In this article, we will deep dive into the key must-have features of email marketing platforms, best practices while using such a software and the top 10 email marketing software tools available today.
Table of Contents
- What is an Email Marketing Software Platform?
- 8 Key Must-have Features of Email Marketing Platforms
- Best Practices To Follow While Using An Email Marketing Software/ Tool
- Top 10 Email Marketing Software Platforms For 2020
What Is An Email Marketing Software Platform?
Email marketing software platforms are SaaS (cloud) based platforms that allow marketers to create, send and analyze emails, typically for the purposes of audience engagement and lead generation.
The importance of email marketing is an established fact among marketers and business leaders. Automated emails are a cost-effective channel to connect with new prospects, engaging your existing customers / audience, lead nurturing and management, relationship building through drip campaigns and more.
- According to Statista 2019, there are more than 5.6 billion active email accounts, indicating the high potential for marketing outreach to the right market segment.
- According to a report by Oberla in 2018, effective email marketing can boasts an ROI of as high as $32 on every $1 spent, at an average. In other words, email marketing works if you work it!
However, increased competition in email engagement, an increasingly mobile-first world where emails are first read on smartphones, high spam filters, sophisticated business compliance and privacy rules – means that SaaS based smart email marketing platforms that meet your business needs, are needed more than ever before.
In order to effectively compete, mid-to-large businesses need to recognize the default expectations that their audiences have in today’s ‘experience’ led economy – email campaigns need to be personalized, segmented, targeted, mobile-responsive, and integrated with other marketing channels to deliver the right message to your audience, that is contextual to their journey as a buyer.
Companies are realizing the importance of investing in an email software, with reports suggesting that around 49% of businesses use some form of email automation. Important features provided by email marketing software are email scheduling, data segmentation, personalized messaging, email automation, email analytics, A/B testing, and email integration.
8 Key Must-have Features of Email Marketing Platforms
There are multiple factors to weigh-in before investing in an email marketing platform – budget and pricing, size of email database, number of campaigns, level of automation and personalization as your businesses customer experience plan etc.
While many email marketing service tool have their own unique features and highlights, we have identified these 8 key features that are necessary for a good email marketing software.
1. User interface
The primary function of an email marketing tool is to ease the job of marketers. While advanced marketers are quite technically sound, junior-to-mid level executives and manages lack enough UI experience to navigate complex systems. A tool with great features but a bad user experience can increase full adaptation time by an entire quarter.
To ensure quick adaptation and low learning time, especially for new employees who have never used the specific tools or fresh employees hired out-of-college, it is important that the tool offers an intuitive user experience. What’s more – visually appealing tools that make it a less tedious and more delightful and fun experience for your employees to work on them.
2. Audience segmentation
Audience segmentation radically increases the performance of email campaigns. It allows you to share targeted content with your audience based on their demographics, location, online interactions and engagement with your brand, and much more. Some tools even provide AI and ML enabled segmentations that study user behavior and preference in real-time to tweak/ course-correct email campaigns. The use of such tools are highly dependent on your existing level of technological maturity and audience management capabilities.
3. Email Operations Automation
Email marketing involves repetitive and manual tasks that need constant attention. Choose an email marketing service that provides email automationOpens a new window to save time and marketing resources. This can range from basic automation for email scheduling, sending and receiving delivery receipts, to high-end user engagement tracking, text analytics, configurable role-based account access for your teams, intelligent audience re-segmentation based on response collection after every email cycle/drip etc.
4. Merge Tags
Merge tags are specific codes that allow users to insert unique data points that are sourced from customer data platforms. Your email tool must provide the feature of merge tags for data points that allows the sync of customer data directly into your email template for personalization. This feature helps in personalizing your emails based on your audience and facilitates segmented campaigns. To make the best out of this feature, you need to maintain a highly organized and real-time customer data platform.
5. Ready-made Templates and Non-technical Editor
Your email marketing tool must provide basic email template designs that you can use for your campaigns with required changes. It should also allow you to design your own emails with an easy-to-use editor with simple drag-and-drop capabilities. This allows you to build customized emails with your branding elements and design language without requiring the knowledge of complex HTML coding. The feature should also allow editing at the code level for detailed changes in email templates.
6. A/B testing
A/B testing is a time-tested technique to analyze the performance of your content and make data-backed improvements. In email marketing services – it allows you to live-test multiple versions of your email against one another and optimize to have the best possible subject lines, email copies, call-to-actions, designs, and formats – for the most optimal results.
