Email marketing isn’t going away this year. Despite what others say (that it’s dead), it will continue to be a powerful tool for any serious business.
Ads and other marketing strategies might work great, but there are some things that only a killer email marketing campaign can accomplish.
For instance, being able to segment subscribers into different groups is not something you can do with running ads or tweaking SEO.
You get my point.
If you want your subscribers to feel that you’re making an effort to bring them relevant content, then you need to create excellent email marketing strategies.
To do this, you need to have the best email marketing software for your business.
How To Choose The Best Email Marketing Service
There are a few things you need to consider when looking at your targeted email marketing services. They are:
Price
It’s important to choose the correct pricing plan for your email marketing service.
Is the price worth it for the service and convenience you get? Can you afford it? Will you be able to justify the cost?
There’s nothing wrong with investing in marketing software, but it’s important to pick the right one so you don’t pay for features that you won’t be using.
Ease of Use
Not all marketers are tech savvy, so it would be helpful if an email marketing software is simple and easy to use.
Deliverability
Deliverability is the ability of an email marketing tool to deliver emails as scheduled. There are several factors that can sometimes block your emails from reaching the subscriber, so it’s important that you choose a service that ensures maximum deliverability rates.
A/B split testing tools
A/B testing is a great strategy to gather insight on customer behavior. Having this in your email marketing strategy is a sure fire way to see what works and what doesn’t. This could be implemented at many levels such as:
- A/B Testing email headline
- A/B testing email capture copy
- A/B testing email open rate
Analytics & reporting
Email analytics are your eyes and ears for your campaign. It tells you how effective your emails are based on open and click rate, and how many of them convert.
Automation tools
While automation is not a must-have for all email marketers, it is definitely a nice-to-have in the time of personalized connection. When done right, automated emails can provide a stream of passive income to your business.
Infact, if you are just starting out, you should consider getting an email marketing service which offers segmentation. This helps a lot as you move ahead in your career or grow your business via email marketing.
Form builder
Collecting emails would be easier if you use a simple and attractive sign-up form. This is one of the first things you will be setting up and it’s the first step that a subscriber will go into. Not all sign-up forms are created equal, so it would be a bonus if you pick an email marketing software that has a great form builder.
Integration
If your business uses other apps like WordPress, Shopify, and Zapier, then you need an email marketing software that will work with your essential tools. For instance, if you are selling on Shopify, you would want something that can be integrated with Shopify.
Now that we understand these criteria for choosing the best email marketing service, let’s take a look at the choices for best email marketing software in 2022.
Email marketing services Comparison
Here is the comparison chart for these top email marketing services. This will help you to quickly compare the features offered by these services.
|
Services |
Cost of 10k Sub/Month |
Free Trial |
AutoResponder |
Segmentation |
Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
ConvertKit |
$119 |
14 days |
Yes |
Yes |
4.5 |
|
Aweber |
$69 |
30 days |
Yes |
Yes |
4.4 |
|
Constant |
unspecified |
30 days |
Yes |
Yes |
4.3 |
|
Active |
$139 |
30 days |
Yes |
Yes |
4.4 |
|
MailChimp |
$75 |
– |
Yes |
Yes |
4.4 |
|
$165 |
30 days |
Yes |
Yes |
4.3 |
|
|
SendInBlue |
$66 |
– |
Yes |
Yes |
4.2 |
|
Mailerlite |
$50 |
– |
Yes |
Yes |
4.5 |
|
Benchmark |
$81.99 |
– |
Yes |
Yes |
4.0 |
|
Drip |
$184 |
14 days |
Yes |
Yes |
4.6 |
1. ConvertKit
ConvertKit, as the name suggests, is an email marketing service that helps you focus on conversions. Its unique yet effective method of creating campaigns (called broadcasts) and segments are all designed to make your subscribers click on a link or a call to action in your emails.
