Many of you could be in a dilemma whether you should choose monthly plan or pay-as-you plan for your email marketing services?
For those of you who do not know the difference between the two plans, the monthly email marketing plan is a plan which requires you to pay every month regardless of whether you use it or not while the pay-as-you-go plan (also known as ad-hoc email marketing plan) is the email marketing plan where you pay only when you use it. The cost of the monthly plan is depended on the size of your mailing list while the pay-as-you-go plan charge per email address. If you are in the same dilemma, hopefully the below explanation will help you to make a decision on which plan to go for.
Which Email Marketing Plan is more Economical?
It sounds like the pay-as-you plan is more economical since there is no monthly obligation but in actual fact, it is not because you need to pay every time when you blast out an email campaign. On the other hand, the monthly email marketing plan has no restriction on the number of times you want to send out. In other words, you can send unlimited times of email messages on any days to your recipients if you wish to.
Nurture Marketing
Email marketing is a form of nurture marketing so it requires long-term and consistent effort. Many people made the mistake of only sending email once in a blue moon to their customers or when they think it is necessary. They afraid they might be intruding their customers with too many email announcements or promotions. They never knew that consistent effort and visibility is the key to connect with their customers well. Once you are of sight, you are out of place in your customers’ minds.
Email & Lead Capturing
Unlike the pay-as-you-go plan, the monthly email marketing plan has a unique feature – email subscription form where it allows you to place a form at your website to capture your visitors’ email address. The purpose is to grow your mailing list and it is also an excellent method to generate lead for your product or services.
However, not many people are aware of this feature and they also not aware that the email marketing system can handle the whole process of email subscription. The captured email address can be automatically stored inside the email marketing system’s database so there is no keying of data and checking the accuracy of email address is required. The email marketing system requires double opt-in so the email address captured is considered 100% valid.
Marketing Automation Platform
As mentioned in the above, the monthly email marketing plan could automate the email sign up process and another feature you do not want to miss out is the autoresponder. This feature is available in monthly email marketing plan only.
Autoresponder is another excellent way of automating your marketing process as it has the ability to send out a series of scheduled messages when new subscriber signs up. For example, the new subscriber receives a welcome message immediately after the sign up. The following day will receive a ebook containing tips and tricks that subscriber will benefit. Another week later, the new subscriber will receive exclusive discount if he/she purchases the products offer during that period.
All these messages will be sent out automatically to every new subscriber without any human intervention. It frees you from the mundane marketing tasks and allows you to target more on customer support and sales conversion.
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Hopefully, the above helps you to understand the difference between monthly email marketing plan and pay-as-you-go plan. It is highly recommended that before you decide on the right email marketing plan, consider factors such as your target market, the purpose of your marketing campaign, budget and long-term marketing plan.
As always, if you have other ideas on how to choose a plan for your email marketing campaign, please leave your comments below.