7. Reports and Analytics Dashboards
Email reports and analytics dashboards help marketers make data-oriented decisions to improve email campaign performance based on factors such as open rate, click-through rate (CTR), device used to read email etc. These metrics help marketers test the performance of their subject lines, email copies, graphic content, and call-to-action.
8. Low Bounce and High Delivery
The last thing that your marketing team needs is for their hard-worked email designs to find their grave in recipient SPAM boxes. It is therefore important for you to evaluate email marketing services based on their rate of email deliverability success and low bounce. The service should follow all the compliance regulations outlined by CAN-SPAM to avoid high bounce rates.
Best Practices To Follow While Using An Email Marketing Software/ Tool
Every email marketing software tool has its own workflows and feature sets, and no two tools will provide a similar experience. But it is important for you to maintain a standard process when it comes to building and executing your email campaigns.
We have identified these 8 best practices that must be followed while using email marketing software.
1. Follow email marketing compliance
After all the efforts and investments that go into your email campaigns, you do not want your emails to land in Spam. This is why you need to ensure that your email marketing tool follows all compliance regulations of CAT SPAM. Some common compliance regulations include adding company physical address, providing an unsubscription list to receivers, not using too many hyperlinks, and not sending irrelevant content to users.
2. Personalize the email greeting
It is always a good practice to personalize the email greeting with the receiver’s name to catch the attention of your receiver. This ensures there is connectivity in the message of the email. Make sure you use merge tags in your email marketing software to implement this personalization while sending out emails.
3. Send test emails before executing campaigns
As a marketer, you must be familiar with the constant struggle of avoiding minute errors in content copies. The same logic applies to email copies as well. Send yourself and other team members a test email before sending out the actual campaign. This allows you to review your email content, layout, design, merge tags, subject line, and other elements before sending it to your prospects.
4. Design your email templates based on your brand guidelines
Email marketing is a part of your marketing strategy, and just like any other campaign, it also helps in a brand building along with lead generation. Hence, you need to make sure that you follow your brand guidelines while designing and drafting your email message and template. This ensures uniformity across all the messaging going out to your audience via marketing efforts.
5. Add alt text
As a marketer, you want to be as creative as you can with your emails. From images, logos, banners, buttons, and footers, you can design your email template based on your brand guidelines and content themes. But it is always a good practice to add an alternate text to your images and call-to-action buttons in case they do not load in your audience’s email server. Although not a very big deal, this small hygiene check makes a lot of difference to your messaging.
6. Perform A/B testing for subject lines
Although there are some best practices, trends, and methods defined by experts on drafting the subject line, you can never be sure what might work. The performance of subject lines differs based on products, services, brands, domains, and industries. Hence, it is logical for you to constantly experiment with your subject lines using AB testing features. Use what works effectively and keep testing creative ideas.
7.Schedule emails based on target audience
As we discussed earlier, global marketing teams cater to a massive audience on the email channel. Every location has its own best-defined timelines to send out email campaigns. Also, a worldwide audience demands the scheduling of email campaigns based on different time zones. Hence, it is an important practice to schedule email sending based on the location of your target audience, regardless of your working hours.
8. Optimize for mobile
Almost every customer has access to their emails over their mobile device. That is why it is important for marketers to prioritize mobile optimization of their emails. Your email layouts, designs, and content should be responsive on mobile devices of every size.
Top 10 Email Marketing Software Platforms For 2020
While every tool brings in its own set of unique features, we have looked at the top platforms from the lens of medium-to-large scale organizations that tend to use email marketing platforms more extensively. Let us now take a look at the best email marketing software platforms available today (listed alphabetically):
1. Mailchimp
A popular brand among marketers, also known for its chimp-faced mascot – Freddie, Mailchimp is an excellent email marketing software that caters to all your email marketing requirements. It continues to be a go-to choice for email marketers with added features and upgrades that will continue in 2020.
Mailchimp is a modern software tool with enterprise offerings like email automation, data segmentation, wide range of ready-made email template designs, allows manual code editing of templates, extensive content personalization, and advanced features such as landing page A/B testing, lead capture forms and integration with customer data platformsOpens a new window .
A lifetime free account can be created on Mailchimp that has all basic email campaign features. You can upgrade to the pro version for added features for a price of $9.99 to$299 based on the size of your database and features required.
2. HubSpot
HubSpot is known for its all-in-one CRM automationOpens a new window tool that integrates sales, marketing, and customer service functions. This tool also offers an email marketing software that users can avail for free.
You can find all the basic email marketing features in this tool such as ready-to-use email templates, email automation, customer experience personalization, A/B testing, high deliverability rates, and email workflows.
