And with Mailchimp’s 11% price increase in February 2022, things have only gotten more expensive.

That’s why we’ve put together this post: to help you pay less for email.

And spoiler alert, it’s totally possible to find a cheaper alternative to Mailchimp with all the same functionality.

Taking the cheapest monthly plan available, we’ve compared 11 Mailchimp competitors on how much it costs to send email newsletters to a given number of contacts.

We’ll look at features in the second half of the post but this comparison is mainly focused on monthly email sending costs. 

So, want to know which Mailchimp alternatives will generate the most savings on email? Read on to find out!

Prices listed are for monthly plans only 

What are the Best Mailchimp Alternatives?

At a glance, the best Mailchimp alternatives are:

1. Sendinblue
2. Moosend
3. Convertkit
4. HubSpot
5. Mailerlite
6. Klaviyo
7. Aweber
8. ActiveCampaign
9. Constant Contact
10. Campaign Monitor
11. Omnisend

Why It’s Worth Considering Mailchimp Alternatives

Mailchimp is known for free and entry-level plans. But once your email list starts to grow,  Mailchimp’s cost actually goes up very fast.

On Mailchimp, every single contact counts as a billable contact, even those who unsubscribe. This means that to keep Mailchimp costs low, you need to stay on top of your email list cleaning. Plus, if a contact appears on two lists, it’s billed twice!

Also, as a Mailchimp user, you may have noticed that list segmentation can be tricky.

Instead of separating contacts into distinct lists, Mailchimp encourages you to have one single list (known as an ‘audience’) and to segment using tags. Tags can quickly become messy and confusing.

Another thing to keep in mind about Mailchimp is that while it has some great advanced features, these are mainly reserved for the higher pricing tiers. 

You’ve probably hit a wall with some of Malchimp’s biggest CONS already and that’s why you’re looking at Mailchimp competitors:

• Paying for contacts, even unsubscribed ones
• No integration with Shopify
• No integrated SMS, live chat, or push notifications
• All features billed by contacts, exponentially increasing the price

An Overview of the Best Mailchimp Alternatives

If you’re looking to move away from Mailchimp, surely your first concern is the features you’ll get elsewhere and the cost. Luckily, there are quite a few Mailchimp competitors with comparable features and often better prices.

Price Comparison to Find Cheaper Alternatives to Mailchimp

Here’s a price comparison of the top Mailchimp alternatives by contact list size. Note that Sendinblue is the only one to not charge per content but by number of emails sent. Everyone else, Mailchimp and competitors, charge for subscriber storage, which inflates the price as your list grows.

Here’s how pricing compares when sending one email per month to specific numbers of contacts.

Prices based on monthly plans (cheapest plan available)

Comparing ‘free forever’ plans: The best free alternatives to Mailchimp

Is Mailchimp free? It offers a free plan, true, but it’s quite limited and the price goes up steeply from there.

Naturally, if you’re an email marketing beginner, a small business owner, or just starting out in ecommerce, you might find that too expensive. Or maybe you’re looking for cheaper Mailchimp alternatives for nonprofits (check out our guide to email marketing for NGOs)?

Free plans are an ideal opportunity to test-drive an email marketing platform before committing to a paid plan. Free plans are essentially Mailchimp free alternatives.   The best paid email services usually offer them to get you started. 

Email marketing services that don’t have a free plan

• ActiveCampaign: 14-day free trial. Starting price of $15/month for 500 contacts.
• Constant Contact: 30-day free trial. Starting price of $9.99/month for 500 contacts.
• Moosend: 30-day free trial. Starting price of $9/month for 500 contacts.

The 11 Best Mailchimp Alternatives in 2022

This goal here is to give you an idea of the key features offered by different email providers. 

Some features are available on base plans, others are reserved for upper tier/premium plans. For exact pricing information per feature, you’ll need to visit each provider individually. 

Top of the list is Sendinblue. You’ve seen how Sendinblue offers great value for money when it comes to sending emails. Now let’s see what else you can do with the platform.

1. Sendinblue: The Best Mailchimp Alternative

Sendinblue is an affordable, user-friendly email marketing software. But that’s not all. It’s also an all-in-one sales and marketing toolbox. Alongside all the necessary email marketing tools, you’ll also get marketing automation, CRM, SMS, Chat, Shared Inbox and Facebook ad capabilities.

What makes Sendinblue the best Mailchimp alternative?

Main advantages over Mailchimp:

• A robust email deliverability infrastructure to help land your emails in the inbox
• Pricing based on the number of emails, not the number of contacts: Sendinblue lets you store unlimited contacts across all its plans. No matter how big your email list grows, its size won’t impact the pricing. Mailchimp, on the other hand, charges per contact stored. As one user describes Sendinblue: “No need to worry about growing your database and seeing your costs explode.”
• Transactional emails included in each plan: You can send transactional emails (like order confirmations, shipping notifications, password resets, etc.) over Sendinblue’s SMTP server as part of your monthly plan. With Mailchimp, transactional emails are a paid add-on to your monthly plan and incur pretty hefty transactional fees.

Check out our Sendinblue vs Mailchimp guide for a detailed comparison of pricing and features.

Or you can just try it out for yourself by signing up for a free plan. You’ll get 300 emails a day and unlimited subscribers.

Sendinblue’s email marketing features:

• Unlimited subscribers
• Drag-and-drop email builder & HTML email editor
• Customizable email templates
• Advanced list segmentation
• Dynamic personalization
• A/B testing (email content and subject lines)
• Advanced analytics
• Email subscription forms
• Easy to set up double opt-in
• Native integrations with WordPress and other CMS
• GDPR compliant

Automation tools:

• Autoresponders
• Email marketing automation
• Visual workflow builder
• If/then/else workflows
• On-page activity triggers

Ecommerce: 

• Transactional emails (included in monthly email plans)
• Abandoned cart emails
• SMTP server
• Email API
• SMS 
• Native plugins for Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop, BigCommerce

Multichannel: 

• Email
• SMS marketing
• Push notifications
• Shared Inbox
• Landing page builder
• Live chat

Also includes a built-in CRM for managing contacts and deals.

Sendinblue Pricing

Sendinblue offers a forever-free plan with 300 emails a day. Signup forms and email templates included!

Plans start at $25/month for 20,000 emails and grow with your business needs, not with your contact list.

Languages available:

The platform is available in 6 languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese (Mailchimp only supports English)

Best for: 

Both small and large businesses, ecommerce stores, publishers, startups.

2. Moosend

Moosend is another affordable email marketing solution and marketing automation platform. 

Compared to some other Mailchimp alternatives, it lacks certain native integrations and multichannel marketing features. That said, it has everything you need to create and send successful email campaigns. 

Why choose as Moosend as a Mailchimp alternative

Moosend’s main advantage over Mailchimp is that it’s a lot cheaper and offers a generous free plan. Overall it’s a good choice for small businesses and infrequent senders.

Moosend email marketing features:

• Unlimited emails
• List segmentation
• Newsletter templates
• Drag-and-drop editor
• Email subscription forms
• Real-time analytics

Automation possibilities:

• Automation workflow editor
• Automation templates
• Lead scoring
• Conditional triggers

Ecommerce: 

• Abandoned cart emails
• Transactional emails
• SMTP server
• Integrations via Zapier and Piesync 

Multichannel: 

• Landing pages

Unfortunately not as many multichannel features as Mailchimp and other providers.

Best for:

Publishers, agencies, small businesses

3. ConvertKit

ConvertKit promotes itself as the email marketing platform for creators. This includes bloggers, artists, musicians, Youtubers—basically anyone running a creative business.

ConvertKit’s email marketing tool is optimized with this audience in mind.

Advantages of ConvertKit vs Mailchimp

• ConvertKit doesn’t charge twice for same subscriber in different lists
• You can create multiple signup forms for different opt-in incentives and content assets. This makes it easy to grow a subscriber list with content upgrades.
• There’s a free concierge migration service if you have over 5000 subscribers

ConvertKit email marketing features:

• Email campaigns
• RSS to email
• Mobile responsive
• Form builder
• Analytics & engagement scoring
• A/B tests
• Option to run a paid newsletter (transaction fee applies)

Automation possibilities:

• Visual automation builder
• Autoresponders
• Email marketing automation
• Link triggers

Ecommerce: 

• Ecommerce integrations
• API

Multichannel: 

• Landing pages (+ templates)
• Possibility to sell digital products
• Newsletter referral system
• Facebook custom audiences

Best for:

Creators, artists, writers, musicians, bloggers.

4. HubSpot

If you’re looking for more than just an email marketing tool, HubSpot is a great Mailchimp alternative to consider. HubSpot’s email marketing service is backed with a full suite of marketing and automation tools, to help you create unique, personalized experiences for your audience.

Main advantages of HubSpot vs. Mailchimp

Here’s why HubSpot is one of the best alternatives to Mailchimp:

• Marketing automation: HubSpot’s automation features go well beyond simple autoresponders. While Mailchimp offers automated kickback emails and drip campaigns, HubSpot lets you create automation workflows to manage your contact database, pass off leads to other teams, and even automatically create support tickets. You can also add delays and conditional logic.
• Growth platform: With forms and popups, live chat and bots, ad management, landing pages, and more, HubSpot has everything you need to kick off your marketing strategy, as well as more advanced features that you can grow into. The HubSpot CRM also supports your sales and customer service teams for a seamless cross-functional customer experience.

HubSpot email marketing features: 

• Forms
• Popups
• Segmentation
• Email analytics and health insights
• Mobile optimization

Automation possibilities:

• Autoresponders
• Automate drip campaigns
• Advanced sequences (conditional logic)
• Lead scoring

Multichannel: 

• CRM
• Live chat and conversational bots
• Plans to support sales and customer support teams
• Landing pages
• Ad retargeting & management

Best for:

The free plan has a generous feature set but HubSpot becomes expensive if you have more than 1000 subscribers. For this reason it’s probably best suited to mid/large enterprises rather than small businesses on a budget. As well, the wealth of advanced functionalities makes Hubspot a better option for experienced pro marketers.

5. Mailerlite

Mailerlite is another cheaper alternative to Mailchimp and a solid choice if you’re just looking for a simple, intuitive email tool.

What makes Mailerlite better than Mailchimp:

There are only two pricing plans, free and paid. This means you can access all features on the paid plan (unlike Mailchimp which has different pricing tiers).

Mailerlite email marketing features:

• Drag-and-drop editor
• Popup signup forms
• Simple reporting dashboard
• Segmentation
• Email templates
• Time zone scheduling
• Auto resend
• A/B testing
• Rich text & HTML editor

Automation possibilities:

• Autoresponder
• Simple automation sequences

Multichannel: 

• Landing pages (+ custom domains for landing pages)
• Free website with up to 5 landing pages

Best for:

Perfect for small businesses. Mailerlite is a lightweight solution that offers great value for money given its ease of use.

However, it’s probably not the tool for you if you’re looking for more advanced features (automation, etc.) 

Another point to note is that Mailerlite doesn’t offer any phone support, even on their paid plan.

6. Klaviyo

Klaviyo’s email marketing service is built for ecommerce and integrates easily with Shopify. 

Klaviyo particularly excels when it comes to advanced analytics and insights. If you want to dig deep into customer data, Klaviyo is one of the best Mailchimp alternatives for this.

Find other Klaviyo alternatives here

What makes Klaviyo better than Mailchimp

Main advantages over Mailchimp:

• Granular segmentation: Klaviyo provides a ton of behavioral and transactional data with which you can segment contacts. It also has predictive analytics to determine Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and the risk of churn. 
• Pre-built templates for automation workflows: Save time setting up automated workflows thanks to Klaviyo’s library of ready-made templates for your abandoned cart, welcome, and win-back flows.
• Measure email marketing ROI: Easily track all the sales coming directly from your email marketing efforts.

Klaviyo email marketing features:

• Segmentation and personalization
• A/B testing
• 1-click integrations with many apps and services
• ROI-based reporting
• Signup forms and popups

Automation possibilities:

• Workflow builder
• Automated workflow templates
• Pre-built autoresponders

Ecommerce: 

• Abandoned cart reminders
• Native integrations for Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce and more
• API
• Product recommendations
• Dynamic data block

Multichannel: 

• SMS
• Facebook & Instagram advertising

Best for:

Ecommerce businesses

7. AWeber

AWeber has been around since 1998 and is still a popular email marketing tool for small businesses, bloggers, and entrepreneurs. It offers a huge gallery of ready-made email templates and gives lots of options for email automation and personalization.

Here’s why AWeber is one of the best Mailchimp alternatives:

• An all-inclusive pricing model: With AWeber you get access to all features, no matter what plan you’re on.  With Mailchimp, a limited number of features are available on the cheaper plans. For example, A/B testing and advanced segmentation are only available as you move up the different pricing tiers.
• Customer support via phone, chat and email: AWeber customers have a number of options to contact its award-winning customer support 24/7. Mailchimp, on the other hand, has no direct contact support options for its free users, and phone support is a luxury that’s only available on the premium plan (starting at $299).

