6 Email Marketing Tools to Grow Your Business
There was a time when it felt like the only option for email marketing was to use Mailchimp. Those days are long gone, with hundreds of tools now available to anyone wanting to set up a mailing list.
So how do you choose which one to go with? If you’re just starting out, it’s easy to just plump for whichever platform has the best functionality on its free plan.
Head on over to this post to find out more about which email marketing tools offer the best free plans.
But once your mailing list starts to grow, you’ll probably be interested in a tool with more advanced features.
Each of the following options have paid plans that include automation, split testing, landing pages, and a whole host of other features that might fit the bill to support your business as it grows.
Best Paid Email Marketing Tools to Automate Your Business
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign straddles the line between an email marketing platform and a CRM system for small businesses.
The Lite plan focuses purely on email marketing, and offers unlimited emails, basic sign-up forms (with the ActiveCampaign logo), marketing automation emails, and support via chat and email. This starts at $15/mo or $108/yr for 500 contacts.
To build landing pages, integrate with other platforms and use advanced sign-up forms, you’ll need to upgrade to the Plus plan. This also includes sales automations, SMS marketing, dynamic email content and the option of a 1-on-1 training session each month. This plan starts at $70/mo or $588/yr for 1,000 contacts.
Beyond these, the Professional plan includes the option to split test automations giving you even greater control of your workflow. This is a great feature for anyone who wants to test the exact number of emails, message content or timing that works best, or for those who want to vary their emails based on product availability or time limited offers. Prices start from $159/mo or $1,548/yr for 2,500 contacts.
AWeber
AWeber was once the tool that people upgraded to after they’d outgrown Mailchimp, but they have recently introduced a free plan and now seem more focused on competing to win users from the outset.
The price of their Pro plan varies based on the number of subscribers, but always includes unlimited emails and audience lists, as well as unlimited landing pages, all with drag and drop designs. It offers email and behavioural automations, split testing of both emails and sign up forms, customer segmentation and ecommerce integrations. Prices start from $19/mo or $194/yr for up to 500 subscribers.
AWeber is focused on being powerfully simple, with free account migration and 24/7 customer support, so they’re a good solution for someone looking for a robust platform, with a long track record.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is mission is to help creators earn a living online. It’s therefore a great option for anyone who is focused on marketing or selling either a digital or physical product via their website.
They are a company with a big vision and strong values, which are evident in everything they do. Their approach is to do less, better, so while they may not have as much additional functionality as other platforms, what they do have is intuitive and easy to use.
Their paid plans include unlimited emails, unlimited landing pages and sign up forms, customisable domains, subscriber tagging, automated funnels and email sequences, a strong list of integrations and premium support. The Creator plan starts at $29/mo or $300/yr for up to 1,000 subscribers. Creator Pro starts at $59/mo or $600/yr and includes Facebook custom audiences, the ability to edit sent links, and unlimited team members.
A complaint often levelled at ConvertKit is that their email designs are quite basic. The counter to this is that they are focused on simple designs with high deliverability rates. In one recent test, 95% of emails sent via ConvertKit arrived in the inbox (compared to 73-91% for the others on this list).
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is used by more organisations than any other platform, mainly because it had such a generous free offer for so long. That ended in mid 2019 when they removed a lot of the functionality that had been available on their free plan, bringing it more in line with everyone else.
The cost of their paid plans varies based on the number of subscribers, with higher plans offering a greater number of audience lists and higher monthly email limits.
Essentials includes all email templates, basic segmentation, custom branding, split testing, landing pages, websites, simple automations and 24/7 email and chat support. It starts at $9.99/mo for 500 contacts and 3 audiences.
In the Standard plan, you add in behaviour-based automations, custom-coded templates, dynamic email content, and more complex customer journeys with split automations. This starts at $14.99/mo for 500 contacts and 5 audiences.
As well as email marketing, Mailchimp also offers social post scheduling, surveys, postcards and a variety of other features which can make its navigation confusing, especially compared to the clean feel of some of the newer platforms.
MailerLite
MailerLite has grown massively in popularity recently because it is one of the few tools to offer automation on its free plan. It also has a very clean and intuitive interface, making it both easy and enjoyable to use.
Their pricing is based on the number of subscribers on your list, with all paid plans including unlimited emails and its full suite of advanced features. Paid plans start from $10/mo or $84/yr for up to 1,000 subscribers.
As well as everything you would expect from a modern email marketing platform, this includes email and live chat support, split testing of email content, auto resending of unopened emails, and a free SSL encrypted website with five landing pages, landing page split testing and custom domains.
They also offer a choice of add-ons ranging from unlimited websites and landing pages for $10/mo, to a dedicated support manager for $100/mo.
Sendinblue
Sendinblue describe themselves as the complete sales and marketing toolbox, and include SMS, Facebook ads and live chat, as well as email, to help you build strong customer relationships.
Unlike other platforms, their prices are based on both the features you use and the number of emails you send per month, with all plans including an unlimited number of subscribers.
The Lite Package offers up to 100,000 emails/mo, A/B testing, email automation for up to 2,000 contacts, email support, a shared team inbox and advanced statistics. Prices start at $25/mo for 10k emails/mo and no daily sending limit, with an option to remove the Sendinblue logo.
In addition to these features, their Premium package includes individualised email send time optimisation, 5 landing pages, 3 team inboxes, unlimited email automations, and the ability to create and launch Facebook ads from within your account. The plan starts at $66/mo for 20k emails/mo.
NOW IT'S YOUR TURN: BE AN ANGEL REVIEW AND SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE
If you've used any of these tools, then we'd love to read your review of them. Click through to the relevant product using the links above and hit Write a Review.
Or to see all the options in one place, head on over to this search where you can sort and filter all the Email Marketing tools listed above and many more to find the one that's just right for you.
And if you've used one that's not listed on Angel Rated, then we'd love to hear from you so that we can get it added.