Best WordPress Mailing List Plugin
Posted on November 4, 2013
“The money is in the list!” – I’m sure you’ve heard that old chestnut before, and, there is a heck of a lot of truth in it. In this social media world, where tweets and updates have a half life comparable to that of a gnat, getting access to a potential customers inbox can be beneficial for getting your message across. Whilst I’m not sure that the below plugin is the best WordPress mailing list plugin in the world, it is definitely a very useful plugin and it’s the plugin I use for my mailing list.
The WordPress Mailing List plugin that I have on my site is called Mail Poet (formerly known as WYSIJA – I think the name change is better than that mouthful) and you know what, it’s pretty great. Check out the video about Mail Poet below.
Typically the pain points with WordPress mailing list plugins is that they never integrate properly or are very finicky. When doing WordPress web design typically most of our clients already use MailChimp and so we have to integrate MailChimp for WordPress but Mail Poet integration is really a walk in the park. I have two sign up boxes permanently on my site, in the footer below and in the sidebar on the right (go on, sign up!) – all set up with just a few clicks which has me thinking Mail Poet may be the best WordPress mailing list plugin going.
Best WordPress Mailing List Plugin
Drag & Drop E-mail Editing with the Mail Poet Plugin
But, wait, there’s more!
The real beauty of Mail Poet is the ease with which you can create e-mail newsletters. Unlike MailChimp or other mailing list providers that aren’t WordPress native with Mail Poet you can embed blog posts directly into you mailing lists – in fact, you can even automate this and ping e-mails to your subscribers with a weekly round up of new blog posts. Auto responders and the usual mailing list features are also available in the plugin.
Like MailChimp and most other mailing list providers Mail Poet also gives you access to stats about your e-mail campaigns. This is where the Mail Poet is slightly weaker than the likes of MailChimp – its analytics and tracking isn’t as developed or refined as the others but I reckon that will change. The team behind Mail Poet update the plugin regularly and so advances in analytics are just around the corner.
All in all this is a WordPress mailing list plugin that really ticks the boxes for me – I’m not going to say it is de facto the best WordPress Mailing list plugin but I will say it’s the one I use. Sign up for it below and you’ll how e-mails get delivered and check out the video below for more.
What WordPress mailing list plugin do you use? You come across any other gems?
Kim
November 4, 2013 (1:56 pm)
Hey! What additional stats are you looking for?
Robert Ryan
November 4, 2013 (2:01 pm)
Hey Kim, cheers for the comment – love your plugin! Re additional stats I guess it’d be nice to know gender, location of subscribers etc but I think you have those features in the pipeline…I also haven’t upgraded to premium version of Mail Poet yet so see that there are more features, stats and info there – going to beef up my list first and then upgrade.. Merci!
Reginald
November 12, 2013 (12:26 pm)
Hey Ryan,
Oh wow. Interesting. I used this plugin once (last year). It was okay but for starters, it is heavy! Sardine packed with tons of features. Very good indeed for a plugin and surprised too!
Do I use plugin now? Nope. Hardcode myself as it works better and faster. If needed, HybridConnect, OptinSkin and GEnesis eNews are my top choices :)
Thanks for sharing!
Robert Ryan
November 12, 2013 (12:58 pm)
Thanks for the comment Reginald. I agree – lots of features in the plugin but I don’t find it to be too heavy..Cheers for sharing your setup too!
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[…] brand advocate for you. Throughout the course of the year I hope you’ve been building up your mailing list with customers and prospective customers as now is the time to show your mailing list how much they […]
arsie organo
January 18, 2014 (4:27 am)
Hi, there’s one problem with Mailpoet Version 2.5.9.4 and that is I can’t modify or create a new list. I wanted to change the default “My first list” into something else. Would you know how to do it?
Thanks.
Robert Ryan
January 18, 2014 (2:24 pm)
Hi Arsie – thanks for your comment. I’ve never experienced that issue with Mail Poet. Have you tried to create a new list instead of renaming the old one as a work around? I’m able to edit my list names by going to Subscribers and then Edit List.Hope you find a way to make it work, or a workaround as Mail Poet is pretty sweet..Rob
ABhay
February 21, 2014 (8:58 am)
wysija is a nice and free plugin to gain subscriber.
Robert Ryan
February 21, 2014 (1:36 pm)
I agree Abhay, I find MailPoet, or WYSIJA as it was once called, to be excellent.. Thanks for reading..
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Ryan
November 18, 2014 (3:27 am)
Just set up Mail Poet. Now that it’s setup and I’ve kicked it around a little, it seems to be fairly easy to use. But setup wasn’t all that intuitive. For example, I had the same issue as Arsie. The button to create a new list isn’t anywhere near where I would expect it to be. Seems like it should be in a more obvious spot. But, now that I’ve found it and added a list it all seems to be working. Of course, I only set it up this afternoon so there aren’t any subscribers yet. Hopefully that’ll change soon…
Robert Ryan
November 18, 2014 (2:43 pm)
Hi Ryan, thanks for the comment and sorry to hear that you had some issues with the setup of Mail Poet. I’ve been using it for so long now that I can’t actually remember the setup process being difficult but you’re not the first to say it. I think the Mail Poet team see some of these comments so they might look into tweaking to make that part of the Mail Poet sign up and integration smoother. Set up aside though it’s a great plugin for mailing lists I think and hope you find it usefully – won’t be long til you’ve a ton of subscribers I’m sure :)