Best Email Marketing Software

Email marketing is considered the most effective tool in the armoury of digital and online marketing. Every year over 250 billion emails are exchanged, with a majority being solely for marketing purposes and campaigns. With the intention of making Marketing an ROI driven branch, taking precedence, the importance of email marketing will keep growing. 

Organizations that seek a personalized, loyalty-building relationship with their users prefer using Email Marketing. The functionalities offered by email marketing software are broad in nature. 

They help businesses generate business templates while at the same time conducting and reporting analysis on email marketing strategies, and tactics. 

The Buyer’s Guide for email marketing platforms has been created with the intention of listing out the software’s benefits, features, and prices. The intention is to ensure users have points of reference while selecting their software. 

Email Marketing is a dedicated segment of online marketing which deals with the communication, and promotion of a company’s goods or services via electronic mail. Email marketing is primarily used by marketers to build personalized relationships between themselves and the intended recipient of the email, usually prospective or dedicated customers. 

This is done with the ambition to foster a good relationship, influence buying behavior, and also create loyalty - all in different stages of the consumer lifecycle. Email marketing strategies are executed with the help of an email marketing list - a collection of addresses used for marketing purposes, as well as appropriate email marketing software.  

The primary purpose of email marketing campaigns is to grow business through awareness and consideration, though it is usually a goal-oriented activity. Well executed email marketing campaigns drive high conversions as well. It has one of the broadest audience reaches in the digital marketing space, combined with an excellent ROI. 

Some of the most important email marketing practices to be followed are as follows -

• Segment Customers - It is always important to remember who you are crafting the email for in the first place. Fundamental differences exist between email marketing campaigns for B2C and B2B audiences. Further segmentation is usually required within these groups, based on a variety of social-economic, geographic, and even technological factors.  

• Deliver exceptional content - Content within emails must convince audiences on the authenticity of the product or service offered. It must engage users in the mission and vision of the company, acting as a de facto voice of marketing and communication. 

• Strategize email blast periods - It is likely that high concentrated email messages from the same company,  will be consigned to the spam folder, thereby foregoing all the hard work put into the email marketing strategy. Separating marketing emails by days, with differentiated content, results in better email traction. 

• Optimizing emails for multiple devices- Mobile and desktop devices have different resolutions and screen space. Content within emails must be created with the intention of flawlessly depicting important data and messaging.  

• Innovate with Subject lines and Headers - Catching prospective customers’ attention is key. The deployment of use case statistics, quotes from founders, advantages of product or service, is important to ensure user engagement. 

• Distinct Call-To-Action (CTA) - The email body must have a clear, actionable objective, which will drive sales, awareness, or consideration from the reader’s side. CTA is a critical component of the mail, considering messaging and creatives will lead to users taking action. 

• Personalize Email - The content of these emails must be personalized to the reader. Personalized introductions and messaging lead to better traction among readers and customers.  

• Smooth transitions - Email bodies must contain links to landing pages, synchronized with the overall look and feel of creatives and text used in the email. Disjointed transitions often result in a high bounce rate from emails. 

• Digital Signatures - Digital signatures go a long way in convincing readers on the authenticity of the emailer’s company, products, and services. Verification of authority places readers in the zone of trust with an email sender. 

• Follow GDPR rules - There is a litany of GDPR rules, not limited to buying mailing lists. Companies must make sure all provisions are followed carefully.

Email marketing campaigns are often hard to execute. It’s important to decide metrics for decision making, creatives, and content before the final campaign takes shape. Email marketing systems reduce the load on marketing managers. 

Email marketing software helps us take effective care of the campaign. The tool accurately measures and highlights important metrics of emails, such as click-through rate, conversions from emails, ROI, etc., displayed on an analytics dashboard. They can later be used in optimizing the campaigns further, with the help of visualization tools.  

The software can help us automate certain processes like generating reports and sending reminders or notifications to customers, increasing time efficiency. Email marketing platforms also contain tools like A/B testing which can be used to test different aspects of the email campaign to arrive at the perfect template.

