I Replaced My $700/month Agency with AWeber’s Newsletter Assistant, and Doubled My Open Rates

Susan, owner of an online home and entertainment store, relies on email newsletters to engage her customers and drive sales. But creating those newsletters consistently was a struggle. She hired an email marketing agency to help - a move that delivered mixed results at a steep cost.

The Challenge

For months, Susan paid $700 per month to a marketing agency to craft and send her newsletters. While this took the writing off her plate, it put a serious dent in her budget. “As a small business owner, $700 a month was hard to swallow,” Susan recalls. “And our email performance wasn’t where I needed it to be.”

Despite the investment, her email open rates hovered around 23-30%, far lower than she hoped. The agency’s content also didn’t always capture her quirky brand voice, leaving Susan feeling disconnected from her own marketing. She needed a way to create engaging emails without the high costs.

The Solution

Susan discovered AWeber’s Newsletter Assistant, a new tool that could automatically draft a newsletter using her website content. Intrigued by the idea of a “Newsletter Assistant” she decided to give it a try.

Setting up the Newsletter Assistant was simple. Susan linked her website and blog, and the Assistant quickly went to work. In seconds, it pulled in her latest product updates and blog posts to compose a polished draft in her voice. “The first time I used the assistant, I was blown away,” she says. “It was like someone read my mind and wrote the newsletter for me - it even included my usual sign-off!”

Not only did the tool write the content, it also suggested compelling subject lines and let Susan easily refine the draft. She could ask the assistant to shorten a paragraph or add a friendly joke, and it would instantly update the text. The whole process—from initial draft to final edit—took minutes. Even without a copywriting background, Susan found the Newsletter Assistant user-friendly and felt in control of her messaging.

The Results

After switching to AWeber’s Newsletter Assistant, Susan saw immediate improvements. Her very next email saw open rates jump to 53% - about double what she’d been getting before. “We went from around 25% to almost 50%. I actually thought it was a mistake at first!”

Equally important, she eliminated the $700 agency fee from her budget. That’s money she can put into inventory or other marketing. And with email creation now so easy, she can engage her audience on a regular basis and the consistent weekly cadence keeps her business in front of customers more often.

The transformation was clear:

Conclusion

Switching from a pricey agency to AWeber’s Newsletter Assistant made a world of difference for Susan. She dramatically improved her email performance and slashed her costs. Now, with an intuitive Newsletter Assistant by her side, Susan can focus on running her online business knowing her newsletters are handled. In the end, adopting AWeber’s Assistant wasn’t just a good move - it was the right choice for her business.