8 Best Email Marketing Tools for Small Businesses
8 Best Email Marketing Tools for Small Businesses
Email marketing tools can help businesses take their email marketing efforts to the next level. Through automation, list-building, real-time metrics, and more, email marketing tools can be a game-changer for small businesses. Looking to get started? Try out one of these top platforms.
Almost everyone who has a smartphone or mobile device has an email address, making email marketing a must, especially for small businesses that want to scale or generate more revenue.
According to Statista, the number of emails around the world is forecasted to reach around 4.6 billion by 2025 and there are around 306 billion emails sent every day.
Unlike social media platforms with complicated algorithms and regulations, emails are much simpler and more direct. Marketers and business owners can’t deny the importance of email marketing.
Knowing the basics of email marketing isn’t just enough. It can be time-consuming or costly if you don’t know what are the best email marketing tools to utilize for your business.
In this piece, you’ll learn more about what are the finest tools out there to help you best manage your email marketing efforts. We’ll go in-depth with each of the tools so you can decide which one best suits your small business.
Interested to learn more about email marketing? Additional reading: “Email Marketing Statistics”
What You Need Before Selecting an Email Marketing Tool
There are different types of email marketing tools for different goals. Although every tool in this list is proven to be helpful but knowing what you need and what your targets are can make a significant difference.
There are several variables you need to consider such as:
- Cost and your budget
- What’s your business type
- Is it for lead generation or nurturing
- Are you a beginner
- What are the key features you need
Email Marketing Features to Consider
The last bullet in that reminder is crucial. Before you sign up or register for an account, you should have a clear grasp of what are the functions that you can utilize. Here are the common features of these email marketing tools:
- Drag-and-drop builder: Without knowing any HTML coding, drag-and-drop email builders make it incredibly simple to create email layouts, add content, and incorporate graphics. Additionally, they are built to display your HTML email properly in the majority of email clients.
- List builder: Online forms, surveys, and polls are just some examples of list-building tools that may help you reach a larger audience. Examine the list-building capabilities offered by new email marketing platforms as you test them out.
- A/B Testing: It's an experiment in which consumers are randomly presented with two or more variations of a website, and statistical analysis is utilized to ascertain which variation works better for a certain conversion objective. You can identify any concerns by conducting an A/B test that directly contrasts a variant versus the present experience.
- Deliverability tools: The biggest hurdle in email marketing is knowing when your message was delivered to their inboxes, not just in their spam folders. Deliverability tools help ensure that your emails are getting to your customers.
- Automation features: it can vary from one platform to another but essentially, automation is sets of triggers and actions that automatically do a series of actions you’ve set.
- List segmentation: it is exactly what you think. Advanced segmentation allows you to organize your contact by segregating them into more specific and targeted sets. Its main purpose is to collect data and help you send specific offers to your customers based on what they like.
8 Best Email Marketing Tools for Small Businesses
Now that you’ve accessed and identified what you need when looking for, here’s the list of the best email marketing software for your small business.
Once you select your ideal tool, you will need someone to execute your campaigns. Connect with an expert email marketing company on The Manifest.
Mailchimp
You can manage and communicate with your clients, customers, and other interested parties with Mailchimp, an all-in-one email marketing platform. Their strategy is data analysis, campaigns, and contact management procedures.
Mailchimp has a free marketing plan to help inexperienced business owners or marketers test different advanced features before committing to a more extensive paid plan. It allows you to add 500 contacts and send around 2,500 emails monthly.
This tool is known for its ease of use because of its intuitive UX/UI design, you can familiarize yourself with key features in no time.
According to Mailchimp’s policies, it strictly permits selling and renting email lists, ensuring higher security for those concerned about their privacy. Most small businesses and startups prefer Mailchimp because of its simplicity, pricing, and accessibility.
Source: Mailchimp
HubSpot
Known for its vast array of solutions aimed to help with marketing and business, HubSpot is a CRM platform that allows you to bundle different services together. It has five core products — Sales Hub, CMS Hub, Operations Hub, Service Hub, and Marketing Hub.
The platform enables markets and business owners to monitor and organize customer communication. It offers both free and paid email marketing solutions that can help your small business.
In HubSpot, you can send emails to specific contacts from the contact record as well as from any related company, deal, ticket, or custom object records. Additionally, you may respond to emails from the record timeline sent to a team email account linked to the discussions inbox or a personal email address.
HubSpot templates are optimized for mobile and computer viewing. Each template is made to increase conversions, whether that means bringing visitors to a landing page, registering for a demo, or making a purchase on your website.
ConvertKit
One of the fastest-growing email marketing tools today is ConvertKit, an email service provider (ESP) that offers customizable sign-up forms, landing pages, and email automation solutions.
ConvertKit is affordable with both free and paid plans that range from $9 to $25 a month depending on the number of contacts you have.
Most content creators prefer ConvertKit because it allows them to optimize newsletters and other content for their brands. ConvertKit generates metrics that can support small businesses or teams, allowing them to compare data and set benchmark targets.
Source: ConvertKit
Drip
If you’re in the e-commerce space, Drip is one of the best email marketing tools out there. It’s a user-friendly tool that’s built to help e-commerce businesses automate their email marketing to boost revenue.
Drip is known for its WooCommerce integration, drag-and-drop editor, and templates.
There is a 14-day free trial on Drip and the monthly fees depend on how many contacts you have in your list. If you have around 1,500 contacts and want unlimited emails, Drip charges $19 each month.
OptinMonster
One of the most recommended lead generation and email marketing software right now is OptinMonster. It’s mainly used by marketing agencies, bloggers, and small businesses that want to grow their subscriber lists and boost conversion rates.
OptinMonsters, small business owners can easily integrate various lightbox popups, coupons, floating bars, and welcome mats. The tool is very beginner-friendly with automatic features that enable targeting and personalizing campaigns.
It’s more than an email marketing tool and you can integrate it with other tools in this list like Mailchimp. The basic plan in OptinMonster costs $9 per month, and it includes access to its email marketing campaigns, integrations, and audience segmentation.
Source: OptinMonster
Stripo
Stripo is an email designing and building platform that allows its users to integrate it with other tools like Mailchimp and HubSpot. Aside from its vast collection of useful templates, it has a fairly simple design which users love.
You can use their pre-built modules or create your own to streamline your email marketing efforts. Aside from that, Stripo is also known for offering HTML options that are very beginner friendly.
In Stripo, there’s a lifetime free plan for those who have small budgets and their basic plan costs $15 every month.
GetResponse
GetResponse is a cloud-based marketing software tool that’s mostly used by e-commerce businesses for their email marketing efforts. It offers a variety of features such as landing page builders, automated funnels, and live chat features.
GetResponse is complicated and it all depends on the additional features that you get. If you only want to have their email marketing services, there’s a free plan that you can use. If you have an extensive contact list and other segmentation features, rates can range from $19 to $48 per month.
Source: GetResponse
Sendinblue
Sendinblue is a digital marketing software that provides various solutions like transactional emails, automated emails, and end-to-end marketing campaigns.
Because of its workflow and design, Sendinblue’s marketing automation is a standout in this list. Users can easily target leads with their campaigns and see helpful metrics.
If you’re looking for an affordable email marketing tool, Sendinblue might be the one for you. It’s cost-effective because of its free plan that already gives you access to different email templates, designing tools, and email personalization. Their cheapest plan then starts at $25 without any sending limits.
Email Marketing Tools Scale Campaign Execution
At the end of the day, the best marketing software for email marketing will only help you to some degree. These tools won’t instantly accelerate your business. You will need to put in the hard work, have the right email marketing strategy, and possess the ability to maximize your resource.
Take good care of your constant contacts because email marketing is beyond customer support, it’s part of the overall customer journey.
This list just gives you an overview of what’s available and used by many other businesses. Some will always be better than others, and what will work for you will depend on your business needs.
If you have colleagues who’ve used some of these tools in the past, don’t hesitate to ask them for their feedback. Take your time deciding which software suits your goals and what you’re ultimately looking for.
Reviews can tremendously help too — and while you’re thinking about the best marketing tools, you can also browse through Clutch’s list of the top email marketing companies.