AWeber email marketing features: 

• Newsletters
• RSS to email
• Email templates
• Drag and drop email editor
• Signup forms
• WordPress plugin
• Basic segmentation
• Analytics

Automation possibilities:

• Autoresponder
• Behavioral automation

Ecommerce: 

• No transactional emails
• Sales tracking
• Purchase tagging

Multichannel: 

• Web push notifications
• Stock photos
• Landing pages 

Best for:

Email marketing beginners who want a user-friendly newsletter and list management tool without all the bells and whistles. 

Advanced segmentation and A/B split testing will be missed but you do get 24/7 support (phone/email/chat) on all plans.

8. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s email marketing tool is just one feature of its many marketing software capabilities.

ActiveCampaign makes it easy to personalize your emails using contact data. You can also split test up to five different email versions to work out which content performs best. 

Plus, there’s also a built-in spam tester to check if emails are likely to go to junk. 

Why choose ActiveCampaign as a Mailchimp alternative

Main advantages vs Mailchimp:

• Automation and workflow recipes to get you started
• Suits the more advanced marketer
• Unfortunately doesn’t offer a free plan but you can do a 14-day free trial

ActiveCampaign email marketing features: 

• Newsletter
• Drag-and-drop editor
• Email templates
• Analytics

Automation possibilities:

• Autoresponders
• Marketing automation
• Automation map
• Contact & lead scoring

Ecommerce: 

• Product blocks for email
• Ecommerce integrations
• Conversion tracking

Multichannel: 

• CRM
• Landing pages
• Site messages
• SMS marketing
• Social media tool integrations

Best for:

Pro marketers who are already familiar with advanced automation

9. Constant Contact

Constant Contact helps small businesses create websites, online stores, branded email marketing campaigns, and more.

Why choose Constant Contact as a Mailchimp alternative

Main advantages vs Mailchimp:

• Ease of use and intuitiveness, especially for organizing lists
• Accessible customer support on low priced plans
• Donations tool to support email marketing for nonprofits

No free plan but paid plans come with unlimited emails.

Constant Contact email marketing tools: 

• Email campaigns
• Email templates
• Resends to non-openers
• A/B split testing for subject lines

Automation possibilities:

• Automated email series/nurturing workflows

Ecommerce: 

• Abandoned cart email reminds for Shopify
• Integrations with Shopify, Eventbrite and Mindbody

Multichannel: 

• Survey tool
• Donation collection
• Social media scheduling and ads
• Landing page builder

Best for:

Small businesses and nonprofits looking for a simple multichannel solution

10. Campaign Monitor

Campaign monitor is another cost-effective Mailchimp alternative to consider, particularly for lower volume senders. Their platform offers countless beautiful email newsletter templates for everything from announcements to holiday campaigns to reengagement messages.

What makes Campaign Monitor better than Mailchimp

Campaign Monitor is a good Mailchimp alternative for a few reasons. First off, for most email sending volumes, they’re less expensive than the industry leader. Second, they’re visual journey builder is great for beginners looking to get started with more advanced automations. 

Overall, Campaign Monitor users find that their platform is far easier to use than Mailchimp’s. If you’re looking for an intuitive email marketing tool, this is one to consider. 

Campaign Monitor email marketing features:

• Email campaigns
• Drag and drop email builder
• Over 100 customizable templates
• Free image gallery
• A/B testing
• Popups and forms
• Real time reporting analytics
• RSS-to-email

Automation possibilities:

• Automation visualization
• Advanced link tracking

Ecommerce: 

• Transactional emails 
• Various plug-ins / integrations

Multichannel: 

• CRM plug-in
• CMS plug-in
• Landing pages
• Social media marketing alignment

Best for:

Small businesses looking for an email marketing tool. (While Campaign Monitor supports other channels, you’ll have to go through integrations to use them).

11. Omnisend

Last but not least on our list of Mailchimp alternatives is Omnisend. They offer an easy-to-use platform for ecommerce email marketing, SMS, and automation. If you’re looking for an exhaustive ecommerce option, Omnisend is a decent pick.

Omnisend positions itself for ecommerce businesses and boasts a variety of helpful tools for running an online shop. In addition to email marketing, they support SMS marketing, another perk for ecommerce retailers. While Omnisend’s functionality is top-notch, the pricing is steep, even more than Mailchimp for certain volumes.

Omnisend email marketing features:

• Email campaigns
• Drag-and-drop editor
• List segmentation
• Sign-up forms
• A/B testing
• Campaign reports and click maps
• Email templates
• Analytics

Automation possibilities:

• Pre-built workflows
• Ecommerce-focused personalization

Ecommerce: 

• Ecommerce integrations
• Cart abandonment
• Order/shipping confirmation
• Product recommendations

Multichannel: 

• Landing pages
• Web-push notifications
• SMS
• Social media integrations

Best for:

Established ecommerce businesses looking to make use of a variety of features. 

The Must-ask Questions when Choosing an Alternative to Mailchimp

When comparing email marketing services, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the different tools, especially if you’re an email marketing beginner. But here are some questions you can ask yourself to narrow down the selection:

1. What key features does my business need?

Do I need a simple email tool or could I also benefit from an ‘all-in-one’ pro tool with other marketing capabilities? 

All-in-one platforms are a great way to centralize your marketing operations, reduce the size of your martech stack, and cut down on your marketing expenses. You’re also set to save a lot of time switching between tools.

As lots of email providers branch into multichannel offerings, it’s definitely worth taking a look at what you can do beyond email. 

2. What kind of emails will I send and how often?

Will I be sending promotional email campaigns, transactional emails, or both?

As we’ve seen, Mailchimp competitors differ in how they cater to (and charge for) transactional emails. 

Sendinblue, for example, lets you manage promotional and transactional emails on the same plan. Others bill transactional emails as an add-on while some (like Constant Contact) don’t offer any transactional email service.

Are transactional emails vital to the success of your business? If so, you need to check how a potential email provider manages such emails and figure out how much it’ll cost you.

3. How many email subscribers do I have? 

And how fast do I predict my email list to grow?

As we’ve seen, most email services base their pricing on the number of subscribers stored. It’s easy to get lured in by super cheap base plans and then see a considerable hike in prices once you hit the 1000 subscriber mark. 

This is where you need to look ahead. Don’t just ignore the higher pricing tiers. Will the shift in prices still suit your budget as your list grows? Or would you prefer a more flexible, scalable option that isn’t based on the number of contacts but on the volume of emails?

If it’s a case of the latter, Sendinblue offers unlimited contacts on all plans. This way you don’t have to worry about increasing prices as your list grows. 

4. What’s my skill level as an email marketer?

Do I need a basic ‘get the job done’ tool or something more sophisticated?

This is where you should assess your email marketing goals and skills as a marketer. A lot of small businesses are just looking for simplicity, efficiency, and affordability. If you fall into this category, it’s likely the most basic email package will suit.

But if you’re a seasoned marketer or perhaps more into the tech/dev side, you’ll probably want a sophisticated pro tool. Services with advanced automation, segmentation, and analytics possibilities will speak to you more.

Time to Try Out Some Mailchimp Alternatives

Test, test, test. It’s the best way to find the ideal email service provider for your business.

Take advantage of free plans and free trials to get a feel for the software. You’ll quickly start to notice the differences and learn your own preferences.  

We hope this guide has helped you see where you can save the most money with Mailchimp alternatives.

The post 11 Best Mailchimp Alternatives Compared (2022): Make the Switch appeared first on Sendinblue.

Equipped with advanced features like newsletter design tools, automation capabilities, and ways to personalize content, email marketing services have everything you need to grow your business. They can help you build your mailing list, engage with subscribers, and strengthen customer relationships.

The difficulty lies in choosing the best email marketing software for your business. There are tons of options out there and it can get overwhelming trying to sift through everything they offer.

To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of top email marketing services and their main features.

At a Glance: What Are The Best Email Marketing Services

1. Sendinblue
2. Mailchimp
3. ConvertKit
4. Hubspot
5. MailerLite
6. Klaviyo
7. AWeber
8. ActiveCampaign
9. GetResponse
10. Constant Contact
11. Campaign Monitor

Comparing Prices for Email Marketing Services

This is a simple price comparison of the top email marketing services reviewed in this article to give you an overview of what to expect from each one. Free email services like Outlook and Gmail aren’t suitable for mass email campaigns so you need a dedicated email marketing platform.

A Closer Look at the Best Email Marketing Services in 2022

Sendinblue: The #1 Email Marketing Service

Sendinblue is much more than an email marketing software. It provides users with a complete sales and marketing toolkit. Each feature slots together to build your email marketing strategy from start to finish.

As an email marketing service, Sendinblue offers powerful features like laser-focused segmentation, personalized content, A/B testing, and send time optimization. On top of the intuitive drag and drop email editor you get access to a selection of fully responsive templates so you can easily create great emails.

You can use Sendinblue’s marketing automation tools to scale your email marketing:

• Autoresponders like welcome emails 
• Complex workflows based on user behavior
• If/then scenarios
• Lead scoring
• Automated contact management

Thanks to the Sendinblue Tracker, you can even trigger emails based on how users interact with your website. There are also ready plugins for integrations with ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Woocommerce.

If you need to send transactional emails like account confirmations or order updates, with Sendinblue you can manage these alongside your marketing campaigns. Also, the SMTP relay available means it can work as a bulk email marketing service, depending on your goals and needs. 

Sendinblue not only measures core email KPIs like open rates and click rates, but also gives you detailed heat maps of where people clicked in an email, when they engaged with the campaign and from what geography. This allows you to fine-tune campaigns for optimal results.

Aside from emailing, the service offers SMS marketing features, live chat to connect with customers in real time, and signup forms for lead generation to support all your marketing efforts. Push notifications are also coming soon!

Pricing for Sendinblue’s email marketing service

Sendinblue’s free forever plan lets you send up to 300 emails a day. That’s 9,000 emails a month and we never charge for contact list size. Our paid plans start at $25 for 20,000 emails per month.

When picking a paid plan, pricing will depend on the number of emails you want to send each month. However, all plans — including Free — allow you to store unlimited contacts at no cost. Packages include email support, while chat and phone support are available with the Premium plan.

For inspiration, look at this beautiful email by The Wally Shop, created and sent with Sendinblue.

2. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is probably the most popular email marketing service. It’s equipped with all the features you need to run slick email marketing campaigns. The platform’s simple user interface makes it easy for email marketing newbies to get their head around complicated features. 

The drag and drop email builder and professional templates help you create beautiful campaigns in minutes. And you can grow your audience by adding popup signup forms to your website or creating unlimited landing pages using premade templates. 

Digging deeper, Mailchimp offers advanced email marketing tools like A/B testing, prebuilt and custom list segmentation options, and send time optimization. You can also personalize email content, including product recommendations using one of the ecommerce plugins.

For email automation, choose from pre-built workflows such as re-engagement emails or craft your own customer journeys. 

If you want to take your marketing strategy multichannel, the platform also offers social media scheduling and ads. 

For paid plans, the price increases based on the number of subscribers in your contact lists. The free plan doesn’t include customer support but there is an extensive knowledge base to help you out. 

Price: there is a free plan for up to 2,000 subscribers and 10,000 emails. After that, prices start at $11 for 500 contacts.

3. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is an emailing service targeting online creatives like bloggers and YouTubers. Email marketing features include the ability to segment your list and personalize campaigns using tags, as well as A/B testing for subject lines. 

You can grow your audience with customizable landing page templates and signup forms designed to increase conversions. And if you’re using downloadable content as an incentive, it’s easy to automatically send materials after someone fills out your form. 

ConvertKit’s automation software provides a visual way to set up email drip campaigns powered by subscriber behavior. The workflow editor shows you what your sequences look like in action and makes it easy to alter the route subscribers take. And if you need help getting started, there are automation templates for use cases like webinars and product launches.

All plans let you send unlimited emails and come with live chat and email support. For paid plans, pricing is based on how many subscribers you have. 

Price: the free plan lets you have up to 300 subscribers. After that, prices start at $15 per month for 300 contacts and more advanced features.

4. Hubspot

Hubspot’s email marketing features are spread between their Marketing Hub and Sales Hub (CRM). The Marketing Hub focuses on tools for growing traffic and leads such as emails, landing pages, social media ads, live chat, video, SEO, and content.

The Sales Hub adds email tracking and scheduling, meeting scheduling, CRM, predictive lead scoring, sales automation, email sequences, and reporting. Their Service Hub offers ticketing and support features. 

Overall, Hubspot covers all digital marketing areas and caters to sales-oriented businesses like SaaS. 

Price: The free plan allows you to send up to 2,000 emails per month and store up to 1,000,000 contacts. The Starter Marketing plan begins at $50 per month for 1,000 contacts.

5. MailerLite

MailerLite is an email marketing service covering all beginner needs. You can create any kind of email campaign with their drag-and-drop editor. You can also grow your email list with signup forms, create dedicated landing pages, and even a whole website with their website builder. Transactional emails can be sent through a third-party, MailerSend.

