Why should you trust us?
At Business News Daily, our team of small business experts regularly reviews hundreds of business-critical products and services. We researched the market to determine the best email marketing software and narrowed down our list of recommendations after extensive practical research taking into account price, features and ease of use. All evaluations are made accurately and fairly. Read more about our methodology.What is the best email marketing software?
- MailChimp – Best for Beginners
- HubSpot: The Best Integrated Marketing Solution
- mondai.com: Best for Campaign Management
- Email Referral Marketing – Best for Ease of Use
- Worker: Best for large companies
- Email Marketing with Constant Contact – Best for Small Businesses
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud: The best enterprise marketing solution
- Freshworks FreshMarketer: Best for Marketing Integration
- ActiveCampaign – Best for eCommerce integration
- iContact – Best for Scalability
email marketing software cost
Most email marketing software providers offer different plans with monthly fees depending on the number of email contacts you have or the number of emails you send. Free options generally offer limited features and limit a certain number of contacts and/or emails per month; Some paid plans allow you to send an unlimited number of emails per month.If you know or can predict how many emails your company will send each month or how many subscribers you expect to have, these numbers will determine which pricing tier you should choose. Depending on your budget and the features you want in your software, you can expect to pay between $9 and $400 per month for premium email marketing plans. For businesses that only need email marketing services occasionally, some providers offer per-email or pay-as-you-go pricing. This is a flexible option that lets you pay only for what you use, rather than a monthly supplies subscription.
Most email marketing services offer a free version or free trial of their software; so you can try the software and see how it works for you. The free trials we found range from 14 to 60 days. We recommend trying as many free trials as possible during your search.
Email Marketing Software Features
Below is a breakdown of the key features email marketing solutions offer.
email creation tool
Most services offer a library of customizable templates or an intuitive drag-and-drop tool that lets you personalize your emails. Some providers have templates that show you how your email will appear on different devices (such as laptops, tablets, and mobile phones) to help you create a flexible and responsive email.Analysis
Many email marketing services offer analytics on email open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, audience geographic location, conversion tracking, customer behavior trends, and more. Some integrate with Google Analytics, while others provide their own analytics that present information in easy-to-read tables and graphs.Marketing automation
Marketing automation is the ability to send specific, targeted emails to customers when they complete a specific action. For example, if a visitor to your website signs up to receive your emails, your marketing automation tool will send a welcome email to that customer's inbox.segmentation
Segmentation is another useful way to deliver more relevant messages to your prospects and customers by grouping them by age, location, gender, industry, interests or other factors. Instead of sending a single, generic email that might not be appropriate to every single one of your customers, segmentation enables you to send distinct emails to different groups.Contact management
Organize, sort, and manage your email contacts with the use of a contact management application. It also offers features like automatic deletion of dead or duplicate contacts; Subject; exporter; grouping; and integration with other management tools such as CRM or CMS.Social media integration
Most email marketing services integrate with social media platforms, allowing you to grow your contact list, schedule posts, and track follower engagement to determine what's popular. Integrating your social media with email marketing helps you make the most of omnichannel marketing by giving them more information about your customers and giving them more opportunities to see your messages.How to Choose Email Marketing Software?
1. Set your budget, parameters and goals for your email campaigns.
As with any marketing strategy, you'll want to define the scope of your efforts before looking for a software solution. Determine how much of your marketing budget you want to allocate to email marketing and determine your plans for campaign frequency and the overall goals of your campaigns (brand awareness, sales, customer loyalty, etc.).2. Read reviews to narrow down your options.
Read customer reviews and featured listings like this to learn about pricing, features, limitations, pros and cons, and customer support for each service you're considering. This will help you eliminate vendors that are outside your budget or don't offer the right mix of features and value for your needs.3. Sign up for free trials.
