Organizations need to have good marketing capabilities and use right email marketing software products for successful negotiations with the customers. To clarify what is best email service for you, there are different things to consider so that you can get the best out of your business. Email marketing comprises of various platforms and solutions which can help in documentation and customization of the campaigns and e-mail designs. Extensive use of the email marketing solutions and software can help in effective communication with your target audience, therefore leading to enhanced profits through e-commerce sites.
What is email marketing software? How are you able to decide which email marketing software is the best for your business? What are the main types of email marketing software and what can each do for you? And how would you start using an email platform in your business or online business?
Email marketing is without a doubt the most effective marketing channel for engaging with customers, building lists and getting conversions. Fast forward to 2018 and email marketing has evolved from sending plain text emails to using sophisticated tags and unique images in every email blast. However, it’s not always easy to finding the best software to manage your email campaigns — that’s why we’ve tested every major email marketing platform in this article.
When it comes to choosing the best email marketing software, the answer isn’t a simple one. The right choice depends on your requirements and what you want out of your software, but there are consistently clear frontrunners.
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).
- Drag-and-drop builder, plus templates
Modern email marketing software provides an easy way to create beautifully branded emails. Save time by starting with a variety of pre-built, mobile ready templates. Use an easy-to-use builder to tweak to your brand’s guidelines, no coding required.
2. List growth and signup forms
Successful email marketers know that bigger isn’t always better. Grow your audience in meaningful ways with people who are actively interested in what you are saying. Consider using a platform with native signup forms for your website, or in-person, to capture customer emails and reach more people.
3. Apps and integrations
Apps and integrations can help you grow your audience by pulling in rich customer data that you can turnaround and use in your targeted emails. Your apps can give you a ton of valuable customer insights including purchase history, demographics, preferences and more.
4. Segmentation and personalization
Segmentation is the first step to hyper-targeted emails. Slice up your subscriber list into common groupings and suggest products and services accordingly. Start segmenting by gender, then get more granular from there by including past purchases and VIP segments. Personalize your email and you’ll have even more success.
All recipientsOr, the subscribers of:Male customersFemale customers5
A/B testing
With the right email marketing software you can test anything—subject lines, images, messaging, CTA buttons, send times, even message length. If you can see what’s working for your audience you can learn from there, and polish, to create the most successful emails ever.
List Segmentation Is a Crucial Email Marketing Capability
Subscriber list segmentation is a big consideration. You need the ability to segment your list based on the different stages of the buying cycle.
You will have “tire kickers” who like to shop but may never buy. You will have recent, first-time buyers. You will have seasoned customers and repeat buyers. You’ll have customers who are different ages, genders and live in different locations. Your email marketing approach to each of these segments will be different.
For example, if you sell apparel, you might find your male customers in northern Ohio are more interested in buying knitted caps in the winter than your female customers in southern Florida.
You want a targeted email marketing service that will help you market effectively to every segment of your list. You want to be able to cross-sell and upsell new customers efficiently.
Automation Is Important, Too
When your customers are making a purchase, they are prime candidates for additional sales. You want to send post-purchase thank you emails with messages such as “Customers like you also found these similar items very interesting.” This could lead to a lot of additional sales for you; sales you might otherwise lose.
The best email marketing software providers give you the option to automate emails for common scenarios like these. Other emails that successful eCommerce stores automate include welcome emails, and abandoned cart emails.
Bottom line: Choose an email marketing program specifically designed to help you maximize your eCommerce success by speaking to different types of customers in ways that are meaningful to them.
Scalability for Your Future Growth
If you are just starting your Woocommerce store and your email marketing journey, you may want a very basic “bare bones” free email marketing tool, but it’s quite possible your needs will change over time.
Will you want to get in a situation where you have to switch programs “mid-stream” in your campaign? Would you be better off selecting a program that may be a little more difficult to get started, but is more scalable and will accommodate your needs as your business grows?
Ask yourself these questions as you are making your initial selection of the right email marketing software.
Pricing That Fits Your Budget
Whether you are just getting your email marketing efforts ramped up, or have been at this a long time, you will want to take email marketing software cost into consideration.
Some email marketing tools are free up to a certain list size or number of emails sent. Those with a more robust feature set require a considerable monthly investment. Happily, many email software providers allow you to start small — even for free — and then pay more as you scale up.
Reliability: Get Your Emails Delivered!
This is critical. Especially from the standpoint of inbox message delivery. The world’s most persuasive, compelling email won’t help you if it never gets to your subscribers’ inboxes. The best email providers give you tips on making sure your emails are staying out of spam folders.
Customer Service and Support When You Need It Most
What happens when you have a time-critical situation and you need help from the company that sold you the email marketing software? You don’t just need it, you need it now!
When this happens, you will need your problem solved ASAP. This is not the time you want to get the unwelcome surprise that your email marketing software provider has really poor customer service. Determine the level of service and support before you make your final purchase decision.
Ease of Use: Make Your Life Easier
Whether you are new to email marketing, or you are a seasoned pro, you have no shortage of challenges running your business. Do you really want to be shackled to an email marketing software platform that’s a pain to use? No, of course not.
So look for a program that you find easy to use. It will make your day-to-day life in digital marketing a lot easier!
In light of these criteria, how will you come to the conclusion that a product is the best email marketing platform for your needs? Do your homework!
Seek out independent, third-party reviews, including end-user product reviews. Read the provider’s website, blog, and downloadable content thoroughly. Take full advantage of any free trial you are offered, and ask the customer support team relevant questions.
