{"id":6799,"date":"2017-02-28T16:53:35","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T16:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/?p=6799"},"modified":"2017-08-01T15:13:04","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T15:13:04","slug":"aweber-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/?p=6799","title":{"rendered":"The Definitive 2017 AWeber Email Marketing Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

AWeber\u00a0is one of the\u00a0oldest and best-known email services on the market.<\/p>\n

Should you use it?<\/p>\n

In this comprehensive review I\u2019ll give you an unbiased review of AWeber\u00a0and show you what it\u2019s good at and where it falls short.<\/p>\n

[su_quote style=”modern-blue”]Note:<\/strong> Want to know if AWeber is the right email service for you? Take this quick assessment and I’ll give you my personal recommendation.\u00a0Click here now.<\/a>[\/su_quote]<\/p>\n

Part 1: What are some of the funnest features of AWeber?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Cool Feature #1: Incredible customer support<\/strong><\/p>\n

The single best part of AWeber is their support.<\/p>\n

They blow everyone else away with quality, speed and options.<\/p>\n

First off, they have telephone support 12 hours per day, 5 days per week!<\/p>\n

This is awesome!<\/p>\n

Just call\u00a0877-293-2371 and they’ll help you. I did and got my questions answered super quick.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, they have live chat.<\/p>\n

I found it to be fast and knowledgeable as well.<\/p>\n

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Live chat is available\u00a0Monday through Friday 8 AM to 8 PM EST\u00a0and Saturday and Sunday 9 AM to 5 PM EST.<\/p>\n

Last, they have email support, which has super-quick response times as well.<\/p>\n

Cool Feature #2: Easy-to-use visual automation builder<\/strong><\/p>\n

Their visual builder is surprisingly thought out and built well. It doesn’t have a plethora of features, but it’s a great blend of the legacy text-based builders that ConvertKit and Drip have, combined with a visual drag-and-drop interface.<\/p>\n

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You can’t do advanced stuff like if\/then statements or branches, but for simple sequence building, it’s really intuitive and easy to use.<\/p>\n

Cool Feature #3: Multiple forms per list<\/strong><\/p>\n

At its roots, AWeber is still a list-based (vs. tag-based) system.<\/p>\n

However, unlike MailChimp, AWeber allows you to create multiple forms for the same list.<\/p>\n

This allows you to do Level 1 automation items with much more ease than MailChimp does.<\/p>\n

More on this in the Level 1 automation video below.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Note: To be honest, I really struggled to find any other cool parts of AWeber. They are so far behind the feature curve that it was a bit of a challenge.<\/em><\/p>\n

Part 2: What are some of the most annoying parts of AWeber?<\/h1>\n

Bad Part #1: Really outdated\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some companies\u00a0intentionally decide to keep their apps simple and to steer\u00a0away from advanced features.<\/p>\n

Other apps become outdated due to technical debt, so they fall behind the feature curve.<\/p>\n

AWeber is just really outdated.<\/p>\n

The look and feel of the app, their feature set and their terminology all feel old.<\/p>\n

They don’t appear to have made the conscious decision to not<\/strong> build advanced features (or they wouldn’t have built their new visual editor). It seems more like they took for granted their position in the market and now are WAY behind everyone else. I struggle with even putting them in the same class with the other ESPs in this review series.<\/p>\n

A few examples of what I’m talking about:<\/p>\n

Example #1: Affiliate payouts<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a super niche thing that doesn’t affect the great majority of users, but it’s indicative of how outdated AWeber is in general.<\/p>\n

The only way they pay affiliates is via a paper check.<\/p>\n

Yes, you read that correctly. If you are an AWeber affiliate partner, the only way you can get your money from them is via them writing a check, mailing it to you and you cashing it.<\/p>\n

When I asked them about that, they said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking into other options. At the time, it was mostly due to system restrictions placed on both ends.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Seriously? System restrictions?<\/p>\n

PayPal was invented in 1998. Google it. It works well.<\/p>\n

Example #2: Confusing terminology\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

They don’t\u00a0keep their terminology consistent.<\/p>\n

In some places they call broadcast emails messages<\/em>.<\/p>\n

They call automations campaigns<\/em>. This is really confusing because MailChimp (one of their closest competitors) calls broadcast messages campaigns<\/em>.<\/p>\n

They have something called blog broadcasts and broadcasts. Good luck trying to figure out the differences quickly.<\/p>\n

And on and on.<\/p>\n

Their terminology is weird and inconsistent with basic industry standards.<\/p>\n

Example #3: Outdated UX\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The app itself feels old and cobbled together in many places.<\/p>\n

Here are some of their form designs:<\/p>\n

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Here are their reports:<\/p>\n

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To be fair, the design of an app isn’t my #1 parameter for choosing an email service. However, when it’s this old and outdated, I definitely question the app itself.<\/p>\n

Bad Part #2: Automations are severely\u00a0limited.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

While their visual automation builder is intuitive and clean, it’s severely lacking in features.<\/p>\n

Example #1: Only 2 potential triggering events<\/em><\/p>\n

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Compare that against any of the other services we’ve reviewed that have 10 to 20 different triggering activities.<\/p>\n

For example, ActiveCampaign:<\/p>\n

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Example #2: No if\/then branches\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

With a true visual editor you can run if\/then statements within your campaign. This allows you to have slightly more advanced segmentation and to create better and more personalized sequences.<\/p>\n

Without it, you have to cobble together multiple sequences and attempt to link them together.<\/p>\n

Example from Drip:<\/p>\n

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Part 3: How much does AWeber\u00a0cost?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Here is the pricing:<\/p>\n

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Not the cheapest to get started with, but not crazy-high either.<\/p>\n

There is no onboarding or set-up fee for using AWeber.<\/p>\n

Part 4: How is AWeber\u00a0laid out?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

AWeber has 4 primary building blocks.<\/p>\n

Building Block #1: Lists<\/strong><\/p>\n

AWeber is a list-based system. You can have an unlimited amount of lists in one account. Subscribers can be on multiple lists.<\/p>\n

When you send an email, you must specify which list to send it to.<\/p>\n

AWeber does a good job of displaying those lists to you and giving you a user profile for each subscriber.<\/p>\n

List screen:<\/p>\n

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Profile screen:<\/p>\n

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Building Block #2: Forms<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next major building block is forms.<\/p>\n

This is what people physically enter their email address into to sign up for your list.<\/p>\n

Here is what creating a form looks like in AWeber.<\/p>\n

List of forms:<\/p>\n

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Form creator:<\/p>\n

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Building Block #3: Broadcasts<\/strong><\/p>\n

These are basic one-off broadcast messages to your entire list.<\/p>\n

Pretty straightforward editor here.<\/p>\n

(More on these in the video walk-through below.)<\/p>\n

Building Block #4: Automations\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The last building block of AWeber is their automations.<\/p>\n

They call these campaigns<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As mentioned previously, these are set up and managed inside their handy little visual editor.<\/p>\n

(More on these in the video walk-through below.)<\/p>\n

Part 5:\u00a0How does AWeber do the stuff?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Scenario #1:<\/strong> How easy is it to send broadcast emails?<\/p>\n