Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen email marketing is your priority, you have a lot of aspects to consider. Along with how you create and present your email content, having the right email platform can help tremendously when building and executing your marketing strategy.
Without a good email platform, you run the risk of not being able to deliver to your email list. A poor email marketing service even runs the risk of sending your emails right into the spam folder, where they can’t do any good. And while there are many email platforms out there, some won’t give you good features for your money, which takes away email marketing’s advantage of being cost effective.
Instead, you want a platform that helps you segment your email subscribers into groups, track your campaign’s performance, and create engaging emails. If you’re looking for the right service to start your campaign, or you’re ready for an upgrade, here are the best email marketing software options out there.
Constant Contact
One of the largest email marketing services is Constant Contact. It’s one of the easiest to use and has a minimal learning curve, meaning that beginners and experienced email marketers alike can make the most of it. Its features include tracking and reporting, social media sharing, an image library, and managing email lists, contacts, and templates.
While Constant Contact is easy to use, there’s also a strong customer support team that can help you with anything you have trouble with. It even offers a vast quantity of resources and online training and live seminars to help make the most of your email marketing campaign. Constant Contact offers a sixty-day free trial, with various pricing plans starting at $20 per month.
Campaigner
Campaigner is an advanced email marketing platform that has numerous features, making it suitable for businesses hoping to take their email campaigns to the next level. Through Campaigner, you can take advantage of A/B split testing, autoresponders, responsive design, and social sharing. You can also target your subscribers through segmentation, and you can integrate with other platforms, such as Google Analytics.
Campaigner also has excellent customer support, which is available 24/7. The Status page keeps up-to-date information on any issues, and there are also webinars available through Campaigner’s website. There is a free trial period, but it requires you to enter a credit card to get started. Depending on the number of subscribers you have, you can select a plan that’s right for you starting at $19.95 per month for up to 1000 subscribers.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is an email marketing platform, but it goes a bit further than that—there are also tools for automation, CRM, and sales included. For your emails, you can segment contacts and even gather additional information about your subscribers through their email addresses. You can easily use the platform’s email templates, and there are even mobile-friendly signup forms so that your messages work on the devices your subscribers will likely be reading them on.
This tool works best for people who want to have the convenience of marketing automation on their side. You can run a two-week free trial to test out a limited selection of the features, and the plans start at $9 per month. Some of the higher tiered plans can be more expensive than similar email campaign platforms, but the automation tools make it worthwhile.
Drip
Drip is another platform that’s incredibly friendly for beginners, and the wide range of tools help give Drip an edge. The automation and segmenting tools, as well as other features, help you reach the specific audiences in your subscriber pool. You can also integrate Drip into website builders like WordPress and WooCommerce, allowing you to add signup forms to your site.
Drip offers training and webinars on automation features and free guides and documentation to help handle all manner of questions. There’s also live chat support to help handle any complications. You can start a free trial account for a contacts list of up to 100 subscribers. In terms of monthly pricing, Drip has some of the highest starting prices, at $41 per month.
Zoho Campaigns
For a more affordable email campaign service, Zoho Campaigns has pricing starting at $5 per month for up to 500 subscribers. While picking up Zoho Campaigns, you can also choose from the numerous other Zoho applications out there. You can choose to work on a pay-as-you-go plan, but the monthly payment doesn’t put a cap on how many emails you can send at a time.
In terms of performance, Zoho provides solid marketing automation, autoresponders, and email workflows. Even so, some of these tools are a bit basic, but they can get the job done for businesses that don’t need complex features. Zoho’s templates and user interface could stand to have some updates, but if affordability is your priority, this service more than fits the bill.
HubSpot
HubSpot is a big name in email marketing automation, and it also works to combine marketing, CRM, and sales solutions into one tool. What makes this platform stand out is that it has high performing analytics and the way it works smoothly with other CRM and sales tools. You have easy workflow creation as well, making it intuitive to use. While there’s still room for the platform to improve, it can perform well for businesses of all sizes.
That power as a tool comes with a price, as even the basic marketing automation plan begins at $200 per month, with the higher tiered versions costing even more. However, once you have a plan you have access to the basic CRM and sales tools for free. For those needing more advanced features, HubSpot offers those as well for an extra cost.
What Is the Best Email Service?
The best email service is the one that meets the needs and budget of your business. Those trying to run advanced campaigns may need something with multiple features like Campaigners, while smaller businesses with a small subscriber pool can perform just fine with a basic tool like Zoho. To make your best choice, you should first assess your needs and try out a free trial if possible. Once you find the right platform, your email marketing strategy can become even more effective at reaching your customers.