The benefits of Email Marketing solutions are as follows - 

• Accurate measurement of important metrics influencing email marketing campaigns 
• Automated email marketing campaigns featuring reminders and notifications
• Personalized point of contact with the user base, which can be used to foster loyalty
• Reduced risk exposure with ROI measurement as well as A/B testing tools for content and creatives 
• Key insights can be derived from analytics and reporting dashboard with multiple reporting formats 
• The cost of acquiring customers using email marketing software is lower, considering the scalability of email marketing solutions deployed. 
• Multi-campaign management features 
• Integration of social media accounts into email bodies to expand reach and track follower traction
• Email marketing systems ensure the email campaigns you set up are in line with the CAN-SPAM regulation, passed by the United States Congress. This ensures problems within the email which may cause unintended harm, are filtered and fixed. 
• CRM tools can be integrated into email marketing software  

Businesses operate on an ROI-based model. Every marketing, sales, or operations activity invested in has to generate revenue that justifies the investment. Email marketing automation software is investments designed to strengthen and personalize brand outreach, while at the same time drawing audiences to the product or service. 

The software helps drive email marketing ROIs to even greater heights. It combines analytics and reporting to display insights which business marketing managers can fine-tune to ensure ROI is consistently increasing, as well as draw new ideas for campaigns. 

One of the biggest advantages of email marketing software is the ability to generate different templates and formats of email campaigns via an online builder or tool, which is a part of the software. Innovative designs can be created and tested - on an A/B testing function, which also helps determine the exact design that can be implemented for maximum click-through rates. 

Organizations also require email marketing services to automate processes and campaigns on the email front. This relieves manpower to distribute for other activities, thereby increasing organizational efficiency. 

For business, email marketing remains a platform where customer loyalty can be solidified and personalized content (offers and discounts, promotion posters, etc.) can be directly sent. With CRM and social media tool integrations on the platform, it becomes viable to track leads, follows and subscriptions generated thanks to email marketing.

Businesses also need to be sure that they do not cross laws or regulations pertaining to spamming or GDPR. Email marketing tools maintain authentic mailing lists, as well as check email copies for ‘Spam’ classification likelihood, protecting business interests.  

Some of the latest trends to hit the email marketing industry include the following - 

• Artificial intelligence (AI) - It has been widely adopted in multiple industries and email marketing software is no different. AI can be used for formulating, executing, and monitoring various campaigns on the interface. 

AI can also be used to automate tasks within the project while analyzing reports to deduce triggers that must be initiated in campaigns that are already running. 

Finally, AI’s prowess can be used to auto-generate content for specific segments of customers via email. These include articles for customer segments, email formats, and implementation period. 

• Third-party tool integrations - Email marketing software can now be integrated with a variety of third-party applications. The trend will only grow in the future as independent software tools offer modular all-round functionality.

CRM and ERP tools can be easily added to a dashboard, while certain social media aggregators will find their use in revealing the latest trends online, which can then be used in email marketing campaigns. Integrations are soon becoming important for any application, let alone email marketing automation platforms. 

• Email formats - Interactive emails are set to become popular in this new era of digital marketing. These include email bodies with more animation and special effects, graphical storytelling formats, and sophisticated representation of information.

• Visualization - Email marketing software, like many others, can analyze data to the minutest degree. Visualization and representation of these records in different formats will be key for businesses. It will help them analyze and showcase different perspectives in recorded data, all of which can be used in formulating business strategies. 

Some of the most important features to be considered before buying an email marketing system are as follows - 

• Navigability and ease of use - Every platform requires the User Interface (UI) to be simple and navigation to be crisp. Haphazardly designed software with poor interfaces and a lack of clarity in the design flow, will hamper adoption of the email marketing service.

• Essential Tools - Essential tools include a template builder for emails, spell checking tools, mailing list management, analytics dashboards, and a few others, which are considered essential for an email marketing tool to be essential for marketers to perform their functions on the platform.    

• A/B Testing - The A/B testing interface is essential to ensure the viability and success of different email marketing campaigns, templates including formats within them. This feature helps businesses pinpoint metrics that have improved while also finalizing the template-format combo which will deliver better performance. 

