You will find hundreds of excellent email marketing software in the marketplace nowadays. The trick to choosing which is best for your business is to understand what you are wanting to get out of this computer software. Since each business has different needs, There Is Absolutely No 1 size fits all email advertising software, but you can divide them all down to 4 Main categories:
- Small company: Here is the ideal category for many brick and mortar businesses that want an easy to use email marketing software which will have the ability to send out nice looking email blasts, capture results from subscription types, and contains basic operation to send out automatic emails. Our winner — MailChimp.
- Online marketers: This category is right for you if you have the time and skill to take full advantage of complex marketing automation features. You fit into this class if you want to automate the content that is delivered to a subscriber based on how they interact with your site and your previous emails. Our winner — ActiveCampaign.
- Ecommerce businesses: If you are searching for email software that can quickly track your current and possible customers and send them targeted product suggestions based on their purchase and browsing history, this is the category for you. Our winner — Klaviyo.
- All-in-one advertising solutions: Here is the right class for you in case you’ve got a medium to large business and want to combine sales and advertising campaigns (e.g. your own CRM, social media, and email marketing) under one umbrella in order to generate leads and increase revenue. You’ve got a marketing team together with the time and resources to prepare the software, and the funds to invest in a costly software. Our winner — Marketo.
We picked our favorite from each category based on hours of testing and research. In this article we will compare each top select with two competitors in their category in order for one to observe the entire range of alternatives.
Best Email Marketing Software for Small Businesses
Here is the class for most small businesses who want an simple to use email marketing software that will be able to send out fine looking email blasts, capture leads from subscription types, and contains basic functionality to send out automated emails.
Software in this category will not be able to trigger emails according to subscriber events (such as launching an email), link activity on your website to readers that are unique, or create landing pages based on a subscriber’s purchase history. This type of advanced email marketing is overkill for many small businesses as it’s more expensive and makes sending emails out fairly complex.
Best Email Marketing for Small Businesses Summary Table
|
MailChimp |
Constant Contact |
AWeber |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Price (for entry level package) | Free | $20 per month | $19 per month |
| What you get for your cost | 2,000 readers + 12,000 emails per month |
500 readers + Endless emails |
500 readers + Endless emails |
| Ease of Use | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Templates | 110 pre-designed templates + 25 fully customizable layouts with drag and drop design | 100 pre-designed templates + drag and drop design | 200 pre-designed templates + drag and drop design |
| Customer Support | blog articles and email service | features telephone, email, chat and twitter support
Telephone service available M-Th: 7am-11pm ET |
features phone, email, and chat service
Phone support available |
| Capability to Send Automated Emails | Need to update to $10/ month program for fundamental automation | Yes, basic automation available. | Yes, basic automation available. |
| Reporting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | Shopify, Salesforce, WordPress, Survey Monkey, and a Lot More | Facebook, LeadPages, PayPal, and WordPress among others | Microsoft Outlook, Salesforce, Wix, Zoho, along with others |
| Free Trial | Permanently free | Yes, 60 day free trial | Yes, 30 day free trial |
|
www.MailChimp.com |
www.ConstantContact.com |
www.AWeber.com |
Best Email Marketing Service for Small Business Owners: MailChimp
We prioritized price, simplicity of use, templates, and customer support when picking the best email marketing software for small businesses. MailChimp is the winner in each of these categories except for client support, and that’s why we have named them the best for smaller businesses.
At no cost you have access to dozens of amazing looking, easily customizable templates that you can send out to around 2,000 subscribers. You will be able to monitor which readers opened and clicked on a particular email, and see a summary of whether your open rates are increasing or decreasing over a time period.
With hundreds of integrations, it is likely MailChimp will have the ability to work with your current systems (site, CRM, social networking pages). Additionally, once you feel like you’ve outgrown the free program and need to test your hands at more advanced features, such as email automation, MailChimp includes a pro plan that starts at just $10/month. This manner MailChimp grows along with your business.
The one downside to MailChimp is that there is no phone support, so if you’ve got a question about the machine you will have to send an email and await a response, or discover the answer yourself in one of the self help articles.
Visit MailChimp
Best Email Marketing Software for Customer Support: Continuous Contact
While Constant Contact doesn’t offer a completely free version, their $20 per month program offers most of the same attributes as MailChimp. What they provide that MailChimp does not is telephone service, so in the event you would like a good deal of hand holding, Continuous Contact might be a better alternative for you.
Visit Constant Contact
Another Email Marketing Software Option: AWeber
We included AWeber since it’s a popular email marketing software in the small business area. However, compared to MailChimp and Constant contact, it’s less intuitive to use and the interface is not quite as clean. Additionally, it doesn’t offer any major performance that MailChimp or Constant Contact doesn’t have. It will have more templates, but you’re very likely to find a template that you like with MailChimp or Constant Contact also.
