You've had meetings, made plans, created a strategy, and now your company is ready to broaden its reach and invest in email marketing. But with so many email service providers (ESP) available, how do you pick the one that's best suited for your business? To help with your search, we've compared three of the best email marketing services available. Remember, when looking for your ideal ESP it's important to focus on a couple of key aspects:
- Reporting: Is your company interested in high level reporting or are you really looking to dive deep into every email you send?
- Deliverability: The last thing you want is for your emails to end up in spam folders.
- User Interface: Creating engaging emails should be a simple and easily understandable task for everybody on your team.
- Automation: Send personalized emails to your users, without all the work.
- Price: Find a provider that fits both your needs and your budget's needs.
Constant Contact
As one of the most popular email marketing services for small businesses, Constant Contact is great for, well, being in constant contact with you. Offering live chat, guides, phone support, and discussion forums, along with a large resource library, they're a perfect option for companies that are just getting started in the world of email marketing.
In comparison to other providers, Constant Contact has worked to move their service into spaces that the others aren't in. For example, with their Email Plus plan you get access to event marketing tools, survey tools, plus the ability to integrate with hundreds of other apps and services you might already be using.
Unfortunately, the system only offers simple automation ability and seems to be lacking some of the basic functions that you would get with other providers.
Constant Contact does offer a free trial for the first 60 days. After that, their Basic Email plan goes up to $20/month and their Email Plus plan is $45/month for an email list of up to 500 subscribers.
For those looking to dip their toe into the world of email marketing, or for those that need a tool that does more than email marketing, this provider would be the ideal choice.
ActiveCampaign
As a self-branded, all-in-one platform, ActiveCampaign has worked to provide your company with all the tools you need to not only send emails in bulk but also to compile and save detailed information on who is opening your emails and how you can convert them into sales. Putting much of their focus into automation, it's their goal to help you automate everything based on your user's behavior. Plus, their clear navigation, clean interface, and responsive themes make creating campaigns a breeze.
While they do offer a full list of services, it can be a bit intimidating for smaller businesses who are new to the world of email marketing. They do make guides available, but the sheer amount of features they offer can become very overwhelming. Especially for those who are brand new to the email marketing world.
Good news? They offer a free 14-day trial. After that, their pricing is broken up into four plans - Lite ($9/month), Plus ($49/month), Professional ($129/month), and Enterprise ($229/month).
If your business is looking to take their email marketing campaigns to the next level with complex automation tools paired with a handy CRM system, this provider would be one worth looking into.
MailChimp
As one of the leading email service providers, MailChimp has become more than just an email marketing platform. They've made it their goal to constantly evolve and are consistently adding new features to their system. Beyond that, their big sell is that they offer a robust Forever Free plan. While other providers might offer service plans for free, MailChimp takes it a step beyond and makes sure that you have the options you need to create an email marketing campaign that delivers results.
The services that MailChimp offers users are perfect for companies of any size, whether you're a small business looking to grow or an established giant looking to better utilize their customer base. They work to equip you with an advanced list that's both easy to use and easy to understand.
The one downside to their free plan is that there are subscriber limits, and once you exceed those numbers their pricing is a bit steep compared to some of the other providers. After their free plan, they have an Essentials plan ($9.99/month), Standard (14.99/month) and Premium (299/month).
This provider is perfect for those looking for a tool that's not only easy to use but also packed with advanced features to help with their email marketing campaigns.
But really, who should I choose?
While looking at these three email service providers is a good start, it's important to remember that this is only a few of the many that are out there. Before choosing one, it's important that you think about the goals of your email marketing campaigns and figure out what tools are important for your company. If you need help setting up your email marketing program, contact Informatics.
