Best Email Marketing Services for Businesses in 2021

Article in Brief: The best email marketing services for businesses in 2021.

You probably opened your browser and hurriedly typed “the best email marketing service in the world”.

Now you are already reading one of the top results thinking it will help you sink your teeth into the leading email marketing tool out there.

Wrong.

If you are looking for the best, I am sorry to inform you that there is nothing like the best email marketing software in 2021.

Here is the reason: Your business is different.

What works for me may not work for you because we may be having different business models.

Just like there is no such person as the most beautiful/handsome lady/man in the world, I am not going to tell you the best software for email marketing.

I am going to guide you in selecting what fits your marketing campaign.

Does the choice of an email marketing service matter?

It matters so much.

This is important stuff.

Getting a good email marketing service can differentiate between winners and losers.

Why?

Because some email marketing companies deliver emails to the spam folder, others to the promotions or updates folders while some never deliver at all.

On the contrary, you are looking for the email marketing software which delivers emails directly to the INBOX of the recipient.

You don’t have to be lost in a sea of solutions.

Read on to discover the best email marketing services for your marketing campaigns.

Here are some of the criteria which should help you make a wise decision concerning your email marketing tool.

 

Top 10 Email Marketing Services in 2021

ConvertKit: Best Email Marketing Service for me

 

If you are starting out and you want a robust email marketing service that has advanced features, then ConvertKit should be your number one choice.

Packed with complex autoresponders that can do virtually anything you want with email marketing, ConvertKit is a cheap CRM for you.

The tool was specially created for professional bloggers, authors, creators, vloggers and speakers.

Pricing starts at $29/month for up to 1,000 subscribers

You can get a free trial to whet your appetite.

 

Check out this Complete Convertkit Review

 

GetResponse: Robust Email Marketing Service

 

GetResponse is a robust email marketing tool which helps you in creating responsive emails and autoresponders.

It has an in-built A/B testing capability and the ability to deliver targeted emails to specific subscribers based on their actions.

Using GetResponse Campaigns + OptinMonster will enable you to send highly targeted emails.

It is fairly cheap with a list of 1,000 subscribers costing $15 per month.

Enterprise users pay $1,199/month to enjoy the email marketing platform.

 

Check out this Getresponse Review.

 

E-goi: Cheapest Email Marketing Service

 

E-goi is a great email marketing and CRM tool.

Here is everything you need to know about e-Goi email marketing software.

 

AWeber Email Marketing Software

Aweber is a great email marketing service that was started in 1998.

It may as well be the founder and inventor of email autoresponders.

The service offers great tools like autoresponders, email segments, email builders, sign up forms.

The company is has highly reputable customer support.

You can send highly targeted emails if you combine Aweber with OptinMonster.

Aweber’s price starts at $19 per month with a 30 day free trial period.

 

Constant Contact: A Reliable Email Marketing Tool

Constant Contact is among the greatest email marketing services globally.

Other websites such as WPBeginner rated Constant Contact as the best email marketing service of 2021.

I would say that Constant Contact is the best email marketing software in 2021.

The service allows subscriber management and creation of very professional emails.

It has fancy templates and drag-and-drop editing tools that will make you salivate.

The service can send automated emails or sequence of emails to new subscribers and existing subscribers and track their performance.

It can integrate with other third party tools like OptinMonster to enhance its functionality.

You can try Constant Contact for free for a whopping 60 days.

After the trial period, plans start at $20/month.

Learn how to build an email list with Constant Contact

 

 

MailChimp: Free Email Marketing Tool (With Limits!)

Judging by the number of users, Mailchimp is the most popular email marketing software.

The service is best suited for starters since it provides free services for up to 2000 subscribers.

It has a fairly intuitive interface that allows you to create sign up forms and deliver digital downloads.

Getting started with email marketing using MailChimp is a walk in the park.

The platform is easy to use and has thousands of resources and online videos which can help you accomplish everything possible on the tool.

It allows you to import or add subscribers to specific segments. Using the MailChimp Groups with OptinMonster gives you the best out of it.

In order to unlock premium benefits of MailChimp or in case you have more than 2000 subscribers, you will need to pay.

The service costs as cheap as $10/month to $30 for 2,500 subscribers with the price increasing with an increase in the number of subscribers.

 

Drip: The Efficient Email Marketing Software

Drip is a fairly new marketing automation tool which enables users in creating complex automation workflows and conditional statements within email messaging.

With drip, you can set action-based triggers to set campaigns, workflows and autoresponders to work.

The service can be as easy or as complex as you want it to be. Combining it with OptinMonster makes it unstoppable.

You can get a free 14-day trial period.

The service has basic, pro and enterprise subscription plans.

The Drip Basic Plan starts at  $49/month for up to $2,500 subscribers while the Pro Plan starts at $99/month up to 5,000 subscribers.

Drip price for Enterprise users (5,000+ subscribers) are custom-quoted i.e. you get a quote from the company.

 

Infusionsoft: Most Comprehensive but Very Expensive Tool

InfusionSoft is a fully functional Customer relationship management (CRM) software and email marketing solution for small, medium-sized and large businesses.

Unlike other email marketing tools mentioned herein, Infusionsoft provides advanced features like list segmentation, lead scoring and marketing automation.

It can also be integrated with OptinMonster using Infusionsoft Tags + OptinMonster.