Go to AWeber
All Email Marketing Software for Smaller Firms
| Email Marketing Software | Best For |
|---|---|
| MailChimp | Small business owners |
| Constant Contact | Client Support |
| AWeber | Over 150 email templates |
| GetResponse | Landing page creator |
| Campaign Monitor | Email templates |
| Emma | Quality design |
| Campaigner | 24/7 award winning customer support |
Best Email Marketing Software for Online Marketers
This category is ideal for you if you’ve got the time and skill to take full advantage of complicated marketing automation features. You fit in to this category if you want to automate the information that is delivered to a subscriber according to how they interact with your website and your previous mails.
For example, if somebody exhibits attention (e.g. by studying articles) at a specific part of your site, you may then send them mails promoting products which are connected to the section of their website they appear most interested in. This is done automatically through the email advertising program. The main reason we do not recommend this for most small business owners is since this program includes an additional degree of cost and complexity.
Best Email Marketing Software for Online Marketers Summary Table
|
Active Campaign |
Drip |
HubSpot |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Price (for recommended program ) | $29 a month | $41 per month | $800/ month + 3,000 for onboarding (one-time fee) |
| What you get for your price | 2,500 subscribers Unlimited emails 3 consumers |
2,500 subscribers Unlimited emails Unlimited users | 1,000 subscribers (+$50/mo per 1k extra) 10,000 emails Endless users |
| Benefits of Use | Intermediate | Intermediate | Advanced |
| Marketing Automation | Good visual workflow charts and ability to choose from over 50 different trigger alternatives | Good visual workflow chart with 16 activates | Outstanding automation capabilities that pull from all elements of your company (website, social networking, etc.) |
| A/B Testing | Test your topic line, from line, and time delivered | Test your subject line, send time, and out of title | Exam your subject line, send time, and from title |
| Lead Capture | Catch leads using types and determine that email list to add them into | Code forms in your own website, or possess Drip host the types on your behalf | Show targeted articles to prospects so they’re more inclined to subscribe to your email listing |
| Reporting | Great reporting attributes on each email, but difficult to see the larger picture of how all campaigns are performing | keep tabs on subscriber development, engagement, and ROI | Awesome reporting features across all platforms. Capability to report on Google AdWords, website, and email advertising. |
| Integration | A number of the most Well-known options include Google Analytics, Shopify, Twitter, and Research Monkey. See the rest here. | Integrates with authorize.net, Eventbrite, Insightly, and Salesforce. View all integrations here. | Integrates with join.me, AdRoll, Unbounce, and WordPress. Here’s the complete list. |
| Customer Service | Phone, ask a callback, or email | Self help documents and email | Call, ask a callback, or email |
|
www.ActiveCampaign.com |
www.Drip.com |
www.HubSpot.com |
Best Email Marketing Software for Online Marketers: ActiveCampaign
The main focus for this category is advertising automation. That is because online marketers need to push out their content strategically to be sure they are targeting the right people at the ideal moment. ActiveCampaign is the winner in this class, since they have easy to comprehend visual workflows to make unique journeys for subscribers depending on their activities.
As an instance, let’s say you want to re-engage subscribers who have not opened an email in 30 days, and when they still don’t engage, then you would like to unsubscribe them in the listing. This would seem to be the flowchart below. As you can see, it’s quite simple to understand the flow and easy to add different conditions.
We use ActiveCampaign in Fit Small Business and definitely recommend it to bloggers, software as a service (SAAS) businesses, and some other online business with a great deal of informative content.
Stop by ActiveCampaign
Greatest Free Option: Drip
Drip is the only alternative in this category that has a eternally free program (unlimited emails to 100 readers ). Drip is an up and comer in this area and has been built with advertising automation in mind. It’s quite neck and neck with ActiveCampaign, but in the end did not match up with the number of features that ActiveCampaign has.
Visit Drip
Best for Content Management: HubSpot
We included HubSpot in this category as it’s an amazing tool for online marketers. It combines your content management system with email marketing and revenue to create personas for every one your subscribers. Then you are able to target different content at different times through different devices depending on what you understand about that individual.
All of this operation can be overwhelming for the average online marketer, and if you are not benefiting from each the capabilities, than it’s not worth the high price tag.
Visit HubSpot
All Email Marketing Software for Online Marketers
| Email Marketing Software | Best For |
|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign | Online Marketers |
| Drip | Free Choice |
| HubSpot | Content Management |
| ConvertKit | Streamlined Automation |
| Adobe Campaign | Cleaning Lists |
| Net-Results | Identifying Leads |
| SharpSpring | Relatively inexpensive for a high-end software |
Best Email Marketing Software for Ecommerce Firms
Ecommerce companies are searching for an email program which can quickly track their customers and send them targeted product suggestions based on their own buy and browsing history. The excellent thing about email marketing applications that are made with ecommerce in mind is they make it effortless to set up things like abandoned cart mails or product proposal emails.
