Is email marketing going to be a top priority for your company in 2021? Do you want to know what the best email marketing tools are?
Choosing the right email marketing services can have a big impact on your marketing campaign’s success.
In this article, we’ll go over the top seven email marketing services for small businesses and compare them.
Why is it critical to select the best email marketing service?
For small businesses, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective market strategies. Email marketing generates a 4300 percent return on investment (ROI) for businesses in the United States, according to the Direct Marketing Association.
This is due to the fact that email marketing is simple to use, gives you complete control, and allows you to communicate directly with your customers.
Are you still unsure about email marketing? Check out these six reasons why building an email list is so important in today’s world.
It’s critical to realize that your email marketing success is largely determined by the email marketing software you choose, as they are responsible for ensuring that your emails are delivered.
If you’re not careful, you’ll end up paying much more for fewer marketing features and poor email deliverability rates (which causes you to lose even more money).
What Qualities Should You Look for in an Email Marketing Tool?
With an easy user interface, a good email marketing service should allow you to create highly engaging email newsletters (ideally drag-and-drop editor).
Without a lot of effort, you should be able to send bulk emails that are actually personalized and targeted. Marketing automation is another term for this.
Aside from that, your email marketing service should make managing your contact list, segmenting users into groups, and tracking the success of your email marketing campaigns simple.
Most importantly, a good email service provider keeps your email campaigns out of the spam folder.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few of the most popular email marketing service providers and see how they compare.
Constant Contact is one of the world’s most popular and fastest-growing email marketing services. It’s also the most user-friendly email marketing service for beginners.
Manage your email lists, contacts, email templates, the marketing calendar, and more with ease.
Unlimited emails, easy tracking and reporting, built-in social media sharing tools, free image library, list segmentation, Facebook ads integration, and a powerful eCommerce integration for Shopify stores are all included with each account.
Email Plus accounts also include powerful features like email automation, drip campaigns, surveys & polls, coupons, online donations, and subject line A/B testing, all of which help you send targeted emails and increase your open rate.
With live chat, phone calls, email, community support, and a large library of useful resources, Constant Contact provides unrivaled customer service.
They offer in-person live seminars across the United States in addition to online training. This enables small business owners to quickly grasp the fundamentals of email marketing and use it to grow their company like a pro.
Constant Contact is the best email marketing service for small businesses and startups for all of the reasons stated above.
Constant Contact offers a free 60-day trial (no credit card required). Following that, their pricing starts at $20 per month.
SendinBlue is a business-focused SMS and email marketing platform. They are one of Europe’s most rapidly growing email marketing platforms.
It’s a simple platform with great tools for creating visually appealing and engaging emails. Their easy-to-use drag-and-drop email editor is ideal for those who are new to email marketing.
Beginner-friendly marketing automation tools are included in SendinBlue, allowing you to send transactional emails, create workflows for automatic follow-up emails, and segment users. It can also use AI algorithms to determine the best time to send bulk emails, ensuring the best email deliverability.
SendinBlue provides an email marketing plan with unlimited contacts that is completely free. Their free plan allows you to send up to 300 emails per day, but they will brand all of your emails.
For Lite, their paid plans start at $25 per month. You can also add SMS to your account, but the cost will vary depending on how much you spend.
They recently upgraded their premium plan to include more advanced features such as a landing page builder, live chat, sales CRM, and Facebook ad integration. As a result, users now get more value for their money.
You can also use SendinBlue’s SMTP bulk email marketing service to send automated or transactional emails from your WordPress site. You don’t need this for email marketing campaigns, but if you have a large website and want automatic real-time content-based emails, it’s a nice feature to have.
3. Drip
Drip is software that automates email marketing.
For eCommerce, bloggers, and digital marketers, Drip is a powerful enterprise email marketing platform. They provide a variety of tools to help with marketing automation, sales funnels, and personalization.
All popular website builders, including WordPress and WooCommerce, are seamlessly integrated with their email software. This makes it simple to add pop-ups and opt-in sign-up forms to your website and collect more leads.
