Aweber Announces Dramatic Price Increase
Aweber, the industry leader in Mailing List Management, recently announced a complete redesign and the addition of an impressive Email Analytics package. With those updates came a new pricing model for their services. The topic of that new pricing model came up during our Brainstorming Hour today…
The comments were that Aweber went from $19.95/month to $150/month. Knowing what a hassle it is to move an email list, the assumption was that Aweber would have people trapped into the new pricing model out of fear of losing most of their subscribers in the move.
Being a happy Aweber customer, and it being a service I frequently recommend, I decided I’d better check into it. You’d think I would have already heard about this considering I log in to Aweber several times a week. Ironically the notice & option were there when I logged in today…
Originally the price was $19.95/month for up to 10,000 subscribers. It is now $19/month for up to 500 subscribers. I was paying $29.90/month for my Aweber account, having gone over the 10k limit some time back. With the new pricing model, my account would now cost $149/month instead.
-> See Aweber’s New Pricing Structure
Before you completely freak out, current Aweber customers are not automatically upgraded to the new features and the new pricing structure.
Whew, I’m glad I got in early 
LOL
Seriously though, while I am hearing a lot of buzz about the price increase I havent heard anyone mention the cool new features Aweber rolled out with. The new pricing reflects an entirely new product – and a cool one at that.
The new & improved Aweber offers an extensive Email Analytics package. It will tell you who clicks what, where they go on your website once they click the link in your email, and basically let you micro-segment your list and send laser-targeted messages to individual segments.
New Features include:
- See exactly when subscribers click on links in your message so you can focus on the right time to send your message.
- Send a broadcast only to subscribers who didn’t open or click on your previous broadcast.
- Send an extra bonus offer to people who clicked your last email, but didn’t purchase
- Track sales revenue generated by each subscriber and send emails directly to your highest-value customers
- Send related offers to people who clicked in your last email – or each of your past few emails
- See what pages of your site subscribers go to after they sign up – even if they don’t use an email link to get there
- Segment your non-responsive subscribers and re-engage them (or if you prefer, remove them from your list)
- See which subscribers are responding to your campaigns — which messages they’re opening, which links they’re visiting, and where on your website they’re going after clicking through…
That’s a pretty powerful package, and those are just a few of the new features! Basically the new Aweber system lets you tailor your campaigns to segmented groups of subscribers, increasing your conversion rate and lowering your unsubscribe rate. You’ll be able to develop a closer relationship with your subscribers by customizing the messages that they receive.
Only new accounts automatically include all of the Email Web Analytics tools. Again, existing customers have the option to keep their original account & pricing. They still offer a package that is under $20/month. And if you have over 10,000 subscribers and you actually use their email analytics… your Aweber account will be well worth the $149 per month that it costs 
The bottom line is that Aweber is going “upscale”. They are keeping their current customers happy, but are targeting a higher end type email marketer with their new system.
I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion…
Best,
Related Articles:
- How To Set Up Your Mailing List With Aweber
- Free List-Building Videos & Webinars
- 7 Important Elements of an Email Message
- How To Keep Your Subscribers When You Switch Mailing List Managers
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Anita – naughty naughty, did you miss my last post?
The thing I may not have made clear, to answer 1 and 2….NO we are grandfathered all the way around….if you are now paying $19.95 for 10,000 you will continue to do so until you upgrade for the new features.
(This is where we lucked out and the newbies didn’t.)
Sooo, do not upgrade and your subscriber rate stays the same and you don’t get the new features…Upgrade and get the new features, and the new subscriber pricing kicks in.
I just called again to confirm this….hopefully Justin will be back to confirm it again again.
Hi Anita,
I’m happy to answer questions
Only if you upgrade to the new Email Web Analytics tools. If you don’t want them just yet, then nothing changes – including your current pricing.
The affiliate program is still 20% on direct sales and 10% on sub-affiliate sales.
Since our pricing has changed, this changes the dollar amounts on your commissions for new customers (as well as those who you previously referred who then upgrade).
This has the potential to earn more money for you – provided the customers you bring in succeed at cultivating a following. (Hint: that means that even more than before, it’s in your best interest to help people succeed!)
$19/month to get started (as opposed to the $19.95/month we used to start at).
Not to be nitpicky, but we never gave anyone subscribers – you have to attract (and retain) them!
