Email marketing is one of the most powerful and effective digital marketing tactics you can use to boost your business. The platform has been around for more than two decades, but it’s as relevant as ever in today’s digital landscape. We’re at the point where email marketing should be top-of-mind for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and marketers everywhere.
Email marketing is undoubtedly one of the best ways to get targeted traffic, promote your products and services, as well as retain your current customers. But in order to use it correctly and make your campaigns efficient, you need a tool that will help you with your email marketing automation.
An email marketing software won’t get you a good reputation if it is only known by you. There are hundreds of sites which are being used by different email service providers for handling their email marketing affairs. In order to be more credible and professional with your customers it is necessary that the email sending site has a name in the market. Here we have several popular names for you to use one of them.
Email marketing is an effective and cost-effective way to connect with your subscribers. And when it comes to do-it-yourself email automation, there are lots of Email Marketing Software sites that can be done within your own budget. In fact, Email Marketing Software sites offer ready-made emails to send, which you no longer have time to write.
Why Choosing The Best Email Marketing Service is Important?
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategy for small businesses. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing on average sees a 4300 percent return on investment (ROI) for businesses in the United States.
This is because email marketing is easy to manage, gives you full control, and allows you to establish a direct contact with your customers.
Not convinced on email marketing? See these 6 reasons why building an email list is so important today.
It’s important to understand that a lot of your success with email marketing depends entirely on the email marketing software you choose because they are responsible for making sure that your emails actually get delivered.
If you aren’t careful, then you will end up paying a lot more money for fewer marketing features and terrible email deliverability rates (which causes you to lose even more money).
ConvertKit – Best for Influencers, Bloggers, and Creators
- PRICE STARTS AT $29/MO
- EXCELLENT FOR INDEPENDENT CREATORS
- CUSTOM FORMS & REPORTING
- EASY TAGGING AND SEGMENTING
ConvertKit is one of my favorite email marketing services.
It’s a perfect choice for creators of all stripes. That includes influencers, bloggers, video producers, musicians, artists, and more. That’s because their platform focuses more on engaging your audience and nurturing them with landing pages, ecommerce platforms, and membership sites.
You’ll be able to create leads out of casual visitors to your social media accounts, blogs, YouTube videos, Facebook pages, and more.
For those of you who want to build automated email funnels at an affordable price, ConvertKit will be a top option for you to consider.
To set up automated emails, you’ll be guided through a simple visual flow chart.
Instead of having multiple lists of contacts, ConvertKit groups all of your subscribers into one list. But you’ll still be able to tag them manually for segmentation purposes or with auto tags based on their behavior to improve the personalization of your campaigns. That’s great for creators with big audiences.
ConvertKit is best for sending quick emails with clean formatting. There are no complex designs or distracting elements here.
Like most email marketing software, ConvertKit pricing is based on the number of subscribers you have.
- 0 – 1,000 Subscribers — $29 per month
- 1,000 – 3,000 Subscribers — $49 per month
- 3,000 – 5,000 Subscribers — $79 per month
If you switch to ConvertKit with more than 5,000 subscribers, you’ll benefit from their free concierge migration service. You can save some money and get two months for free if you sign up for an annual plan.
ConvertKit has more than 70 third-party direct integrations, customizable forms, and custom reporting. Email and live chat are available for 12 hours per day, Monday through Friday, with limited support on nights and weekends.
Still not sold? Take advantage of ConvertKit’s free 14-day trial to test it out on your own.
AWeber
AWeber is one of oldest and most popular email marketing service providers in the world. They offer a wide-range of tools for small and medium sized businesses to manage their email marketing.
Getting started with AWeber is easy. It connects seamlessly to most platforms including WordPress. For detailed instructions, see our ultimate guide on how to connect AWeber to WordPress.
You get access to ready to use html email templates, list management, autoresponders, a/b testing, and email tracking with detailed insights.
AWeber also has other powerful email marketing features such as AMP emails, automatic RSS-to-email for bloggers, and tag based subscriber segmentation.
Support options include live chat, phone support, email support, live webinars, and a vast library of how-tos and tutorials.
AWeber offers a limited free plan for up to 500 subscribers. After that, their pricing starts from $19/month. You can also signup for quarterly or annual plans to save even more.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing service providers in the world primarily because they offer a forever free email marketing service plan.
Although we don’t recommend it anymore since there are better solutions available in the market, the sad reality is that we cannot create a best email marketing software list without including Mailchimp due to their shear popularity.
Mailchimp comes with an easy drag-and-drop email builder, autoresponders, segmenting contacts into groups, and simple tracking for analytics. It also allows you to setup delivery times based on user’s timezones, and you can setup segmenting based on geolocation.
You can easily integrate MailChimp with WordPress, Magento, Shopify, and many other platforms. If you are using WordPress, then see our ultimate guide to using Mailchimp and WordPress for detailed instructions.
When it comes to marketing automation features, Mailchimp platform is quite limited when compared to other providers in our list such as HubSpot, Drip or ConvertKit.
In the recent years, Mailchimp has attempted to add many of the “advanced” features, but having tested many of these, they’re not truly advanced.
Mailchimp support is offered by email, live chat, and a large tutorials knowledge-base. However their support is often slow and no match to the quality of service that you get from Constant Contact.