Use this free email tool to personalize your email messaging and send it to a segmented audience to optimize the results of your email campaigns.
While the free version is available for a lifetime, you can always upgrade for added enterprise features by subscribing to the HubSpot marketing hub for $800 per month.
3.SendinBlue
A digital marketing suite that integrates all marketing efforts, SendinBlue provides users with a robust email marketing platform. This email tool helps marketers create beautiful email layouts with an easy-to-use drag and drop editor. The tool is claimed to be an ideal fit for lead nurturing campaigns.
Some features offered by SendinBlue include email template editor, email personalization, data list segmentation, reports and analytics, email automation, email workflows, and integration with other marketing campaigns.
Building effective email marketing campaigns is made easier by SendinBlue with readily available email workflows that have trigger notifications, opens and clicks tracking, and drip email programs.
Avail the free version of SendinBlue to send 300 emails per day and you can upgrade your plan to explore advanced features that cost up to $55 per month or more.
4. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a brilliant alternative to mainstream email marketing software tools such as Mailchimp and Hubspot. The tool offers all email marketing solutions at an affordable price making it easier for small marketing teams.
Apart from basic features like email automation, segmentation, triggered emails, autoresponders, email funnels, email scheduling, A/B testing, and personalization, the tool also offers advanced capabilities like multi-user editing, managed deliverability, conditional content, and geo-tracking.
ActiveCampaign’s email solutions start from $9 per month and go up to $229 per month based on the features availed.
5. Constant Contact
Constant Contact offers more than 100 email template designs for marketers to build engaging, responsive, and elegant email campaigns. These templates can be edited with the tool’s easy drag-and-drop editor.
Features offered by the tool include email drip programs, email scheduling, data management, email workflows, email automation, transactional emails, and surveys. Constant Contact is the right tool to build user-friendly and beautiful email templates
Explore the basic features of Constant Contact for free. You can upgrade to advanced features for a price of $18 per month and above.
6. ConvertKit
ConvertKit is an ideal fit for e-commerce businesses, that offers unique features like opt-in forms and landing page designers. It also offers complex email workflows and robust tagging systems that are rightly suited for e-commerce businesses.
Other features offered by ConvertKit are focused around conversions and include data management, list segmentation, email personalization, email automation, and dynamic reports. Advanced features include intuitive UI, website builder, and marketing automation.
ConvertKit offers email marketing features for packages that range between a price of $29 to $79 per month based on the number of your subscribers.
7.Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is another direct competitor of Mailchimp, with an easy drag-and-drop editor and visual builder.
It offers features such as email automation, data segmentation, designing email templates, email personalization, and email workflows. Campaign Monitor also provides dynamic reporting and analysis that help you strategize your email marketing campaigns.
The basic package offered by Campaign Monitor is for $9 per month and can be expanded based on features for up to $149 per month. You can also avail of the pay per campaign package to explore the features of the tool in 2020.
8. Twilio SendGrid
Twilio SendGrid is an email marketing solution ideally suited for companies sending a lot of email newsletters. It allows easy building, designing, and editing of email templates.
Features offered by the tool include email designing, email scheduling, email automation, email analytics and reports, SMTP API, A/B testing, and seamless integrations. The SendGrid tool was recently been acquired by SMS giant Twilio, expanding its services to SMS marketing as well.
You can avail of the free version of Twilio Sendgrid for 30 days to send over 40000 emails, following which you can upgrade to pro versions that start from $14.95 per month.
9.Aweber
Aweber is a powerful email marketing solution for teams looking to build engaging email templates. It is an ideal fit for small businesses and entrepreneurs that work on email campaigns on a smaller scale.
It offers all basic email functions like a drag-and-drop email editor, email newsletters, ready email designed templates, email automation, email workflows, A/B testing, list segmentation, email autoresponders, and easy integrations.
Known for high deliverability rates and email tracking, Aweber is a good choice for email marketing beginners.
You can explore the features of Aweber using their 30-day free trial before investing in a tool for 2020. The plans for subscriptions start from $19 and go up to $149 and more, based on the number of subscribers.
10. GetResponse
GetResponse is another widely used email software tool by marketers. The tool offers all basic features at an affordable price, which makes it another contender for the best email marketing software tools to consider in 2020.
The features offered by GetResponse include email automation, designed email templates, list segmentation, and email personalization. The tool offers a function called ‘Auto Funnel’ that acts as a ready marketing funnel for email campaigns.
The basic features are available for $15 per month, and enterprise packages range up to $1199 per month.
Have we missed out on an email marketing software that should be a part of this list? Let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window .