MailerLite also offers email automation and personalization based on user behavior. Abandoned cart emails are available for Shopify and WooCommerce stores. Contact management and segmentation are also covered. 

A/B testing and smart delivery by time zone features let you optimize campaign results. On top, MailerLite has reports and analytics for you to track your performance. 

MailerLite has a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month.

Price: The free plan allows you to send 12,000 emails per month to 1,000 contacts. Paid plans start at $10 per month for 1,000 subscribers.

6.  Klaviyo

Klaviyo caters to online shops mainly. It provides SMS and advanced email functionality to marketers looking to increase revenue. Their editor is easy to use and there are ready responsive templates available. You can personalize emails with product recommendations and dynamic blocks.

Klaviyo tracks website interactions and events that you can use for emails, automations and segmentation. All customer data goes into individual profiles, a CRM, where to dive deeper into understanding your buyers.

Klaviyo also offers advanced reporting capabilities. In addition to metrics dashboards, it provides customized benchmarks for your business.

Klaviyo’s free plan includes up to 250 email contacts and 50 SMS contacts, 500 emails sent, and 150 SMS sent.

Price: The free plan includes 500 emails per month for 250 contacts. Paid plan prices start at $20 per month for 500 contacts.

7. AWeber

AWeber’s email marketing service has some handy tools for beginners. On top of a drag and drop editor and extensive library of email templates, the platform offers an AI-powered design assistant. This tool uses your website and social media accounts to automatically build on-brand templates for your business’ email newsletters.

AWeber makes it simple to connect with individual customers at scale using tags that you can add manually or automatically. For example, you can tag subscribers based on signup information or when they open an email or click a link.

Email automation features let you run your campaigns on autopilot, including drip campaigns for welcoming subscribers or launching a new product. To save you time the campaign marketplace offers pre-made workflows with email templates for each campaign stage.

All you have to do is customize them to your brand and target audience.

Elsewhere, there’s a drag and drop landing page builder that comes with ready-to-use templates and a gallery of stock images to quickly create attractive pages. All templates include signup forms and you can automatically tag subscribers from each form to better manage your lists.

AWeber’s pricing is based on your subscriber count and all plans include chat, email, and phone support.

Price: The free plan includes 3,000 emails for up to 500 subscribers. After that, prices start at $19.99 per month for the pro version.

8. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s email marketing service is just one feature of its overall marketing capabilities. 

The software makes it easy to personalize your emails using contact data. You can also split test up to five different email versions to work out what content performs best. Plus, there’s also a built-in spam tester to check if emails are likely to go to junk. 

For more targeted messages, segment your audience using insights like contacts’ email activity. There’s even website tracking features for collecting data on contacts’ page visits and other onsite actions.

To get you started, there is an extensive selection of premade automation workflows. You can also create custom automations from scratch using a range of triggers, including website activity thanks to the tracking features. 

Upgrading from the Lite to Plus plan gets you more advanced automation features. For example, you can score contacts based on their engagement, split test different workflows, and get a visual overview of all your automations and how they link together.

With the Plus package you’ll also get features for different marketing channels, including SMS and landing pages. 

The 14-day free trial option lets you test the platform with a limited number of contacts and email sends. All plans include live chat and email support. 

Price: Prices start at $15 per month for up to 500 subscribers

9. GetResponse

GetResponse provides small businesses with a suite of marketing tools, including a fully-equipped email marketing service.

The platform has a library of professionally designed email templates with a drag and drop editor that makes it easy to transform your emails into beautifully branded messages. 

Collect data on customer behavior and interests, then use powerful segmentation tools to personalize your email campaigns. Or automatically tag and score contacts with marketing automation to trigger targeted emails. 

Other automation capabilities include time-based drip campaigns, with the option to view your email sequence on a calendar to see exactly when subscribers will receive messages. 

The software also allows you to send transactional emails alongside your marketing campaigns, while ecommerce plugins let you promote products in emails and landing pages. 

Aside from email marketing, you can create and manage Facebook ads using the built-in tool and free templates. The platform even offers tools for running your own webinars. The conversion tunnel feature helps you bring everything together with pre-made automated sales funnels designed for different industries and purposes. 

GetResponse offers a free plan for sending 1 email to 300 contacts per month. All plans come with live chat and email support.

Price: The free plan includes unlimited email sends to 500 contacts. Paid plan pricing starts at $15 per month for 500 subscribers.

10. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is a fully-equipped marketing toolbox that offers much more than just email. Its emailing service comes with a wide choice of free email templates. Or there is a tool to automatically build your own branded templates based on your website or Facebook page. 

Other email marketing features include A/B testing for subject lines and automated resends to subscribers who don’t open a campaign. The Email Plus package gets you additional functionality like multi-step automated email series and tools for surveys and online donations. 

Advanced segmentation lets you automatically manage contacts based on email link clicks. Or you can create custom segments using criteria like subscriber engagement or purchase activity via the Shopify or WooCommerce plugins. 

On top of email marketing tools, with Constant Contact you can create landing pages or even build an entire website or online store from scratch. You can also manage social media activity from the platform, including post scheduling, responding to messages and comments, and running ads.

While there is no free plan, paid plans include unlimited emails and email and chat support. Prices increase the more contacts you have.

Price: Prices start at $9.99 per month for up to 500 subscribers.

11. Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor email marketing service offers a range of easy-to-use features to help beginners build an engaged audience. 

The platform has a large choice of responsive email templates that you can customize using the drag and drop builder. Plus, it’s easy to add personalizations using your contact data. And with send time optimization you can deliver emails at the best time for each contact. The segmentation tool lets you go even further, creating custom segments of subscribers using multiple filters.

Within the same platform you can create and send branded transactional emails with content that is just as personalized. 

For email automation, use the simple visual journey editor to drag and drop each email into a sequence, with conditions based on subscriber behavior and past interactions. 

You can try out the platform free for an unlimited time, though you’ll only be able to send campaigns to up to five contacts. The Basic plan is limited to 2,500 emails a month, while Unlimited — as the name suggests — has no sending limit. Pricing increases as your contact lists grow. Both plans offer email support but you’ll get priority with an Unlimited plan. 

Price: Prices start at $9 per month for up to 500 subscribers.

Why Your Business Needs an Email Marketing Service

Unsure about investing time and energy into finding an email marketing solution? Here are some reasons you can’t ignore:

Email is still one of the most effective marketing channels

In recent years, marketers have voted email marketing as the most effective digital channel. And here’s why:

• It’s affordable. With email marketing you can reach a large audience at a low cost, leading to an average return on investment of $38 for every $1 spent. 
• It’s personal. Email campaigns let you reach contacts directly. Plus they’ve actively chosen to hear from you and so are more likely to engage. 
• It’s accessible. With around 4 billion email users worldwide, email has a greater reach than other digital channels. 

Email marketing services are essential for mass campaigns

Internet service providers (ISPs) like Gmail and Outlook aren’t made for sending newsletter and campaigns. A professional email marketing service is your best option because it enables you to:

• Achieve better deliverability rates. Sending mass campaigns with a dedicated email marketing service helps you avoid the spam folder. 
• Get performance analytics. Email marketing platforms track metrics like open and click-through rates to measure your campaigns’ success. 
• Manage unsubscribes more easily. Your email marketing service will automatically update contact records when they unsubscribe so you don’t keep sending them campaigns.
• Send more emails. ISPs have daily sending limits, while email marketing platforms let you choose a plan that meets your needs. 
• Design attractive emails. Email marketing services come with design tools for creating professional and responsive HTML emails that match your brand. 

All the platforms on this list offer these essential functionalities for your email marketing campaigns. Below you’ll find details on other key features of each service along with their pricing.

Find the Best Email Marketing Service for Your Business

When comparing email marketing service providers, it’s important to bear in mind your specific needs. This might be advanced automation and segmentation capabilities, a rich choice of email templates you can easily edit to fit your brand, or additional tools for multichannel campaigns. 

Each solution will offer different plans and pricing structures. So it’s worth doing some digging to work out how much each platform costs for the features you need and the number of contacts you plan to send campaigns to. The best email marketing service for your business will not only help you grow in the short term but it should also remain a viable solution as your needs develop.

The post The Best Email Marketing Services Compared [May 2022] appeared first on Sendinblue.

Constant Contact is one of the biggest and best known email marketing services. Small businesses love it for its simplicity and ease-of-use.

But, when compared to other ESPs offering the same service, it has one major downfall: cost.

Get this: Constant Contact doesn’t just charge for email services. It takes a 1.5% cut of your total online sales! 

As a small business, why overpay for your email marketing tool when so many cheaper options exist?

Keep reading to discover the best Constant Contact competitors. We’ll highlight the key differences in features and compare the prices of monthly base plans.

Comparing Prices of Constant Contact Alternatives

Here are the email marketing solutions we’ll compare to Constant Contact:

1. Sendinblue
2. ActiveCampaign
3. HubSpot Email Marketing
4. GetResponse
5. MailerLite
6. ConvertKit
7. Moosend
8. Mailchimp
9. EmailOctopus
10. Campaign Monitor

1. Sending a monthly newsletter to a small email list (5,000 – 30,000 subscribers)

2. Sending a newsletter twice a month to a small email list (5,000 – 30,000 subscribers)

3. Sending a weekly newsletter to a small email list (5,000 – 30,000 subscribers)

4. Sending a monthly newsletter to a large email list (50,000+ subscribers)

5. Sending a newsletter twice a month to a large email list (50,000+ subscribers)

6. Sending a weekly newsletter to a large email list (50,000+ subscribers)

What Constant Contact Has to Offer

If you’re hesitating about making the switch to another service, pricing isn’t the only factor to take into account. Constant Contact has pros and cons when it comes to features.

Pros:

• High deliverability rates
• Intuitive interface with drag and drop email builder and large email template library
• Unique features (manage events on Eventbrite, set up surveys, polls, and accept donations)
• A website builder to create a simple but attractive site
• Post directly to social media channels
• Embed products directly into emails with the ‘Action Blocks’ feature, great for ecommerce businesses
• Discounted pricing for nonprofits. 

Cons:

• High prices based on the number of contacts stored
• No free plan, only a 2-month free trial of their email features
• Automations are basic trigger/autoresponder campaigns. Impossible to set up complex workflows using ‘if/then/else’ logic. Simple automation sequences like welcome emails are only available on the more expensive ‘Email Plus’ tier
• No image display option for email signup forms, only contact fields
• No in-app mobile preview feature, only desktop
• Personalization limited to the subject line and email greeting
• Only available in two languages (English & Spanish)
• Transaction fee. You pay 1.5% of each sale your online store makes.

Now let’s see what the cheaper services have to offer.

10 Best Constant Contact Alternatives

1. Sendinblue

Sendinblue offers a robust email marketing service as part of its all-in-one sales and digital marketing toolbox. Alongside the necessary email marketing tools (drag-and-drop editor, transactional emails, GDPR compliance), you get marketing automation, CRM, SMS, chat, push notifications, signup forms, and a landing page builder.

Main differences between Sendinblue and Constant Contact

Here’s what makes Sendinblue one of the best Constant Contact alternatives:

• Pricing based on the number of emails sent, not contacts stored. Sendinblue lets you store an unlimited number of contacts across all its plans. No matter how big your email list grows, this will not impact the pricing. Constant Contact, as we know, charges per contact stored. This can be frustrating for any small business with a rapidly growing list.
• Advanced automation features: Create complex automation workflows with Sendinblue using if/then/else logic. Personalize customer journeys, automate lead scoring and nurturing, and react to any customer behavior. Sendinblue is a complete email marketing automation platform. 
• Simplify list management with dynamic segmentation and automation.
• Send abandoned cart emails with the Sendinblue Tracker – a tracking feature that monitors your subscribers’ on-page behavior and triggers email workflows.
• Dynamic personalization: Engage your subscribers with personalized emails using Sendinblue’s custom contact and dynamic content fields.

Sendinblue vs Constant Contact pricing

Sendinblue is one of the cheapest Constant Contact competitors you’ll find. Our email marketing software helps you grow instead of charging you for gaining more contacts and customers. The free plan includes access to advanced email marketing features, 300 emails/day, unlimited contact storage, as well as the platforms other functionalities like transactional emails, sales CRM, SMS marketing, chat, and more

Paid plans start at $25 for 20,000 emails/month. All plans include unlimited contact storage.

Here’s what to expect when comparing base plans. Keep in mind that these Constant Contact ‘Core’ plan prices don’t include automation functionality. For most marketing campaigns, you’ll need to upgrade to their ‘Email Plus’ plan, which starts at $45 per month for 500 contacts.

What’s more, Constant Contact will charge you an additional 1.5% of your total revenue if you sell through your website. 

Read our Sendinblue vs Constant Contact guide for a detailed comparison of pricing and features. 

2. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign boasts intuitive features when it comes to email marketing, marketing automation, SMS marketing, and CRM. 

