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SMS Texts and Unlimited Subscribers Help Set the Email Service Provider Apart

Amid the crowded marketplace of email providers, Sendinblue (https://sendinblue.com) is an often overlooked option. This French-based company has branch offices all over the globe and has services that easily rival some of its biggest competitors: Mailchimp, MailerLite, SendFox, and ActiveCampaign. But it's not simply a mail service—it's a comprehensive digital marketing platform.

Sendinblue offers email services that include automation, contact management, templates, and a drag-and-drop design feature, but it also goes further with extras like a landing page builder, SMS marketing, chatbot integration, e-commerce integration, and website tracking. Plus, the platform provides extensive analytics to help you track performance.

Interaction Beyond the Inbox

Sendinblue’s integrated platform can make it easier to reach readers on other platforms. With the Conversations tool, authors can connect with people via SMS messages, web chat, and the unified hub for Facebook and Instagram pages and WhatsApp Business accounts. From here, users can deliver promotional offers, process orders, troubleshoot customer problems, and more—all in one centralized dashboard.

Moreover, Sendinblue's AI-driven technology can help automate conversations to improve engagement by responding faster and more accurately than a human would be able to. Thanks to automated greeting bots that can understand natural language processing (NLP), customers can interact with someone without feeling like they’re talking to a robot and without requiring you to sacrifice writing time to manage the conversation.

Additionally, Sendinblue offers valuable tools for those running e-commerce businesses or taking payments online, such as fraud detection and advanced order management capabilities. It also integrates with many popular business apps, such as Google Ads, WordPress, or Facebook Ads, providing detailed analytics to track performance across channels.

SMS Marketing: Why It Matters for Authors

A study commissioned by Asurion and conducted by research firm Solidea Solutions in 2019 found that Americans, on average, check their phones ninety-six times per day. This suggests SMS, or text, marketing could be a more immediate way to connect with readers than other channels like email or social media. And because people are already becoming accustomed to receiving text messages from companies and brands, they're more likely to pay attention to them.

SMS messages are most effectively used for time-sensitive messages with a single call-to-action, such as reminding readers about upcoming book releases or promotions. They should be used sparingly—although they’re great for immediacy, the practice can also backfire and annoy users if messages are sent too often, go on for too long, or include information better communicated in email. Consider SMS messages for sending readers exclusive content, such as a sneak peek of an upcoming book chapter. This offers readers an incentive to keep up with your work while also helping you create anticipation around your new releases.

Sendinblue also makes it easy for authors to manage their SMS campaigns with its automated system. You can easily schedule campaigns in advance and track performance using real-time analytics tools, so you know when messages are received and how many people have clicked on the links embedded in your text message.

Pro Tip: To ensure you’ve followed the proper laws regarding SMS permissions, ask subscribers to update their contact information with a phone number. Sendinblue has custom templates for updating preferences that can be added to the footer of emails, which can be shown alongside the required Unsubscribe link.

Pricing Model

There are two primary pricing models that email service providers use: pay-per-subscriber and pay-as-you-go. With monthly subscriptions, you pay a set amount each month with limits on the number of subscribers you can have. Some companies count subscribers even if they’ve unsubscribed, making it necessary to cull your lists often to ensure the account remains under the limits. Sendinblue, however, uses a pay-as-you-go model, which allows an unlimited number of subscribers and charges only for the number of emails sent.

The pay-as-you-go pricing model can be more cost-effective for authors that have a high number of inactive subscribers. With a pay-per-subscriber pricing model, businesses still have to pay for these inactive subscribers, even if they are not receiving any emails. With a pay-as-you-go pricing model, businesses only pay for the emails they send and not for subscribers who are not engaged.

For authors who use newsletter swap services, which can lead to extensive lists of prospects, a common complaint is they often bump up against sending limits according to their price tier. Sendinblue removes the need to ruthlessly remove contacts to keep from being charged a higher monthly fee.

Pro Tip: Import new subscribers to a prospects list, and send them a warm-up campaign. Invite them to join your main newsletter by clicking a button and using Sendinblue’s marketing automation to move them to a validated list.

Email and List Management

List management is essential for authors looking to target their audience more effectively, and Sendinblue enables users to create, update, and manage multiple lists of subscribers. Sendinblue also provides the ability to import or export subscribers to and from different lists.

Sendinblue’s personalized URLs (PURLs) feature allows users to capture contact information from multiple sources, such as web forms or landing pages, and store them in a list that you can segment later on. Segmentation allows authors to take advantage of dynamic content that Sendinblue automatically keeps track of when creating campaigns, such as the last time someone clicked and what they clicked on. Sendinblue lets you create segments based on various criteria such as subscriber activity, demographics, or behavior, tailoring your messages for each segment of your readership so that they feel special and engaged with your work.

Sendinblue also allows you to send automated campaigns based on specific criteria such as new subscribers, inactive subscribers, or those who have completed a purchase journey. This helps ensure readers receive timely messages that are tailored for them while keeping track of engagement levels with automated reports that show campaign performance.

Sendinblue also comes with other key features designed for advanced marketing:

• Automation Based on Action: One of the most powerful features in Sendinblue is its ability to trigger emails based on certain user actions. Using this feature, authors can set up automated workflows and campaigns that send emails when users take specific actions, such as subscribing to their mailing list, visiting their website pages, or clicking on links in emails.
• Personalization: Using Sendinblue’s dynamic contact management tools, authors can personalize their emails using subscriber data, such as name, location, or purchase history. When readers feel like they have received an email tailored for them, they are more likely to open it and take action on it.
• Advanced Targeting: Sendinblue also offers segmentation tools that allow you to target messages to specific segments of your readership based on criteria including activity level, such as those who have opened an email in the last thirty days; geography; demographics, such as gender or age; or the recency or frequency of past purchases, as well as other pieces of data.

Overall, Sendinblue is a unique option for self-published authors who are looking for a comprehensive digital marketing platform. With its email automation, SMS marketing, and chatbot integration, Sendinblue offers a range of tools that can help authors engage with their readers and promote their books. Additionally, its pricing is more affordable than many of its competitors, making it a great option for authors on a budget.