Best Email Marketing Software for Ecommerce Firms Summary Table
|
Klaviyo |
Remarkety |
InfusionSoft |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost (for recommended program ) | $25 a month | $100 per month | $299 monthly + $999 one time fee to help you get started |
| What you get for the price | 500 readers (+$25 /mo per 500 additional ) Endless emails Unlimited users |
3,000 subscribers 30,000 mails Unlimited users |
5,000 readers 25,000 mails 4 consumers |
| Benefits of Use | Intermediate | Intermediate | Advanced |
| Integration with internet stores | Yes, integrates with major ecommerce platforms (Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, etc.) | Yes, integrates with major ecommerce platforms (Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, etc.) | Yes, integrates with all major ecommerce platforms + choice to produce your own storefront and shopping cart on Infusionsoft |
| List Segmentation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Capability to accumulate and track customer information | Yes, full profiles of customers and prospects and ability to send emails based on that behavior | Yes, ability to send personalized email to customers based on purchase history | Yes, most powerful features when it comes to collecting and tracking customer info |
| Customer Service | features email support | features email and telephone support | Offers 24/7 chat and email support. Telephone hours: M-F 6am – 5pm MST |
|
www.Klaviyo.com |
www.Remarkety.com |
www.InfusionSoft.com |
Best Email Marketing Software for Ecommerce Businesses: Klaviyo
Klaviyo is a fantastic combination of having intelligent marketing automation alternatives while still being easy enough for the average marketer to use without needing weeks to learn the system. That is the reason it is our winner for Ecommerce businesses.
Since Klaviyo is constructed with Ecommerce in your mind they make it simple to send cart reminders, personalized newsletters and other best practice emails which are demonstrated to operate in Ecommerce. You can target customers based on their history, activity in your website and interactions with preceding emails you have sent.
One downside is that since there is only email service, it can take a very long time to get support from a specialist, especially if there’s a good deal of back and forth. Though the customer service is educated, if you need immediate support, the wait time can be bothersome.
Visit Klaviyo
Greatest for Weekly Feedback: Remarkety
If you want more help when setting up your email advertising, Remarkety may be the best match for you. They examine the data out of your accounts and send a weekly newsletter with suggestions for how to enhance your email campaigns.
Visit Remarkety
Best for Integrated Shopping Cart: Infusionsoft
Infusionsoft is a combination of an online shop, customer relationship management (CRM) applications, and email marketing. That makes it quite a strong all in 1 email advertising solution, where you will have a lot of information about each subscriber in 1 system.
With this capability comes a steep learning curve, and that’s the reason why you will have to purchase a $999 package to assist you get started. However, once you learn how to utilize Infusionsoft, it’s a great deal of capabilities for ecommerce businesses.
Stop by InfusionSoft
All Email Marketing Software for Ecommerce Firms
| Email Marketing Software | Best For |
|---|---|
| Klaviyo | eCommerce businesses |
| Remarkety | Weekly comments |
| InfusionSoft | Incorporated shop and CRM |
| Bronto | Mid to large Businesses |
| SendinBlue | SMS Marketing |
| VerticalResponse | 24/7 support |
| Hatchbuck | Included CRM |
| iContact | Mid to large Businesses |
All-In-One Marketing Options for Advanced Marketers
This is the ideal category for you in the event that you have a moderate to large company which wishes to combine marketing and sales efforts so as to create leads and increase earnings. You’ll require a marketing team together with time and resources to prepare the software, since it takes some time and knowledge to establish all of your systems (site, CRM, social media, Google AdWords, etc.) so they are interacting with one another inside the program.
What makes these software so powerful is that since all of your sales and marketing efforts are in 1 spot, you get a full image of each of your clients and prospects. You can take what you understand about them from various touch points, and send them targeted emails based on their activity.
This might seem fantastic, but it is extremely costly and time consuming to manage this procedure. If you do not have an online store, multiple internet marketing efforts, along with a large sales and marketing team, then this is not the right category for you. But, we believed we’d give you the top software in this class so you know what is out there.
| Email Marketing Software | Finest For | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Marketo | Overall Advertising | Marketo is broadly thought of as the best of the best when it comes to all-in-one Advertising solutions. |
| Pardot | Integration with sales team | Pardot is possessed by Salesforce, and consequently puts a significant emphasis on using email advertising to close sales. |
| Eloqua | Large databases | Eloqua is most widely used by big business to business (B2B) companies. |
| Omnisend | Ecommerce and online store owners | Omnisend, previously known as Soundest, has mechanics that enable users to conduct order follow-ups and customer reactivation. |
Bottom Line
When choosing an email marketing program for your small business, make sure to understand exactly what you want to escape the software . What’s ideal for one company might not be the ideal match for you, so find the one which fits your precise requirements.
Here’s our roundup of best email marketing software:
- Small companies: MailChimp
- Online marketers: ActiveCampaign
- Ecommerce businesses: Klaviyo
- All-in-one marketing solutions: Marketo
If you’ve used or are currently using any of the email marketing software in the following guide, let us know in the comments section below. We love to hear from you!