Main differences between ActiveCampaign and Constant Contact

• Automation tools: If you find Constant Contact’s automation a bit too basic for your needs, you’ll be pleased with ActiveCampaign’s more advanced features. You’ll have tons of options to create complex workflows and sales funnels.
• ActiveCampaign is a great Constant Contact alternative for the advanced marketer or anyone looking for granular-level segmentation. To get the most out of this tool, you need to be comfortable with setting up complex automations.
• Neither solution has a free version. ActiveCampaign offers a 14-day free trial, Constant Contact does 30 days.
• ActiveCampaign has a built-in sales CRM feature, something you won’t find with Constant Contact.
• Constant Contact offers more integrations than ActiveCampaign (about 400 vs. 270).

ActiveCampaign vs. Constant Contact pricing

While the pricing gap is not as wide as with Sendinblue, you’ll make savings with ActiveCampaign if you’re a high-volume sender.

3. HubSpot Email Marketing

HubSpot is more than an email tool, it’s a growth platform with advanced features, designed to empower your marketing, sales, and customer service teams to grow better.

Main differences between HubSpot and Constant Contact

• Marketing Automation: Constant Contact’s automation features can be quite limiting. HubSpot lets you create customizable autoresponders and automation workflows. Emails can be triggered whenever someone interacts with your website or with one of your social media ads. You can use one of the premade automation workflow templates, or you can build your own from scratch.
• HubSpot Email Marketing uses the power of its CRM to personalize your emails at scale. HubSpot’s products work seamlessly together to augment the power of email. All of your subscribers’ info and activity is automatically logged into the CRM, which can then be used for email personalization.
• HubSpot’s signup form and popups builder is more customizable than Constant Contact. You can choose from a variety of formats and add as many custom fields as you want.
• HubSpot has a Free plan that gives you access to all of HubSpot’s free tools. In addition to email marketing, you get a free CRM, forms and popups, live chat and chatbots, ad management software, ticketing, and more.

HubSpot vs. Constant Contact pricing

HubSpot is a much cheaper alternative to Constant Contact if you have a small subscriber list. The price does go up quite a bit as your subscribers list grows, but keep in mind that when you get to the paid version of HubSpot, the account will also upgrade the full suite of marketing tools, so you ultimately get more value than you would with Constant Contact.

4. GetResponse

If you’re a small business or blogger looking for a cheaper Constant Contact alternative, Getresponse is another option. It offers email marketing, automation, autoresponders, a landing page builder, and more.

Main differences between GetResponse and Constant Contact

GetResponse has some unique features that give it an edge over Constant Contact, namely:

• Webinars for up to 500 attendees (the number of seats varies according to different pricing tiers)
• A conversion funnel builder
• Ecommerce integrations (for example, Shopify) to populate your product inventory on landing pages and in emails
• The GetResponse base plan includes autoresponders and the option to code your own templates. Automated segmentation starts with the ‘Plus’ plan at $45.
• GetResponse offers a free plan for up to 500 contacts.

GetResponse vs. Constant Contact pricing

GetResponse is significantly cheaper, which makes it one of the more cost-effective Constant Contact alternatives.

5. MailerLite

MailerLite is a fast growing email marketing provider based out of Vilnius, Lithuania.

Main differences between MailerLite and Constant Contact

• MailerLite offers 24/7 email & live chat support on premium plans. Constant Contact’s support hours are 8am – 10pm ET Monday – Saturday.
• MailerLite’s file manager feature has an integration with Google Drive and helps keep email campaign images organized.
• MailerLite’s paid plan has detailed campaign reports in real-time including click maps and opens by location.
• MailerLite has a free plan but with some limitations (e.g. no access to email templates).
• With MailerLite you can connect your domain to create custom URLs for landing pages.

MailerLite vs. Constant Contact pricing

MailerLite works out considerably cheaper, making it one of the more competitive Constant Contact alternatives.

6. ConvertKit

ConvertKit brands itself as the email platform for content creators: bloggers, artists, musicians, Youtubers, etc. Basically anyone running a creative business.

Main differences between ConvertKit and Constant Contact

• ConvertKit offers more advanced automation possibilities.
• ConvertKit doesn’t have an email template gallery. Instead, users are encouraged to send plain-text emails. This, they say, improves deliverability and lets the reader focus on the email content/messaging.

Images in newsletters: To add them or avoid them? Read more in our guide to newsletter images. Or, check out this article on how to create a newsletter from start to finish.

• ConvertKit lets you create multiple forms for different opt-in incentives. It’s super easy to create a new form and add your content upgrade (e.g. cheat sheet, ebook, etc.) to the confirmation email.

ConvertKit vs. Constant Contact pricing

ConvertKit has a free version for up to 300 subscribers. Pricing after that starts at $15 per month for 300 subscribers.

Out of all the Constant Contact alternatives on this list, ConvertKit is definitely one of the more expensive options. That said, its position toward content creators makes it unique.

7. Moosend

Moosend is a European-based email service provider offering an affordable solution to manage marketing and transactional emails.

Main differences between Moosend and Constant Contact

• Both Moosend and Constant Constant offer the possibility to create landing pages.
• Moosend comes with a handy email subject line tester called Refine.
• You can send transactional emails with Moosend over its SMTP server.
• If you don’t want to sign up to a monthly plan with Moosend, you have the option to purchase email credits instead.

Moosend vs Constant Contact pricing

At nearly half the price, Moosend is a clear winner over Constant Contact in terms of pricing. Moosend does not offer a free plan, only a 30-day free trial.

8. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is one of the biggest names in the email marketing space. They’re no longer focused on just email though, Mailchimp now offers an all-in-one marketing platform. 

Main differences between Mailchimp and Constant Contact

• Mailchimp has a free plan of up to 2,000 emails/day and 10,000 emails/month for 2,000 contacts. This is great for someone just starting out. Unfortunately the prices rise sharply the more subscribers you get.
• Mailchimp counts one subscriber in several lists as multiple subscribers.
• Both are known for being user-friendly and suited to email marketing beginners.
• While Mailchimp offers email client testing, Constant Contact has an email error testing feature.
• Mailchimp has more options when it comes to A/B testing (subject lines, names, content, and send time). Constant Contact only offers A/B tests for subject lines and on its ‘Email Plus’ plan.

Mailchimp vs Constant Contact pricing

Mailchimp is far from the cheapest Constant Contact alternative on this list. Advanced automation and segmentation aren’t available on Mailchimp’s Free or Essential Plans so be prepared to pay extra for these features.

Like Constant Contact, Mailchimp charges transaction fees on all ecommerce purchases they handle (2% on the Free plan, 1.5% on the Core plan, 0.5% on the Plus plan). In addition, Mailchimp users have to foot the bill for their card processing fees. These vary based on location, but European cards incur a 1.4% + $0.25 fee on every transaction. For non-European cards, it’s even higher— 2.9% + $0.25.

Though, like Constant Contact, Mailchimp also offers a discount to non-profit organizations.

Hesitating about switching to Mailchimp? Check out these Mailchimp alternatives.

9. EmailOctopus

EmailOctopus started off as a plugin application for Amazon SES (Amazon’s transactional email service) and has since grown into a fully fledged email marketing platform. It comes equipped with everything you need to get started with basic email marketing campaigns include a drag and drop email editor, 

Comparing EmailOctopus & Constant Contact features

• EmailOctopus offers much the same features as Constant Contact (simple automation sequences, a template library, segmentation, form builder, etc.).
• If you use Amazon SES, EmailOctopus integrates directly with customers’ AWS accounts and gives an intuitive front end on top of the SES platform.
• Being EU-based, EmailOctopus puts strong emphasis on GDPR compliance.
• EmailOctopus lets you personalize emails with custom contact fields.

EmailOctopus vs Constant Contact Pricing

EmailOctopus doesn’t come with any bells or whistles but it’s a solid choice if you’re looking for an affordable Constant Contact alternative.

10. Campaign Monitor

Last but not least, Campaign Monitor is another Constant Contact alternative that lets you create, send, manage and track email campaigns.

Main differences between Campaign Monitor and Constant Contact

• Get simple automation sequences on the Campaign Monitor ‘Basic’ plan. For more advanced automation you need to scale up to a higher tier.
• Campaign Monitor has transactional email capability.
• You can set up dynamic email content using if/else conditions.
• Campaign Monitor has 24/7 live customer support.

Campaign Monitor vs Constant Contact pricing

It’s not the cheapest on this list but you’ll still earn some small savings by switching from Constant Contact to Campaign Monitor.

Test Drive Constant Contact Alternatives

Having gone through 10 of the most popular and cost-effective Constant Contact alternatives, you hopefully have a better idea of what options are out there. 

As with any digital marketing tool, the best option for you may not be the best option for your neighbor. For this reason, we suggest trying out a few different email marketing platforms to compare features and pricing, to see which is the most intuitive and user-friendly for your team, and to find one with customer support that matches your needs.

In the end, an email marketing solution is meant to work for you and support your business’s growth. At Sendinblue, this is exactly our goal, so why not try things out with a free account?

The post 10 Constant Contact Alternatives: 2022 Pricing and Features Comparison appeared first on Sendinblue.

To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of the best and the cheapest options available. 

Something to be aware of is that while many of the above email marketing services offer unlimited monthly email sends on their cheapest plans, you’re only able to send unlimited emails to your contact list, which is typically the limiting factor on entry-level plans.

With Sendinblue, your contact storage will always be unlimited. Instead, you pay for the volume of emails you send, starting at $25 for 20,000 emails per month.

The Best Cheap Email Marketing Services to Save You Money

1. Sendinblue

Sendinblue is an excellent choice of a cheap email marketing platform. It has all the digital tools needed if you’re just starting your business, or taking it online. You can mix and match the various features to suit your own needs and budget.

What email features does Sendinblue offer?

Sendinblue is cheap compared to other best-in-class email marketing services because we don’t charge you for storing your contacts, only for the volume of emails sent. (We don’t think it’s very fair to make you charge more for growing your business and gaining more customers… that’s the whole point!)

Even better, Sendinblue offers all email features a business needs under one roof. Let’s take a look:

Easy drag-and-drop email editor

Creating beautiful emails is easy with Sendinblue. The editor is intuitive and lets you quickly put together a professional-looking design that’s responsive on any device. Add buttons, personalization, and design elements without any tech know-how. There are also ready templates available to use (even on the free plan!).

Contact segmentation

Sendinblue lets you easily segment your contacts into curated lists for email marketing campaigns using past behaviors, declared interests through opt-in forms, and other attributes. This way, you can target various subgroups of your audience with precision.

Email personalization

Sendinblue gives you limitless options for personalizing your email messages. From personal attributes like name and city to behavior attributes like last purchased item and discount applied, it’s all usable in emails sent with Sendinblue. This creates a better customer experience and gets you better results from email marketing. 

Transactional email

An email marketing tool is incomplete without transactional emails service. You can send essential emails like registrations, order confirmations, and password resets with Sendinblue. What’s even better is that you can brand those transactional emails and enjoy premium deliverability rates.

Marketing automation

Marketing automation lets you respond to certain customer behaviors and trigger predefined actions so you nurture your audience at scale. Send emails or SMS, update contacts by their interactions with your website and campaigns, and create lists for engagement — Sendinblue’s automation does it all.

A/B testing

For best results, Sendinblue makes it possible to test subject lines and content of an email campaign. Plain text vs image-rich email? A fun, punny subject line or a serious one? You’ll know after an easy A/B test.

Signup forms

Signup forms help your email marketing efforts by collecting email addresses of potential leads. With Sendinblue, you can create your own branded signup forms in minutes and start building your email list within the platform. No extra tools or exports needed. What’s more, you can collect various details with dropdown lists, radio buttons, and input fields, and use them for targeted segmentation later.

Check out these newsletter signup form examples for inspiration!

GDPR compliance

Sendinblue makes being GDPR compliant easy! You can quickly add double opt-ins or email preference checkboxes on your signup forms. Then, you can manage subscribers in accordance with the permission they gave and not break the law.

Other Sendinblue features

In addition to a complete email marketing service, Sendinblue also gives you:

• SMS marketing
• Live chat software
• Landing page builder
• CRM
• Shared inbox

Sendinblue has countless digital marketing tools under its belt, all the while being one of the cheapest email marketing platforms on the market. There’s even a free plan available for up to 300 emails a day and unlimited contacts (unlike other email marketing services).

2. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is often the go-to cheap email marketing service provider for those new to the scene. The intuitive interface lets you set up several campaigns, tag subscribers, and create automated workflows. 

Mailchimp has affordable email marketing options and offers advanced audience insights, custom branding, and a host of templates to choose from. There’s a free option too for up to 2,000 subscribers. 

If you’re not happy with it, however, you can check out the 11 best Mailchimp alternatives.

3. Constant Contact

Constant Contact’s drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create and customize professional-looking emails, while the automations feature lets you build out trigger-based email series to better connect with your subscribers. The ability to import subscribers from external lists and the transactional email element makes it a good bet for ecommerce brands. 