Unlike other email marketing tools, ConvertKit encourages text-only emails so that it feels personal and less “corporate.” This approach is great for mentors, publishers, and professional bloggers who want to connect with their subscribers on a deeper level. Another highlight is, Convertkit let you send unlimited emails.
While creating emails in ConvertKit might seem basic in terms of design, it’s not the case when it comes to automation. The visual automation feature will let you create and design a sequence in any way you want.
2. Aweber
- Starting price: $19/month
- Free trial: 30 days
Aweber is one of the most established email marketing services. It’s been around since the ’90s and they are said to have pioneered autoresponders.
Aweber has all the features you would expect from an email marketing tool, but they are not as advanced as its other counterparts. It can build automated campaigns, but the list of things that you can do within the automation is quite limited.
What Aweber lacks in automated campaigns, it makes up for with designing sign up forms. Aweber is one of the few email marketing platform that have a great variety of sign up form templates. The templates are also easy to customize, so non-technical users can appreciate this feature. Aweber can also run A/B testing on sign up forms.
Another notable feature is Aweber mobile apps. It helps you curate and send email newsletter from the comfort of your mobile phone. ShoutMeLoud was using Aweber as its email marketing service before it switched to ConvertKit.
- Starting price: $20/month
- Free trial: 30 days
Constant Contact has seen some updates over the past few years. Today, it’s an email marketing service that gives more features for users with ecommerce sites.
In addition to integrating with sites and apps like WordPress and Shopify, Constant Contact can now be connected with a Facebook business page for ads.
Constant Content has a drag-and-drop email builder so you’ll find it super easy to create emails from scratch. Another new function is to resend emails to those who did not open it the first time it was sent.
Significant features of Constant Contact:
- Email segmentation
- Integration with all popular services
- 30 days of free trial
- Monthly and yearly payment option
- Mobile app
- Email marketing calendar
4. Active Campaign
- Starting price: $15/month
- Free trial: 30 days
Active Campaign is a modern email marketing tool that’s great if you want an attractive user interface and more than the typical features of an email marketing software.
Using Active Campaign’s Form Editor is easy with its drag-and-drop functionality. If you don’t know how to create eye-catching emails, you can choose from pre-made templates and make some changes to match your site’s theme.
Every feature in Active Campaign is packed with functionality. This tool helps you create email campaigns with simple texts or elaborate ones with video and images.
If you like to study your email campaign stats to the last detail, Active Campaign is a promising app to do that for you. This may not be something you need if you just have a handful of subscribers, but if you already have a huge list and want to analyze subscriber behavior and campaign ROI, then get this tool.
5. MailChimp
- Starting price: Free or $10/month
- Free trial: none
MailChimp is a free email marketing software that is a popular choice for bloggers and marketers with little to no budget. It’s one of the few email marketing tools that offer premium features for free (with a limit on subscriber size and number of emails sent).
The latest redesign of its interface (and some added functions) make MailChimp catch up with other email services. From being a tool to perform basic email tasks, MailChimp has transformed into something more useful with its update.
One example is its Automation feature. There are now several ways that an automation can be triggered. This functionality did not exist before the update.
6. Get Response
- Starting price: $15/month
- Free trial: 30 days
Get Response claims to be an all-in-one marketing service for businesses. In addition to basic email marketing campaign functionality, it also covers the creation of landing pages and webinars.
Get Response has an advanced automation workflow that uses tags and custom fields. It also tracks how a user interacts with your site, also called web event tracking. These features can be used triggers and conditions when creating automation workflows.
One thing that is different about Get Response’s approach to A/B testing is that it doesn’t limit itself to subject lines and when an email gets sent. It actually lets you do an A/B test on the email content itself.
7. Sendinblue
- Starting price: Free or $25/month
- Free trial: none (free plan available)
Sendinblue is a powerful email marketing platform that has three services: email, SMS, and dedicated IP.
Each of these plans has their own pricing. The price specified above refers to its email marketing feature.
