iContact offers free email marketing

Email and social marketing platform iContact is now offering a free version of their service, aimed at attracting small businesses. Organizations with 500 or fewer subscribers can use the service for free; they have access to fewer options and less support than paid customers, but this is still a good opportunity for companies considering an e-newsletter to try it out with low risk.

I am a big fan of email newsletters, and suspect that any company doing at least a half-way decent job will quickly be over the 500 subscriber mark. That is a good problem to have, though, and if you have demonstrated that much growth the relatively low-cost monthly packages should be easy to justify.

When starting your newsletter, remember that consistency is key. If it is a monthly newsletter, be sure you're sending it out every month, because it will take a while to really gain traction.