There’s a free plan and the cheapest paid plan starts at $9.99 per month for 500 contacts and a host of powerful features. 

Not sure? Find more Constant Contact alternatives.

4. ConvertKit 

ConvertKit specializes in helping creatives and bloggers reach and build relationships with their audiences. The platform has an ever-expanding range of email templates to use as well as landing page designs that have been created specifically with conversions in mind. 

The dashboard is easy-to-use with visual workflows that help you map out trigger-based campaigns. There’s a free plan for up to 300 subscribers, but this doesn’t include the automated sequences and funnels. To set that up, you’ll need to sign up for the next plan up, which starts at $15 per month for 300 subscribers. 

5. Cake Mail

Make your own branded templates (or choose from a selection of professionally-designed ones) and manage your subscribers using Cake Mail’s groups and segmentation features. 

The aim of Cake Mail is simplicity, allowing beginners to focus on their messaging without having to worry about their design skills. There’s a free plan you can sign up for to see if you like the platform, otherwise the cheapest plan starts at just $7 a month for up to 500 subscribers and 6,000 emails sent.

Want to compare with Sendinblue’s design options? Take a look at our 40 email newsletter templates to see what’s the best fit for your business!

6. MailerLite 

MailerLite is a simple platform with powerful features. The design features let you create beautifully branded email templates and landing pages, while automation, personalization, and segmentation allow you to build deeper relationships with your subscribers. 

There’s also the opportunity to A/B test campaigns and use advanced audience insights to better understand the people you’re talking to. There’s a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails sent. Once you reach that level, you’ll be bumped up to the $10 per month plan, with prices increasing the more subscribers you get.

Hesitating between MailerLite and Sendinblue? Take a look at this side-by-side comparison!

7. GetResponse

GetResponse has all the tools you need to send out one-time broadcasts and create ongoing email campaigns. It comes complete with premade autoresponders, templates for trigger-based emails, powerful segmentation features, and professionally designed templates to ensure your emails are eye-catching when they land in your subscribers’ inboxes.

You can try a 30-day free trial to begin with. The forever-free plan includes basic email features and up to 500 contacts. After that, the cheapest plan starts at $15 per month. 

Want to learn more about the differences between Get Response and Sendinblue? Check out our comparative guide!

8. SendGrid

SendGrid is another cheap email marketing service to consider. It’s been created with developers and marketers in mind to help them build and send engaging email campaigns. It comes with all the usual features, like email automation options, signup forms, pre-made landing page designs, A/B testing, and advanced insights. 

The free plan lets you send 6,000 emails a month to 2,000 contacts. Otherwise, paid prices start at $15 per month for more advanced features. The good thing is SendGrid charges by emails sent, not contacts just like Sendinblue.

Read more: The Best SendGrid Alternatives for Transactional Email

9. Aweber

Aweber’s in-built AI-powered design assistant helps you create beautiful and branded emails in a matter of minutes. The platform also features a drag-and-drop template builder and landing page designer so you can keep everything looking good and on brand. There’s also a powerful automations feature and a campaign marketplace where you can import high-performing campaigns into your account to use as a guide. 

There is a new free plan for up to 500 subscribers. After that, prices start at $19.99 per month. 

Read more: AWeber vs Sendinblue

10. Moosend 

Moosend is a fully-functioning and cheap email marketing service with all the features you need to create beautiful campaigns that convert. You can create branded landing pages using the premade templates for inspiration, send automated emails based on subscriber behavior, and tap into the ecommerce AI feature to generate more sales. 

The free plan lets you send unlimited emails to up to 1,000 subscribers. If you have more people on your list than core features, you’ll need to move up to the paid plans which start at $10 per month. 

11. Omnisend 

Automated workflow templates, premade dynamic forms, and professionally-designed email templates let you build out an eye-catching email campaign quickly and easily. Other features include an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, SMS campaigns, and powerful ecommerce segmentation tools. 

The free plan lets you send up to 500 emails a month, while paid plans start at $16 per month and increase as you grow your subscriber list. 

12. SendPulse

SendPulse is actually a multi-channel marketing platform with a cheap email marketing service that comes as part of it. There’s a drag-and-drop email editor that lets you create branded and beautiful newsletters in seconds, as well as automation and personalization features that allow you to continue to build a connection with your subscribers without any extra effort. 

The free plan lets you hold up to 500 subscribers but is limited on the features front. Otherwise, paid plans start at a very reasonable $8 per month. 

13. Mailjet 

Create meaningful emails that engage your subscribers with Mailjet’s range of easy-to-use features. Design responsive emails using premade templates in just a few clicks, manage and segment your audience so you can send the right message to the right people, and monitor your campaign results with advanced insights. 

The free plan lets you send up to 6,000 emails a month, 200 emails per day. Want to send more? The basic paid plan starts at $15 per month for 15,000 emails and no daily sending limit. All around, it’s a high-quality option for a cheap email marketing software.

Further reading: Comparing Mailjet and Sendinblue

14. Email Octopus

Email Octopus is all about simplicity and helping businesses engage with their subscribers in a consistent and meaningful way. A range of simple template designs for every industry ensure your emails look professional, while easy automation features let you communicate with people outside of manual newsletters. There are also smart analytics you can tap into to measure and track the results of your email campaigns. 

If you have less than 2,500 subscribers and send less than 10,000 emails per month, you can sign up for the free plan. Alternatively, paid plans start at $24 per month. 

15. Benchmark 

Next up on our list of the best cheap email marketing services is Benchmark. Benchmark’s features have been specifically designed to help you grow your subscriber list and business. Everything is customizable, from the email templates to the premade landing pages and automated workflows. Reporting features and lead generation tools help you make the most of your emails and get the best results possible. 

Like most options here, there is a free plan that lets you send up to 250 emails per month. After that, prices start at $15 per month for unlimited emails to up to 500 subscribers. 

16. Sender

Sender helps you create automated email campaigns from scratch with a range of powerful features. Ecommerce brands can import all of their product information with the inbuilt Product Wizard, which means no more copying and pasting. On top of this, Sender integrates with the majority of popular ecommerce platforms, including WooCommerce.

The free plan lets you have up to 2,500 subscribers and send 15,000 emails a month. Paid plans start at €15 per month. 

17. RedCappi 

Simplicity is the name of the game for RedCappi. The platform has a really simple interface with drag-and-drop elements to help you build your emails quickly. You can also use the inbuilt automated email schedules to send out your emails when your audience is most engaged. On top of this, you can personalize your emails and A/B test campaigns to see which ones perform best. 

It’s free to have up to 100 subscribers. After that, prices start at $10 per month. 

18. Pabbly

Pabbly (formerly MailGet) lets you create automated email campaigns geared for conversions. The drag-and-drop editor lets you build emails in minutes, while drip automation, list management, and list cleaning let you keep your campaigns high-performing and your subscribers engaged.

There is a free plan that you can sign up for while you explore the features, but to start sending emails you’ll need to sign up for one of the paid plans. Prices start at $29 per month. 

Choosing the Right Cheap Email Marketing Software

The key to success with email marketing starts with choosing the right email marketing provider. Compare the options available and align them with your budget to find the option that provides you with all the features you need and is within your price range. 

And remember, even though this article is about cheap email marketing services, the cheapest option may not be the best one. All the options on this list offer affordable pricing, but the best way to find the ideal email marketing platform for your business is by testing out your options! 

The post 18 Best Cheap Email Marketing Services for 2022 appeared first on Sendinblue.

But it’s always smart to check what Klaviyo alternatives are there, too. Comparing prices and capabilities will help you choose the best tool for your own needs.

So here we’ve selected the top email marketing solutions that can be called Klaviyo competitors in terms of features and pricing plans. You can look at the price comparison table and explore how each one compares to Klaviyo to decide whether to switch or not.

What Klaviyo offers

• Ecommerce focused
• SMS Marketing
• Automation — advanced triggers, split flows, combine emails and SMS
• Segmentation — behavioral and transactional data, customer profiles
• Personalization thanks to extensive data
• Forms — including multi-step ones
• Reports — focused on revenue, not email metrics
• predictive analytics — predict certain customer metrics and attributes
• Email templates available
• Integrations with all major ecommerce platforms, special focus on Shopify

Klaviyo pricing

This is an overview of Klaviyo’s pricing for different contact list sizes. This is only for emails, texting comes on top. 

Klaviyo downsides

And here are a few reasons to make you look for Klaviyo alternatives:

• Steep pricing. Emails and SMS to 10,000 contacts a month will cost you $600.
• SMS available only in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia.
• Customer reviews most often mention dissatisfactory customer support.
• If you have or want to grow to a large contact list, price can be prohibitive.
• If you don’t run an ecommerce store where emails can pay for themselves directly, it might be too expensive for its worth. 
• It might have features that are too complex for what your small business needs, e.g. predictive analytics.
• Because of its high price, complexity, and a tendency to push you to talk to sales instead of letting you sign up directly, it feels like more of an enterprise solution.

Klaviyo Alternatives to Switch To

This is a price comparison table of the top alternatives to Klaviyo. It looks at the monthly price of sending email marketing campaigns only. Keep in mind that each platform provides different features (e.g. automation, logo removed) at different price tiers. 

*Prices above are based on pricing pages accessed in Jan 2022 and take email + SMS plans where available (SMS credits not included) for the closest possible comparison to Klaviyo.

Now, let’s look at each Klaviyo competitor and how it compares to it to help you choose.

Sendinblue

Sendinblue is an all-in-one marketing platform much like Klaviyo. It combines email marketing and automation tools (incl. transactional emails), SMS marketing, CRM, live chat, shared inbox, and landing page and signup forms builder. Push notifications and advanced ecommerce analytics are coming soon, thanks to Sendinblue’s recent acquisition of PushOwl and Metrilo respectively.

Sendinblue is a comprehensive email marketing service, offering all email features you’ll ever need:

• an intuitive drag and drop email builder;
• a huge range of dynamic content for email personalization;
• A/B testing beyond the subject line; 
• a library of email templates.

Further features provided by Sendinblue are: 

• multichannel automation (email + SMS + contact management);
• pre-built automation flows (abandoned cart, product purchase, welcome message, interaction with a campaign, anniversary or birthday, etc.);
• rich contact segmentation;
• GDPR-compliant and multi-step forms;
• and advanced subscribers list management.

What Sendinblue offers that Klaviyo doesn’t

• Sendinblue doesn’t charge you for your contact list size! You pay only for the number of emails sent to unlimited contacts. Sendinblue’s mission is to help small businesses grow and not charging for contact storage is one way we do that. 

• Dedicated transactional email capability. Klaviyo lets you send those through the email marketing automation, which is not ideal for deliverability and might take too much time. In contrast, Sendinblue offers you four ways to make sure your customers get those essential emails on time: a dedicated SMTP server (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), API, ecommerce plugins, or automation. Pick the best option for your website and business!

• Tons of merge tags (a.k.a. dynamic content) options
• Email testing on different email clients
• Email Send Time Optimization — send emails at the best time for each individual contact
• Focus on GDPR across features
• Additional marketing channels: live chat, landing pages, more coming soon

Reasons to choose Sendinblue over Klaviyo

First and foremost, Sendiblue’s way more budget-friendly than Klaviyo, while providing comparable service and tools. It even offers a generous free plan! See a simple price comparison: 

Why switch from Klaviyo to Sendinblue?

Other reasons to switch from Klaviyo to Sendinblue are:

• Sendinblue is better for reaching European customers. It has EU-based servers and all the consent tools to help you be GDPR-compliant.

• Klaviyo is aimed at ecommerce stores. For service-based businesses, non-profits, consultants, SMBs, offline businesses, or businesses with a longer sales process, Sendinblue can better answer your needs.

• If you run a small business, non-profit organization, or otherwise want to engage your audience rather than sell directly, Klaviyo won’t pay for itself. Sendinblue is more suitable for sending mass emails to unlimited contacts to engage them at a better price. 

Here’s a detailed comparison of Sendinblue vs. Klaviyo to help you decide.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp offers all core email features and is wildly popular. Its ease of use is great for beginners just starting out with email marketing. 

Some noteworthy features are:

• Import of branding elements from your site for easy and quick customization of emails
• Predicted demographics
• Website builder, forms and landing pages
• Send time optimization
• Surveys for gathering feedback
• Subject line helper
• Benchmark to peers

A few cons of Mailchimp:

• No SMS marketing offered
• Ready-to-use email templates are available only on paid plans. (Check out those 9 sites for free email templates.)
• Advanced features like dynamic content are only available on more expensive plans.

Mailchimp vs Klaviyo pricing

Like Klaviyo, Mailchimp’s pricing isn’t based on the number of emails you send as much as the number of contacts you store. For those just starting out, this isn’t much of a problem. But once your business grows, you’ll quickly have to upgrade your plan.

For ecommerce businesses, note that Mailchimp changes a transaction fees on all purchases it handles in addition to making its users foot the credit card processing fees. To avoid this, consider these Mailchimp alternatives. 

