Adestra vs. Mad Mimi

Small businesses with even smaller marketing budgets and no email marketing experience would be better off selecting a lower-end email marketing provider. However, Adestra will provide a growing company with every email marketing tool along the way.

Incentivized

It's ideal for the new to email campaign/SMB user as they take great pains to ensure your campaign is ready for success. It's also ideal for those who are used to using the 'Goliaths' of email campaigns as the difference is night and day, in my opinion. Mad Mimi does exactly what we needed done to engage just the right audience with proven, scalable results. It's great software, but it's also the value of the team at Mad Mimi that one gets as a customer.

Incentivized

• Adestra's "dynamic" list allows users to consolidate multiple lists in combination with data filters and exclusion lists. This implements segmentation and is a powerful marketing tool.
• Adestra's MessageFocus API integration provides developer-tools for list, campaign or transactional automated requirements.
• Campaigns can be sorted into project folders. This allows marketers to group campaigns together for management or reporting requirements. Moving or copying campaigns from one project to another is a simple process.
• Data downloads via Reporting is available at every level, from overview to individual KPI.
• Creating "core" tables helps marketers develop lists with similar attributes. Whether a list has many fields or simply the one required email address field, a "core" table helps to quickly map data labels from spreadsheet to online database. Creating data labels on the fly is a simple process, as well. The "core" table also groups similar contacts into one core database.
• Any list can be quickly "emptied" for to manage refreshed data. The contacts within the "emptied" list would still be members of the "core" table and so the process does not negatively impact reporting.
• Unsubscribes can be managed in one list (as a default) or individual lists. Creating individual unsubscribe lists -- dependent on business requirements -- would allow for a preference center, whereby recipients could be given a choice as to which campaigns they receive.
• The Form tool creates signup forms, simple surveys and landing pages. These can be hosted via Adestra or otherwise on the web. The tool provides for branding and proprietary cascading stylesheets, with a number of actions available through a drag-and-drop interface.

Incentivized

• Very easy to upload pictures and drop them into an email I am creating.
• Easy to create links within emails to web hosted documents or websites or videos.
• Easy to see who has read what, who has engaged with what emails, who has unsubscribed, so I know exactly how to follow up with people.
• Easy to upload new contacts, in a batch or one at a time.

Incentivized

• As of this writing, there are at least 3 different editors available (a drag-and-drop, a WYSIWYG and HTML). However, only a small template library is available if requested through support. Those expecting to find ready-built templates for re-branding would find them through the third-party EDM Designer drag-and-drop editor.

Incentivized

• The reporting features are pretty basic. I often feel like I need to switch email providers in order to excel ahead of competition.
• The drag and drop tool is easy to use but very limited. It's really difficult to be creative with columns and content.
• The entire tool itself is pretty basic. Not wow'd by any features.

Pretty simple, I know I'm getting what I pay for and a little more. Although simple and easy for the new user; a more seasoned marketer can still get the most from MadMimi. Especially if the primary purpose is to generate strong brand loyalty with effective communication that integrates your various outlets: MadMimi makes it easy for your customer to pick-up what the business owner wants to relay.

I have been self-trained on different ESPs for over 10 years, so my experience isn't comparable to most users. However, I've trained people on various email marketing platforms, and with some training, clients have a positive user-experience with Adestra.

Incentivized

I find it very easy to use just like my colleagues too. The learning curve is straight forward.

Incentivized

I have had campaign related issues solved very quickly. When there are technical issues, that involve more than one departmental, it may involve a longer turn-around and management.

Incentivized

My issues are usually quickly resolved and their support staffs are very knowledgeable on the software generally

Incentivized

For medium and large sized businesses, Adestra competes well with dotMailer. While many of the functions are available through either provider, creating campaigns, managing lists and reviewing metrics are somewhat different. As of this writing, dotMailer's drag-and-drop editor dominates that platform and performs well for low-end users with little-to-no HTML experience. Even high-end users will appreciate how quickly campaigns can be built via the drag-and-drop editor. While Adestra utilizes the EDM Designer drag-and-drop, the third-party functionality is not completely cohesive and lack of a template library gives dotMailer a bit of an advantage.

Incentivized

Mad Mimi is not as complex to use for preparing emails as some competitors like Mailchimp. Mad Mimi has a lot of integration for third-party apps. Unlike Mailchimp, Mad Mimi is more suitable for our e-marketing strategy. Mad Mimi does not offer free trial whereas Mailchimp does offer a test service for 1000 emails. Mailchimp has more functionalities, for instance, the A/B testing which is lacking in Mad Mimi but is very effective in Mailchimp. The email template from Mad Mimi is not as responsive as the one of Mailchimp but when it comes to overall usage, Mad Mimi can do basically what Mailchimp can do. Mailchimp has more functionality in autoresponder usage than Mad Mimi. We chose Mad Mimi because it is cheaper.

Incentivized

• For companies that focus on goals and analytics, Adestra provides all the necessary tools.

Incentivized

• I've spent 3 years creating blog posts, and it is only now encompassing the breath that allows me to draw upon this pieces as a reusable resource, but now this is happening.
• I preferred the Mad Mimi platform to Mail Chimp, and I suspect it continues to offer advantages. I felt Mad Mimi did themselves a disservice by failing to support their free subscriber service to the same extent that Mail Chimp does. When one's mail list gets sufficiently large, then it does pay to pay them, but not in the context I was using it.
• It seems that Mad Mimi is targeting direct marketing purposes, as this is a use where ROI is more easily measured.

Incentivized