It’s also worth noting that while segmentation includes segmentation by demography, features like predicted demographics and predictive commerce insights differ. The former relates to pooled data via a large audience across an email platform’s base. The latter offers predictive insights on future purchase behavior.
Best for Small Audience Marketing
Constant Contact
Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns
If you want to reach customers, look no further than email. Even in 2022, this tried-and-true marketing tool remains one of the most effective ways to get your messaging across. That goes double when you combine traditional email campaigns with social media, direct mail, chat, display ads, SMS, web landing pages, and even the metaverse. In today’s climate, multichannel marketing campaigns are mainstays. Still, email should remain the core of your direct marketing efforts.
Don’t underestimate email’s reach and influence. According to statistics gathered by HubSpot (Opens in a new window) , one of our Editors’ Choice winners for email marketing tools, there are still 4 billion daily email users—a figure that represents roughly half the global population. Little wonder, then, that fully 64% of small businesses use email to reach customers, which is a higher rate than for any other digital channels save social media and websites.
That said, successful email marketing takes more than a spreadsheet full of email addresses. You’ll need tools to help you compose, send, and track your emails, and even to integrate data from your email campaigns with your other backend systems. Fortunately, there is plenty of help available. In this roundup, we look at some of the top email marketing platforms, and rate their features, ease of use, support, and other aspects. But first, a quick primer.
Sendinblue
Sendinblue is an all-in-one platform covering many business communications types, including Email, SMS, Facebook, Chat, CRM, and more. The company’s mission is to help businesses meet their customers. They help you to focus on the important tasks and put the rest on autopilot with automation. You can create professional-looking emails in no time, using its email builder, but the magic is in the platform’s combination of features. With chat, SMS marketing, Inbox, CRM and automations, you’ll find it easy to piece together smarter and more compelling email campaigns. Facebook Ads functionality is built-in, making it possible to retarget contacts and attract new leads.
#10 EmailOctopus
Many email marketing services have tried to bridge this gap, from Sendy to Moonmail, but they’ve often ended up either falling short on features or being much more developer-centric. EmailOctopus has managed to create an email marketing software that nails this balance.
The benefits of Amazon SES, without the drawbacks
The main downside of EmailOctopus is its simplicity. If you’re just sending email campaigns to a list that’s fine, but don’t expect the multi-touch attribution or visual automation builder that you’d find in a tool like ActiveCampaign.
EmailOctopus would be perfect for a small tech startup, where someone on the team is fluent in AWS and needs the flexibility and power of SES without the creation of the emails themselves needing to be coded.
What are the best EmailOctopus features?
What to look for in email marketing software?
Of course, every email marketing tool will claim to do well in all these areas, but by analysing data and observing why marketers leave different email platforms, we were able to capture a far more honest picture.
1. Best for Affordability
Comparing email marketing software based on cost alone is a dangerous game. That’s why it’s important to look at all nine factors in this article to ensure that you’re buying the right tool for the job, rather than merely the cheapest.
I would be remiss not to point out that cost and value are not the same things. HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, and to some extent, Omnisend all offer all-in-one marketing platforms, while the rest are primarily just for managing and automating email marketing.
Don’t let the tail wag the dog
Your email marketing tool is something you ideally don’t want to change often, so it pays to choose a tool that offers what you’ll need today and for the next few years. Above all, choose the tool that gives you the best opportunity to grow your business.
In the next section, we’ll outline the top 3 email marketing software providers for each of the nine factors, so you can compare three solid choices, based on the most important factors for you.
2. Best for Ease of Use
1. ActiveCampaign
2. Benchmark
3. MailerLite
3. Best for Deliverability
ActiveCampaign’s impressive deliverability is the result of 17 years of optimisation. They offer a very handy “spam check” tool for predicting how likely an email is to land in the inbox. And if a score is too low, you’ll be provided with suggestions for changes to make.