• Automation - Email marketing platforms must be capable of controlling and automating communications with customers. It must not be too frequent nor too spaced out. Reminders, follow-ups, and new offerings must be communicated at appropriate time intervals without continuous human interface.

• Third-party tool integration - Third-party tools such as CRM and ERP systems must be easily integrated into the software. These software increase the efficiency of output. 

• CAN-SPAM net - This feature in the email marketing tool prevents your email from violating prevalent rules about spamming via mail, which is a legal offense in the United States. It’s an important feature that must be incorporated into the software that acts as a checker or filter.

• Analytics and Reporting dashboard- The analytics dashboard must be able to display data in multiple formats, with all necessary metrics for comparison. The reporting feature must be automated and easily shareable for every email marketing platform/   

• User Management and Access Control - The application features must be accessible only to the designated authority. This also ties in with data security, as unauthorized personnel must not be allowed to have access to sensitive data on the email marketing system. 

• Platform independence - The email marketing software must be supported on both mobile, tablets, and desktop platforms. The underlying operating system compatibility must be ensured too.

• Language support - Multilingual platforms are essential in the digital era, especially in communications like email marketing. The email marketing service must be capable of understanding and supporting some of the world’s most widely spoken languages.  

• Autoresponders - Auto-responders are emails sent to customers, on completing an event or triggering an action. Auto-responders are essential for businesses to engage customers. 

• Subscriber List management - It is necessary for email marketing software to maintain the list of subscribers, to whom communication must be maintained via the channel and platform. 

The price of email marketing software depends on the type of solution (feature set) an organization intends to buy, alongside the size of the organization. 

Good firms have already covered the most important Free and Open Source email marketing software, which are deployed by reputed organizations worldwide, with a rich palette of features. 

Free email marketing tools also exist. Though these are stripped-down versions of premium software from reputed vendors, they offer relatively powerful functionality or offering access to just a limited number of users. These are useful for small and medium-sized organizations.

Mailchimp, Engagebay, and Agile CRM are reputed examples of email marketing software. The price of their premium offerings ranges from $8.99 to $299 for the premium offerings.

Email marketing automation service providers such as Jumplead, Campaign Monitor, and EmailOctopus have priced their products between $19 and $49. 

QuickMail is an email marketing tool that is priced on an annual subscription basis, at $49. 

Remarkety, OutboundEngine, and Makesbridge are premium email marketing platform providers who charge between $100 and $367 per month. 

Email marketing solution specialists such as eSputnik and Atomic Mail Sender charge a one-time payment fee between $1.99 and $89, respectively. 

Organizations can choose the right email marketing system by analyzing a set of factors that impacts them. 

Firstly, the choice of software depends on the size of the organization. Smaller and mid-tier organizations (SMBs) usually don’t need the full array of support on emails as they look to build up their marketing base and functions. SMBs usually go for a basic package or business package.

 Large-size organizations take the polar opposite approach. They purchase or employ the full software suite. 

Secondly, choosing the right email marketing automation software also depends on the budget. The budget is dependent on the number and type of features included in the solution set purchased as well as the number of users who will use the email marketing platform.

Thirdly, careful consideration must be given to security while choosing the email marketing solution. Multi-layer data protection, user access controls, and secure cloud storage of data to prevent theft are all important factors that must influence an organization's decision. 

Fourthly, demos and free trials of the email marketing service software should indicate the richness of the interface and the easy navigability of the software. 

Fifthly, with the use of third party applications increasing in popularity, the email marketing platform must support extensions and add-ons to increase feature sets.  

Goodfirms’ comprehensive and authentic list of email marketing solutions will offer prospective users of email marketing systems a platform to compare, contrast, and select their choice. 

The Buyer’s Guide presents a fair representation of email marketing solutions’ features, benefits, and costs. A collection of free and open-source email marketing software has already been identified and published on Goodfirms, while premium and differentially priced versions of software have been listed as well. 

Do you want to consider other software solutions besides email marketing automation platforms? Goodfirms’ exceptional software directory contains information on hundreds of different kinds of software, all of which could power your organization to the next level of performance and profit.