Have you tried Weebly Promote yet?

Erin6 · ‎03-16-2016

Hey!

I was wondering - have any of you tried Weebly Promote yet? I've been playing around with it for the past few weeks, and it's pretty handy. I've used MailChimp for years now, so I wasn't quite sure what differences and similarities to expect.

I'll actually be hosting webinars on getting started with Promote a few times a month. Let me know if you're interested, and I'll post the registration links.

Let me know your thoughts!

Enjoy your day,

e

Malabead · ‎03-16-2016

Hello Erin,

I would be interested in the Promote webinars. I am thinking of transitioning from MailChimp to Promote but have a few questions that I cannot find the answers to so far:

When someone signs up to my mailing list, is the procedure from the user's end the same as MailChimp?
Is it possible to offer a free giveaway/download at the end of the signup process like MailChimp?
Is there an unsubscribe button at the bottom of all emails that you send out with Promote?

Thank you,

David.

Malabead · ‎03-16-2016

Oh, and another question:

Can Promote be set up to send out emails when I new blog post is published?

David.

Adam7 · ‎03-16-2016

@Malabead wrote:

Oh, and another question:

Can Promote be set up to send out emails when I new blog post is published?

David.

You won't be able to have an email sent automatically when you publish a blog post, though you can schedule a campaign with the top two Promote plans. Since you can also schedule blog posts, you could schedule both and achieve the same thing, though.

You can import contacts from any contact form on your site and select those to add to any campaign. It's probably not exactly like Mailchimp, but it's really straightforward so you won't have any trouble setting it up.

artbysunfire · ‎03-17-2016

I haven't tried the Weebly Promote yet. I do see that there is a free trial for the Weebly Promote, how long is the trial for?

At this time, I use MailChimp for free and it is sufficient for what I need. I can't see moving to Weebly Promote when it would cost more on top of my business site plan.

Adam7 · ‎03-17-2016

@artbysunfire wrote:

I haven't tried the Weebly Promote yet. I do see that there is a free trial for the Weebly Promote, how long is the trial for?

At this time, I use MailChimp for free and it is sufficient for what I need. I can't see moving to Weebly Promote when it would cost more on top of my business site plan.

The two free email campaigns don't expire, so you can try them whenever you want. Never hurts to give it a test drive, though.

artbysunfire · ‎03-17-2016

Thank you, Adam! I will have to give it a try and see how it runs.

useyourbrain · ‎03-17-2016

Sucks... I have tried and I will be getting a refund. You can't import contacts from a regular .csv file whether it be Google Contact, LinkedIn, etc. You have to exatly match the template they give you. It is a simple job but none the less a PITA. Not to mention they don't offer hosted contact forms which is standard with most any other autoresponder. Sure it may be easy to use but I don't like being nickled and dimed based on how many contacts I have on my list. Should not be punished for my sucess by paying more. So far I have only found one autoresponder which charges a flat rate regardless of how big your mailing list is. If anyone wants a link hit me in a private message. They also offer a 30 day trial and support is the best I have encoutered which I attirbute from them being in email marketing for 16 years.

whawkins · ‎03-22-2016

I like the ease of design for emails, as with creating websites in Weebly.

I am not clear how to do the following:

Replicate a previous email ( I send out weekly e-shots to readers and I don't want to have to create e-shot from scratch).
Import data including different fields (e.g. first name/last name/company and email address).
Insert a 'name field' into the email to personalise it.

I would like, also, to see reporting data on the location (country, city) of the reader.

I am interested in attending a webinar on using Promote.

Adam7 · ‎03-22-2016

@whawkins wrote:

I like the ease of design for emails, as with creating websites in Weebly.

I am not clear how to do the following:

Replicate a previous email ( I send out weekly e-shots to readers and I don't want to have to create e-shot from scratch).

Import data including different fields (e.g. first name/last name/company and email address).

Insert a 'name field' into the email to personalise it.

I would like, also, to see reporting data on the location (country, city) of the reader.

I am interested in attending a webinar on using Promote.

Great questions, @whawkins!

1. Duplicating an email is really easy! When viewing the list of sent email, click on the "..." button to the right of an email you sent, you'll see an option there to duplicate the email.

2. Are you looking to import this info about your customers, or your own store? You can import that data from contact forms on your site, or upload a CSV with that info.

3. We recently added the ability to do this using Merge Tags:

https://hc.weebly.com/hc/en-us/articles/217994977-Adding-Custom-Content-to-Emails-With-Merge-Tags

If there's anything you'd like us to add, feel free to suggest it on our Vote for Features board:

https://community.weebly.com/t5/Vote-on-Features/idb-p/IdeaExchange

whawkins · ‎03-22-2016

Thanks, Adam.

I had not spotted those functions, so I will try them out this week.