Other than that, Mailchimp is more affordable than Klaviyo (see table above), especially if you don’t sell online.

Constant Contact

If you have a small business, non-profit, or organize events, Constant Contact might be the Klaviyo alternative for you. 

In addition to essential features such as a drag-and-drop editor and subject line A/B testing, it lets you collect feedback, request donations, and ask for RSVPs in emails. You can also manage events and even collect email addresses on the spot through Constant Contact’s integration with Eventbrite. 

A landing page builder is available for both lead generation and shoppable product display. CC doubles as a social media scheduling tool, too. You can post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and monitor performance and engagement.

If you’re looking for a more affordable alternative to Klaviyo, though, be warned that if you sell anything online, Constant Contact charges you 1.5% of all your online sales on top of the subscription plan. That’s a lot for ecommerce businesses! The good thing is you can take up their 60-day trial to see if you like it enough.

Read more: Constant Contact alternatives

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is yet another Klaviyo alternative. It tries to position itself as a marketing automation platform for small businesses, non-profits, tech companies, bloggers, real estate, and more, but mostly highlights its ecommerce functionality.

Regardless of your industry, you can take advantage of ActiveCampaign’s advanced automation that lets you set up complex sales funnels with conversion goals such as webinar sign-ups. This can be a challenge for beginners as much as it’s useful. Luckily, AC’s big library of pre-built automations and email templates can help.

Additional features include live chat and sales tools like pipeline management for companies with complex sales processes. 

Two reasons to choose it instead of Klaviyo:

• AC’s SMS marketing works outside of the USA.
• They offer you a price lock for 2 years, which gives you some room to grow your email list before you have to move to a higher tier.

Omnisend

Omnisend also positions itself for online stores. It offers email, SMS, and automation just like Klaviyo. It’s also closest to it in terms of pricing.

Omnisend has most features an ecommerce marketer would need under one roof:

• Pop-ups and forms
• Segmentation
• Push notifications
• Reports

Its best feature is the ability to create multichannel automations, including email, SMS, Facebook Messenger, push notifications, and Google retargeting. Omnisend also offers a wheel of fortune sign-up form.

One downside of it is that there’s a limit on the number of emails that can be sent despite the pricing being tied to email list size. For example, with 5,000 contacts you can only send up to 60,000 emails unless you upgrade.

Drip

Drip is another close Klaviyo competitor. It is also focused on SMS & email automations (as the name suggests) for ecommerce businesses. 

It offers ready “playbooks” or automation workflows for most common ecommerce scenarios such as abandoned carts and welcome series. Powerful segmentation and advanced split testing let you run as many different campaigns as you can think of. Drip’s point-and-click visual email editor might be an inconvenience if you’re used to the drag-and-drop editor offered by Klaviyo and most other email marketing tools.

However, overall, compared to Klaviyo, Drip possibly has a friendlier interface. The pricing of the two is comparable, especially for bigger contact list sizes.

Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is a user-friendly Klaviyo alternative. Its main focus is a drag-and-drop design tool that lets you create beautiful emails and email automation for optimal customer journeys.

Campaign Monitor also connects with your website, apps, and other sources to pull customer data to be used in campaigns. It also provides detailed email analytics to help you improve campaign performance. A nifty little feature Campaign Monitor has is Link Review — it checks your emails for broken links so you can update them. 

It’s worth mentioning that Campaign Monitor offers delivering each email at one and the same local time across geographies. Last but not least, they do have transactional email capabilities.

The Best Klaviyo Alternatives

One of Klaviyo’s biggest downfalls is its price. It surely is a comprehensive tool, but you can find cheaper email marketing services that offer the same features. Even better, why not get started with a free Klaviyo alternative? 

The post Top 7 Klaviyo Alternatives for Small Businesses in 2022 appeared first on Sendinblue.

Think about it: you get to show up in your audience’s inboxes, share your products, and build a sense of trust around your brand. There’s few marketing methods that allow you to do all that at once.

Getting started with email marketing means choosing a reliable email marketing tool that has the capabilities you need to connect with your subscribers. 

There’s a common myth that these tools are expensive, but this is far from the truth. In fact, there are plenty of free email marketing tools with all the features you need to run robust campaigns that convert.

We’ve compiled a list of the best free email marketing tools (or tools that have a free plan), complete with the key features and limitations of each. 

1. Sendinblue
2. Moosend
3. Mailchimp
4. Hubspot
5. Benchmark
6. Omnisend
7. Sender
8. MailerLite
9. SendPulse
10. Email Octopus
11. Mailjet
12. Zoho
13. GetResponse

Free Email Marketing Services at a Glance

*For free plans, as of 02/15/22

The Best Free Email Marketing Tools 

1. Sendinblue

Sendinblue is so much more than just an email marketing tool. It’s a complete sales and marketing toolbox that has all the features you need to create powerful email marketing campaigns that resonate with your audience.

Sendinblue’s free plan lets you send up to 300 emails a day and have an unlimited number of subscribers. The intuitive drag-and-drop editor means you can bring your vision to life and send stunning emails to your subscribers in a matter of minutes using pre-made, professionally-designed email templates.

Grow your email list with customizable sign-up forms and maintain your customer relationships with transactional emails. Sendinblue lets you send time-sensitive transactional emails over its SMTP server as part of your monthly email allowance (even offers a free SMTP server for testing) – this is a great addition for ecommerce businesses. 

Complete with an email template library, personalization software for emails and SMS, and an SMS marketing option, the free plan has everything you need to get started with email marketing.

Here’s everything you get with Sendinblue’s free plan: 

• Mobile-friendly email designer
• Email template library
• Email and SMS personalization
• SMS marketing 
• Unlimited contacts and details
• Advanced segmentation 
• Customizable signup forms
• Sales CRM
• Chat 
• Transactional emails 
• Core API features
• Advanced templating language 
• Workflow editor
• Page tracking 
• Real-time reporting 
• API and plugins
• Email support 

2. Moosend 

Like Sendinblue, Moosend is an all-in-one marketing platform that provides services like a landing page builder and ecommerce AI. The email marketing service is one of its numerous offerings. 

Because of this, you can access quite a lot of features on the free plan. For starters, you can have up to 1,000 subscribers and can send unlimited emails throughout the month. Their other popular features include sign-up form templates and advanced reporting. 

The features you don’t have access to on the free plan are the services associated with Moosend’s other marketing offerings, like landing pages and transactional emails. As well, support services on their free plans are fairly limited.

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Here’s what you get with Moosend’s free plan: 

• Unlimited emails 
• Sign up forms and subscription forms
• Advanced reporting and analytics 
• Email campaigns 
• Sign-up forms 
• Selection of basic email templates
• Countdown timers 
• AI-Engine product recommendations 
• Automation workflow designer 
• Pre-built automation templates 
• Email heatmap analytics 
• A/B testing 

3. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is all about helping small businesses create beautiful campaigns and branded emails that look professional and drive action.

The email builder comes complete with a set of basic templates that you can customize to fit your own branding needs. Basic automations are also included on the free plan. Though relatively limited, these features still allow you to connect with your audience on autopilot depending on their previous actions, likes, and dislikes. 

Mailchimp’s free plan allows up to 2,000 contacts and provides basic segmentation capabilities. The plan gives you access to all the basic features, like the audience dashboard and one-click automations, but it’s limited when it comes to advanced analytics, demographics, and behavior-based automations. If that doesn’t work for you, look at the 11 best Mailchimp alternatives.

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Here are some of the most popular features on Mailchimp’s free plan:: 

• Basic email templates
• Marketing CRM
• Surveys
• Custom domains
• One-click automations 
• Up to 2,000 subscribers 
• Audience dashboard
• Behavioral targeting 
• Basic segmentation 
• Landing pages (including shoppable landing pages)
• Popup forms 
• Basic reports
• Integration with more than 200 apps 

Hesitating between Sendinblue and Mailchimp? Take a look at this detailed comparison Alternatively, take a look at these Mailchimp alternatives.

4. HubSpot Email Marketing

HubSpot is another wide-reaching growth platform that helps you scale your business in a number of directions. One of their offerings is an email marketing tool.

Their email software uses an intuitive drag and drop editor. You can choose from a selection of pre-made goal-based templates that you can edit as you like.

On the free plan, you can send up to 2,000 emails per month, regardless of the number of subscribers you have. You can even preview your emails as a specific contact before sending to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Once your emails are sent, you can measure the success of your campaign using the analytics dashboard that is designed to optimize your email marketing strategy with user-friendly charts and click maps. 

Because HubSpot is an all-in-one platform, the free plan gives you access to all of HubSpot’s free tools. This way, your emails are connected to the free CRM, which stores all of your subscribers’ information and logs every one of their interactions with your business.

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Here are some of the most popular features on HubSpot’s free plan: 

• Send up to 2,000 emails a month
• Create up to 5 active and 1000 static lists
• Customizable signup forms, pop ups, slide-in boxes, and dropdown banners
• Goal-based email templates
• CRM that automatically logs all of your contacts’ information and interactions with your business
• Basic email analytic reports
• Live chat and chatbots
• Ad management
• Ticketing

Hesitating between Sendinblue and Hubspot? Take a look at this detailed comparison.

5. Benchmark 

Benchmark offers a simple free email marketing tool for small businesses looking for a quick and easy solution. It’s not quite as advanced as some of the other options here, but it does provide a range of key features on its free plan.

Not only can you have unlimited contacts, but you can send up to 250 emails a month to your list. There is also access to a basic but consistent level of support and some intuitive email marketing automations. 

The free plan doesn’t include any A/B testing capabilities or the opportunity to segment your list, but if you’re looking for a very easy-to-use platform and have a relatively small list, Benchmark could be a good fit.

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Here are some of the most popular features on Benchmark’s free plan: 

• Unlimited contacts
• 250 emails per month
• Basic support
• Basic email marketing 
• Basic email automation 

6. Omnisend 

Omnisend is a platform dedicated to creating omni channel campaigns. That is, campaigns that span multiple different platforms. It specializes predominantly in email and SMS marketing and has a robust free plan that’s easy-to-use and does just as it says for small businesses and email marketing newbies.

The plan lets you store as many contacts as you like, but only allows you to contact 250 of your stored contacts per month. With a sending limit of 500 emails per month, that comes out to being able to email 250 contacts twice per month.

In terms of features, Omnisend recently started providing pre-built automations and workflows as well as segmentation and customer analytics on their free plan. 

However, there are a few more limitations to be aware of with this option. If you plan to upgrade your sending limits, you can expect to pay significantly more. Sending to just 10,000 contacts will cost you $115 per month.

Compared to other email marketing services on this list, this is a pretty steep price. The free plan has an impressive amount of features, but if you’re looking to send in high quantities, it’ll cost you. This is why we think Omnisend is so great for those just starting out.

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Here are some of the most popular features on Omnisend’s free plan: 

• Send 250 contacts two emails per month
• Email campaigns & SMS 
• Signup forms, sign up boxes, and customized pop ups
• Signup form reports
• Campaign reports 
• Custom targeting and timing 
• Selection of premade email templates 
• Prebuilt workflows and automations
• Segmentation and customer analytics

7. Sender

Sender is all about providing a cheap and easy way for small businesses to stay in touch with their audiences. The most notable thing about the platform is the relatively low cost of its email marketing packages.

However, despite its low prices, the platform still provides all the basics you need for a simple and effective email marketing campaign, including simple automation features.

The free plan allows up to 2,500 subscribers and lets you send up to 15,000 emails a month, which is a lot higher than most of the other platforms here. On top of this, you get all the features for free. 

The only difference between the plans is that you are automatically upgraded to one of the paid plans when you reach a certain number of subscribers. 

While it might not have the advanced features of some of the other platforms here, you can still create email workflows, build out simple drip campaigns, and segment your audience with the free plan.

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Here are some of the most popular features on Sender’s free plan: 

• Up to 2,500 subscribers
• Up to 15,000 emails per month
• Web push notifications
• Subscription forms 
• Mobile responsive pre-made email templates 
• Advanced email analytics 
• Drag-and-drop email editor 

8. MailerLite

MailerLite provides an easy way to connect with your customers through basic email campaigns and simple automations. The service prides itself on keeping things stripped back and only provides the key email marketing essentials. 

The free account lets you store up to 1,000 contacts and send up to 12,000 emails a month.

It comes with the majority of features of the paid plans (which are determined by how many subscribers you have), but doesn’t include personal branding options or the advanced capabilities that enterprise, professional companies might need, like live chat support, custom HTML editor, promotion popups, or A/B testing. 

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Here are some of the most popular features included on the MailerLite free plan: 

• Up to 1,000 subscribers
• 12,000 emails per month
• Video tutorials and detailed knowledge base
• 24/7 email support 
• Drag and drop editor 
• Over 25 mobile-friendly, customizable templates
• Mobile optimized landing pages and embedded signup forms 
• Email automations
• Advanced segmentation 
• A/B testing 
• Surveys 

9. SendPulse

SendPulse is more than an email marketing tool. Its multi-platform solution allows you to create high-tech omni-channel campaigns. Altogether, they offer email marketing, transactional emails, SMS, web push notification, chat, email verification, and website services.