Drip’s intelligent marketing automation tools, smarter email segmenting, split testing features, list groups, and a visual automation workflow builder set it apart from competitors like Campaign Monitor. These features enable you to reach out to specific customers on your email list in order to increase sales.
Live chat support, webinars, automation training, detailed courses, free guides, and excellent documentation are all available through Drip.
We use Drip for a number of our businesses because it enables us to send mass emails while also connecting and engaging with each customer on a personal level through their smart eCommerce marketing automation.
Their eCommerce revenue attribution feature tells us how much revenue each email marketing campaign generates.
Drip is the best email marketing software for eCommerce websites and business owners who want more advanced features to maximize their marketing efforts, despite the fact that it’s a little pricey.
Drip offers a free trial and plans that include all of their features start at $49 per month.
They recently added SMS notification as a feature to all plans, allowing you to communicate with your customers via email and SMS. For store owners, this makes them a true all-in-one email marketing platform.
4. HubSpot
HubSpot is one of the most well-known CRM and email marketing software on the market.
Their email marketing service is completely free to use and includes a variety of powerful automation features that will help you grow your business.
You can create a completely custom newsletter using their simple drag-and-drop email builder and a variety of templates that match your brand’s personality and colors.
You can personalize your emails for each subscriber based on things like device type, country, list membership, or any other custom information you have on the individual subscriber thanks to the native integration with HubSpot CRM.
Send time optimization, high email deliverability, A/B testing, detailed performance analytics, marketing automation, drip campaigns, and more are all included in HubSpot.
HubSpot’s all-in-one marketing platform includes email marketing, CRM, automation workflows, sales tools, website builder, operation hub, and more, which is one of the main reasons why small, medium and enterprise customers choose HubSpot.
The CRM and all of HubSpot’s free marketing, sales, service, and operations tools are included in Hubspot Email Marketing’s free plan.
You can send 2,000 emails and store an unlimited number of subscribers with the free version. You can customize signup and popup forms, create landing pages, manage and track your online ads, and so much more. It comes with everything you’ll need to get started.
If you require more advanced features, their paid plans begin at $45 per month.
For professional bloggers, authors, and marketers, ConvertKit is a powerful email marketing platform. It is both simple to use and extremely powerful.
ConvertKit’s one-of-a-kind feature is that it lets you easily offer content upgrades and incentives alongside email signup forms. It also includes simple auto-responders that allow you to send drip emails from their emailing service.
You can easily segment your subscribers into those who are interested and those who have already purchased using ConvertKit. This helps you increase conversions by sending personalized automated emails. This is known as targeted email marketing in the marketing world.
They include a/b testing, beautiful email templates, a landing page builder, smart workflows, and other features you’d expect from a top-tier email marketing service.
ConvertKit provides email-based support and has a large knowledge base with excellent learning resources.
ConvertKit has a number of features tailored to creators and professional bloggers, such as paid newsletters, which is why we consider them to be the best email marketing service for professional bloggers.
They’ve even made it possible to sell digital products and subscriptions on the same platform.
ConvertKit has a 14-day free trial and prices start at $29 per month. They also have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Advanced features like a newsletter referral system, subscriber scoring, advanced reporting, and Facebook custom audiences are included in their Creator Pro plan.
For small businesses, Moosend is a cost-effective email marketing service. It includes a variety of marketing automation tools, as well as email list building tools, landing pages, and more.
By choosing from their dozens of pre-made email templates or creating a completely custom template, you can quickly create an email newsletter and customize the email design to match your brand in minutes.
The nice thing about Moosend is that all of their plans, including the free one, include marketing automation features. You can create a personalized subscriber journey for your newsletter subscribers using their automation workflow designer.
Moosend provides detailed email analytics, including email opens, clicks, bounces, product views, purchases, custom event tracking, and even predicted demographic data.
