Planting Space

Last week I posted a blog on email marketing which included a link to a review of several of the providers.  There was one company that review left out that we recommend to all of our church planters: Web Accelerated Marketing.  I’ll review it based on the criteria from my post.

1.  Check the templates:  WAM has a good supply templates in several categories from Church to Restaurants.  If you can use Microsoft Word, you will feel at home editing the templates.

2.  Ease of Use.  WAM has a familiar Microsoft feel to the software.  Like any program, it takes a little getting used to.  After working with WAM a few times the user interface has become familiar and comfortable to navigate.

3.  Does it have tools to help you avoid the spam filter?  Yes.  WAM employs a double opt-in process for all contacts ensuring that you will miss the spam filter.  They also highly recommend not using a public email address like Gmail or Yahoo as those are abused by spammers.

4.  Can you get help?  WAM includes built in video tutorials.  While not comprehensive, they do seem to be working to add new and updated tutorial videos.  You can also submit help questions through the program and typically will receive a timely answer.

5.  Can you customize the html?  Yes.  For the brave and tech savvy, WAM allows you to switch to view the the source code of the template so that you can customize the template.  I’ve done very little website editing and was able to play around with the source enough to achieve the look I wanted.  WAM also employs graphic designers who will develop a customized template with your branding.

WAM does much more than html email.  It also has built in tools to allow you to track the response, publish web content, create landing pages, build in feedback forms, surveys, and opinion polls to your site, as well as generate Personalized URLs (Purls).

If you are still deciding about what E-mail Marketing service to use, here is the kicker: ITS FREE! The creators of WAM know that church planters don’t have any money and so they have decided to give away for free for the first year of the church.  This really makes WAM a no-brainer.  Try it out, kick the tires and if you don’t like it you aren’t out any money.  To sign up click here.

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