Email Marketing Platforms
Many to choose from but only few that can actually deliver on their promises.
Tips
When it comes to digital marketing and other popular forms of conversion optimization, email marketing deserves to be on the top of the list. At an estimated $40 return per $1 spent, the ROI of email marketing exceeds other options such as SEO, Internet display, Keyword Ads, Catalogue and Banner Ads which all come in at $22.24, $19.72, $17, $7.30 and $2 per $1 spent respectively.With the increasing demand for email marketing solution, a lot of online platforms has been built and is serving the sole purpose of marketing through the email. Constant Contact, Drip, ConvertKit, MailChimp, and Aweber are just a few of the many email marketing tools available out there. Not quite sure what’s right for you?If you are just learning about email marketing and are searching for the right kind of tools for you then here are some of the pros and cons for each of these tools.
Constant Contact
Constant contact serves as an online email list management service provider. The product offers over 400 free templates that users can use to create email list emails and newsletters.ProsCons
- 60-day free trial that is more than what many other providers allow
- Extensive template collection
- Easy to use and good for beginners
- Import/Export mailing list function
- Safe and secured
- Reliable anti-spam policies
- Expensive service with only 5 image storages for free. Extra image storage each accrues a $5 charge monthly
- Cannot cancel services or deactivate online. Customers must call to cancel services
- Mediocre customer service
- Limited customization options
- No Autoresponders
- Poor list management features with limited options per account
Drip
Drip ranks as one of the most powerful email marketing service provider for bloggers, eCommerce, and marketers. The platform has a wide array of tools with integration add-ons for all the popular website with shareable automation workflows.ProsCons
- Comes with a plethora of triggers and actions for automation
- Allows creation of more personalized emails with its liquid templates
- Use the email blueprints to get started quicker
- Power segmentation with both tags and events
- Shareable automation workflows
- Lead scoring allows users to discover most valuable leads
- There could be more 3rd party integrations
- Takes a while to master
- Comparatively expensive
- Slow Customer service responses
- Unable to send automated emails
Convert Kit
ConvertKit is an email marketing platform that is renowned for its functionality and extreme ease of use. ConvertKit also allows easy management for auto-responders that allow users to send drip emails and comes with a landing page builder
ProsCons
- Allows users choose and create a variety of form types
- Comes with a landing-page builder
- Support channel and customer support is brilliant
- Comprehensive and concise subscriber acquisition reporting
- Allows alternative rule building for rudimentary automation
- Runs a tag-based subscription system and has the ability to use merge tags to create dynamic emails
- Limited reporting data
- A/B testing functionality is limited
- Limited options for customization of email templates and forms
AWeber
AWeber is a very popular email marketing platform with a considerable number of tools that serve both small and medium businesses. AWeber is easy to use and connects effectively to platforms like WordPress with more extensive support options.
ProsCons
- Very easy to use
- Extensive support options compared to competition
- Fair and reasonable pricing
- Extensive list management features
- Excellent import functionality
- Very responsive email templates
- Seamless integration with 3rd party apps and tools
- Large variety of template options
- Strong reporting features
- Easy and functional data segmentation features
- No split testing
- Some of the templates appear a bit outdated
- Basic marketing automation functionality
- Poor RSS to email templates feature. The templates can’t be edited with the drag and drop email builder feature
- Inability to include or exclude multiple segments at a go when working on e-newsletters.
Get Response
GetResponse is also one of the more popular email marketing service solutions that serves beginners and small businesses extremely well. The platform is equipped with amazing marketing automation tools that simplifies email marketing as well as a drag and drop builder than can create your emails in minutes.
ProsCons
- Very easy to use
- Forms are attractive and responsive with lots of stock images and templates
- Extensive 3rd part lead integration
- A/B testing
- Auto responders and tracking feature available
- Drag and drop email editor feature
- Survey options
- Extensive email automation and list building options
- Can get comparatively expensive as your mailing list grows
- Statistics can be easier setup and lacks a download option
- Surveys need a little more customization
- Customer service can be better
- SalesForce integration can be improved
Mail Chimp
MailChimp is arguably one of the most popular email marketing solutions out there. The service comes with an easy-to-use interface, great customer support, and awesome tools. On the integration, MailChimp works seamlessly with Shopify, Magento, WordPress and many other platforms.
ProsCons
- Many responsive design and templates for easy use
- Functional native apps
- Merge tags
- Autoresponder
- List management and segmentation
- Tracking and analytics
- Wide array of integration options
- Thorough reporting
- Excellent freemium plan that allows up to 12000 emails to 2000 subscribers
- Email automation is email
- Plans can be expensive
- Email segmentation features are limited
- Advanced users face limited customization and flexibility
Active Campaign
ActiveCampaign is the go-to platform when thinking of optimizing mail automation services. ActiveCampaign encompasses email marketing, CRM, automation and sales altogether with several tools that enable its users to create more effective email marketing campaigns.
ProsCons
- Automation
- Beautiful template editors that are responsive and optimized across all devices
- Effortless integration with many 3rd party software
- SMS feature
- Email management based on segmentation and can fetch additional data about your subscribers using their email addresses
- Advanced features and thorough reporting
- Features may be overwhelming for beginners
- Comparatively pricey when you have a big database of subscribers
- Need to introduce basic mode as complexity may annoy users
- Maybe slowed down by bugs
- Customer service could be better
To sum up we don’t have any preference on one over another nor we get paid to advertise none of these tools. Our assessment is truly based on our experience using it or testing each of these tools. I hope with this feedback you will find it easier to choose the right tool that you need for your email marketing campaign.
Alternatively, share your thoughts after using one of these or something else. It would be interesting to know users feedback.