A/B testing, email heatmap analytics, countdown timers, conditional content, AI-engine for product recommendations, popup forms, floating bars, newsletter signup subscription forms, and other conversion optimization features are included in all plans.
Moosend offers a free plan with up to 1,000 email subscribers and an unlimited number of emails for an indefinite period of time (no credit card required). After that, their Pro plan, which includes a landing page builder, transactional emails for eCommerce websites, team management, and more, starts at $8 per month.
AWeber is one of the world’s oldest and most well-known email marketing service providers. They provide a variety of tools for managing email marketing for small and medium-sized businesses.
It’s simple to get started with AWeber. It integrates with the majority of platforms, including WordPress.
You’ll have access to ready-to-use HTML email templates, list management, autoresponders, a/b testing, and detailed email tracking.
Other powerful email marketing features offered by AWeber include AMP emails, automatic RSS-to-email for bloggers, and subscriber segmentation based on tags.
Live chat, phone support, email support, live webinars, and a large library of how-tos and tutorials are all available as support options.
AWeber offers a free plan with a limit of 500 subscribers. Following that, their pricing begins at $19 per month. You can also save even more money by signing up for quarterly or annual plans.
Extra: Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing service providers in the world, owing to the fact that they provide an email marketing service plan that is always free.
Although we no longer recommend it because there are better options on the market, the sad reality is that we can’t compile a list of the best email marketing software without including Mailchimp due to their widespread use.
Mailchimp includes a drag-and-drop email builder, autoresponders, contact segmentation into groups, and simple analytics tracking. It also allows you to set delivery times based on the user’s timezones, as well as geolocation-based segmenting.
MailChimp can be easily integrated with WordPress, Magento, Shopify, and a variety of other platforms. If you’re using WordPress, see our comprehensive guide to using Mailchimp with WordPress for more information.
When compared to other providers on our list, such as HubSpot, Drip, or ConvertKit, Mailchimp’s marketing automation features are quite limited.
Mailchimp has attempted to add many “advanced” features in recent years, but based on my testing, they aren’t truly advanced.
Email, live chat, and a large tutorials knowledge base are all available for Mailchimp support. However, their customer service is frequently slow and falls short of Constant Contact’s level of service.
Mailchimp has a free plan that allows you to send 12,000 emails to up to 2,000 subscribers for the rest of your life. Because you don’t get features like send-time optimization, advanced segmentation, multi-variate testing, and so on, this plan is fairly limited. In addition, you must include their branding in your email. Last but not least, support is limited to email only, which is fine if you’re a hobbyist, but if you’re running a serious business, you need dependable support.
Their paid plans begin at $10 per month for up to 500 subscribers and increase in price every 500 subscribers.
You’ll have to upgrade to their $299 per month plan if you want unlimited audiences, advanced audience segmentation, multivariate testing, and comparative reporting.
Final Thoughts: Which Email Marketing Service Is the Best?
There are dozens of email marketing services available, and we want to help you pick the best one for your business. Our recommendation is as follows:
We recommend Constant Contact if you’re a small business, a non-profit, or a new blogger. Their pricing is competitive, and their customer service is exceptional. Their onboarding team will assist you in achieving immediate success with email marketing.
We recommend Drip as the best eCommerce email marketing software if you have an online store or ecommerce website. Personalization and automation are two of their most powerful features. Drip is used on many of our company’s websites.
We recommend ConvertKit if you’re a professional blogger or content creator. They provide an easy-to-use platform with advanced segmentation and funnels that will assist you in growing your blogging business.
We recommend SendinBlue to any business owner looking for a powerful marketing automation tool that combines email marketing, SMTP bulk emails, and SMS messages. Their platform is simple to use, and you can manage email and SMS from a single dashboard. They also have a fairly generous free plan that can be used indefinitely, making them the best free email marketing software.
We recommend HubSpot if you’re looking for an all-in-one email marketing solution. Email marketing, CRM, sales tools, live chat, website builder, and other marketing tools are all available through them. Because you can store an unlimited number of subscribers on their free plan, it’s ideal for lead generation.
