Today, I’d like to review a fascinating email tool that has a heart warming backstory, tied to a tale of true love and affection, which some might badmouth as a ‘fetish’.
But not me. I have a romantic heart. Somewhere.
Audienceful promises a clean, simple email marketing experience for people being tired of “nightmarish email marketing software 😳” (their words, their emoji)
Let’s see what they make of this promise.
Deeply in love with …
When you’re so deeply in love, you desire her to be a part in every facet of your life.
You want your work to be a symbol of what she is to you. It’s a wild obsession, but also a drive that can lead to great creations.
She is your best friend, intimite lover and second brain.
Now when ‘she’ is a note/project tool called Notion, this love may look a bit weird…but the drive is the same nevertheless.
So the two boys at Audienceful – organizing their life in and around Notion 20/7, making love to those emoji spiced kanban boards and nested docs…
Imagined an email tool that… is just as perfect as she is.
dresses and talks like her
So I guess, If you are a fellow aficionado, you will dig this.
The tasteful, minimalist UX design of Audienceful so closely matches Notion’s interface you almost feel like it’s made by the same company. (Or that the email marketing functionalities were a second thought.)
You have the same vibe at the settings, the same side panel, and editor looks exactly the same too (minus the tables).
You can even create workspaces for multiple projects.
Honestly, regardless whether your are into Notion’s structure and vibe, and welcome this familiarity – or have no connection to it, I think you will like the UX a lot.
I love it a lot too.
The interface feels balanced, calm and inviting to work, with the focus on creation.
Creation of … Notion docs.
The Notion Email editor
The most unique thing in Audienceful is its editor and the organization of the content your create, so I start with this.
The editor is the exact match of a Notion document, with the difference that you can then send it out for others to wonder in a preset template applied to it.
I grew to appreciate applied templates of late, this process makes the crafting much faster than fiddling in Beefree-whitelabeld drag-n-drops editors. You just write. And it will look neat.
As you craft your email, it kinda looks like a wiki page, with the same ‘type / then select’ block type editor as in Notion or wordpless, with minimal selection of what you can add.
There are no columns or fancy email layouts. (not that they convert well btw)
The links are plain, with no trigger option. (this would be a a much needed future addition – we’ll get back to it)
Pay particular attention to the tags on top. These create the ‘folders’ on the right organizing your docs.
This I really love. Very elegant and simple.
I wonder tho whether it gets cumbersome after a few years of using the tool, having 20-30 of these labels all stacking in a long list. (ie. name of the campaigns, projects, type as email or post, waitlists)
Nested tags would solve this.
(As a side note – Convertkit still hasn’t addressed this, I have clients where the tags section is a longer than post credits in Lord of the Rings.)
Dressing up for the occasion
Ok. Let’s send one of these wiki masterpieces.
First I have to set up the template that will be applied.
It reminds me of the settings in Buttondown, but a bit more user friendly. (and less customizable)
There is only a handful of fonts available (mostly inbox friendlies) and you can only select 3 predefined sizes. (there are no subheads, so 1 header type & 1 body)
I guess that’s fine. The truth is the more options you are given, the more time you’ll spend and a with all the nuanced twidling the benefit or difference is minimal to none. “Just write good emails, Bob.” that’s the motto here.
I don’t like tho that the footer is non-customizable. You can add your address, no space, nothin. Missed opportuntity.
Ok, let’s send the pigeon.
Except I have no one yet on the list. Oh, these sidequests…
Collecting those souls is quite troublesome at the moment
WTF?
The form builder doesn’t do anything, can’t even save it.
Same interface as in the theme settings, just doesn’t do anything and can’t save it. This is not yet developed?
The New Form tab works, but you can’t add any fields.
Tags can set to be added at the sign up, as with Buttondown. (remember, you can only change these by Zapier as the ‘Automation’ is but a mere Autoresponder with drip & delay function.)
Oh, it can’t be HTML embedded, I just got an ugly link.
That. Doesn’t. Work. (?)
Is this a bug? Or not yet developed? Really?
oh…There is a HTML form embed code…
they just don’t say a word about it in the app
Ahh…ok.
I checked their docs. There, they give the HTML code, and you have to paste the “ugly URL” from before. To add more fields, you are down to code it here.
Not the most user friendly way of doing things, the HTML should be auto-generated in the app, once you finalized the form. I guess they are building that in that other – not yet working part.
Ok, I fought myself through the form creation trouble, let’s go and check the email sending.
the Campaign sending is really smart
I’m glad I didn’t give up at the forms, because the Campaign sending – (Publishing) in Audienceful is absolutely awesome.
You can basically give the app tasks to publish your writing.
This way you could send out the email several times, dividing it to different audiences. (audiences are dynamic segments, there are no static lists in Audienceful)
Once they’ll add to option to filter on engagement, you could theoretically resend it later to un-opens.
Unfortunately there is no way to set negative fiters (exclusions) and links can’t trigger tags to sign interest or opt-out intent.