The free email marketing plan is for up to 500 subscribers and allows you to send up to 15,000 emails each month. Compared to the paid plans, the free plan comes with most of the same features, just in limited quantity.

Basically, SendPulse’s pricing model is determined by how many subscribers you have and how many emails you need to send each month rather than the features that you do and do not have access to. That said, two major exceptions are segmentation and A/B testing, which are not offered on the free plan.

Let’s say you’re sending 15,000 emails a month — one weekly newsletter to each of your 5,000 subscribers. You could still stay on the free plan with this number of emails. But having more than 500 subscribers means you’d have to upgrade. Your options would look like this:

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Here’s what you get with SendPulse’s free plan: 

• Up to 500 subscribers
• Send up to 15,000 emails each month 
• Easy-to-use email editor
• Subscription forms 
• Over 130 mobile-friendly email templates 
• Email automation and personalization features
• Advanced reporting 
• One landing page

10. Email Octopus 

Email Octopus’ email marketing tool offers the usual features like pre-made templates to make your emails look great and basic automations that let you engage subscribers without having to manually send out campaigns.

The free plan lets you have up to 2,500 subscribers and send up to 10,000 emails each month, but key statistics like open rates and click throughs are only stored for 30 days. You get basic support on the free plan which is usually enough for small businesses that aren’t running overly complicated campaigns. 

Limitations of the free version include limited templates and Email Octopus branding in emails. 

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Here’s what you get with Email Octopus’ free plan: 

• Up to 2,500 subscribers
• Up to 10,000 emails per month
• Statistics and analytics stored for 30 days
• Basic support 
• Email builder (HTML & drag and drop)
• 30 responsive email templates
• Advanced segmentation

10. Mailjet

Mailjet’s goal is to help businesses send meaningful emails to their subscribers and create powerful campaigns. Like most of the other free email marketing tools listed here, it offers an intuitive email builder with a simple drag-and-drop editor that lets you create responsive emails quickly. 

A particularly attractive aspect of their free plan is that you can have an unlimited number of subscribers. However, the number of emails you can send is limited to 200 per day. This plan also includes an advanced email editor and advanced statistics so you can track which emails perform best and who your most engaged subscribers are.

What this plan doesn’t include is audience segmentation capabilities, A/B testing opportunities, or automation features. In fact, A/B testing and automation features are only available in the Premium and Enterprise plans.

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Here’s what you get with MailJet’s free plan: 

• Unlimited contacts
• APIs, STMP relay, and Webhooks
• Advanced email editor
• Integrations
• Basic statistics 
• 6,000 emails per month (or 200 emails per day) 

Hesitating between Sendinblue and Mailjet? Take a look at this detailed comparison

12. Zoho

Next on our list of free email marketing services is Zoho. Alongside their broad suite of CRM, online workspace, finance, human resources, and IT management platforms, Zoho provides an email marketing tool.

Their forever free plan allows you to send up to 12,000 emails per month to 2,000 contacts. The main limitation is that the free plan includes no email automation or SMS features. As well, the free plan won’t allow you to integrate Zapier or Litmus apps. 

For those getting started with email marketing, however, the free plan does have a lot to offer. Free users have access to Zoho’s drag and drop editor, newsletter templates, contact list management to ensure deliverability, A/B testing, and more. 

When it comes to upgrading, things get a bit pricier. To get access to functionalities like automation with 20,000 contacts, it’ll cost you around $123 per month.

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Here’s what you can expect from Zoho’s free plan:

• Send 6,000 emails per month
• 2000 contacts
• 5 account users
• Drag and drop editor & pre-built templates
• Basic email list segmentation
• Sign-up forms & basic contact list management
• A/B testing
• Send test emails

13. GetResponse

GetResponse offers an email marketing software that allows you to create and send high-quality professional newsletter campaigns. Their free plan includes key features like a visual email editor, basic contact management, pre-designed email templates, and sign-up forms. 

Where their services become a bit limited is with transactional emails and segmentation. As well, their free plan won’t allow you to use any integrations. In fact, these features are only fully available from the Plus plan and up. 

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Something that sets GetResponse apart from the rest, however, is that they offer pretty significant discounts on their paid plans for NGOs and charities. If your organization works in the third sector, GetResponse may be a good email marketing solution for you.

Here are some of the most popular features on GetResponse’s free plan:

• Send unlimited emails per month
• Store up to 500 contacts
• Drag and drop creator
• Pre-designed email templates
• Landing pages
• Sign-up forms
• Website builder
• SEO optimization tools

Email Marketing Tools with Free Trials

Since this article focuses on email marketing services which offer zero-cost solutions, we’ve left out a few notable providers. Now, these options don’t have free plans available, but their services may be worth looking into if your business has more complicated needs.

1. Constant Contact

Constant Contact offers a results-driven email marketing tool. They offer a sleek drag and drop editor, advanced automation functionality, email list segmentation, features tailored to ecommerce businesses, and many integrations, including WordPress, Shopify, Quickbooks, and Saflesforce . All their plans allow you to send unlimited emails to your contact list. Though, you’ll have to pay extra the more contacts you store.

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Their 60 day free trial includes access to all features as well as a high level of customer support and advice from marketing experts. This is a great option for someone looking to get started in the world of email marketing.

2. Active Campaign

ActiveCampaign is another top-notch email marketing tool. Their plans come chalk-full of features not just limited to email marketing but also sales and customer service suites. All plans include access to marketing automation, unlimited email sending, drag and drop editor, 125 email templates, segmentation, subscription forms, and site tracking.

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While this is certainly an impressive range of features, the plans quickly become more expensive the more contacts you have. For 1000 contacts, their Lite plan comes in at $30 per month. For 10,000 contacts, the price rises to $174 per month.

As well, ActiveCampaign’s free trial lasts only 14 days, which may not be long enough to fully try out all of their platform’s features.

Choose Your Free Email Marketing Tool 

Email marketing is the most effective way to communicate with your customers, whether it’s to confirm an order they’ve made or to promote your latest product line. 

Whatever your aims, choosing a good free email marketing tool is the first step to success. Find a platform that has everything you need and experiment with the features it has on offer. From there, you can build out campaigns to stay connected with your audience and to keep your brand fresh in their minds. 

And if you’re having a hard time choosing the right tool, check out these resources:

• 18 of the Best Cheap Email Marketing Services
• 11 of the Best Email Marketing Services and Platforms
• Top 7 Klaviyo Alternatives for Small Businesses in 2022

The post 13 of the Best Free Email Marketing Tools & Services for 2022 appeared first on Sendinblue.

Mass email, also known as bulk email, refers to the sending of promotional email campaigns to a large list of contacts (customers, subscribers, leads, etc.) to achieve a specific goal, such as to promote a product or communicate important information. 

Mass emails are best managed with a dedicated software solution known as an email marketing service — like Sendinblue.

Naturally, in an effort to cut costs, you might consider Gmail mass email. Small business owners often wonder:

“Wait, can’t I just use Gmail to send mass email campaigns?” 

Technically, yes, you can send mass email with Gmail. However, as it’s not specifically designed for this purpose, you need to be aware of its limits.

This article will do three things:

• Teach you one easy way to send mass email with Gmail
• Explain why Gmail isn’t suited to sending mass emails
• Introduce you to a better alternative

How to send mass email in Gmail

For this method, you will need to use both Gmail and Google Drive.

1. Open a new Google Doc and write your email
2. Open a Google Sheet (spreadsheet)
3. Click on Add-ons and then Get add-ons

   

4. Search for Yet Another Mail Merge and download it for free:

   

5. Back on the spreadsheet, select Add-ons > Yet Another Mail Merge > Start Mail Merge
6. Choose whether to import your contacts directly via Gmail or add email addresses manually
7. Fill out the sender’s name and select your email draft (the first Doc you opened)
8. Click Send X emails (according to the number of emails you have left to send that day)

Why you shouldn’t send mass email in Gmail

Gmail is great for sending emails to individual contacts but, as you’re about to learn, not so great if you want to send mass email.

If you’re looking to grow your business through email marketing, avoid using Gmail for mass email. Sure, it might save you a bit of money to begin with, but you’re going to run into these problems:

You can’t send more than 500 emails per day with Gmail

Mass email in Gmail is limited. The number of emails you can send and receive within a 24-hour time frame is 500. The number of recipients is also limited to 500. 

For any business with a large subscriber list, the 500 limit gets used up quickly. You may end up having to separate lists and spread campaigns over several days. Obviously, this wouldn’t be very efficient.

Once you hit the limit, you have to wait a full 24 hours before you can resume sending emails from the account. When there are other important emails to be sent, this quickly becomes a major inconvenience.

Send mass email with Sendinblue >>

Deliverability issues with mass email Gmail

Gmail has strict sender guidelines when it comes to mass email. Google will temporarily disable your account if your emails have been marked as spam or if you’ve sent a large number of undeliverable messages to invalid email addresses. 

If your sender address ends in @gmail.com, there’s a high chance that your email will never make it to the inbox. Webmail providers are designed for personal use so when a mass email is sent from one of them, it quickly gets flagged as suspicious. 

It’s best to have a sender address that uses your domain name because using an @gmail.com address for business purposes doesn’t look professional.

Limited design capabilities

Gmail is created for one-to-one correspondence. Even in a business context, that usually means plain-text emails with a static signature at best. Not much design needed. And so Gmail doesn’t offer many design capabilities. In fact, Yet Another Mail Merge suggests that you design your newsletter in Google Docs and then import it to Gmail. Using a text editor as a design tool sounds awfully frustrating, time-consuming, and unnecessary. 

Just take a look below – do you want to spend hours doing this:

source

When you can send this, created in minutes with a dedicated email design tool and service:

A ready-made template, available with Sendinblue’s free plan

However, to stand out and get the reader to act on your email, text-based emails might not be appealing enough. Email marketing today has developed itself to a very high standard in terms of design (if you don’t believe us check out these email marketing examples). A plain-text marketing email may not suit your audience or the product you’re trying to sell.

Beautiful branded emails are the norm not just for online stores, but for any business nowadays really. Unfortunately, you need add-ons or Chrome extensions to add graphics, colors, or branding elements to your Gmail mass email.

If you want to compete with the best, you need tools that are optimized for email design.

Why you need an email marketing service like Sendinblue

Gmail mass email will put your sender and brand reputation at risk. To be able to send marketing emails to large volumes of contacts, you need a dedicated bulk email service like Sendinblue. 

You can test-drive Sendinblue’s free plan with up to 300 emails a day and unlimited subscribers. No credit card required.

Test-drive Sendinblue for free >>

Still thinking about Gmail mass email? Here are 5 reasons to invest in a professional email marketing service to send mass email.

Create attractive and engaging emails

Having a sleek and professional email design will build trust in your brand.

A good email marketing service has features that make it easy to design a cool email. Most provide responsive email templates and easy-to-use email editors so you can promote your brand with beautifully designed emails – without having to hire a graphic designer or spend hours coding. 

Inserting images, adding buttons that lead to your website, ensuring emails display correctly on mobile devices – it’s functionalities like these that can drastically improve your email marketing results. You won’t find them in Gmail though.

Better email deliverability

Deliverability refers to the ability of an email to land in a recipient’s inbox and not be sent to the junk mail folder by spam filters.

Deliverability is the most important factor to be taken into account when sending mass email. Between misspelled and expired addresses (tip: avoid these by using a double opt-in process), and anti-spam filters, your email has to go through challenges to make it to the inbox.

Sendinblue has rigorous authentication process to keep spammers out and protect the sender reputation of their shared IP addresses. Dedicated IP addresses are available for high-volume mass email senders.

Because email marketing services are specifically designed for mass emails, deliverability will be far better than with Gmail.

An email limit that matches your needs

With Gmail you can either send 500 emails per day or one email to 500 different recipients.

If your subscriber list contains more than 500 addresses, you’ll be sending mass email campaigns over several days.

Maybe you don’t have anywhere near 500 contacts right now. That’s ok, but if you want to grow your reach through email, a more flexible email marketing service will let you send as much as you need.

With the Sendinblue Lite Plan, the base price of $25 includes 20,000 monthly email sends and unlimited contact storage.

Email performance analytics

When sending a mass email campaign, you’ll want to know if it was delivered, how many people opened it, and clicked on links, etc. In other words — did the campaign achieve its goal?

Measuring performance is a fundamental aspect of your email marketing strategy. You need to be able to measure the impact and results of your actions in order to track your progress or even compare yourself to other players in your industry.

Gmail doesn’t offer reporting features but an email marketing service will give you all the essential email metrics such as open rate, click rate, bounce rate, delivery rate, unsubscribe rate, and more. 

To give you an idea of how such analytics might be presented, here’s a look at the Sendinblue reporting dashboard:

GDPR compliance

The GDPR is an EU legislation that imposes a number of rules concerning how a person’s data is used and collected. This includes email addresses.