Improve Your Email Deliverability is a Bonus Tip
All of the email newsletter tools mentioned in this article have very high email deliverability rates.
However, there are a few steps you can take to ensure that your marketing emails are delivered every time.
1. Make Use of a Business Email Address
Spam detection algorithms are built into email platforms like Gmail, Outlook, and others. The sender’s email address is one of them.
It’s critical for a business to use a professional business email address (such as [email protected]) rather than a generic hotmail or Gmail address.
This will ensure that your email deliverability rate exceeds the industry standard.
2. Send Interest-Based Targeted Emails
It’s critical to personalize your emails according to user segments. Email marketing software such as Constant Contact and HubSpot make it simple to segment your subscribers into categories like most active, least active, interested in specific topics, custom segments, and so on.
This will help you get the best open and click-through rates for your email marketing campaigns, which is a big factor in future email deliverability.
Sending a personalized welcome email to all new subscribers is always a good idea, and then segmenting users based on their interests is also a good idea.
It’s also crucial to provide users with a clear unsubscribe link so they can opt-out rather than marking your emails as spam.
Frequently Asked Questions about Email Marketing Software
We’ve answered a lot of questions after assisting thousands of users in selecting the best email marketing software. Some of the most frequently asked questions about email marketing platforms are answered below.
Is it possible to send bulk emails from Gmail or Outlook?
Yes, in theory. However, your email accounts will be suspended very quickly if you do this. G Suite and Outlook aren’t designed for sending large amounts of email. They’re a fantastic way to send professional business emails.
Which free email marketing service is the best?
A lot of email marketing services have free tiers with limited functionality. SendinBlue is the best free email marketing service because their free plan has no limit on the number of subscribers. Free email marketing service plans are also available from HubSpot, Moosend, MailerLite, and MailChimp.
What is the cost of email marketing?
The cost of email marketing will be determined entirely by the number of subscribers you have, the total number of emails you send per month, and the email platform you use. Small businesses can expect to spend between $20 and $300 per month on email marketing if they manage their own campaigns. If you hire an email marketing agency, your monthly costs could be as high as $500.
Is email marketing useful for SEO?
Email marketing has no direct effect on search engine optimization. However, it can help you increase website traffic, which can lead to more shares and, in some cases, backlinks and mentions.
Shares and mentions are used by Google and other search engines to rank websites. As a result, email marketing can indirectly assist your website’s SEO rankings.
To improve your rankings, you could also use these best WordPress SEO plugins and tools.
Which Shopify email marketing app is the best?
Many of the email marketing services listed above have an easy-to-use Shopify app. Drip is a good choice because it has powerful eCommerce marketing automation tools that work with both Shopify and WooCommerce.
Klaviyo is preferred by some eCommerce power users for Shopify email marketing, but their platform is prohibitively expensive for small businesses.
Do you know of any other email marketing platforms that aren’t on this list?
Yes, there are hundreds of email marketing services available, but we haven’t included all of them here. Making a comprehensive list of email platforms, we believe, would only add to the confusion and paralysis of non-technical readers.
MailerLite, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, Ontraport, Mailjet, Campaign Monitor, InfusionSoft (now Keap), Klaviyo, Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot by Salesforce, Sendloop, iContact, Emma, TotalSend, SharpSpring, MailPoet, and others are among the email marketing services we’ve tried.
The top email marketing services on our list offer the best features at the best price.
Which email marketing services do you think are the best?
The following are our top three picks for the best email marketing services:
Constant Contact Small business email marketing its finest.
The best email and SMS marketing platform is SendinBlue.
Drip is the best email marketing platform for online retailers.
We recommend including web push notifications on your website in addition to an email marketing strategy. This is yet another effective way to stay in touch with your website visitors after they leave. On WPBeginner, we use PushEngage, and it’s become one of our top five traffic sources.
We hope this article provided you with a comprehensive overview of the best email marketing services for your company.