4. Best for Email Marketing Features
If you try any of the email marketing tools in this article, you’ll find that they all offer the standard features you’d expect from an email marketing tool, such as visual email campaign builders, pre-designed email templates, autoresponders, and audience segmentation.
Only a handful go above and beyond with additional email marketing features that are designed to save you time and get better results. Below are our top 3 choices for email marketing tools that provide greater-than-average features.
1. ActiveCampaign
Global Variables – We have over 200 automated emails set up in our ActiveCampaign account. What happens if, for example, I want to change something in my email signature? Or update the pricing of one of our plans?
Downloadable Automation Recipes – ActiveCampaign is one of the only email marketing tools to offer a range of automation recipes. Instead of spending days building an elaborate sequence of upsell emails, you can use a pre-built one, and simply adjust the content to fit your brand.
2. HubSpot
Smart Content – Similar to the conditional content feature offered by ActiveCampaign, HubSpot’s Smart Content allows you to hide and display blocks of content in your email campaigns, based upon where a contact is in your buying cycle or which lists they’re on.
Subject Line Emojis – Using emojis in subject lines has been found to increase open rates by as much as 45%. While you can technically put emojis in the subject line using almost any email marketing tool, HubSpot makes it a bit easier by having an emoji button next to the subject line box.
Sources:
https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-email-marketing-software
https://influencermarketinghub.com/email-marketing-software-platforms/
https://www.ventureharbour.com/email-marketing-software-tools-one-best/
Email marketing software
Omnisend is a sophisticated ecommerce marketing platform that integrates all your communication platforms in one place. Its free plan includes only email, but it’s more than enough to support the email marketing efforts of small and medium businesses. It allows you to automate your email delivery using behavioral triggers and easily time your communications based on your customers’ convenience.
Best Email Marketing Software
Maggie has written for PR Daily, Fundera, and YFS Magazine, among other publications. She is passionate about objectively reviewing software and services so that consumers can find the right product for their needs.
With practical experience running his own IT business and an education in the liberal arts, Matthew Klammer had become well-accustomed to the difficulties of research. From providing POS systems to small tourist shops to data security and account management Matthew has provided business solutions to many individuals.
Business owners are constantly trying to improve their marketing efforts. Email marketing remains a powerful marketing tool, with a return on investment of $42 to every 800 spent. In order to harness the power of email marketing, it’s important to choose the right software that can take your marketing to the next level.
Email marketing software is so much more than just a way to send and track emails. Tools to increase your audience, segment your lists, and combine all your marketing channels turn the software into a powerful solution to grow your business and earn more revenue.
HubSpot Email Marketing
Whether you need to send kickback emails from lead offers, thank you emails after purchase, or just promote current campaigns, HubSpot Email Marketing’s free version can do that. One of the best parts of HubSpot’s free email tool is its ease of use. The tool features a handy drag-and-drop visual editor, and it also comes equipped with ready-made templates to get you up and running immediately.
What makes HubSpot Email Marketing stand out is, of course, its native integration with other HubSpot tools, such as the free-forever CRM. Once you start an account, you get access to both tools so you can create a centralized contacts database, organize it in lists, and manage and track email performance.
2. Sender
Sender is one of the best free email marketing tools in the market with features to ensure deliverability. It lets you create stunning newsletters without any HTML knowledge. Just choose from a template and customize it with elements like images, videos and text. You can even personalize your newsletters for each recipient to create an even bigger impact.
Sender’s robust analytics feature is one of the top reasons why it’s on our list. It lets you track who opened your emails and clicked on the links, when they were opened and more. It even helps you build accurate buyer profiles based on your subscriber actions, so you’ll be able to optimize your existing email strategy and craft compelling offers.
Compare The Best Email Marketing Services
Success with your email strategy starts with finding the right email marketing service. Whether you’re starting a new list from scratch or just need an easier way to reach your audience, this guide has a solution for you.
