Email marketing can be a highly effective way to promote a business, connect with potential customers and generate more sales. When it comes to choosing the right email marketing service, however, the options and costs can vary widely – and choosing the right platform can make a big difference in the success of your business’ email campaigns.
Fortunately, there are a lot of great email marketing platforms out there that come with powerful features and reliable deliverability at affordable price points. Below, we have showcased the top 6 email marketing services, based on affordability and the features provided.
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ActiveCampaign
Taking businesses “beyond email marketing with true marketing automation,” ActiveCampaign comes with tools for:
- Personalizing and segmenting emails
- Automating follow-ups, based on specific audience behaviours
- Analyzing data to drive leads forward.
Additionally, ActiveCampaign can be seamlessly integrated with more than 150 other marketing tools and software, like Facebook, Zapier, Paypal and more.
ActiveCampaign is available for a free 14-day trial (without requiring you to submit any credit card information). This includes free migration from your current email marketing service.
After that, monthly rates vary according to the size of your subscriber list and the type of package selected, with rates for basic plans (for those with 1,000 subscribers or less) starting as low as $17 per month.
AWeber
Another email marketing platform offering personalization, segmentation, automation, and integration is AWeber. Along with these features, AWeber also provides live chat and phone support 24/7, as well as free training.
AWeber is available for a free 30-day trial, with the submission of credit card information. After that, this email service starts at $19 per month (for a subscriber list of up to 500). A substantial discount on service plans is available to new clients who sign up and prepay for quarterly or annual services.
Constant Contact
As a leading email marketing service provider for more than 20 years, Constant Contact comes with eye-catching, customizable, easy-to-use templates, as well as:
- Campaign automation
- Integration with Hootsuite, Outlook, Shopify and many other tools
- Real-time performance tracking and reporting
- Robust analytics
- Features that “go beyond the inbox,” like polls and coupons.
Constant Contact offers free, no risk 60-day trials without the submission of credit card information. Following the free trial, service plans start at $20 per month (for distribution lists of up to 500 subscribers).
With Constant Contact, you don’t have to commit to any long-term contracts or worry about cancellation penalties or hidden fees. You can, however, enjoy discounted rates by prepaying for 6 to 12 months of service. The special discounts and plans are available for nonprofits and franchise operations.
ConvertKit
Providing “email marketing software the way it should be,” ConvertKit has features that let you easily create unique email content while targeting and automating your email broadcasts. ConvertKit also has options for sending plain text emails, avoiding spam filters and improving deliverability and open rates.
ConvertKit offers free migrations to those with at least 5,000 email subscribers, as well as 14-day free trials. After that, plans start at $29 per month (for up to 1,000 subscribers), and you can get 2 months for free when you sign up for a one-year service plan.
MailChimp
Empowering brands “with smarter marketing built for big things,” MailChimp is email automation and marketing platform that has powerful tools for:
- Crafting and automating unique, engaging campaigns
- Optimizing each new campaign, with analysis of past campaign performance and the results of A/B testing
- Supporting email campaigns with additional marketing materials, like social media ads, landing pages and/or postcards.
MailChimp’s services are free for those who have 2,000 or fewer subscribers and who are sending no more than 12,000 emails per month. For unlimited monthly emails (for up to 500 subscribers), MailChimp only costs $10 per month.
Additionally, MailChimp offers:
- 10 per cent discounts for adding two-factor authentication an account
- 15 per cent discounts for charities and nonprofit organizations.
Moosend
With intuitive template editing tools, as well as campaign monitoring, performance tracking, and segmentation, Moosend is a dynamic email marketing platform that has an “average delivery rate [that] never falls short of 97 percent at any given time.”
Moosend offers 3-month free trials, with unlimited emails, for distribution lists of up to 5,000 subscribers. Following the trial period, Moosend starts as low as $10 per month, with a 15 or 20 percent discount available for signing up for a 6- or 12-month service plan (respectively).
How to Choose the Right Email Marketing Platform: X Helpful Tips
With so many options for email marketing services, it can be difficult to know which one is the best fit for your business. As you explore and narrow down the options, here are some helpful tips to keep in mind:
- Nail down your subscriber list and determine how frequently you want to send out emails, as these factors impact costs.
- Consider who will be using the platform to design, develop and rollout your campaigns. Think about what type of user experience would be the best fit.
- Think about the types of performance metrics you need in order to evaluate campaign success. This information can be invaluable when it’s time to refine and improve your business’ email marketing efforts.
- Once you have narrowed down the options, look at online reviews for your top choices to get more insight about each platform, as well as the pros and cons that others have experienced with it.
- Take advantage of free trials, and don’t feel like you have to work with a tool that doesn’t seem to be working for you! If you don’t like how one platform works, try another one for free. With so many options available – and with many platforms offering free migration for new customers. You can be Goldilocks with the options, trying each one until you find the one that’s just right.