Storage of the first 500 subscribers is included in the $19/month. As you cultivate a following that grows beyond that point, your pricing will go up – but so should your revenues and profits.
As many as you want – just like before. The difference is that now you can better tailor your message to their needs and wants.
I agree that it’s important to make sure you know what your options are and how each one affects you. That said, I think we’ll be more likely to have a “fact sheet” (PDF) that we send to pre-upgrade customers than we are to have an FAQ page or blog post that could cause confusion for our newer customers who never used AWeber before the recent changes.
@Dennis
Oops – sorry about that! All that hard work you and I ignored it :”> Well, not REALLY ignored but you know …
@Justin
Thank you once again! This clears things up so much better! I honestly feel like I really know what’s going on now
And yeah – you do have to admit – you were being just a tad nitpicky. Of course I didn’t think you gave us the subscribers, lol! BUT – good catch!
So through all that, Aweber still has one of the best options. I’m like Val – I think Aweber is an absolutely awesome provider. I really want to continue to recommend it – and will. I’m sure once Val sees the answers from you, she will feel better about it all as well.
I know she’s in the same type of network I am and the $19/month package is still good for them.
But sorry – I have to at least give this a mention. Couldn’t you and the powers that be of Aweber put some serious thought into and reconsider upping the 500 subscribers to just a bit more. Dare I say it? Pretty, pretty, please?
I understand as a current customer before all of this – I’m not affected by it. However, I’m suggesting it on behalf of the future potential small business owners.
I don’t even need an answer on this … just toss it into your “customer suggestion box”
Follow me @anitadefrank on Twitter.
I am referring to a newsletter by jl.scott PhD who runs I-Cop.
He has dumped Aweber because of their “tweaked” inhouse statistics. I’ll find the post.
Aweber has to be one of the most over-rated autoresponder systems ever created.
Y’all know about shadows? This is one of them.
Even if I had all the money in the world, I would NEVER choose them as my autoresponder.
My partner who used Aweber for years, had his database “hijacked” and was left with, for no apparent reason, NONE of his 20,ooo optin subscribers. He has since had me set up his OWN autoresponder with MY webhost. He has NO love for Aweber.
Just my HOP,
Claire
Thank you, Lynn, for this email! I just set up my email program in a new way and realized I wasn’t getting your newsletters for a while due to my old spam program!
Firstly, I am an AVID aweber user, and this is the first I am hearing of this!
I have 67,000 subs, and pay $89.99/month to aweber… so I would think I’d be an important enough asset to them that I would have been notified.
At first glance, all these new tools really seem like far more trouble than they are actually worth. For now, I’ll be staying at my current level.
However- this does scare me- what if aweber decided to actually increase my price 5 or 10-fold, and the only way I could avoid the massive price increase would be to move my list over to another company? Likely losing the majority of my subscribers in the process:(
So, I am realizing that in a certain way, my business is “married” to aweber, for better or worse… something I need to be aware of as I continue to build extensions of my business.
A thought that crossed my mind as well, Ellen. Be sure to back up your Aweber lists frequently too – always good practice
Follow me @lynnterry on Twitter.
What an awesome idea! How do you back it up??
Ellen,
It’s pretty easy from within your account. See our Knowledge Base entry on how to backup your data.
Justin Premick is joining us live tomorrow (Tuesday, 6/24) for a Q&A on Aweber’s price increase & Email Analytics package. Make sure you are registered for the Free Webinar to get log in details
Follow me @lynnterry on Twitter.
Awesome Lynn! Thanks! Any chance there will be a recording available afterwards? (Or even better … transcripts? Hint, hint, lol!)
Follow me @anitadefrank on Twitter.
Oops! I guess that’s offered for your Elite Members, huh? Sorry about that!!
Follow me @anitadefrank on Twitter.
You’ll definitely want to join in live for this one
Follow me @lynnterry on Twitter.
Soooo, is that a no on the recording? wink
[...] or turn on your speakers and plan to join us live! I’ll be grilling Justin on the dramatic price increase, the uproar among Aweber affiliates, and the lack of communication with customers & affiliates [...]
I will be recording the interview, yes – it will be available for Elite Members in the elite section at the SSWT Forum.
Follow me @lynnterry on Twitter.