32 thoughts on “INinbox Review – Going from Bad to Worse”

  1. Hi Adrian,

    just a couple of minutes ago I was looking at ininbox as well, I even have the website still open in another browser tab.

    From what I read on their site and what you also described in your post it really seems to be a great alternative to the premium brands.

    I am going to put them to use for a project that is coming up soon and will test how they can compete.

    Cheers,
    Torsten

  3. Hi Adrian

    Although it sounds a good deal it’s a bit late for me. I’m already spread across no less than 3 auto-responders (Aweber, GVO and GetResponse). Too long a story to bore to with and mainly due to the fact that some of the programs I was in integrated directly with them.

    Wish I’d found InInBox a few years ago and I wish you luck with it.

    Joy

  7. Do you think that affiliate marketing would be under their “not supported” list. I think aff marketing gets misunderstood as a “biz op” but it’s also in the “make money online” niche. I’m guessing it’s not allowed, as most usually er on the side of caution with these things.

  9. Hi Nathaniell,

    No, they don’t prohibit affiliate marketing. Actually the email marketing services that prohibit affiliate marketing in their ToS – like MailChimp – allow it under certain circumstances.

    MailChimp is even very funny regarding the affiliate marketing. They prohibit it in their terms, but then one of their help articles claims that the rumors regarding the fact that they prohibit aff marketing aren’t true ROFL

  10. That’s hilarious. I had never heard that. Aweber is so expensive and I’m not that great at email marketing, so right now it’s basically burning cash for me.

    Do you know anything about the delivery rates for ininbox?

  11. They claim that they deliverability is 99%. That may be true – re-read to the first con mentioned in the article (“What Are the Cons Though?”). From a certain perspective that is a con, from the deliverability perspective that is an advantage.

    In addition, they’re certified by Return Path and that certificaton definitely improves the deliverability of the emails sent via their servers.

    Coming back to that con I mentioned =>

    They check each and every message sent via their servers. If their team considers that there might be a deliverability problem with one of your messages, then they don’t approve the broadcast but send you suggestions on how to correct the things. That’s good for email marketers who aren’t that great at email marketing ;-)

    If you don’t like InInbox for whatever reason, another good option is MadMimi. I use them and I’m very happy with their services. Regarding the deliverability, I can tell you that for one of my ezines usually I get a 45-50% CTR. The CTR doesn’t directly depend on them but proves without doubt that the people get my emails ;-)

  12. Adrian,

    Looks like you have almost convinced me to try something other than Aweber :-) especially since the last blow.

    I have had the mentality of “Why fix something which isn’t broken”. But, if I can save 50% or more on my monthly email marketing expenses, why not do it? Why throw money away….

    Hmmm… I will pick your brain about them on Twitter soon and may be, consider trying them for a month or so because it’s a NO-RISK trial anyway.

    Thank you for sharing. Valuable information as usual.

    Regards,
    Kumar

  14. Hi Adrian,

    In as much as Aweber has being making lots of waves in this internet area, I think it will be prudent to consider inibox as well as from your review it is 5 times cheaper than Aweber but at the end does the same job.

  15. Luckily, I was grandfathered in with Aweber under the $19.95 price tag. No matter how high my list gets, I pay that price.

    However… cheaper doesn’t always mean better. You might pay less per month with another service, but how well does it deliver your mail?

    Do they get through the ISP barricades? Does the email land in a spam folder before it reaches the intended party?

    So many variables to consider – not just price.

  16. Hi Bonnie,

    Thank you for your comment. I will ask you a couple of questions myself…

    1) Did you know that Aweber is 10 times cheaper or even more than other email marketing services? Just an example: Infusionsoft. “Cheaper doesn’t always mean better,” you said… Following your logic, shall I understand that Aweber’s deliverability isn’t good just because other services charge you way much more? ;-)

    2) I already discussed the deliverability. See the first con included under the sub-headline “No Email Marketing Service is Perfect. What Are the Cons Though?”) and also this comment.

    3) As for Aweber’s deliverability, let’s talk about facts, not about what you assumed or heard. Check the image below.

    Aweber's email message landed in my spam folder

  18. Adrian, thanks for bringing this service to attention. Competition in the marketplace is good!

    I am satisfied with Aweber, but I know of many people in my network looking for a less costly alternative and this might suit them, despite some restrictions.

    The main issue I’ve experienced with other cheaper or in-house autoresponder services is a much poorer delivery rate. I’ve tracked, for example, that the delivery rate on cheaper or free services is around 60%. Send out an email to ten people, and only 6 receive them in their inbox or spam folder, despite having opted in.

