Email newsletters are essential for any business who wants to keep their audiences engaged - whether leads, prospects, customers or clients.
Not only are newsletters a good way of sharing information with your audience, but they are also perfect for nurturing leads so they stay interested, and hopefully, get converted to customers or clients.
Receiving regular communications are useful in building trust and familiarity, and sometimes, one newsletter is what it takes to nudge that lead into buying your product or service.
Now that we've established how important of a role newsletters play to your business, it's time to take a look at what email marketing platforms are good for the type of business that you run.
Yes, as many email marketing platforms there are out there, they aren't all alike. Some platforms are simpler and easier to use, while others feature more complex functions that are tailored for larger scale operations.
In this week's blog, let's take a look at these email marketing platforms and see what they're good at.
Let's begin.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign ranks highly among the top preferred marketing platforms today because of its advanced marketing automation features.
It also has exceptional A/B testing functionality, not just with its email campaigns but even with its marketing and sales automations.
In addition to this, it possesses CRM features, making it similar to an all-around tool.
Another cool aspect of ActiveCampaign is how many direct integrations it has, making it one of the most easy-to-connect marketing platforms out there.
ActiveCampaign is best used by small to medium sized businesses that's looking to scale quickly because of the wide variety of functions it provides.
Here's a link to ActiveCampaign's pricing page: https://www.activecampaign.com/pricing
Zoho Campaigns
Zoho Campaigns specializes in email, SMS and social media marketing campaigns. It also has incredible marketing automation features.
While Zoho Campaigns does not possess any CRM functions, it can be directly integrated with Zoho CRM or Bigin by Zoho, or other CRM platforms like Salesforce or Pipedrive directly.
What's great about Zoho Campaigns is its pricing. Since it focuses heavily on marketing, you get what you pay for with its cost.
Zoho Campaigns is perfect for small businesses who want to take advantage of all three marketing channels (Email, SMS and Social Media) at a low price.
Here's a link to Zoho Campaign's pricing page: https://www.zoho.com/campaigns/pricing.html
Keap/Infusionsoft
Keap is a wonderful all-around tool for businesses that are looking to go beyond just email marketing. Keap's process automation functions go beyond just marketing, and it can cover all aspects of marketing, sales, finance and fulfilment.
In terms of email templates, Keap doesn't really have an advantage over the other platforms listed here, but it's still easy to use and its reporting capabilities are something that businesses would thrive off.
Keap is perfect for medium to large size businesses who want to take advantage of an all-around tool for marketing, sales and ecommerce.
Here's a link to Keap's pricing page: https://keap.com/pricing
HubSpot Marketing Hub
The HubSpot Marketing Hub goes beyond just email marketing - it also does SMS, social media, landing pages and ads.
HubSpot Marketing Hub also has really good automations, but what sets it apart is its reporting capabilities. You can use the reports dashboard to get accurate data on the performance of your email broadcasts.
HubSpot Marketing Hub is recommended for medium to large size businesses because of its functions in the area of marketing. Additionally, if you couple this with the other Hubs, you get an all-around powerful tool for your business.
Here is a link to HubSpot Marketing Hub's pricing page: https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/marketing/enterprise
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
The Salesforce Marketing Cloud features a wide variety of email, SMS and social media marketing features. It is heavy on personalization, which creates a good customer experience for the contact.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud's marketing automation and email broadcast functions are also on another level.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is perfect for large businesses and enterprises who want to organize and engage with their massive audience.
Here's a link to Salesforce Marketing Cloud's pricing page: https://www.salesforce.com/ap/products/marketing-cloud/pricing/
Klaviyo
Klaviyo is excellent for ECommerce businesses because its integrations and automations are heavily tailored towards these functions.
Additionally, its email campaign templates are geared towards retaining and building your customer base.
Here is a link to Klaviyo's pricing page: https://www.klaviyo.com/pricing
MailChimp
In terms of beautifully-made email designs, very few can compare to MailChimp. Additionally, MailChimp's marketing automations are tailored to really track website and email campaigns, which make them perfect for businesses who invest heavily on those areas.
MailChimp is an excellent choice for small to medium-sized businesses who are heavy on email campaigns and landing pages.
Here is a link to MailChimp's pricing page:https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/
SendInBlue
The most commonly-placed marketing platform side-by-side with MailChimp, SendinBlue is the choice if you also want to incorporate SMS and Chat marketing into your marketing campaigns.
Not only does SendinBlue create beautiful emails and landing pages, but it has the distinct advantage of coming with a sales CRM (with an additional fee, of course).
SendinBlue is great for medium to large sized businesses who take advantage of a wide range of marketing channels.
Here is a link to SendInBlue's pricing page: https://www.sendinblue.com/pricing/
EngageBay Marketing Bay
EngageBay's Marketing Bay is an excellent alternative to HubSpot Marketing Hub not only because it's cheaper, but also because it has nearly the same functions, albeit on a smaller scale.
Still, it possesses amazing email, SMS and social media marketing features, and its email templates are nothing to scoff at.
Additionally, even if you buy the Marketing Bay, you still get the free versions of the Sales, Service and Chat Bays so you can incorporate them into your business.
EngageBay Marketing Bay is perfect for small to medium sized businesses who are looking to scale and take advantage of the other bays like the sales and service bays.
Here is a link to EngageBay Marketing Bay's pricing page: https://www.engagebay.com/pricing/marketing
Freshmarketer
Like Zoho, Freshworks has built their platforms in such a way where you maximize what you pay for. Freshmarketer is one of these platforms.
Freshmarketer's email marketing features are excellent for startups and small businesses because they are easy to use and not as expensive as other marketing platforms in this list.
Plus, Freshmarketer goes beyond email marketing and also does SMS and social media (both posts and ads).
Here is a link to Freshmarketer's pricing page: https://www.freshworks.com/crm/marketing/pricing/
MailerLite
MailerLite is an excellent tool for startups and small businesses to engage with their customers at a relatively low price.
In terms of automations, MailerLite is average, but it does possess a wide variety of really good looking email templates.
Additionally, its integrations are good for those who are in the Ecommerce and Coaching business.
Here is a link to MailerLite's pricing page: https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing
Insightly Marketing
Insightly Marketing's greatest asset in the area of email campaigns is its reporting functions; similar to HubSpot, it provides detailed analytics for marketers to gauge how well their campaigns performed.
Insightly's Marketing function is perfect for large scale businesses who are looking to manage their large audience and make sure they stay engaged.
Here is a link to Insightly Marketing's pricing page: https://www.insightly.com/pricing-plans/?plan=marketing
In Conclusion
Each email marketing platform specializes on different things, so it's important to first study each platform's functionalities before you decide what to use.
I often tell my clients to consider how they are going to use the platform to its fullest so they don't waste money.
If you're looking for a marketing platform for your business and you're not sure where to start, contact us today so we can get on a call and I can guide you in finding the right marketing platform for your business, and even set it up for you.
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