For bloggers, an email list is one of the most valuable assets there is. Your email list is something you actually own, and it opens the door for a variety of monetization strategies as it grows.
But choosing the right email service provider is a massive decision. You want a provider that has enough features and automation capabilities to get the job done without paying an arm and a leg.
Moosend, an easy-to-use email marketing suite, is a popular choice for bloggers and ecommerce stores alike. It's most like MailerLite from a pricing and features aspect… but it's so much cuter and easier to use.
What is Moosend?
Moosend began in 2011 and is based in London, England. While email providers like ConvertKit and MailerLite are probably more familiar for most bloggers, Moosend is still a contender that offers both simplicity and powerful automation features to help you get more traffic and results.
Moosend Features
The most important features of any email service provider is good segmentation and easy-to-use automations. Sending the right thing to the right person at the right time is key to driving traffic and making sales.
It also needs to be easy to use since who has time to mess around with clunky software and hard-to-learn tech?
1. Email Builder
One of the main factors in picking an email service provider is its email builder. After all, you want to quickly create newsletters and blasts for your email list, not struggle to send a single email.
Moosend's drag-and-drop email builder is very user friendly, and there are 70+ templates for categories like:
- Blogging
- Articles
- E-Commerce
- Launches
- Products
- Mobile-Only
- Sales
Like ConvertKit and MailerLite, you drag content widgets into your email template to start crafting an email blast. Adding images, cropping, and moving around elements to match your vision is also very intuitive.
The number of email templates is a pro for Moosend, and if you’re frustrated with your current email editor, Moosend’s user-friendly email builder is for you.
Related: ConvertKit Review — Is it Worth the Cost?
2. Audience Segmentation
Effective email marketing requires segmenting your email list. This means grouping your readers into different buckets depending on their interests.
Segmentation is especially important if you’re a lifestyle blogger or cover several blog niches because you only want to send relevant content to specific groups of readers.
Thankfully, Moosend lets you keep segmentation simple or get into the weeds depending on your needs. You can segment with basic parameters like age, location, or gender. Alternatively, segment readers using metrics like previous purchase information or operating system.
Segmentation works through creating different lists, subscribers can be on more than one list at a time. So for example, a mom blogger could have them on a “school aged kids” list for tips about having kids in school and also on a “work from home” to send them tips about working from home.
Overall, there’s plenty of room to get creative, and other segmenting criteria includes:
- Date
- Email client
- Name
- Number of campaigns opened or clicked
- Campaign non-openers
- Product purchases, views, or add-to-cart
- Specific URLs people have clicked in your emails
- Specific campaigns opened or clicked
- Web and mobile browser
The product-based segmentation is particularly important if you sell courses, digital downloads, or physical products since you can upsell to existing customers and remarket to people with abandoned carts.
3. Marketing Automation
Your email list is a potential goldmine of traffic and revenue. But, you don’t want to spend hours every week crafting emails or have your email list go cold if you’re busy.
This is why email marketing automation is crucial. And, with Moosend’s automation, you can create powerful workflows to automatically do things like:
- Welcome new subscribers and segment them into lists based on their behaviors
- Create automations for different segments so people flow through the right chain of emails
- Send abandoned cart reminders or discount codes
- Score leads based on their behavior
- Send VIP offers to your best customers
These are some basic examples, but Moosend lets you go even more granular.
For example, you can create automations to send emails to people who browse certain pages but don’t make a purchase. So, if someone in your email list views your products or course page but doesn’t buy, you can send a discount code or reminder email a few days later to encourage the purchase.
Moosend even lets you send emails based on the weather in the recipient’s area, so you can truly get creative with your email marketing automation.
Related: MailerLite Review — User Friendly and Affordable
4. Email Subscription Forms
How you actually capture new email subscribers isn’t always something you think about when choosing an email service provider. But, if you can’t effectively build your email list, automation and segmenting tools aren’t useful.
Moosend has everything you’d expect for email subscription forms. You can collect emails with five form types:
- Modal pop-up
- Inline
- Floating bar
- Floating box
- Full page
There are numerous form templates you can use and customize, so it’s easy to create forms that match your blog’s brand.
But, what I like about Moosend is that you can control when forms fire and even use different forms depending on criteria like:
- Page URL
- Mobile or desktop
- The reader’s country or city
- Operating system
Moosend is also GDPR-compliant, and you can segment readers and kickstart various automation flows the second someone submits their email.
5. Landing Page Builder
Landing pages are basically one-page websites that are designed to give information about a specific product or event and collect an email address so the user can get more information.
Currently, Moosend has over a dozen landing page templates for four categories:
- Coming soon
- E-book
- Lead generation
- Webinar
Landing pages are not available on the free plan but you probably don't need them if you don’t have anything to sell.
Another option for landing pages is to create them right on your site, without using a landing page builder. That can take longer but it's typically better to send traffic directly to your site than to an off-site landing page.