Sendinblue – Best for Growing Your Customer Base
Sendinblue offers one of the most popular email marketing services on the market. Everything you need to launch and track an email campaign is built in. Add your content to their machine and watch your outreach take flight.
Don’t just take my word for it–you can use the free forever version of Sendinblue right now. You can send up to 300 emails per day without paying a cent. Once you see how it drives, you’ll understand why it’s so popular.
It’s easy to see how these tools help you cultivate audience, lead, and customer growth. And, unlike other email marketing services, Sendinblue can support chat and SMS if you want to drive leads on your site or by text.
The platform is available via a fantastic free plan that gives you unlimited contacts and up to 300 emails per day. That’s a pretty great deal—especially if you’re running a bootstrap startup or solo operation.
Constant Contact – Best Drag-and-Drop Builder
Their intuitive drag-and-drop email builder allows you to easily create new emails that look good and on-brand—no coding knowledge is needed. Adding text, images, videos, coupons, polls, and events to any message is simple and straightforward.
Automation is a key benefit of Constant Contact. A lot of the legwork can be set on autopilot. For example, you can trigger welcome messages for new subscribers and set up drip campaigns based on their actions.
This plan comes with more advanced features like subject line A/B testing, dynamic content, and automated behavioral campaigns. You’ll also get access to personalized demographic data, coupons, polls, and surveys.
MailerLite – Best For the Essentials at an Affordable Price
It’s a great option for anyone who wants a straightforward email marketing service. You’re a creator who doesn’t need a ton of bells and whistles. You just need the tools to start your newsletter or manage a simple campaign.
MailerLite has a drag-and-drop editor, which makes it easy for anyone to design a high-quality message. Segment your subscribers to enhance personalization and optimize your campaigns with features like A/B testing.
Omnisend – Best Omnichannel Email Marketing Platform
They do this by going a step further than most, combining text messages, web browser push notifications, email marketing, Google Customer Match, and Facebook ad retargeting to ensure you connect with the most customers as possible.
I highly recommend at least the Standard plan. Having unbranded emails alone is worth the cost and you’ll also get access to their email and SMS automation tools. The 24/7 email and chat support are a must-have, too.
HubSpot – Best for Automated Email Marketing
Where the software really shines is in the automated workflows. This allows you to easily set triggers for your email subscribers and nurture the leads into customers (or whatever else you want them to do).
Think of it as a choose-your-own-adventure journey that you set for your subscribers. Depending on the specific actions they take, you can have them branch off to experience different, targeted things via email.
The email marketing service is just one tool in the Swiss Army Knife that is Hubspot. It can stand alone or be used in tandem with other offerings such as Marketing Hub and their CRM. Your email marketing only becomes stronger when coupled with those products, too.
Sources:
https://www.investopedia.com/best-email-marketing-software-5088645
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/free-email-marketing-tools/
https://www.quicksprout.com/best-email-marketing-services/
Email marketing software
The goal of AWeber is to make it simple for those who are just getting started with email marketing to segment their contacts, design a professional email, and start nurturing leads. Customers have praised AWeber for its deliverability — AWeber’s deliverability team monitors their servers around the clock to ensure your campaign consistently reaches the’ inboxes of your recipients.
Best email marketing software in 2022
Email marketing remains a crucially important part of permission marketing, which deals with the proper targeting of users who have previously opted-in for receipt of such emails. The best email marketing software streamlines extending your permission marketing to the targeted audience.
However, having the right email marketing software can be the difference between a single-digit and double-digit response, so it’s important to get that right. It doesn’t matter either which type of email client or email provider you use, as you will generally generate and send emails through the email marketing software itself.
Furthermore, email marketing is just a single part of the overall marketing process. You also need to ensure the other pieces are in place also: good landing pages, lead generation tools, and any relevant sales tools. This applies either if you’re selling your own products/services, or running an affiliate marketing campaign.
