Email marketing is beneficial for big as well as small businesses. With the help of periodic emails and newsletters, you are able to keep your loyal customers updated about the new things with your business. Most of all, it is significant to expand your contact list as it will attract new customers with different deals and discounts offered in the emails. Without a proper management system, managing your contact list and creating emails can be an intimidating task.
Email marketing software helps in extending your digital reach, improving your email content and maximizing your time. Furthermore, there is no need to have extensive technical knowledge about email marketing. These software have various features that helps bypass spam filters and target particular demographics. This in turn will enhance the effectiveness of your emails.
I would like to share my review of the top 5 email marketing software:
1. MailChimp
As a newbie to the world of email marketing, I opted for MailChimp because it was available for free and is an ideal choice for small startup businesses. It was easy for me to operate MailChimp as it is quite user-friendly.
Pros:
- It is available for free
- Ideal for small businesses
- The plans are inexpensive
- Has built-in templates
- Drag and drop interface
- Loads of third-party integration
Cons:
- Free plans do not include an auto-responder or analytics tools
- The paid plan can’t be set up immediately
- Refreshes slowly
- No real-time reports
2. AWeber
After MailChimp, I started using AWeber as it is quite cost-effective. At a reasonable price, it allows you to send unlimited emails. Yet, I found this software time-consuming as compared to others as some of the tools required more steps to finish a single task.
Pros:
- Unlimited emails
- Cost-effective plans
- Broad reporting capabilities..
Cons:
- No free plans available
- No Google Analytics
- Imports are time-consuming
- Does not allow to import from Gmail or other third-party address books.
3. GetResponse
I eventually decided to try out GetResponse and I am still using this software for some of my clients who have fewer requirements. It has a powerful API integration.
Pros:
- Free 30 day trial
- Has HTML and drag-drop editor
- In-built statistics tracking service
- Cost-effective and easy to use
Cons:
- No free plans
- Limited list segmentation
- The capability of the editors is limited
4. Infusionsoft
After a while, the requirements of my clients started to increase, that is, their contact base expanded and I decided to switch to InfusionSoft. Managing a list of 150k contacts is quite easy with this software and you are even able to send up to 3 million emails per month effortlessly.
However, like every other software, this also had its limitations. One of my clients had more than 200k contacts and had to send about 9 million emails that the software was not able to handle. It began to delay in sending the emails which created a huge problem for me and my client. The emails got delayed by 20-30 hours which is a huge nuisance.
Pros:
- Great CRM
- Incredible campaign builder
- Numerous options for writing reports
Cons:
- Quite expensive
- No A/B testing
- Worst customer support
5. SendGrid
I had heard about SendGrid before, but did not want to try it as every task had to be done through API. However, since my user base expanded I decided to give this software a try. For the past few months, I have been using SendGrid and let me assure you that it is one of the best options for the people who have a large user base. The free version of this software allows you to send 12k emails free per month.
Pros:
- Free plans available
- Flexible plans
- Powerful suit of APIs available
- List segmentation and contact manager available
Cons:
- Required to create your own templates
- Availability of user interface options is very less
- Almost every function has to be done via API
Comparisons between the email marketing software:
Business Suitability Comparison:
