Any small business which is not using email marketing as part of its overall sales and marketing strategy is missing out on a hugely effective means of communicating with its prospects and customers. More than that, it is highly likely that their completion is using email marketing and thus gaining a considerable advantage over them.
What makes this scenario even more regrettable is that email marketing is not difficult and is made easy due to the number of excellent email marketing tools, software and services that are available. These allow you to create and manage email marketing campaigns all within one interface, and most of them can be automated for maximum effect and efficiency. Here are 7 of them, that can all provide a huge return on investment given their low cost.
Aweber
As one of the oldest and most popular email marketing tools available Aweber has been responsible for helping businesses generate billions of dollars in sales via email marketing. It is one of the easiest email tools to get started with and has several ways to help small businesses create and implement a successful email marketing campaign. List management, email templates, autoresponders, segmentation, A/B testing and tracking are just a few of its many features.
GetResponse
This is another extremely popular and well-established email service that makes email marketing for any small business as simple a process as there can be. It has plenty of email automation tools which include a drag and drop campaign builder, autoresponder, list management and list segmentation so that you can send a precisely targeted email to specific subscribers. GetResponse can also integrate with other services and tools including SalesForce, Zen Desk and Google Docs.
ConvertKit
For small businesses which rely heavily on content to attract and convert prospects, perhaps via a blog, ConvertKit is an email service that fits the bill perfectly. It offers all of the familiar features you would want from an email marketing service such as A/B testing, segmentation, workflows, and tracking, but also allows you to build landing pages and provides some high conversion email templates if you are new to writing marketing emails.
Active Campaign
This is one of the newer email marketing services, but one which has grown exponentially in popularity. Argued by some that it is more complex than some email services, the reverse is true as it provides users with a visual layout of their campaign and as such many find this easier rather than the others. It also comes with a CRM, so as well email marketing, you can use it for sales management and customer service via its live chat function.
Drip
For those small businesses that want to refine the targeting of their email to be as accurate as possible, Drip is one option that can provide that. One of its key functions is that it allows you to take each campaign and target it to a segmented list of your subscribers and to split test how effective each email has been with respect to calls to action and conversion. Drip has added SMS messaging to its list of options giving you another means of communicating with leads.
SendinBlue
SendinBlue is another service that gives small businesses two primary means of communication, namely email and SMS. It is simple to use thanks to its drag and drop editor, meaning you can create emails quickly. Workflows help you to create and manage your campaigns and set up auto-responses. If you opt for their premium service you can add an advanced page builder, CRM, live chat and integrate your email campaign with Facebook ads.
Constant Contact
This will suit anyone who is new to email marketing and wants a beginner-friendly email tool. It has all the usual tools such as list management, autoresponder, email templates, list segmentation and tracking. All of this is available on their free plan, but if you elect to pay for their Email Plus service you gain additional functions such as A/B testing, surveys, and coupons.