Email remains a vital tool for business communication and marketing, with the number of global users expected to grow from 4.03 billion to 4.48 billion by 2024. This large and expanding user base offers businesses great opportunities to reach and engage with their audience.
While many assume social media is the primary channel for marketing, email actually holds a distinct advantage. A recent study found that 44% of users actively check their emails for brand promotions and offers, compared to only 4% who seek out ads on social media platforms. This stark contrast highlights email's enduring effectiveness as a marketing channel.
The sheer volume of email activity further emphasizes its importance. In 2020, approximately 306.4 billion emails were sent and received each day. These numbers demonstrate email's continued relevance and its potential for marketing success.
As businesses plan their marketing strategies for 2024, selecting an appropriate email marketing service is something to look into carefully. The right choice can massively improve campaign performance, improve engagement rates, and generally drive revenue growth.
This guide will help you understand email marketing services. We'll look at the best companies that offer these services, what important features to look out for, and how to get the most out of your email marketing. By the end of this article, you should be able to make smart choices about your email marketing plans, no matter the size of your business or what industry you're in.
Understanding email marketing services
Email marketing services are robust platforms designed to streamline the creation, distribution, and analysis of email campaigns. These tools offer a range of features; basic newsletter creation, advanced automation, and personalization capabilities. By leveraging these services, businesses can efficiently manage subscriber lists, design compelling emails, automate sequences, and gain valuable insights into campaign performance.
Why choose an email marketing service?
- Cost-effectiveness and ROI: Email marketing consistently delivers an impressive return on investment. U.S. businesses report an average ROI of 4400%, making it one of the most cost-effective marketing channels available. This high return stems from email's ability to reach customers directly, with minimal overhead costs compared to traditional advertising methods.
- Direct customer communication: Email provides a direct line to your audience's inbox, allowing for personalized, one-on-one communication at scale. This direct connection fosters stronger relationships and brand loyalty.
- Targeted and personalized messaging: Advanced email marketing services offer sophisticated segmentation tools, enabling you to tailor messages based on subscriber demographics, behaviors, and preferences. This personalization leads to higher engagement rates and conversions.
- Automation and efficiency: Automated workflows save time and ensure consistent communication with your audience. From welcome sequences to abandoned cart reminders, automation keeps your brand top-of-mind without constant manual effort.
- Detailed analytics and insights: Email marketing services provide in-depth metrics on open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and more. These insights allow you to refine your strategy continually and improve campaign effectiveness.
- Integration with other marketing efforts: Many email marketing platforms are compatible with CRM systems, e-commerce platforms, and other marketing tools. This integration creates a cohesive marketing ecosystem, enhancing overall efficiency and effectiveness.
- Scalability: As your business grows, email marketing services can scale with you, accommodating larger subscriber lists and more complex campaigns without a significant increase in effort or resources.
Top email marketing services for 2024
1. Mailchimp
Starting at $10/month with a free trial available, Mailchimp has become a household name in email marketing. It caters to businesses of all sizes, from startups to established enterprises like Vimeo and TED.
The platform offers an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that allows users to create visually appealing emails without any coding knowledge. This ease of use extends to its extensive template library, providing a wide range of professionally designed options for various campaign types.
One of Mailchimp's standout features is its advanced segmentation capabilities. Users can target specific audience groups based on behavior, demographics, and engagement levels, ensuring that messages reach the right people at the right time. This segmentation works hand-in-hand with Mailchimp's robust automation tools, allowing businesses to set up complex email sequences triggered by specific actions or time intervals.
The platform also includes a built-in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, helping businesses manage customer interactions across multiple channels. This integration of email marketing and CRM functionalities provides a more holistic view of customer engagement.
Mailchimp's analytics and reporting features are comprehensive, offering detailed insights into campaign performance. Users can track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, among other metrics. The platform also supports A/B testing, allowing marketers to optimize their campaigns by testing different elements like subject lines, content, and send times.
For businesses with irregular sending patterns or fluctuating subscriber numbers, Mailchimp offers a flexible "pay as you go" option. This pricing model can be particularly beneficial for small businesses or those just starting with email marketing.
2. Hubspot
Price: Starts at $45 monthly
Free Trial: Available
Hubspot offers a comprehensive marketing suite that extends beyond email. It's an all-in-one CRM platform that includes email marketing, social media management, and content creation tools. The basic plan allows marketing to 1,000 contacts and includes features like:
- Conversational bots for enhanced customer engagement
- Advanced list segmentation for targeted campaigns
- Form follow-up emails to nurture leads
- Integration with Salesforce for seamless data management
- Lead scoring to prioritize high-potential prospects
Hubspot's strength lies in its integrated approach, making it ideal for businesses looking to align their email marketing with broader marketing and sales strategies.
3. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign, with plans starting at $15/month and a free trial available, focuses on creating exceptional customer experiences through automation and personalization. It's particularly well-suited for businesses that want to create highly targeted, behavior-driven email sequences.
