1. How could it be improved? 2. Would this be useful to you? 3. What target customers should I go for? 4. Any other thoughts?
For any useful comments, I'll gladly give 1k emails credit. Just email hello@talk2customers.com requesting it. Thanks!
I understand that you created this to solve your own pain point and I commend you for taking the correct first step. However, I am unable to figure out what your software does that I cannot do with MailChimp. I may have missed something on your site, but it seems that the USP of your software is on email personalization through merge tags. This is not a unique feature or a feature re-done in a different way.
Few issues I see
1. You send email using the customers SMTP connection. Email service providers like Sendgrid, Mailchimp, Mailgun use their expertise to ensure that the emails they sent do not end up in junk mail. This is the single most important reason to use them as opposed to your own SMTP server.
2. Your pricing for sending emails is a lot higher than any of the above mentioned providers. Sending emails is a commodity. So, I'm not saying that you should be competing with these providers. However, if you price higher for the same service, you have to target a specific niche where you can add value. Like nickler mentions, integrating with merchants to automate followups.
Honestly, my instinct is to avoid learning a new program for such a particular use case, and just continue to use MailChimp, is there a value prop I should be aware of?
I could see small businesses using it if you could automate the data capture. Example, adding the capture to the point of sale at time of transaction, automatically sending a follow up email 24 hrs later, with the merchant needing to do nothing except the original setup.
SMB operators are taxed on time, adoption requires a significant overall time reduction in the value prop (imo)and convincing them of that will get trials.
I like where you're headed with it, keep it up!
With MailChimp, the receivers would see the Unsubscribe link at the bottom, which clearly shows it's an automated email. Also, going through New list, New campaign workflows just for a quick email to 10-20 people is a little cumbersome.
Agreed with the automated emails. However, there are already solutions for this, and I wouldn't know how to differentiate it without a significant time investment.
If you are going to continue further with email, please read up on CAN-SPAM, inboxing, SPAMHAUS, DKIM.