I wonder if anyone has any experience with using email marketing services to inform chess coaches about upcoming events?
Steven Craig Miller
Chess Coach at Lincoln-Way West HS (New Lenox, IL)
Secretary for the ICCA
I personally use Constant Contact. Works nice and is easy to use. Affordable also.
Currently, I’m looking at Chimp Mail, it claims that one can store up to 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 emails per month without any charge. The ICCA only needs a mail marketing service for five months out of the year. And we have only a couple hundred “subscribers” and couldn’t come close to needing 12,000 emails per month. I’m trying to figure out what might be the downside of using this service.
Currently I send out emails notices using Windows Mail (my email software) and it at a very primitive level. We also try to maintain an email list in an Excel worksheet. I’m wondering if an email marketing service might take the drudgery out of maintaining an email list, while allowing us to look more professional. I would also like our e-mails to have an unsubscribe option, as well as allowing our web-site to have a subscribe button.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Steven Craig Miller
I think a similar topic was brought up years ago in the USCF Issues forum. Can’t remember the exact question though. It might have been more about mailing lists rather than emailing lists.