The platform's advanced automation capabilities are its standout feature. Users can create complex, branching automation workflows based on user behavior and preferences. These automations can span multiple channels, including email, SMS, and site messages, allowing for a truly integrated communication strategy.
ActiveCampaign's CRM system is deeply integrated with its marketing automation features, allowing for seamless alignment between marketing and sales processes. The platform also offers predictive sending, using machine learning to determine the optimal time to send emails to each subscriber.
One of ActiveCampaign's unique features is its site tracking capability. This allows businesses to personalize messages based on how contacts interact with their website, creating highly relevant and timely communications.
The platform's segmentation capabilities are powerful, allowing users to create highly specific audience segments for targeted messaging. This, combined with dynamic content features, enables businesses to automatically change email content based on subscriber data and behavior.
ActiveCampaign's reporting and analytics features are comprehensive, providing in-depth insights into campaign performance and customer behavior. This data-driven approach allows businesses to continually refine their strategies for maximum effectiveness.
While ActiveCampaign may have a steeper learning curve than some other platforms due to its advanced features, it offers powerful capabilities for businesses looking to create sophisticated, personalized marketing campaigns.
4. Omnisend
Omnisend, starting at $16/month with a free trial available, is tailored specifically for e-commerce businesses. Its feature set is designed to boost sales and improve customer retention in online retail environments.
The platform offers pre-built workflows for common scenarios like cart abandonment, welcome series, and order follow-ups. These automations can be easily customized to fit a brand's specific needs and customer journey.
Omnisend's product recommender is a standout feature. It automatically includes personalized product recommendations in emails based on customer behavior and purchase history. This feature can significantly boost cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
The platform also integrates email marketing with SMS and push notifications, allowing for a truly omnichannel approach to customer communication. This multi-channel strategy can be particularly effective for time-sensitive promotions or abandoned cart recovery.
Omnisend's list-building tools are robust, including customizable pop-ups and forms that can be triggered based on user behavior. The platform also offers a unique "wheel of fortune" pop-up, gamifying the email signup process to increase conversion rates.
5. Klaviyo
Klaviyo, with pricing starting at $25/month and a free trial available, is another powerful option specifically designed for e-commerce businesses. Its strength lies in its deep data integration capabilities and advanced personalization features.
One of Klaviyo's key advantages is its seamless integration with major e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce. This integration allows for real-time syncing of customer data, enabling highly personalized and timely communications.
The platform's predictive analytics capabilities are particularly impressive. Klaviyo can forecast customer lifetime value and churn risk, allowing businesses to tailor their marketing strategies accordingly. This data-driven approach extends to its segmentation features, which allow for highly specific audience targeting based on a wide range of customer data and behaviors.
Klaviyo's flow builder is a powerful tool for creating complex, multi-step automation workflows. These flows can be triggered by various events or behaviors, allowing for highly personalized customer journeys. The platform also offers dynamic product recommendations, automatically including relevant products in emails based on individual user behavior and preferences.
6. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
Brevo, with plans starting at $25/month and a free plan available, offers a comprehensive digital marketing toolkit that extends beyond email marketing. This makes it an attractive option for businesses looking for an all-in-one marketing solution.
At its core, Brevo provides robust email marketing features. The platform offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop email editor and a wide range of customizable templates. Its segmentation capabilities are advanced, allowing for highly targeted campaigns based on various criteria including behavior, demographics, and engagement history.
Where Brevo really shines is in its automation capabilities. The platform allows users to create complex workflows triggered by various actions or time-based rules. These automations can span multiple channels, including email, SMS, and even chatbots, providing a truly integrated marketing approach.
Brevo's transactional email features are particularly noteworthy. The platform offers a powerful API and SMTP relay, making it an excellent choice for businesses that need to send a high volume of transactional emails alongside their marketing campaigns.
The platform also includes a built-in CRM system, helping businesses manage their contacts and track interactions across multiple channels. This integration of marketing and CRM functionalities provides a more holistic view of customer engagement.
7. ConvertKit
ConvertKit, with pricing starting at $29/month and a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers, is tailored specifically for creators, including bloggers, podcasters, and other content-focused entrepreneurs.
What sets ConvertKit apart is its focus on simplicity and ease of use, without sacrificing powerful features. The platform offers an intuitive email designer that focuses on clean, text-based emails – an approach that often yields higher engagement rates for content creators.
ConvertKit's form and landing page builders are noteworthy, offering a range of customizable templates designed to help creators grow their email lists. These tools integrate seamlessly with the platform's email marketing features, allowing for smooth subscriber onboarding experiences.
The platform's automation features, while powerful, are designed to be easy to understand and implement. ConvertKit offers visual automation workflows that allow users to create complex subscriber journeys based on tags, segments, and subscriber behavior.
One of ConvertKit's unique features is its focus on subscriber-centric organization. Instead of using lists, ConvertKit uses tags and segments to manage subscribers, allowing for more flexible and efficient contact management.
For creators looking to monetize their email list, ConvertKit offers built-in commerce features. Users can sell digital products and subscriptions directly through ConvertKit, with payments processed through Stripe.