The starting price of Infusionsoft is $49/month while that of  Infusionsoft Pro is $199/month.

 

HubSpot: A Complete Outreach Tool

 

HubSpot is a complete and fully equipped marketing software.

Its functionality is far beyond email marketing but it is cool to list it here.

The software is designed to help medium to large organizations with all aspects of marketing, SEO and conversion.

It is a great tool if you want to attract, nurture and convert leads.

You can integrate HubSpot Lists and OptinMonster for a better experience.

Pricing starts at $50 for 1,000 contacts with $20/month increments for every additional 1,000 contacts in the Starter Plan.

The Professional Plan costs $800/month for 1,000 contacts and $20/month increments for every additional 1,000 contacts

 

Active Campaign: Most Recommended and Reliable

Active Campaign is an email marketing tool which is biased towards marketing automation.

It can help you send targeted emails based on your subscriber’s actions or interactions with your content.

It allows tagging and will deliver the best results when combined as: ActiveCampaign Lead Tags + OptinMonster.

Pricing starts at $39/month for 2,500 contacts and goes up to $229/month for enterprise users.

You can get a 14-day free trial with no credit card information needed.

 

Important Factors to consider before choosing the best email marketing service provider

1. Price of the email marketing service

How much are you willing to pay your email marketing service provider when you have just 0, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 5,000 or 10, 000 subscribers?

As you already know, email marketing services come at different costs. Be sure to choose a service that you are able to pay for to avoid disruptions.

Cheap email marketing services do not always indicate low quality just as expensive email marketing software is not always the best.

Always look for the features that will help you in staging a solid email marketing strategy.

As you will discover, growing your list to respectable number of subscribers will give you good value for your money as your list grows in company A while it may be a rip off in company B.

 

2. Features of the email marketing services

This is also called functionality.

Does the email marketing tool do the kind of work you want to do?

Different email marketing software excel in different features. When choosing a service, always put your results first i.e. what you want to achieve.

The following are the most common features of email marketing software: visual automations, customizable sign up forms, email sends, email delivery reports, subscriber tagging, reporting, integrations with other ecommerce tools, customer support.

For example, if you are looking for a tool that can offer split testing (A/B testing) of sign up forms, you must buy email marketing software that has such functionality.

 

3. Service scalability

Will your company support your business operations with time? Does the service or tool give you freedom of growth and development as your email grows?

You should always choose a company you are comfortable growing with.

After all you are here to grow and develop your business to the greatest levels.

Example:

MailChimp offers free email marketing services up to 2000 subscribers. This may look attractive at the beginning. It will entice you to purchase a paid package. You will need to move when you realize that the service restricts you from sending as many emails as you wish and many other stuffs.

 

4. Customer Support of the email marketing tool

As usual, you may need a quick answer to a question or seek clarification on ways of setting up your account.

Maybe, you hit a snag when creating your email autoresponders.

Does the company providing the email marketing tool offer customer support?

How often is the service provider available to answer your questions?

How long will it take the company to get back to you?

If there is a problem with the service, will they help you fix it?

Does the firm have educational resources that can help you solve your problems on your own?

Is the knowledgebase available and readily navigable?

What about the documentation?

 

5. User experience and ease of use

How easy is it to use the email marketing tool?

Is it easy to get started with?

Assuming you purchase the email marketing tool today, how soon can you have the service up and running?

Is it easy to access its features or will it take you forever trying to get accustomed to the system?

Is the navigation easy?

Will the software require you to employ a technical expert who knows how to use it?

Example

Infusionsoft is a great email marketing tool. In fact, it is more than an email marketing software. It is a whole customer relationship management system that can help you to accomplish many things. However, how easy is it to set up? Is it fit for a starter who has 200 subscribers? How long will it take you to learn how to use it from scratch? You will realise that the system is for large companies that have in-house sales and marketing teams and thousands of subscribers since it is a complex management system. If you are a blogger who is starting out now, you will be happier using another service.

 

6. Community of users

Does the email marketing tool have a community or forum of users, customers, reviewers, ambassadors, developers who are always active?

How helpful is the community in answering any of the customers’ concerns?

Is there a community or online place where you can learn from or get mentorship?

 

7. Extensibility

Suppose you want to enhance the functionality of the service, is it possible?

Are there other third party plugins and integrations which can extend its purpose to meet specific goals?

If you have a developer in your team and you want to develop custom solutions for your business, will the tool allow you?

Does it have API integration?

 

8. Reliability and availability

How often does the service go down?

How long does it take to bring the service online after downtime?

Does the service allow automation to run until the end or does it get stuck?

What if you make changes? Will they be reflected immediately or after some time?

 

9. Development and updates

When was the tool updated last?

Is the team of developers rolling out updates, features and resources consistently?

When was the last bug fixed?

Does the company listen to customers’ recommendations on incorporating new functionalities?

 

10. Customer reviews of the email marketing service

What are other customers saying about the tool?

You can check for testimonials and customer reviews of the email marketing program on the internet.

Are there any positive or negative reviews?

What’s the company’s response to the reviews posted online?

How does the company address client’s complaints?

Does the company follow its refund policy?

Does the service have a track record of success?

Now that you know what to look for, it is time to shop for the most suitable email marketing tool for your business.

Remember, it is for your business and not the reviewer’s or the blogger’s business.

 

Back to you

What is your best email marketing tool in 2021?