Hi there,

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Mailchimp has long been the most popular email marketing choice for cottage food entrepreneurs.

Many years ago, I also used Mailchimp for my fudge business. The main reason I chose them was because of their amazing free tier: up to 2,000 email subscribers for free.

And it was truly amazing. Definitely the best free tier in the email marketing industry.

Until now.

This Friday, Mailchimp is massively slashing their free tier, and they are forcing the change onto existing users as well.

Here's what's changing:
Before, you could send up to 12,000 emails per month to 2,000 subscribers for free.
Now, you can only send up to 1,000 emails per month to 500 subscribers for free.

I personally switched away from Mailchimp many years ago for many reasons**, but due to the free tier, I still felt like they were a pretty good option for cottage food businesses.

Not anymore. Considering the many great alternatives, now I am hard-pressed to find ANY good reason to use Mailchimp.

If you currently use Mailchimp, you're likely frustrated with the change, and wondering if you should switch to an alternative.

Speaking from experience, I switched, and I'm glad I did.

I've tried a lot of the email marketing platforms out there, and I now use ConvertKit for my fudge business. I really like it because it strikes the right balance between being simple, easy to use, and affordable (and it has a decent free tier, too).

And remember, I do have a free email marketing tutorial on Forrager if you want to learn how to setup ConvertKit (please note that you need to have a free Forrager account to access it):

Watch my free tutorial: Intro to Email Marketing


Until next week,
David


* If you're asking, "What's Mailchimp?" It's a popular email marketing platform. It helps you build an email list and communicate with your fans/customers via email. If you're not using email marketing in your business yet, you really should be! See my tutorial above for more info about how to integrate this into your business.

** A lot of people really hate Mailchimp because they have a reputation for banning accounts for unclear reasons with little to no notice. Imagine being locked out of your account for days (sometimes weeks), and not able to contact your customers! But I feel like the risk of that happening to a small cottage food business is very low.
The main reason I switched away from Mailchimp is due to their other business practices. The premise of their business has always been kind of like a bait-and-switch. Once you're off their free tier, Mailchimp is actually pretty expensive.
Also, although they charge based on list size (which is typical), they use sleazy tactics to calculate that size. They literally continue charging you for people you can't email! (people who unsubscribe)  They also double dip if you have someone on multiple lists. For instance, say you have a general "Newsletter" list, and also have a "Customers" list for your customers. If you have someone on both lists, they count that as two subscribers. To my knowledge, they are the only email marketing platform that does this.