ConvertKit also provides robust integration options, connecting with a wide range of tools commonly used by creators, from website builders to payment processors. This makes it easier for users to create a cohesive tech stack for their creative businesses.
Each of these platforms offers unique strengths and features tailored to different business needs and goals. When choosing an email marketing service, it's important to consider factors such as your industry, the size of your subscriber list, the complexity of your desired email campaigns, and how the service will integrate with your existing tools and workflows.
8. Drip
Drip, with pricing starting at $19/month and a 14-day free trial available, is an e-commerce-focused email marketing platform that offers powerful automation and personalization features.
The platform offers advanced segmentation capabilities, allowing businesses to target customers based on their browsing behavior, purchase history, and engagement with previous campaigns.
Drip's visual workflow builder is particularly impressive, enabling users to create complex, multi-step automation sequences with ease. These workflows can be triggered by a wide range of events, from email opens to specific product views on your website, allowing for highly targeted and timely communications.
The platform also offers robust reporting and analytics features, including revenue attribution. This allows businesses to see exactly how much revenue each email campaign and automation workflow generates, providing clear insights into ROI.
Drip's personalization features extend beyond just using a customer's name. The platform can dynamically insert product recommendations, custom content, and even adjust send times based on individual user behavior and preferences.
9. GetResponse
GetResponse, with plans starting at $15/month and a 30-day free trial, is a comprehensive email marketing platform that has evolved into an all-in-one marketing solution.
One of GetResponse's standout features is its robust automation capabilities. The platform offers a user-friendly automation workflow builder that allows businesses to create complex, behavior-based email sequences. These can be triggered by various actions, from email opens to website visits, enabling highly targeted and timely communications.
GetResponse also offers a built-in CRM system, making it easier for businesses to manage their contacts and track interactions across multiple channels. This integration of marketing and sales functionalities can lead to more cohesive customer experiences and better alignment between teams.
GetResponse has also embraced the trend towards multi-channel marketing. In addition to email, the platform offers tools for creating and managing social media ads, particularly on Facebook. This allows for a more integrated approach to digital marketing campaigns.
10. Constant Contact
Constant Contact, with pricing starting at $20/month and a 60-day free trial for new customers, is one of the longest-standing players in the email marketing space. Its longevity is a testament to its reliability and continuous evolution to meet marketers' needs.
The platform offers a drag-and-drop email editor with a wide range of customizable templates, making it easy to create professional-looking emails without design experience.
Constant Contact's list management tools are robust, offering features like list segmentation, contact tagging, and easy import options from various sources. The platform also includes list-building tools like signup forms and landing pages to help grow your subscriber base.
While Constant Contact's automation features may not be as advanced as some other platforms, it offers a solid set of autoresponders and triggered email series. These are particularly useful for welcome sequences, birthday emails, and other time-based campaigns.
One of Constant Contact's unique features is its event management tool. This allows businesses to create and manage online event registrations, send invitations, and track attendees, all within the same platform as their email marketing.
The platform also offers robust reporting features, providing insights into open rates, click-through rates, and other key metrics. For businesses looking to expand their reach, Constant Contact includes tools for creating and managing social media posts and ads directly from the platform.
Constant Contact's recently added e-commerce features, including shoppable landing pages and integrated sales tracking, make it an increasingly attractive option for small online retailers.
How to choose the right email marketing software?
1. User-friendly interface: Choose a platform with an intuitive dashboard and easy-to-use email builder. This ensures you can create and manage campaigns efficiently, even without extensive technical skills.
2. Responsive design templates: Look for a wide selection of professionally designed, mobile-responsive templates. These save time and ensure your emails look great on any device.
3. Advanced segmentation: The ability to divide your audience based on demographics, behavior, and engagement levels is crucial for targeted messaging.
4. Automation capabilities: Robust automation features allow you to create triggered email sequences, saving time and ensuring timely, relevant communication with your subscribers.
5. A/B testing: This feature lets you test different elements of your emails (subject lines, content, send times) to optimize performance continually.
6. Integration options: Choose a service that integrates seamlessly with your existing tech stack, including your CRM, e-commerce platform, and analytics tools.
7. Comprehensive analytics: Look for detailed reporting on key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and revenue generated.
8. List management tools: Features for easy subscriber import/export, list cleaning, and managing unsubscribes are essential for maintaining a healthy email list.
9. Deliverability support: Opt for a service with strong deliverability rates and tools to help your emails avoid spam folders.
10. Scalability: Ensure the platform can grow with your business, offering plans that accommodate increasing subscriber numbers and more complex marketing needs.
Conclusion
Choosing the right email marketing service is important for business success in 2024. Each platform offers unique features tailored to different needs, starting from e-commerce-specific tools to all-in-one marketing solutions. When selecting a service, consider your business size, industry, technical requirements, and budget. Key factors to evaluate include user-friendliness, automation capabilities, integration options, analytics, and scalability. Many services offer free trials, providing an opportunity to test their features before committing. The best choice will be one that aligns with your specific marketing goals and helps you effectively engage your audience, drive conversions, and grow your business.
