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I’ve been using email marketing since 2008. Back then, the choice of email marketing software for smaller businesses was fairly limited.
The last few years has seen an explosion of companies entering the space.
But what is the best email marketing software today?
That’s what I’ll be attempting to answer today.
The 6 Best Email Marketing Software Platforms
1. AWeber – Best value overall
AWeber is one of the founding fathers of email marketing, and it is the platform I personally use and recommend.
AWeber is an industry leader for email deliverability, and they have an entire team dedicated to ensuring your emails actually reach your subscribers inbox.
Their Free plan lets you get started with the core features and up to 500 subscribers. And when you are ready to upgrade, their Pro plan gives you every feature.
This makes them stand apart from other email marketing services, who restrict the best features to their highest cost plans.
Their platform boasts over 700 integrations, and you can also extend the functionality of their automation platform using AWtomator (e.g. for Facebook Audience integration)
Unlike some services, they are affiliate friendly, which means you can send affiliate links to your subscribers without risking your account being shut down.
And they are one of the few service providers with 24/7 support. As well as email and live chat, they also have phone support, so you can talk to an actual human!
Combine all these great features with integration for hundreds of different platforms, and the success of this software is pretty easy to see for yourself!
Pros
- Pay for subscribers, not features
- The free version allows 500 subscribers, and 3,000 emails sent per month
- Integrated landing page builder
- 24/7 support by email and live chat, plus toll free phone support!
- Can be integrated with hundreds of other pieces of software.
- Simple for beginners, with more power under the hood when needed
- Industry leading email deliverability
- Affiliate friendly terms of service
Cons
- Some more advanced features only available using add-ons like AWtomator
- Some of the templates seem a little dated
2. GetResponse – Best for building sales funnels
Another founding father of email marketing, GetResponse has developed into a formidable suite of marketing tools.
For example, you can use GetResponse to create social media posts, Facebook and Google ads that are complimentary to your emails and landing pages.
Speaking of landing pages, their offering allows you to build complete websites and sales funnels to rival the likes of Clickfunnels.
They also have an inbuilt webinar suite, supporting both paid and free webinars, and an SMS gateway for pushing text messages.
For a more detailed comparison, see AWeber vs GetResponse.
Pros
- The free version allows 500 subscribers, and 2,500 emails sent per month
- All-in-one marketing suite
- Affiliate friendly terms of service
- SMS marketing
Cons
- You need a premium plan to get get all the goodies
3. Constant Contact – Best for beginners
Tailored to smaller business needs, Constant Contact is another platform that will suit beginners and veteran email marketers alike.
Growing your online presence is the name of the game with Constant Contact, and it can be done with pretty much any platform that you are targeting for your customer base with this product, whether it’s social media, texts, or emails.
All these features allow you to help build a subscriber following that feels connected to your company and is a great way of developing a solid and reliable customer base.
Pros
- Perfect for smaller and inexperienced businesses online.
- Integrates email, SMS and social media messaging
- Suitable for people who aren’t “techy”
Cons
- Geared towards businesses that have little to no online presence or experience. Established businesses are likely to know many of the tools and tricks that this service has to offer.
- You need a premium plan to get get all the goodies
- No free plan (offers a 7 day trial only)
4. ActiveCampaign – Best for workflow automation
ActiveCampaign is another integrated marketing and email platform with a CRM.
Automation is front and center with this software, and they provide an impressive selection of templated automation workflows. Their tracking, triggers and integrated CRM mean you can automatically move your leads through your sales process.
The premium plans come with Facebook audience integration, SMS marketing, and predictive sending, which uses machine learning to send messages to each contact at the perfect time for maximum results.
You can also score your leads based on their actions, and see the contact history for each of your subscribers.
Naturally, they also have SMS automation.
Pros
- Over 800 automation and integration tools that you can use with this product!
- Predictive sending using machine learning
- The customer service team is both friendly and helpful
- Native integration with Facebook Audiences
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- You need a premium plan to get get all the goodies
- No free plan (offers a free trial only)
5. Sendinblue – Best all-in-one marketing
Sendinblue is another all-in-one digital marketing platform that goes beyond email marketing and landing pages to integrate SMS, live chat, social media and a CRM.
As you would expect, their email automation software features are very strong, and unlike their peers, available in their free plan.
You can track subscriber behavior and use conditional logic let your subscribers choose their own journey through your autoresponders.