Many popular email marketing solutions offer free trials or completely free versions of their software. Create an account to test each of your top competitors' templates, email builders, and other features. Consider your preferred plan's ease of use, integration and API options, automation features, and communication or sending restrictions. You can also contact customer service to ask additional questions and test the level of support you can receive as a customer.4. Choose an email marketing software and start running campaigns.
Once you've tested your top software options, stick with one and start building your email list to start running campaigns.Benefits of Email Marketing Software
Email marketing software has many benefits for businesses that want to develop strong, direct relationships with their customers.Personalized and Automated Customer Relations
The best email marketing software allows you to use customer data to create and deliver personalized campaigns that will resonate with every recipient. Automation tools allow you to set up workflows to automatically send personalized emails to specific customers based on metrics such as purchasing behavior and proximity to special dates such as birthdays, anniversaries, and contractual milestones.Reports and Analysis
Email marketing software provides plenty of data to help you improve your marketing campaigns. You can see which customers opened, ignored or deleted your emails and which campaigns were opened and clicked on the most on your website. A/B testing features allow you to send two versions of a campaign to see which one gets the most engagement.adaptability
Most email marketing solutions offer multiple pricing tiers, allowing you to grow your contact and email lists as your business and customer base grow. You can reach and manage hundreds of thousands of people through a single, easy-to-use platform.Integration with other marketing solutions.
Email marketing platforms, part of broader marketing software products such as CRM solutions, allow you to manage your contacts and communications throughout the customer journey. When your email marketing software integrates with other systems, your entire team can access important customer information and data.Email Marketing Software FAQ
What is email marketing strategy?
Like all marketing channels, no two email marketing strategies are alike. An email marketing strategy is designed to help you achieve your marketing goals, such as increasing brand awareness, increasing sales, or keeping customers informed. Once you determine your marketing goals, you can create a series of emails and workflows using tools like automation, email templates, and list segmentation.Why is an effective email marketing strategy important?
One of the most economical ways to advertise your goods and attract clients is through email marketing. When done right, email marketing campaigns can build trust with your customers, encourage users to visit your website, and ultimately lead to more sales and satisfied customers.How can I assess whether my email marketing strategies are working?
The best email marketing services have comprehensive reporting and analysis. Review the data collected when an email is sent to determine whether your email marketing campaigns are successful. Reports should show how many people received your email, click-through rates, bounce rates, and other metrics.How do email marketing services help you grow and maintain your contact list?
Email marketing services provide a variety of tools to help you capture and manage your customers' email addresses. Most software options integrate with your existing email address book to grow your list. Additionally, many offer the option to embed signup forms on your website and social media accounts to grow your contact list.What are automation tools and how do they streamline the email marketing process?
Automation tools allow you to set up recurring emails that are automatically sent to specific customers based on their actions. For example, if you created a welcome series, a person will receive a welcome message as soon as they sign up for your list.What kind of analytics do email marketing services provide?
One of the main reasons why email marketing is so popular among businesses is that you can track your success. Services typically provide details like who opened your email, who immediately deleted it, who forwarded the email to others, and who purchased your product or service. You can dig deeper by looking at the day and time your emails are opened and the demographics of the subscribers who respond most to your emails (e.g. men, women, old, young). All this information will help you increase the success of your future campaigns.Can email marketing be used with social media?
Yes, most email marketing services allow you to take advantage of the following benefits you create on social media. Many providers allow you to connect your campaigns to your social networks so that your emails are automatically published to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social platforms. The Services also allow you to collect email addresses for your contact list using pre-designed social media login pages.What is the difference between traditional marketing emails and transactional emails?
Conventional email marketing is made to reach a large number of recipients. These emails may share information about your business, such as news, promotions, and special events. You can send these emails to your entire subscriber list or to specific sections of your list.What to expect in 2024?
In 2024, most of the world's population will still be at home, and email sending shows no signs of slowing down. Data from Radicati Group estimates that more than 376 billion emails will have been sent by the end of 2025. Knowing how valuable this medium is, Digital Journal predicts a CAGR of 11.6% by 2029 for global email marketing software.