Mailchimp offers a forever free plan which allows you to send 12,000 emails for up to 2,000 subscribers. This plan is fairly limited because you don’t get features like send-time optimization, advanced segmentation, multi-variate testing, etc. You are also required to display their branding in your email. Last but not least, support is restricted to email only which is fine if you’re a hobbyist but as a serious business, you need reliable support that you can count on.
Their paid plans start from $10/month for up to 500 subscribers, and the pricing increases in the increment of 500 subscribers.
However if you want unlimited audiences, advanced audience segmentation, multivariate testing, and comparative reporting, then you’d have to move to their $299 per month plan.
ActiveCampaign.
Best Email Marketing Software ($9/month)
Adam’s Take
If you want to drive your customer experience, then ActiveCampaign is the way to go. From email list automation to a top-notch lead scoring system, I thoroughly recommend ActiveCampaign for those serious about their email marketing.9.4out of 10
Best For
Overall Email Marketing
Price
$9/mo-$258/mo
Annual Discount
Yes – Save 20%
Promotion
Free 14-Day TrialTry ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is #1 on my list as it is the best overall email marketing software due to its advanced automation features and deliverability.
As the smartest tool on this list, machine learning plays a key role. With Predictive Actions, ActiveCampaign answers tough questions about your customers to automatically take action for you and lead them down the sales funnel.
ActiveCampaign also integrates with 850+ other apps like Facebook, Shopify, WordPress, and a whole lot more.
Automating your list segments is intuitive, and you can build list triggers and move users based on dynamic email content, sales follow-ups, and more.
Email workflows are robust and easy to manage. All of this data syncs with their built-in CRM to provide sales teams with advanced lead scoring.
Their lead scoring system is flexible too. If you’re not familiar with lead scoring, it’s a way to award points to individual email subscribers based on the actions of your choosing. Then once they hit a point threshold, they either enter a new automation funnel or can be contacted by your sales team.
Here are the steps:
- First, you select your engagement metrics. These could be anything from an email open or click, all the way to a content download or consultation request.
- Next, you add your lead scoring rules and points based on these conditions. These should be set based on the level of effort and propensity to convert.
- Maybe an email open is worth two points, and a link click is worth five points. Or actions like non-opens or unsubscribes are worth negative points. Once a subscriber reaches a pre-determined point threshold, subscriber data flows to the Deals CRM where they enter a new stage of automation:
It’s a great system that large companies use to nurture email leads in the most personalized way possible.
Another strong selling point is email deliverability, ranking higher than all other platforms on this list. Their email sends are the least likely to be marked as spam and have the best chance of hitting primary inboxes on Gmail and Outlook.
Pricing:
Pricing is based on the account features and the size of your email list.
- Lite: $9/month
- Plus: $49/month
- Professional $149/month
- Enterprise: $258/month
All plans come with a 14-day free trial.
Overall, ActiveCampaign is the best tool if you’re looking for the best email marketing, CRM, and automation tool in one place.
Constant Contact.
Best Email Marketing Service for Small Business ($20/month)
Adam’s Take
I recommend Constant Contact as the email marketing software of choice for various small businesses. ConstantContact provides all the digital marketing tools in one interface for email marketing, growing your list, social media, and automation. These all provide an all-in-one solution for small businesses.8.8out of 10
Best For
Small Businesses
Price
$9.99/mo-$45/mo
Annual Discount
No
Promotion
Free 60-Day TrialTry Constant Contact
Constant Contact has been in the email marketing space since 1995, taking the name Constant Contact back in 2004. In 2015, they became a part of Endurance International Group, a powerhouse that other companies including Bluehost, HostGator, and Domain.com.
As stated on their website, the company’s ultimate goal is to help small businesses navigate the promise, power, and potential of the web.
They feature 100+ modern, mobile-optimized templates to engage and convert customers, real-time reporting and analytics, and bonus features like coupons, polls, and events.
One of their most unique features is event management and the ability to manage invitations, registrations, and tickets:
Email deliverability is above average and one of the highest among email service providers at over 90%.
Pricing:
Constant Contact pricing is tiered based on the number of email contacts in your list. Their paid plans start at $20/month for up to 500 contacts.
Their drip campaigns are easy to use and intuitive. You can create simple sequences, but can’t combine conditions or use advanced filtering.
Ultimately, if you’re looking for niche features like event management and also want top-notch email deliverability, Constant Contact is the choice for you. They are my #2 choice for email service providers this year.
What to Look for in a Good Email Marketing Tool?
A good email marketing service should enable you to create highly engaging email newsletters with an easy user interface (ideally drag-and-drop editor).
You should be able to easily send bulk emails that are actually personalized and targeted without a lot of work. This is also known as marketing automation.
Aside from that, your email marketing service must make it easy to manage your contact list, segment users into groups, and track the performance of your email marketing campaigns.
Most importantly, a good email service provider ensures that your email campaigns do not end up in the spam folder.
Conclusion
Email marketing software is both an effective and affordable means of outreach to engage with your subscribers, prospects and customers by sending them personalised and targeted messages.Email marketing software is both an effective and affordable means of outreach to engage with your subscribers, prospects and customers by sending them personalised and targeted messages.
If you’re running an online business, email marketing is a necessity. You can’t get around it. While social media has its place, email marketing still remains one of the most effective ways to reach customers directly and sell your products. Finding the right tool for the job can be complicated though — there are so many options.