation builder is possibly one of the best for the price, GetResponse does offer similar, but you need to pay for their higher tiers to get access.  

GetResponse

The second email provider I use, mainly for those interested in affiliate products, they are cheap and their email creation sequence takes around 2 or 3 minutes at most. 

Aweber and GetResponse are really similar in their offering and even look and feel. So if you find Aweber too restrictive, GetResponse is a great alternative. 

MooSend

A new platform that I recently reviewed, Moosend offer a lot of the same functionality that Aweber offer, including landing pages, autoresponders and list management. Moosend's autoresponders is actually better than you will find in Aweber, and some of the templates and builders providers usually work a little better. 

Is Aweber Right For You?

If you are just starting out, I would say Aweber is a good place to start. Be it as an marketer, store owner or affiliate, Aweber still has a place in your tool belt. Though, if you are doing affiliate marketing keeping in mind you will need self hosted landing pages or sales pages to then send potential customers onto other areas.

Aweber Review Conclusion

All in all, Aweber isn't that bad, I ended up leaving due to their shadowy nature around certain platforms and products, that even though people had requested more information about, I was banned from telling them that information. With no list or set of companies I couldn't mention it ended up being frustrating and annoying. 

If you are possibly not going down the route of talking about obscure platforms or lots of courses etc, then you will probably have an easier time, but considering I talk a lot about a variety of products, tools, courses and opportunities, it just ended up not being feasible for me.