If you have an e-commerce store, this email campaign software might be a good fit. In addition to basic email marketing tasks, Sendinblue can send transactional messages, which means customers who bought something from your store can receive email and SMS confirmation of their order.
Creating emails with this tool is a breeze with its drag-and-drop builder. There are lots of templates to choose from if you don’t want to start from scratch.
Automation is also possible with Sendinblue, and it even has pre-made automation ready for you to tweak and customize.
8. MailerLite
- Starting price: Free or $10/month
- Free trial: none (free plan available)
Mailer Lite is another newcomer to the email marketing space. It has unique features that you wouldn’t expect from an email marketing tool.
For instance, the personalization feature lets you hide or display certain parts of your email to specific subscribers. You can also use a subscriber’s personal information (that they gave voluntarily) such as a hometown and mention that in your email message, making the email surprisingly personal.
Another great personalization feature is scheduling an email to be sent according to the subscriber’s time zone, enabling you to pick the best time to send email.
Automation is also a powerful feature offered in Mailer Lite. You can create your own workflow or start with a template.
Mailet Lite can be a great bulk email marketing software, as it allows you to send to a huge number of subscribers for a reasonable monthly fee.
9. Benchmark Email
- Starting price: Free or $13.99
- Free trial: none (free plan available)
Benchmark Email is a clean and minimalist email marketing tool that focuses on creating beautiful email messages. Its advanced email editor lets you build your email content with blocks, which can be images, text, buttons, or links.
For an email marketing tool that wants you to send great-looking emails, its templates for sign up forms are a bit of a disappointment. They’re dated and doesn’t look good — to say the least.
Automations are limited with the free account, but more functions can be unlocked if you upgrade to a paid plan. Some features of Automation Pro include web event tracking and Facebook app integration.
10. Drip
- Starting price: $49/month
- Free trial: 14 days
Drip is a premium email marketing service and a cross-channel marketing automation tool, that is geared towards e-commerce, especially Shopify users. It’s highly vetted by many online entrepreneurs. Everything that an email marketing tool can do, Drip wants to do it even better.
This over the top approach to email is evident in all aspects of Drip’s features, from its pre-made automation workflows — where you just need to alter a few details and you’re done — to its Visual Builder that makes it super easy to create handsome emails.
As for managing subscribers, Drip lets you automatically put subscribers in segments based on criteria that you set.
Connecting Shopify with Drip will dramatically level up your marketing game. Everything that happens on your Shopify store will now reflect on Drip, and you can take action with the right message.
FAQs about best email marketing services:
I have a blog but I’m not selling anything. Do I still need to build an email list?
Yes. Even if you don’t sell anything, you still want traffic to your blog, right? Building an email list and sending your subscribers an update when you have new content will certainly help you get more traffic.
How do I get more subscribers?
There are many ways to increase your email subscribers, but the most common one is to use a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a reward in exchange for an email list signup. You can offer a free e-book or any digital download.
How often should I send email campaigns?
This depends upon the kind of industry you are catered to. We send almost 4 emails a week with an open rate of 30% and a CTR of 5%. For bloggers, one email a day is acceptable. For B2C (Business to Consumer), once a week is fine, and for B2B (Business to Business), once a month is great.
Conclusion: Choosing the best email marketing software
Choosing an email-marketing software could be a daunting task and moreover, to migrate from one service to another is a serious headache. I have had experience of migrating from Aweber to ConvertKit, and I could tell that it’s as technical as migrating your hosting.
To make your life easier I have created this comparison list of email marketing services and here are my final conclusion and suggestions for you:
- ConvertKit: If you are a blogger, creator or a publisher.
- Active Campaign: If you are a small business owner.
- Drip: If you are running an e-commerce store
Now, it’s your turn to let me know which email marketing tool are you using? Do add the following :
- Are you sending a regular email newsletter?
- Are you sending mass email?
- How are you lowering down your email marketing cost?
Your answer will be helpful for me and for everyone who is doing email-marketing or planning to start with one.
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