What’s the Best Email Marketing Software for You?
Now let’s take a look at some individual email marketing platforms and examine the pros and cons.
MailChimp
If you are just getting started with targeted email marketing, and want an easy-to-use program at an affordable price, take a good look at MailChimp.
“We use the premium version of MailChimp to send our emails,” says Stephen Hart, CEO of Cardswitcher, a payment processing comparison website. “I like its relatively simple design and layout, and find that it’s pretty easy to pick up if you need to teach new team members how to use it. It’s also not too expensive which for a startup like us, is really important.”
This program is the most popular on the market, especially with startups and small to medium-sized businesses. It has a free option that accommodates up to 2,000 list subscribers and 12,000 emails per month with no shortage of useful email marketing tools.
Its automation features include welcome emails, abandoned messages, and product recommendations. Automation makes it an ideal choice to integrate with eCommerce programs, including Woocommerce, and here’s some great news: MailChimp’s integration with Woocommerce is free!
Plus, MailChimp’s robust segmentation, A/B testing, reporting, and personalization features make it easier for you to optimize your email marketing results.
Keep in mind that the free option, although it may be right for some customers, offers support (email only) for a 1-month period. There is no tech support option after that.
SCREENSHOT: https://convertkit.com/
ConvertKit
ConvertKit targets their email solutions toward creators of content, music, and art. The service offers customers the ability to create custom forms to offer incentives, and tag and segment users. On the back-end, you can view your email marketing funnel as a flow chart with their visual automations tool.
The company has more than 80 integration partnerships, notably with WooCommerce and WordPress. It works with the tools many eCommerce businesses already have.
The company is aware that many potential customers may already be using a different email provider, so they have created guides on how to switch your account over from the main players.
ConvertKit charges based on the number of email subscribers your business has. Their lowest-priced plan, for customers with 1,000 subscribers or fewer, is $29/month — which includes email and live chat support. They offer a free 14-day trial to test out their services.
Drip
A moment ago, we talked about how important it is for you to choose an email marketing platform designed to support your eCommerce efforts. Drip is just such a program. It is specifically engineered with automation features to help you enjoy more success with your WooCommerce store. It offers a host of integration options including Facebook ads, payment systems, etc.
Drip offers you a free, 14-day trial. After that, you can subscribe to three different tiers of service, including the basic plan that allows unlimited emails for up to 2,500 users for $49 per month. You also have a money-back guarantee with every plan.
One potential drawback is some startups and small businesses might find the basic plan price point too expensive.
GetResponse
GetResponse describes itself as “An All-In-One Online Marketing Platform To Grow Your Business”. It offers subscribers the ability to do email marketing, create landing pages, and hold webinars.
It gives users scalable automation features including the ability to build intuitive workflows. You can also use the GetResponse eCommerce tools to track cart abandonments, website visitors, and successful purchases. GetResponse also integrates with Woocommerce.
You have the choice of four different pricing plans, from basic/beginner to enterprise level. The most basic pricing plan offers a list size of 1,000 users for $15 per month. It gives users a free 1-month trial, no credit card needed.
Keep in mind that GetResponse’s most basic plan does not include eCommerce or CRM integration, or most of the platform’s automation features.
What to consider when choosing email marketing software
As we know, email marketing isn’t about sending random promo emails to people, hoping that they’ll become profitable conversions overnight. It’s about communicating with people in a humanized fashion, using targeted content to deliver your message.
That said, using an Excel spreadsheet coupled with Outlook to manage your lists and send emails no longer cuts the mustard. In the modern age, you need something far more efficient.
According to a recent survey, 60% of marketers state that email marketing is producing a significant ROI and 32% state that it eventually will. That means that choosing the right email marketing software for the job is crucial to your efforts.
When choosing your platform, these are three things you should consider…
Integration
When you work in digital marketing, your CRM (Customer Relationship Management Software) is your best friend. Updating lists and sending emails manually is time-consuming, so choosing an email marketing platform that integrates seamlessly with your CRM will provide you with a hassle-free solution for managing valuable content and customer data, as well as providing you with an overview of key metrics (open rates, click-through rates) to see which campaigns are performing the best.
Reading and Viewing options
43% of people now check their emails on their smartphone every single day.
In today’s world, fewer and fewer people are opening their emails from a traditional desktop setting, which means choosing an email marketing tool with functionality and mobile-optimized templates is essential. If someone opens an email on their mobile device and it can’t display correctly, they’ll bounce immediately, and your efforts will be redundant.
Response handling
Whether your business is small, medium or colossal — email response handling is of vital importance. If you are part of a smaller business sending out a newsletter or email series to around 1,500 people per month, you’ll require less sophistication regarding automation and response handling, and you’ll be able to handle some of the work manually. But, if you’re handling mass amounts of emails, choosing email marketing software that will allow you to send automated responses or aggregate customer responses into tickets will be beneficial.
Conclusion
Naturally, email marketing is a necessary part of any marketing campaign in the modern world. After all, a large part of the population gets their information through their inboxes and it may be a good online venue to promote your products or services. Be that as it may, there is a lot to consider when choosing an email marketing provider, primarily the software behind their services.
Email marketing software is essential for your business. It allows you to send newsletters and email templates as well as create automated email campaigns. It is a comprehensive marketing tool which helps you grow your business by holding email campaigns on a regular basis. This can be used for creating newsletters, maintaining customer engagement and generating sales among others.