Before sending mass email to someone, you need to have received their permission to do so through a process known as an ‘opt-in’. You also need to include an unsubscribe option in your email footer.

Now if you were sending a mass email in Gmail, you’d have to manually check that everyone on your list has opted in and that all unsubscribes have been removed. That would take a lot of time and one small error could have you breaking the law.

Sendinblue is equipped with a number of features that ensure you stay GDPR-compliant such as subscription forms to acquire consent and unsubscribe links in all emails. Additionally, any unsubscribes and hard bounces are automatically removed from your contact lists.

Having an email marketing service that’s optimized for GDPR best practices will save you a lot of time and worry.\

A GDPR-compliant signup form created with Sendinblue

Send mass email with Sendinblue

So, now that you know how to send mass email in Gmail, it doesn’t mean you should.

In fact, we strongly recommend that you don’t.

Having an email marketing solution that’s optimized for mass emails will make your campaigns will look better, deliver to the inbox, and yield better results.

Sendinblue’s email marketing platform gives you all you need to create and manage your mass emails, however big or small your budget. Check out our full range of pricing plans here. 

The post How to Send Mass Email in Gmail appeared first on Sendinblue.

According to Gartner, almost one-third of marketing budgets are now allocated to marketing technology.

This growing figure shows that marketing leaders are becoming increasingly aware of the value of building scalable workflows that drive sustainable success.

As one of the top drivers of ROI, a solid email marketing platform needs to be a key element in your marketing stack.

The Salesforce 2018 State of Marketing Report highlighted email as one of the most important channels in generating engagement and returns across the entire customer journey, from acquisition to retention and upselling.

So if you want to up your email marketing game and boost revenue, investing in the right technology should be a no-brainer for your business.

But with more tools and services on the market than ever before, finding the right solution to fit your specific business needs can be a time-consuming and downright frustrating process – but it doesn’t have to be!

Read on to discover the key factors you should consider when choosing your email marketing services provider.

Choose the right tool for you with our comprehensive email marketing services comparison !

1 – Responsive design

60% of emails are opened on mobile. This means that mobile-optimised emails are no longer a nice to have – they are non-negotiable.

Users not only want attractive emails across all devices – they expect it. Poorly-formatted emails are a sure-fire way to lose existing customers and miss out on valuable opportunities to gain new customers too.

You need a provider that offers beautifully designed emails, built for optimal results across all screens.

It’s likely that your target audience is busier than ever, so you want to make their lives as easy as possible by reaching them on the go with good-looking content that they can consume with ease.

2 – Email Templates

When it comes to email marketing, one of the most important things to consider are the emails themselves.

Choosing a provider with ready-made, responsive email templates will allow you to create emails quickly and easily, without the need for design skills and without compromising quality.

Don’t forget that email objectives can shift, so look for a provider that offers a range of elegant designs and flexible layouts that look great on any device.

If you’re looking for even more powerful design options and to enhance personalisation, then opt for a provider that offers a template language.

A template language allows you to take your emails one step further with dynamic personalisation. You can display specific content to your recipients based on contact attributes or transactional parameters, such as a personalised title, text, or image.

With personalisation big on the email marketing agenda this year, using a template language to adapt your email to each unique user could really set you apart from the competition.

3 – Contact Management

Growing and managing an engaged contact list is one of the most important elements of your email marketing strategy.

With more and more brands competing for attention in your customer’s inbox, the ability to send the right message to the right contacts should be a leading consideration when it comes to choosing your email marketing services provider.

Studies show that 66% of consumers unsubscribe from emails because they aren’t relevant. With the right provider, you can deter your contacts from hitting ‘unsubscribe’ by skillfully segmenting your contact list.

By organizing your email contact list into smaller, more focused lists, you can craft more targeted and relevant content based on the interests of each segment. Emails are not one-size-fits-all.

While one email might appeal to some people on your list, others may need a completely different message. For a lot of organisations this is one of the most challenging steps, but with the right provider this can be a seamless process by simply storing the right attributes in your contact list.

Segmentation can be based on similar interests, demographics, or characteristics.

The criteria you use to segment users must be actionable, so focus on traits that shape your contacts preferences and buying patterns.

The ability to pinpoint certain contacts in your list with search filters is also a valuable functionality to look out for.

Say, you want to send a message to only your biggest customers? Or just those who didn’t open your previous email? Search filters allow you to target these specific groups with a message that’s tailored specifically to them.

This is a great way to forge emotional connections with your contacts by speaking directly to their needs and offering genuine value.

Implementing effective segmentation and searches will allow you to optimise engagement, build stronger customer loyalty, increase deliverability, and better track the success of your various marketing strategies.

For some useful segmentation tips check out our article 7 Email Marketing Best Practices to Succeed in 2019

4 – Automation

Marketing automation is one of the fastest growing tools in terms of adoption among digital marketers – and for good reason!

Think about your most manual tasks – the tasks that you have to continually repeat – day in, day out. Now imagine if you could create a workflow to automatically trigger these tasks so you can focus your time more strategically.

Marketing automation allows you to create workflows to automate and scale your most important tasks, like sending perfectly-timed emails, advanced segmentation, re-engaging inactive subscribers, and so much more.

With automation, you can take your contact list segmentation to the next level by creating dynamically updated segments based on things like website behavior, past email engagement and lead score.

A simple automation workflow will allow you to automatically add contacts to specific lists if and when they meet a certain set of criteria.

By automating workflows you can also ensure that you’re not just sending the right message, but that you’re delivering it at the right time too.

Marketing automation can increase open rates by 71%, so the ability to create custom workflows that perfectly timed messages is essential to optimise the customer experience and maximise the success of your campaigns.

If you want to scale your efforts quickly and build sustainable success, then this feature should be top of your list when searching for the right email marketing services provider.

5 – Customer support

You want to find an email marketing service provider that functions as an extension of your marketing team – and that means seamless and effective communication.

Of course, while choosing the right provider means the need for support is lessened, we all need to call on help every once in a while.

When you do call for support, it’s essential to have an active and capable team at the ready to address and troubleshoot any issues you may have.

Ease of communication, language and operating hours are also important considerations, so make sure your customer support team fit all your business needs.

Finally, look out for the option to upgrade to a dedicated account manager if you decide to ramp up your email marketing activity.

If you’re looking to scale your business quickly, you need a provider that can facilitate your growth.

6 – Pricing

When it comes to email marketing services, the options range from free basic tools to extremely costly providers with lots of advanced functionality.

Your aim should be to find a cost-effective tool for your business, that still delivers the functionality and ROI that you need to scale.

This is easier said than done, especially for small to medium size businesses where the growth trajectory may be difficult to predict.

That’s why you want to find a provider with a flexible pricing model, so you can start as small as you need and grow as big as you want without needing to change services.

For example, when it comes to managing your contacts, fast-growing companies need a tool that can efficiently scale as the business grows.

Most email marketing service providers base their price upon the number of contacts in your lists, which means you can find yourself needing to upgrade your plan pretty quickly.

Opting for a plan that offers unlimited contacts and bases the price on volume of emails instead of the number of contacts could be a more cost-effective option for fast-growing businesses.

This means you can keep growing your contact list in the background and upgrade when you’re ready to scale up your sending volume.

Choosing the right email marketing provider has the power to make or break your marketing success. You want a solution that not only fits your business needs today, but that can facilitate the powerful customer engagement you need to boost revenue and drive growth for your business.

Looking for more information on the best email marketing service for your business? Check out our blog comparing the features and pricing of the top four email marketing service providers to help you figure out which one is best for you.

The post 6 Steps to Finding the Right Email Marketing Service for Your Business appeared first on Sendinblue.

Email marketing has been proven time and time again to be one of the most effective tools for converting prospects and maintaining customer engagement throughout the entire lifecycle.

In an effort to accelerate growth velocity, it can be tempting for business owners to focus on rapid acquisition and short-term payoff. But to achieve sustainable growth, you need a long-term marketing strategy dedicated to meaningful conversions, strong customer loyalty, and high-quality revenue.

The right email marketing services provider can empower you to achieve just this. Read on to find out why.

Already convinced ? Read our article comparing the best email marketing services

1 – Build Awareness

At this stage of your company lifecycle awareness is everything. It’s likely that only a fraction your potential customers know much about your business or your products. So, if you’re not going to tell them, who is?

You need to start building a community of loyal followers and share regular updates with them – only including content that’s valuable, of course. Newsletters are the perfect way to grow this following and increase awareness with your target audience.

Remember, while sharing product information is important to let your potential customers understand what you offer, you need to start telling your brand story too.

Who are you? Where is your business going? Who are your employees? What is the value that you can provide?

You can achieve this through compelling company updates that keep your brand front of mind and keep your existing and potential customers in the loop.

It’s important to make them feel part of your story as your business grows.

2 – Look professional

Your company may still be in the early stages, but that doesn’t mean you should compromise the look and feel of your brand.

You need to keep your communications elegant and sleek from the very beginning in order to build credibility with your target audience.

With so many brands vying for your audience’s attention with beautiful, mobile-optimised emails, poor design just doesn’t cut it anymore. At best you’ll miss out on an open, at worst you’ll seriously hurt your company’s reputation.

Here at Sendinblue, we make it easy for you to create responsive emails with our drag and drop email design tool and library of email templates. Email templates allow you to quickly and easily create well-designed email newsletters to engage your customers – no HTML or CSS knowledge necessary.

With a variety of templates and customisation options to hand, you can find the perfect template to match your brand and keep your communications consistent.

Clean, professional-looking design is essential if you want to catch your prospect’s eye and gain more customers.  

3 – Avoid getting lost in spam

Many small to medium size businesses worry about the cost and time involved in getting set up with an email marketing services provider and choose to send out their own emails blasts instead to dodge the effort and expense.

Before you carry out this DIY approach, you need to stop and consider the long term benefits and rewards of opting for a provider.

Email marketing services are designed for sending high volume email campaigns. Gmail and Outlook are not. Think of all the missed opportunities to gain a new customer or upsell an existing one if your emails are getting lost in spam folders.

You want to optimise email deliverability and open rates by reaching your target audience in their inbox with the right message and at the right time.

Many providers offer free trials without commitment. This allows you to test out the software to ensure it’s intuitive, effective, and the right fit for your business before you commit.

4 – Build an engaged contact list

For SMBs who are looking to scale quickly, growing an email list can feel like a painstakingly slow process. It can be tempting to purchase or rent email lists to gain access to a large number of potential new customers and speed up growth.

This can be a costly mistake that will compromise the growth and reputation of your company for many reasons:

1. You don’t know anything about the people or businesses on the email list, so you have no way to personalise content to make your messages relevant.
2. Few people will open your unsolicited emails and many will report them as spam, hurting your reputation as an email sender.
3. It will be very hard to get a reputable email marketing provider to accept you as a customer with a bad sending history.
4. Depending on the laws in your country, non-opt-in tactics are illegal according to the GDPR.

The point of having a business is that you provide value to your customers by solving a problem. Engaging the right people with your solution is the only way to guarantee long-term, sustainable success.

You can achieve this by growing your content list with an effective email listing building strategy based on customers and prospects who are actually interested in what you have to offer.

Trust and credibility are key ingredients when it comes to forging genuine customer relationships – and delivering relevant, meaningful content is the key to earning this trust.

If you start working on building your email list in the early stages of your company, you won’t have any problem generating meaningful engagement from your subscribers.

Here are just some of the ways to start building your email list:

• Define buyer personas early so you have a clear understanding of the needs and interests of your target audience. This way you can start developing relevant content and messaging to engage your existing and potential customers.
• Create clear and strategically placed sign-up forms across your website with a compelling call-to-action. Sign-up forms are one of the most important barriers to address for gathering new subscribers, so you need to get it right if you want to grow your contact list.
• Make sure you achieve the right balance with your opt-in forms. When designing your forms, include only the necessary form fields to gather information to segment your contact list. Asking for too much information is a big deterrent for subscribers.
• Define your email marketing strategy based on the complete lifecycle of your subscriber. Engaging design, compelling content and targeted contact list segments are key considerations here.
• Provide value through helpful gated resources and tools, such as ebooks, guides, or free demos. The value exchange provides users with a more convincing reason to hand over their data.

Here at Sendinblue, we can help you to collect and manage your contacts with simple, customisable, GDPR-compliant subscription forms that can be integrated directly into the design of your website.

Our powerful subscription editor allows you to personalise forms to match your website and customise the content and user-experience to suit your needs.  

Growing and managing an engaged contact list can be one of the most challenging steps in your email marketing strategy.

But with the right email marketing services provider, you can quickly scale your efforts and start creating high-quality email campaigns to optimise conversions and generate the customer loyalty you need to drive sustainable success.

You may also be interested in: 7 Email Marketing Best Practices to Succeed in 2019

The post 4 Reasons Why You Need an Email Marketing Services Provider for Your SMB appeared first on Sendinblue.