Here then are the best email marketing service providers in the current market. While some services may be more costly than others, note that extra features such as A/B split-testing can help increase responses enough to make the campaign easily pay for itself.
Constant Contact
Reasons to buy
Constant Contact offers a powerful suite of tools for email marketing purposes. Putting together an email is painless using drag and drop tools for the creation of visually-rich emails. Contact lists of senders can be imported from a range of sources, including Outlook, Salesforce, or by uploading a spreadsheet.
Additional features are also available, such as email automation and scheduling, with surveys, polls, and dynamic signup forms available for providing feedback. Events can be managed, along with social media right from your account.
Aside from customizable templates and image hosting, analytics underline Constant Contact’s service. This makes it easier to measure the effective ROI from campaigns, with the goal of improving conversion rates via different approaches.
There are two main plans available, Core and Plus, with the lower tier offering most basic features mentioned here for a nominal monthly price. A Plus account adds features such as split testing, dynamic content, and the ability to offer mobile-responsive coupons.
What is an email marketing service?
Email marketing services and software streamline all of your email marketing efforts. They have a wide range of features depending on the service you choose — however, they often have functionality related to automation, subscription, general email communication, notifications, monitoring, campaigns, integration with other marketing, sales, and service software, and analytics.
Why is an email marketing service important?
Today, email marketing services continue to be an integral, strategic tool for businesses of all sizes across all industries — they help businesses build strong relationships with prospects and customers all while moving them through the buyer’s journey and maintaining strong communication throughout.
Not to mention, as ESPs continue to develop, features like A/B Testing, automation, and personalization have made the tools even more valuable to a marketer looking to engage with an increasingly fragmented audience.
Best Email Marketing Services
- HubSpot Email Marketing Software for email marketing that’s powered by CRM data.
- Moosend for creating automations and sending multimedia, interactive emails.
- Omnisend for creating custom workflows.
- Pabbly Email Marketing for delivering bulk emails.
- SendinBlue for sending automated nurturing and text message campaigns.
- SendX for offering visual email marketing performance data.
- Constant Contact for creating email drip campaigns and easy-to-use templates.
- Campaign Monitor for building personalized emails.
- iContact for customer service and support.
- MailChimp data-backed email marketing.
- AWeber for small business owners and entrepreneurs just starting to build their email lists.
- ActiveCampaign for segmentation and live chat options.
- AutoPilot for collaborative email marketing teams.
- GetResponse for global email marketing audiences.
- Ontraport for creating detailed email marketing campaigns.
- Flodesk for creating visually appealing emails and landing pages.
1. HubSpot Email Marketing Software
HubSpot’s free email marketing software is easy to use, has an extremely high deliverability rate, plus all the bells and whistles you’d expect to see within an ESP.
HubSpot Email Marketing Software Features
When creating an email, you can pick from one of many drag-and-drop email templates, or you can craft a custom template tailored to your brand. Once you’ve got your template, incorporating content is simple and intuitive.
You can also personalize and preview your emails for different recipients based on device type, country, or list inclusion — or use a simple personalization token to ensure that each email includes content that’s specific to each recipient.
When it comes time to send an email, using the smart send feature will ensure recipients receive your messages at an ideal time. Additionally, you can run A/B tests to compare different versions of an email to understand which one resonates the most with your audience. You also won’t have to worry about deliverability — HubSpot maintains a 99% deliverability rate across the network for all marketing email sends.
Outside of the email marketing functionality, HubSpot offers a wide range of reports on your email’s performance, letting you judge what’s resonating with your audience so you can optimize your strategy accordingly.
HubSpot Email Marketing Software Price
2. Moosend
Moosend is an email marketing and marketing automation platform that offers a variety of features at an affordable price.
Moosend Features
With the drag-and-drop editor, you can either create an email newsletter from scratch, using interactive elements like videos, or use one of the ready-made templates. You can create specific campaigns for segments of your audience by using the advanced automation features. You can use one of the ready-made workflow recipes or create your own with the drag-and-drop builder.