The other think is that they exclusively support Webflow as a CMS. Why Webflow? Former lover prior to Notion, I guess…
WordPress, or a hosted archives page like in Buttondown or Substack (or Convertkit*) would be better.
*more on comparing the two in a minute
Social scheduling (only if…)
Probably the greatest hidden gem in this layout is the function to schedule publishing your post from here to your social channels. (and re-publish a couple days later, all set in here at once)
This is brilliant of an idea and this process is so much more intuitive and simple than any other tool that I worked with. (eg. social schedulers)
Problem is, this function only unlocks if you use Webflow.
So there is a lot of potential in here, just not yet developed enough.
And this brings us to my major problem of this great-flow-great vibe tool.
The pricing. It is much ahead of where the rest of the tool is.
The cost of Convertkit for the depth of MadMimi?
For its simplicity Audienceful is overpriced with rather big increments.
*so you are mostly paying for the how it feels, rather than what it can do
The 1k free contacts start is generous, but beyond (if paid by the month) you are taxed $37/mo, and then a staggering 70/mo till 6k.
All that for 3 drip sequences allowed, if you want more than that it a higher even more expensive tier. (adding to this, comes the price of Zapier and Webflow that you completes the functionalities of the tool)
Now I don’t want to ride one the price as if it were the single factor to consider. If you earn from your list (and you should) the price is irrelevant. But given what else is out there…
As a reference, the cost more or less matches Convertkit’s fees.
At some levels one costs a bit more, then the other. But you can’t even compare the two on what you get for that cost in sophistication.
Again. Simplicity is nice. But not if you have to pay more for less.
Verdict
I guess by now you know what is coming. As an email marketing tool, capable of managing promotions properly, Audienceful is
Beyond the reasons above, a quick overview of my usual 10 criterias for a good email marketing tool:
- Good pricing ◐ – easy start, but then it gets quite pricey for what you get
- Lots of Integrations ✘ – it’s a relatively new tool and you will likely need to use Zapier, or API.
- Autoresponder ✔ – drip sequence with wait
- HTML form embed ✔ – Supported, tho a little cumbersome.
- Uncluttered UX, efficient workflow ✔ – yes the design and the writing UX are fantastic (that form coding set me off, but it’s not everyday work)
- Proper Segmentation ✘ – only by fields & tags, no way to set up exclusions or engagement segments
- Good Email editor ★ – very clean interface, no hickups or lengthy fiddling, this is it’s stongest point
- Click-the-link preference ✘ – not possible
- Basic contact management automation ✘ – only by using external connectors like Zapier, and you cannot take people off from an automation, if they are in it
- Usable reports ✔ – easy to see engagement reports (conversions are not tracked)
As a purely publishing tool…?
I’m planning to update my categorization, to add this minimalist publisher type where Audienceful, or Buttondown can be assessed by their strengths.
*Not that they correctly categorize themselves, both self-promoting as an ’email marketing tool’ with ‘powerful automations’.
As an editorial newsletter tool there are many similarities with Buttondown <– see review. I guess one ‘inspired’ some ideas from the other.
Here at least you get a few sequences from the start, a bit better segmentation, while there you can natively publish the archives on the web without Webflow, or run a paid newsletter. (which is kind of the point)
I liked both for similar reasons, and I missed similar – to me -fundamental functions.
Buttondown (see review here) feels like a more finished product, but I’d probably pick Audienceful still for the Workspaces, tag-based sorting, multiple themes and scheduled social posts.
For now I give it a
- you run a strictly newsletter editorial model, you don’t ask, don’t sell, just write and publish
- a clean creation experience within the mailer is the most important to you
- and you already use Webflow – need it for the killer social scheduling function
And I guess it’s a no brainer if you are one of those live/plan/think/write/eat in Notion types. Then it’s Christmas.
Bright Future?
Yes, I think so. Riding the popularity of Substack there is an emergence of these creation focused newsletter-purist ultra minimal tools, and I really like how they re-imagine functionalities that haven’t been touched for a decade.
I like that they dare to let go the unessential and go on their own – harder – path where you can’t just white label entire blocks (or buy on Envato) then call it the ‘next big thing’ when really it’s just another of the same.
This is all exciting and fresh and attractive, so much so that it makes you want to bend your marketing to it, rather than finding a more capable tool with less heart.
This direction however is still very raw.
Audienceful has brilliant ideas and it is built on a great interface that is inviting to work in. The fundamental creation process is very seamless and non-disruptive.
In a year or two they can patch the leaking holes and have one of the best new-generation minimalist, but fully capable email marketing tool.
But I think the pricing should closer match of the present state than the one-to-be potential, because there are just too many other options, twice the perks for half the price.
For transparency…I’m still considering using Audienceful for some of my side projects, that doesn’t need more sophistication. I just love the vibe that much.
honest rewrite
Because some claims can be made a bit more true.
