Email marketing is the practice of building a list of email addresses from contacts that are interested in what you have to offer. By signing up they consent to receive emails from you which you can use to send marketing materials that matter.
Email marketing returns $38 for $1 spent, according to an article by hostpapa, which makes it one of the most profitable ways to engage your customers.
The good news is that even though this is such an effective way to market, it is often overlooked. This means that email marketing is likely to be around for a while.
Getting started with email marketing
In this article, I have compiled what I view as the 10 best email marketing platforms for you to use to start building your list today.
The list is arranged in my order of preference. That said, do go through them and select the one that fits both your needs and budget.
Full Disclaimer: As an affiliate, I receive a small compensation at no extra cost to you, if you purchase through any of the links below.
1. Mailerlite
Best for those just starting out
Mailerlite has positioned itself well as a platform that one can get started very quickly on. They have a free plan if you have less than 1000 subscribers that can send up to 12000 emails a month.
Their user interface is easy to navigate and they offer responsive email designs. For those that do like the option of sending emails with images, Mailerlite offers this with a very easy to use drag and drop email builder.
Their premium plans, starting from $10 a month, give you access to even more features like removing mailerlite branding, unlimited landing pages, unlimited emails and a custom HTML editor.
Mailerlite also offers a click map that shows you how your users are interacting with your emails. Sadly this is only on the premium plans.
Other things to get excited over Mailerlite for are;
- 24/7 customer support via email (free plans) and chat (paid plans)
- Very simple to use email builder
- Email surveys
- Template gallery
- High delivery results
Mailerlite plans start from $10 a month but they do offer a pretty comprehensive free plan. If you are just starting out and want to create emails with images, Mailerlite is the platform for you.
2. Moosend
Best if you want some simple CRM features
Moosend is not only an email marketing platform but also adds in some CRM features to offer you and All in one marketing platform.
They offer a drag and drop builder to create your email templates. This includes things like adding images, social icons, text blocks and much more to your emails. The added benefit is of course that these are all responsively designed, meaning they will display well no matter what screen they are being viewed on.
Moosend excels when it comes to the automation features. They offer pre-built automation templates that help you to get setup in no time. These templates allow you automate messages via upsells, customer engagement and customer loyalty. By simply setting the three main components of automation; triggers, control steps and actions, you are able to filter email list segments when specified actions occur.
Moosend offer a pretty decent free plan up until 1000 subscribers. In comparison to Mailerlite they let you send unlimited emails in their free plan.
Their paid plans start from $8 per month and then increase as your subscribers do. If you are looking for a platform that provides excellent automation then this is your platform.
3. Aweber
Best for small businesses
One of Aweber‘s strengths is their huge template library. It has over 700 templates for you to design your emails. This is more than the 500 you get with GetResponse (listed below) and way more than any of the other providers.
Other than this you get the usual drag and drop email builder, the management tools as well as the analytics reports.
You can get started on Aweber with their free plan which will remain free until you reach 500 subscribers (seeing a trend here? 😉 ) after which you can swap over to their premium plans starting from $29.99 a month.
4. GetResponse
Best for creating Sales Funnels
GetResponse is an awesome email marketing platform for people who want to build sales funnels.
They have a feature called Conversion Funnel which has over 30 professionally designed templates that are optimized to convert your visitors to customers. This includes your landing page, automation of your emails, the sale of your products and even recover abandoned orders. This works fantastic if this is in your business model. It can save you having to sign up for another service like Clickfunnels.
As for their email marketing platform, it does not disappoint.
It follows the trend of many of the email marketing platforms, by offering the drag and drop email builder. Their email template library of prebuilt templates is over 500 the last time I checked and they add to it every now and then. This helps to get up and running in no time.
Some other features they offer;
- Segmentation of lists
- Allows dynamic content in the emails, making each more personal to the subscriber
- Deliver the email at user’s local time to ensure visibility
- Excellent statistics to see what works in an easy to read dashboard
GetResponse has a free trial for 30 days before their paid plans start from $15 a month. This plan allows for 1 conversion funnel to optimize your user’s sales journey through your website.
5. ConvertKit
For those with a higher budget
ConvertKit is usually highly recommended by many bloggers as their affiliate program is very lucrative. Truth is you might be as well served if not better by the cheaper options listed above. If however, you want to still consider them for your email marketing provider, you can expect the following features.
As mentioned earlier many of these features can be achieved using the cheaper alternatives listed before ConvertKit like;
- Create forms using their form builder
- Setup automated email sequences to increase conversions
- Keep track of your user engagement via the statistics dashboard
- Segment your email list and send emails accordingly
One thing to note about ConvertKit is that they send plain text emails. There is not images involved in the email. People are still divided over this strategy as some say it helps in the conversion of customers as it comes across more professional while others say it does not make for attractive emails and therefore the bounce rate is quite high. My opinion is that it really depends on your industry and who your clients are. Keep that in mind when selecting an email marketing platform to partner with.