6. Tracking and Reporting
It doesn’t matter if you’re new to email marketing or have been doing it for years; you need data to make the right decisions and to optimize your email marketing strategies.
With Moosend, tracking campaign performance isn’t an issue. The “Overview” tab in the dashboard provides a snapshot of recent campaigns, recipient numbers, link clicks, and unsubscribers. You also get data like your best:
- Email recipients
- Custom fields people click
- Links
- Locations
But Moosend’s “Link Performance” tab is where the magic is. This report actually has a heatmap that shows what sections of your email blasts get the most clicks.
This lets you discover what content is most compelling and least compelling so you learn to write better emails.
Related: The Best Free Heatmaps for Your Blog
7. Integrations
Integrating third-party software with your email service provider becomes important as you become a better email marketer.
No single platform can handle everything, so integrating other software to fill in the gaps is inevitable. This could be something as simple as integrating your email provider with your WordPress blog or something more complex like syncing your email list with Facebook Ads.
Moosend has enough integrations to get the job done. Integration categories and notable third-party applications include:
- CMS: Drupal, WordPress
- CRM: HubSpot, Insightly, Salesforce, Zoho
- Ecommerce: Magento, PrestaShop, ThriveCart, WooCommerce
- Lead Generation: Convertbox, Elementor, Facebook Ads, Mailoptin, Zendesk
- List Validation: Bouncer, Clearout, Verifybee
Moosend has fewer native integrations than other email providers. However, you can use Moosend’s API or connect it with Zapier to use other software, so this isn’t a huge limitation.
Moosend Pricing
Moosend is free for your first 1,000 subscribers and includes automation workflows and unlimited workflows. This is similar to what MailerLite offers on their free plan but MailerLite limits you to 12,000 per month.
ConvertKit is also free for the first 1,000 subscribers but doesn't include automations.
The Free plan lets you:
- Send unlimited emails
- Capture new subscribers
- Use basic Moosend templates
- Create automation workflows
- Track clicks and campaign performance
- Access email and chat support
After 1,000 subscribers, you need to pay for Moosend’s Pro or Enterprise plan. The Enterprise plan requires a custom quote and provides things like an account manager and priority phone support, so it’s not for your everyday blogger.
Realistically, you need Pro, and this plan has every feature I mentioned in my Moosend review. As for Moosend’s pricing, it depends on how many subscribers you have:
| Subscribers | Monthly Cost (Moosend Pro) |
| 0 – 2,000 | $10/mo. |
| 2,000 – 3,500 | $20/mo. |
| 3,500 – 5,000 | $30/mo. |
| 5,000 – 8,500 | $40/mo. |
| 8,500 – 10,000 | $55/mo. |
| 10,000 – 25,000 | $125/mo. |
| 25,000 – 50,000 | $205/mo. |
| 50,000 – 75,000 | $260/mo. |
| 75,000 – 100,000 | $390/mo. |
Moosend continues scaling to 200,000 subscribers for $760 per month. Note that paying annually scores you a small discount on each tier, so you can get Moosend for as cheap as $8 per month with the beginner tier.
Overall, Moosend is cheaper than competitors like ConvertKit and is similarly priced to MailerLite. But the wiggle room you get in the 10,000 to 25,000 category while staying at the same price is cost-effective if you have a larger email list.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Affordability
- Intuitive email builder
- Automations and unlimited emails on the free plan
- Numerous email and newsletter templates
- Comprehensive segmentation
Cons:
- Fewer integrations than some email service providers
- Fewer automation capabilities than some other providers
- Other Moosend reviews state the interface can be slow-loading
- Lack of pricing flexibility since you almost-always have to buy Pro
Really, choosing Moosend is largely a matter of preference, but if you’re on a budget, Moosend is one of the best providers on the market.
Moosend Alternatives
If you aren’t sold on using Moosend to handle your email marketing, there are several Moosend alternatives you can turn to.
- ConvertKit. Pricer than Moosend but has more intuitive subscriber segmenting and comparable automations to Moosend.
- MailerLite. I think Moosend’s email builder is better than MailerLite, but if you want simplicity and affordability, MailerLite is for you.
- MailChimp. Offers a free plan up to 2,000 subscribers and in-depth campaign reporting.
- Sendinblue. The best Moosend alternative if you want an all-in-one marketing platform that includes SMS marketing, CRM, and more integrations.
Summary
It can feel overwhelming when picking an email service provider for your blog, but the key is to start somewhere. Email marketing is one of the best ways to build a loyal audience, and the longer you wait, the more traffic and revenue you’re missing out on.
If you are feeling overwhelmed about starting an email list from scratch, here's my guide to what you need to know before starting your list.
Hopefully, my Moosend review helps you decide if this is the right provider for you. If it isn’t, you can always try alternatives like ConvertKit or MailerLite to kickstart your email marketing efforts without spending a fortune.