Moosend Price
Moosend’s pricing model is subscriber-based and consists of three tiers. The free trial includes most features and allows users to send unlimited email campaigns. The Pro plan starts at $7 per month, billed annually, and includes up to 1,000,000 subscribers. For more advanced functionality and additional support, the Enterprise plan is based on custom pricing.
3. Omnisend
Omnisend is an easy-to-use platform that offers automation workflows for any stage of the customer journey.
Omnisend Features
What separates Omnisend from other email marketing tools is the omni-channel functionalities, which offer greater control over how and where you connect with your audience. In the automation workflow, you can add email, SMS, push notifications, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and more.
If you’re trying to reach a specific audience that might not respond well to traditional email communication, using a tool like Omnisend can help you build and manage more customized, targeted communication workflows. This doesn’t just help you connect with your audience better — it also provides a less disruptive, more personalized experience for your contacts.
Omnisend Price
Omnisend has three pricing plans — one of which is free with very limited capabilities as well as a customizable pro plan. Their plans come with a free trial so you can experiment with the service to determine what works best for you.
How To Choose an Email Service Provider
- Send volume: Do the send limits and their corresponding price points make sense for your business plans for the near future?
- Migration: Can you easily migrate customer data from an existing platform into the new one?
- Integrations: If you need to, can you use your email list for retargeting ads on social media and around the web? Does the platform work with your existing CRM, online store and other systems?
- Design: Do the available templates and customization options fit your brand? Do the free themes and templates include features that serve your needs?
- Ease of use: How easily can you create and send an email or set up an automation? Will you need to hire an email specialist, designer or coder to build emails?
- Autonomy and customization: How much control do you have over the look and feel of your emails and newsletters? Does the platform have the functionality you need? Will your customers see the software’s logo on your emails?
What is the best email platform?
Which email marketing platform is best for your business depends on your goals and needs. Most platforms offer basic features including newsletters, landing pages, automations, audience segmentation and reporting. To find one that stands out for you, look for differences in pricing, integrations and additional features such as website builders and social media ads.
What is the most cost-effective email marketing tool?
Mailchimp is one of the most popular free email marketing services. You can use the service for free with up to 2,000 contacts, and automations and segmentation are available on the free plan. Its price isn’t competitive once you have more than 2,000 subscribers, though, so you may need to migrate to a new service as you grow.
What is the best email marketing platform for small businesses?
Mailchimp is our highest-rated email marketing platform for small businesses. Its free plan is robust, which makes it a great place to start when your audience is small. Depending on the type of business you run, you might want to consider Drip for e-commerce campaigns or MailerLite for selling paid subscriptions.
Are email newsletters good?
An email newsletter is an opportunity to engage with your brand’s most loyal customers at a regular interval. It can include anything that’s relevant to your brand and interesting to your customers, from essays to product recommendations to news. Despite other platforms continuing to flood the market, email remains one of the most consistent and effective marketing tools for any company.
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Dana Miranda is a certified educator in personal finance (CEPF) who has been writing and editing since 2011, covering personal finance, careers and digital media. She’s written about work and money for the New York Times, CNBC, The Motley Fool, The Penny Hoarder, a column for Inc. and more. Dana has taught journalists, writers and editors how to write for the web through Utah Valley University, Queen’s University at Kingston, ACES: The Society for Editors, the National Association for Independent Writers & Editors, online courses and private trainings. Find her at danasitar.com.
Kelly is an SMB Editor specializing in starting and marketing new ventures. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist covering small business marketing content. She is a former Google Tech Entrepreneur and she holds an MSc in International Marketing from Edinburgh Napier University. Additionally, she manages a column at Inc. Magazine.
Sources:
https://www.techradar.com/best/best-email-marketing-software
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-email-marketing-services
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-email-marketing-software/