Email marketing continues to play a key role in how we communicate to businesses and potential prospects, it is therefore imperative to choose the right email marketing software.
Considered to be one of the most cost effective marketing tools, email marketing software can help you market to small target niches or, if preferred, target a mass audience. It should therefore be user friendly, and give you full control of the ability to tailor highly engaging emails that grabs the attention of your target audience.
One of the most important functions of a good email marketing service is to provide a cost effective solution that ensures the emails you send out are read and do not end up in the dreaded spam/junk folder.
Last month we published an article on “Does Your Email Marketing Strategy Create A Sales Funnel?” and thought a follow up article outlining some of the leading software and how it stacked up against one another.
- AWeber
AWeber is one of the most popular bits of software on the market. It is regarded as one of the of the most user friendly pieces of software and connects effortless to most platforms including WordPress.
Once signed up, it comes with ready to use email templates, list management and email tracking and gives you an option to use their automated services making reaching your audience effortless and time effective.
AWeber offers a 30 day free trial and after that their pricing starts at $19 per month and is limited to only 500 subscribers. If however you would like to add more subscribers, then the monthly price goes up accordingly.
https://www.aweber.com/index-2017.htm
- MailChimp
Highly regarded as one of the most popular email marketing service providers and is fully integratable with other platforms such as WordPress, Magneto and Shopify.
MailChimp also allows you to separate your contact groups into segmented lists, whilst also providing the option to set up delivery times based on recipient time zones.
One of the great benefits of MailChimp is it offers a forever free plan which allows you to send 12,000 emails to a list of up to 2000 subscribers, with their paid plans starting at $10 per month and rising to $199. However, a potential disadvantage is that should you choose to use their templates, you have no option but to carry their branding when sending out campaigns.
Whilst MailChimp isn’t as user friendly as other service providers on the market, it does still offer reporting features that enables you to track the results of your campaigns. Whilst their reporting isn’t as aesthetically pleasing as other providers it remains the best email marketing software option for charitable organisations and start-up businesses due to the free plan they offer.
- Constant Contact
Possibly the largest and fastest growing email marketing service providers in the world, Constant Contact is considered the easiest service provider to use.
It easily allows you to manage your email lists, templates, contacts seamlessly and each account gives you complete access to tracking and reporting software.
The really good thing about Constant Contact is it comes with 1GB of memory to store your own files and additionally while other providers do offer support, Constant Contact comes with unparalleled support via live chat, email and community support groups making the time to resolve an issue considerably quicker in comparison to others companies out there.
To encourage you to sign up, Constant Contact offers a 60 day free trial, and after that their monthly plans start at £15 per month.
https://www.constantcontact.com/uk/index.jsp
- Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is another hugely popular email marketing service provider amongst small businesses around the world.
Their readily available professionally designed templates are very easy to use whilst also providing a wonderfully integrated drag and drop system that makes building your emails seem effortless.
You can also personalise your emails on Campaign Monitor by using their rich customer data tool, which not only gives the recipient a more personal touch, it also encourages much better results in terms of open rates. Their reporting feature is quite possibly the best on the market in terms of how data is easy to access and presented in an aesthetically pleasing manner, which are easily downloaded to use with other third party apps.
Campaign Monitor’s monthly pricing plans start at £9, but they do offer the nifty option of a relatively inexpensive pay as you go plan. This doesn’t require a credit card to sign up and you only pay when you want to send a campaign.
It is for the reasons above that we recommend Campaign Monitor as the best all-round email marketing software provider for SMEs.
https://www.campaignmonitor.com/a/
- GetResponse
GetResponse is another hugely popular service provider. Through its simple and user friendly approach it is perfect for beginners and small businesses who only have basic knowledge of email marketing. However, that isn’t to say that for more advanced users this software isn’t suitable.
For those looking to create smart automated campaigns, this is a great option for you. It comes with some delightful marketing automation tools that helps you to segment contacts and send out content that is specifically designed for set user groups.
GetReponse works hand in hand with third party lead generation software such as SalesForce, OptinMonster, Google Docs, etc.
Like most email marketing software providers, GetResponse offers a 30 day free trial and from then on their monthly payment plans start at £10. If you however decide you want to spend a little more per month, you do get access to software which allows you to host Webinars for up to 100 attendees.
- Active Campaign
If you are business looking to combine your email marketing, automation with CRM and sales then look no further than Active Campaign.
It comes fully equipped with professional email template editors and is particularly friendly for those looking to create campaigns from their mobile device. Again, it allows you segment contacts based on variables like, actions, behaviour, and social data.
Like a lot of other service providers out there it integrates perfectly with WordPress and other third party software. A key function that really separates Active Campaign from other solutions is it allows you to send SMS messages to your contacts to follow up on campaigns you have sent. It is for this reason that we recommend Active Campaign for any business looking to automate their online strategy.
Their entry level package starts at $9 per month but that quickly starts to rise once you start wanting to ingrate your CRM systems. It may seem expensive in comparison to other providers but if automation is what you want, then it will totally be worth the investment.
- Dotmailer
Dotmailer is a high-end service that provides all the same features as other service provides but is more tailored towards larger enterprises. However, with that being said it is still a viable option for SMEs who are expecting to substantially grow in the next couple of years.
It is perfect for companies looking to integrate their digital strategy with different departments across multiple locations on a national or global scale. Dotmailer allows you to create multiple users all on one account making it very easy to track what campaigns are being sent out and to who they are being sent out to. The last thing you would want is multiple departments sending the same recipient countless emails on the same topic.
In terms of price, this is where Dotmailer is definitely more suitable for larger enterprisers due to the quite hefty monthly payment you would need to pay in order to use their email marketing software. Their basic package starts at £250 per month with their top level package which comes with all the additional features priced at £450 per month.
Hopefully this article has given you a better insight as to what email marketing software is available and whilst there are many more, these are the top 7 that we thought were most beneficial to for owner managers.
If you would help developing and implementing your email marketing strategy, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.