I am looking to import from a CSV folder and import from my contact forms.

Also, any insights into the location data for readers? Is that something available, now or in the future?

Regards,

Will

Adam7 · ‎03-22-2016

@whawkins wrote:

Also, any insights into the location data for readers? Is that something available, now or in the future?

I'm don't know right now if that's something that could be added, but I'd recommend posting it as a feature suggestion on the Vote on Features board:

https://community.weebly.com/t5/Vote-on-Features/idb-p/IdeaExchange

advanced · ‎03-22-2016

I am interested in knowing if Promote will have a sign up form we can put out to Facebook and other Social Media sights to drive people to sign up?

Adam7 · ‎03-22-2016

@advanced wrote:

I am interested in knowing if Promote will have a sign up form we can put out to Facebook and other Social Media sights to drive people to sign up?

Great suggestion! If you'd like us to add Facebook integration like that for promote, you could make a post on our Vote on Features board:

https://community.weebly.com/t5/Vote-on-Features/idb-p/IdeaExchange

rlarsen11 · ‎03-29-2016

I looked at it but I won't be using it. Presently I use Get Response which also includes so much more for roughly the same price you are charging just to send e-mails. I like the fact that it is integrated into the website, but I would be more interested in a one stop shop similar to Get Response and Infusionsoft.

joem15 · ‎04-29-2019

I am want to use the merge function but there are only 4 options, First Name, Last Name, Full Name and Email. That's it! Is there a way to add another field like Company or Date?

Adam7 · ‎04-30-2019

If the tags don't exist there wouldn't be a way to add them yourself. I saw that you posted this to our Vote on Features board, though, which is great since that's the best way to let our team know about changes or additions to the product that you'd like to see.

Erin6 · ‎03-22-2016

Hey, all!

In case you'd like to see, here is the video from today's webinar: https://hc.weebly.com/hc/en-us/articles/217509498-Promote-Getting-Started

I'll be hosting this webinar again in the next few weeks, and I'll let you know when the registration for that is up.

Thanks!

e

newyorkave · ‎03-24-2016

Just watched the webinar, thanks for sharing. Few thoughts and questions...

I'd like to see a code editor, if possible. We tend to heavily customize things and would love that same capability brought to Promote. In fact, we wouldn't be able to start using Promote until that capability existed.

It would be nice if we could opt to have photos span from edge to edge. I think the only way to accomplish that now is to upload a photo as the "background", which is also OK but I have yet to get in and play around with it to really know for sure.

Is there not a way to create and mange lists of subscribers? All I saw in the webinar was manually adding or importing them for every campaign. I can't imagine Promote is limited to that only.

Can the campaigns not autopost to Facebook and Twitter? If so, where can we create and define the design of "social cards" to ensure the information and imagery displayed there look right?

For the click rate, does it not track individual link clicks (in-text and CTA's)? If so, where/how?

Is there not a way to create and reuse templates short of creating a campaign and duplicating it? I would like to be able to use and reuse templates when creating campaigns.

Is there a plan for implementing autoresponders or trigger-based campaigns?

Thanks in advance for your prompt and thorough replies.

Erin6 · ‎03-24-2016

Hey!

Thanks for your post. I'll try to answer all of your questions, but I may need to do some digging.

I recommend adding your feature suggestions, like a code editor and edge-to-edge images, to the Vote on Features section (they may be better off in separate posts).

For the lists of subscribers - You should be able to do this with the Contact Groups. Groups give you the abilities to make and manage lists. You can also send emails to mutliple groups.

Emails aren't posted to FB and Twitter, and we don't have a link for the emails yet (although this is coming soon), so you also cannot create social cards. Again, this feature is coming soon.

The click-rate is an overall engagement metric. We aren't tracking per link, but you are welcome to suggest this in the Vote on Features section!

For creating a template - When you are designing your email, click on the elipses in the top right corner. You should see the option to save your email as a template.

Autoresponders are coming soon!

Just let me know if you have more questions. I'm happy to find the answers for you.

Enjoy your day,

Erin

AlyB · ‎03-31-2016

Hi Erin & co.

I'm just thinking about giving Promote a go too. I would like to know the following:

1. With the Newsletter Form, do the people who sign up here automatically get added to your email list?

2. Is it possible to track opt-in conversion rates with Weebly? I've searched and can't find anything about that.

3. Is it possible to track sales conversions from email newsletters? (Shame you can't track individual link clicks - that seems like an important thing that hasn't been included).

4. Regarding the Newsletter Form opt-in (slightly off track from Promote but all ties together), why am I not able to specify which fields I would like to capture (ie. FIRST NAME)? Currently can only see the form box for Email. But given that it's important to address your database customers with their first name, this seems like a major oversight. Unless I'm missing something there?

Many thanks
Aly Bennett
www.nativecreative.co.nz