    Compared to 9 out of 10 receiving them in their inbox via Aweber and maybe one of those goes to a spam folder.

    If 30 to 40% of emails are not being delivered at all, or all go to spam, which is my experience, there is a huge hidden cost.

    Even if my commissions did not offset my cost at Aweber, I would stick with them because of the reliability factor.

    I don’t rely on the Aweber delivery stats alone. I go mostly by the click-thru stats on the tracked links in my emails.

    When that changes, I will be looking around.

    ~Jude

  19. Hi Jude,

    Thank you for your comment. I don’t know what other services you have tested, but many free services aren’t reliable indeed. And there are strong reasons for that…

    1) There are no restrictions and anyone can send any kind of content via their servers. The users are happy with such a policy, but at the end of the day they will suffer the consequences.

    2) If the owner doesn’t get paid, she or he has no interest in taking care of the service, maintaining relationships with ISPs and so on.

    As for the deliverability of the emails sent via INinbox, I already discussed it (see the article itself and some of the previous comments).

  20. Very timely post, Adrian. I’m humming and ahhhing about starting a new list with a partner, whether to use my existing Aweber account or start a new one totally.
    Great info and one to take to the table.

  22. Sorry, I am with many of the others. Cheaper doesn’t make it better, or just as good. You’ve made a good case for the service no doubt.

    They must approve every message? Seems a bit extreme to me. What if they get backed up with verifying? Overloaded with messages or a verifier calls in sick.? Do your messages sit and wait? Not going out when you want them to? just seems odd to me.

  23. Hi Ron,

    There’s absolutely no prob if you’re with “many others” :-)

    Here’s my response:

    1) While cheaper doesn’t make it better or just as good, the same is valid for an expensive or more expensive service. The prices don’t always reflect the quality, but many other factors that are involved.

    2) The con you’re referring to… is added under the cons, so I don’t argue that it’s a good thing. However, it’s not a very bad thing. It prevents the newbies sending messages that may jeopardize the deliverability of YOUR broadcast sent from the SAME server ;-)

    3) Many email marketers schedule the messages in advance. So they don’t bother if these messages aren’t sent on the day they were submitted ;-)

    4) If you prove that you know what you’re doing, they agree to skip the approval.

  24. This is a very interesting post. I am adding this to one of my Related Articles Across the Web.

    Thanks,
    Angela

  25. Hi Angela,

    Thank you for adding the link to my article on your blog.

    I see that you’re one of INinbox fans. I’ve been in your shoes some months ago, but then I woke up ;-) Take care!

  26. You get what you pay for! Cheaper does not mean better.

    I have to say that perhaps I am missing something with your review. I did not get the impression that you were recommending them yet many of the person that commented seem to believe that you endorsed the service. Perhaps I am missing something.

    My own personal experience with ininbox is that they are amateurish at best. They may offer low pricing but their service is terrible. And yes, every single email must be approved first by support. The last one that I sent was a simple text only email that I was testing to my list and this email was rejected 17 hours after I submitted my campaign. You got that! 17 hours. In today’s environment, money loves speed. And unfortunately 17 hours is an eternity.

    My opinion is that persons interested in an autoresponder service should stay far away from ininbox.

  27. Hi Jerome,

    Thank you for sharing your experience.

    Re: “Perhaps I am missing something” – Yes, your impression is correct but you missed the P.S. It explains everything ;-)

  28. ININBOX service is terrible I would not recommend it no anyone! EVEN FOR FREE. I added my contact list and this was 2 months ago, they don’t reply to emails and do not activate my account, now basically I lost the contacts address and I cannot use the service, I thought it was trustable but no, it is the worst service I have ever used to email marketing. They don’t even bother to answer!

  30. Great review! I personally have had experience with ininbox.com and it was the worst experience ever! I was attracted to their free service because I wanted to try before I buy. But it was infuriating me that everytime I created a broadcast and clicked on ‘send’ I would have to wait 24 to 36 hours before I got the broadcast approved or not. And oftentimes my simple email was ‘rejected’ because of design opinions. Holy crap! They prevented me from sending my blast because they felt that I should change the template for better deliverability. Who gives a ‘rats xxx’ about their opinion. I was not targeting them! They are by far the worst of the lot in my view.
    Anyway, nice review and sorry for my rant…

  31. Partnered with Ininbox over a year ago, now they won’t even activate new accounts from my affiliate links, they won’t answer emails or Skype…. dropping them like immediately. Going to give madmimi.com a shot.

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