Their visual workflow editor makes mapping out campaigns really easy, and their automations include subscriber birthdays, cart abandonment and more.
For a more detailed comparison, see AWeber vs Sendinblue.
Pros
- The system is incredibly easy to get to grips with.
- The product provides plenty of options for connecting with potential customers, from multiple platform connections to the shared inbox feature.
- Plenty of templates for both emails and sign-up forms you can create for customers
- Visual workflow builder
Cons
- The free plan limit of 300 emails per day makes it of limited use
- You need a premium plan to get get all the goodies
6. Moosend – Best for e-commerce
Moosend is a relative newcomer to the email marketing scene, established in 2011.
Like AWeber, it focuses on doing email marketing really really well, rather than trying to be an all-in-one marketing suite.
It also has a single, fully featured plan, so you get all features from day one.
Unlike AWeber, however, it offers transactional email support. This means you can use Moosend’s infrastructure to send the emails from your e-commerce store or app.
What sets Moosend apart is their their ecommerce AI, which uses machine learning to identify product recommendations, based on the shopping habits of others.
The e-commerce AI makes it simple to cross-sell related products, handle cart abandonment, and ensure your customer lists are up to date.
Pros
- Pay for subscribers, not features
- Ecommerce AI
- Transactional emails (SMTP relay) option available
Cons
- No free plan
Buyer’s Guide
As you can see, there is quite a variety of email marketing software available, and each is best of class for certain features.
You may find that none of the options we have shown you are right for your business, or you may wish assess the best email marketing software for your particular needs.
So, here are the factors you should be considering when looking for the best email marking software for you and your company.
User Interface
This will not only serve as your first impression, but is what you will be using as you craft your email marketing campaigns.
Look for a UI that feels intuitive when first using it, or at the very least, provides plenty of options and support for finding your way around.
Be aware that some of the more featured platforms may have a lot of menu options, which can be initially confusing. How does the software ease you in so you can achieve the basics?
Personalizing Options
Personalization is key for email marketing success. The more personal your emails, the stronger the relationship you can build with your list, and the less likely your subscribers are to mistake your emails for spam.
Most email marketing platforms allow you to use personalization variables (aka merge tags), as well offer ways segment subscribers by demographics and tags.
Some platforms will even allow you to add content dynamically based on previous content or services/items they have purchased for you, which will further help boost customer engagement with your company.
Automation Features
Behavioural dynamic response is a key feature of modern email marketing systems.
Simply put, it’s the ability to use subscriber actions to affect their journey through your autoresponder sequences.
Most email marketing platforms will have automation features, such as scheduling campaigns, subscriber scoring, tracking engagement, and a host of other features.
Pricing
Most services on this list will have several different pricing plans for the specific services that they offer.
Make sure that you evaluate what your needs are exactly, and whether you need the most expensive versions or not.
Remember that, in many cases, you have to be on a premium plan to get all the bells and whistles.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Effective Is Email Marketing?
Studies have found that email marketing is by far one of the most effective means of getting responses and interaction from customers, with some studies putting direct email messages as much as 40X better than interacting through social media.
It has also been shown that email marketing to customers has a higher return on investment to other forms of marketing like social media, with email marketing returning mourn $36 for every dollar spent (see also ‘Email Vs Social Media: Which One Is Better For Marketing?‘).
In short, an email marketing strategy helps you build deeper connections with your audience, making an email marketing campaign the perfect compliment to search engine optimization (SEO) or paid ads,
Are There Any Rules To Email / Digital Marketing?
When sending out emails to both new and existing customers, you must make sure that you have their permission.
Never buy an email list. You’ll quickly be flagged as a spammer, and you’ll more than likely find yourself banned by your email marketing provider.
What Email Marketing Software Do I Use?
If you search around, you’ll find lots of articles for the best email marketing software, but it’s not clear what software the author actually uses (if any!).
I have been using AWeber since 2008, and despite being tempted to try some of the newer, shiner systems, I’ve kept my AWeber account active all that time, and always come back to it.
In fact, I created the AWtomator add-on for AWeber so that I could have all the benefits of the newer marketing automation platforms, without the price tag.
So, I use and recommend AWeber as the best value all round email marketing platform that is easy to use for beginners, and flexible enough to meet power user needs too.
Final Thoughts
So, which of these products do you think you’ll be using for your business needs? If you’re still unsure, here’s another opinion!
