Finding the best email marketing service or software can be hard. After all, there are hundreds of email marketing tools out there. And each one claims to be the best in some way.
Where to start, what does it all mean and more importantly, which one is best?
Is it possible to find the best email marketing tool without getting charged an arm and a leg? Yes! Check out our recommendations to find out what we think is the best free email marketing service and what is the best email marketing service for small businesses.
HubSpot:
Best Email Marketing Software for Marketers (Free – $50/month)
HubSpot is the most integrated marketing package on the market. Using their email marketing software is one of the easiest ways to design, optimize, and send fantastic looking emails. They provide a ton of custom features and you can pick and plan and upgrade whether you’re a small business or large enterprise.
When creating an email, you either use one of their pre-made email templates or start from scratch. These templates allow you to add text, images, buttons, dividers, and all different kinds of assets and layouts.
Once you’re happy with your email design, preview it based on different recipients, devices, or email clients like Gmail, Apple Mail, and Office 365.
This tool is super useful. Email subject lines, preview text, and the content itself can look very different based on the end user’s email client. These previews ensure your emails look great in any inbox.
Personalization is another strength with HubSpot. Like standard tools, you personalize content based on common merge tags like the recipient’s first name. HubSpot takes it a step further.
You can also personalize content based on a user’s device, list segment, and geographic location. Plus, you can A/B test your subject lines and content to make sure you maximize your email open rates and click rates.
Next, when you’re ready to hit send and publish your email, you can use their Smart Send functionality. This feature allows you to adjust your send time to maximize engagement.
After sending your email, it’s time to view your metrics. The HubSpot analytics dashboard gives you data on your opens and clicks, plus unique information on the amount of time spend viewing your email.
Sendinblue:
Best Email Marketing Service with Automation on a Budget ($20/month)
Sendinblue is an easy to use email marketing service with a free plan that allows unlimited contacts, and 300 email newsletter sends per day. If you’re serious about growing your list, you can use their Lite plan which starts at $20/month and allows up to 40,000 sends per month and no daily sending limit.
Their free platform is all built on ease of use. Its simplicity allows you to easily create clean-looking templates, automated welcome emails, and website opt-in forms. They also offer live chat and CRM in their free plan, which includes one automation workflow for up to 2,000 contacts.
Sendinblue also uses machine learning and AI to send emails at the best time of the day to maximize engagement.
You can also view real-time statistics with necessary reports that provide metrics like open rates, click-through rates, deliverability, and heat maps.
One of their best features is their email automation workflows. These allow you to set triggers and put your subscribers through custom workflows based on actions they take on your website and in the funnel.
Mailerlite:
Best Ease of Use and 24/7 Support (Free – $10/month)
Over 600,000 customers around the world use Mailerlite. They have flexible tiered plans based on the size of your contact list.
They are best known for their easy user interface, responsive email designs, and excellent 24/7 phone support and email support. You can start with their forever free plan if you have less than 1,000 email subscribers.
This free plan has limited features and allows you to send up to 12,000 emails per month.
Upgrading to their $10/month plan gives you access to all features that help your marketing strategy, including a landing page builder, embedded forms, and pop-ups.
With Mailerlite, you can track your email marketing results with a click map and opens by location reports.
They also provide some other great features, including:
- Live 24/7 customer support via chat and email
- A powerful and easy to use landing page builder
- Ecommerce integrations with the top platforms
- Email surveys
- Template Gallery
- Amazing email deliverability
Overall, if you’re looking for flexible pricing, want excellent deliverability, and don’t have a large list yet, give Mailerlite a try.
GetResponse:
Best Automated Sales Funnels and Landing Page Features ($15/month)
GetResponse is an all-in-one online marketing platform to grow your business. They offer email marketing campaigns, high-converting landing pages, and webinar software to help your marketing efforts.
The real standout here is Autofunnel – a tool with 30+ ready-made landing pages, email templates, and sequences to generate sales. And you can choose your end goals.
Whether you want to drive lead generation, product sales, or webinar registrations, Autofunnel is the answer. They’re optimized to nurture your email list and maximize your funnel’s conversion rates.
On the downside, some of their 500 templates look a bit outdated, and they have middle-of-the-pack deliverability compared to others on this list.
However, one of GetResponse’s biggest strengths is its smart automation tools. Using these features, you create multiple advanced conditions to segment your lists automatically. Their drag-and-drop builder is also very intuitive and makes designing high-quality emails a breeze.
Overall, GetResponse is one of the best email marketing tools to create automated sales funnels and landing pages.
You can get started with a 30-day free trial and upgrade to their $15/month Basic Plan. You also save between 18 and 30% with annual plans.
ConvertKit:
Great Email Marketing Software for Bloggers ($29/month)
ConvertKit is built by creators, for creators. They understand their client’s needs and know what it takes to grow an online following.
They boast attractive forms, increase conversion rates with automated emails, and organize your subscribers to maximize engagement.
For bloggers looking to send personalized, text-based emails, their designs look like they’re coming right from Gmail.
Additionally, they offer pretty advanced email sequences based on both site actions and actions within emails. Their advanced triggers make for some excellent list segmentation options.
ConvertKit is also a strong pick for a few main reasons:
- You can use advanced segmentation based on different actions to personalize your email funnels.
- Your text emails look professional and don’t have annoying email branding.
- The best emails for your blog will be strictly text. Don’t worry about fancy design features, adding your logo, or a bunch of imagery.
Ultimately, it’s an excellent platform for lead funnels.
For example, if a sales professional were trying to close a big deal, they would close it with either a phone call or a simple text-based email. They wouldn’t use an image-heavy marketing email full of company branding.
Although they don’t have a free plan, with pricing starts at $29/month and a 14-day free trial, it’s a great choice for bloggers focused on building high converting sales funnels.
Pabbly Email Marketing:
Excellent Inbox Delivery and Independent SMTP Service ($29/month)
Pabbly is an online platform, which offers a full-service suite of marketing tools for online form building, email marketing, subscription billing, and email list cleaning. Also, it provides a complete business management bundle of all these tools at a low cost named Pabbly Plus.
Pabbly’s email marketing service doesn’t restrict you on features like marketing automation, list management, autoresponder emails, segmentation of subscribers, etc. whether it’s a paid or free plan. You can effortlessly integrate in-built or 50+ external SMTPs and send emails without any additional charges.
With Pabbly Email Marketing, you can boost your email marketing performance by running campaigns and send bulk emails to all your prospective users in just one click. Also, it handles bounce and spam complaints about all popular SMTP services such as Amazon SES, MailGun, Mandrill, SendGrid, etc.
The pricing for Pabbly Email Marketing is based on your number of subscribers.
Conclusion:
Not knowing the right email marketing tools to use for your business is a massive problem in business. There’s a lot to choose from and finding a system that works is vital to success.
Finding a decent email marketing platform can be a minefield but it is possible!