The increasing need for digital advertising at low prices affects the future of the market. Additionally, many major brands focus their messaging on unifying the company's mission or embracing industry trends. Their goal is to integrate a more personalized messaging style to better connect with their consumer base.
We hope email marketing software providers will continue to focus on adding more automation and personalization tools. Both will help streamline the email marketing process as well as increase the vital engagement that companies look for when using email marketing as a vital part of their overall marketing strategy.
Additionally, we anticipate that artificial intelligence (AI) will become more significant in helping to streamline the email marketing procedure. In fact, as MarketingDive reports, 57% of marketers at large organizations are incorporating AI into their email marketing strategies.
With the explosive growth of Generative AI, by 2024 more and more companies will use it to conceptualize campaigns, write marketing copy, and even create visuals to insert into emails. Companies can use AI to develop alternative campaign materials and augment them to facilitate A/B testing, and use their analytics to further personalize and customize messages for customers. Email marketers should keep in mind, meanwhile, that AI is not meant to take the role of people or other marketing techniques and technologies. Using AI as another tool in the toolbox rather than the only one will likely yield the best results.
Another industry change that will impact some marketers is the new requirements for campaigns to be sent to Gmail and Yahoo/AOL mail addresses. Starting in February 2024, eligible users who send more than 5,000 messages per day or 150,000 per month on these platforms will be required to comply with these new guidelines designed to strengthen security. These terms are intended to protect recipients from potential email scams such as phishing, as well as to ensure that messages reach genuine, relevant users.
As part of these changes, eligible senders will be required to verify their email identity using DomainKeys Identified Mail. Additionally, the unsubscribe process should be simplified for recipients, including mandatory one-click email options and approval of unsubscribe requests within 48 hours. Additionally, a new standard will be introduced to verify that emails are only sent to intended recipients, keeping the spam rate below 0.30 percent, although the platforms recommend a strict target of 0.10 percent.
The increasing need for digital advertising at low prices affects the future of the market. Additionally, many major brands focus their messaging on unifying the company's mission or embracing industry trends. Their goal is to integrate a more personalized messaging style to better connect with their consumer base.
We hope email marketing software providers will continue to focus on adding more automation and personalization tools. Both will help streamline the email marketing process as well as increase the vital engagement that companies look for when using email marketing as a vital part of their overall marketing strategy.
Additionally, we anticipate that artificial intelligence (AI) will become more significant in helping to streamline the email marketing procedure. In fact, as MarketingDive reports, 57% of marketers at large organizations are incorporating AI into their email marketing strategies.
With the explosive growth of Generative AI, by 2024 more and more companies will use it to conceptualize campaigns, write marketing copy, and even create visuals to insert into emails. Companies can use AI to develop alternative campaign materials and augment them to facilitate A/B testing, and use their analytics to further personalize and customize messages for customers. Email marketers should keep in mind, meanwhile, that AI is not meant to take the role of people or other marketing techniques and technologies. Using AI as another tool in the toolbox rather than the only one will likely yield the best results.
Another industry change that will impact some marketers is the new requirements for campaigns to be sent to Gmail and Yahoo/AOL mail addresses. Starting in February 2024, eligible users who send more than 5,000 messages per day or 150,000 per month on these platforms will be required to comply with these new guidelines designed to strengthen security. These terms are intended to protect recipients from potential email scams such as phishing, as well as to ensure that messages reach genuine, relevant users.
As part of these changes, eligible senders will be required to verify their email identity using DomainKeys Identified Mail. Additionally, the unsubscribe process should be simplified for recipients, including mandatory one-click email options and approval of unsubscribe requests within 48 hours. Additionally, a new standard will be introduced to verify that emails are only sent to intended recipients, keeping the spam rate below 0.30 percent, although the platforms recommend a strict target of 0.10 percent.
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