The Best Email Marketing Solutions

Anyone who runs a business with any kind of presence online knows the value of email marketing. You can stay in touch with all of your friends, fans, followers, prospects and customers by offering valuable information, as well as discounts or coupons for your products or services. No one doubts the value of email marketing. The question then becomes ‘which solution is best?’ I’ll take some time to go over some of the top email marketing tools. Feel free to comment on any others you’ve had experience with.

Free solutions:

Mail Chimp

-          Pros:

• Free for up to 500 contacts
• Customizable HTML templates + WYSIWYG editor
• Import contacts + export reports
• A/B testing
• Google Analytics integration (but it’s an add on)

-          Cons:

• Lacking some of the features of the other competitors
• Only 4 basic email templates + there’s no importing template add on
• Importing contacts can be tricky (columns need to match up perfectly)
• Very limited support

-          Conclusion: Mail Chimp is a new contender in the email marketing world. They do have many advantages, particularly the free service for up to 500 contacts, but there are drawbacks. There have been issues with the reporting, but the biggest issue is by far their customer support.

Cheap solutions:

iContact

-          Pros:

• Multiple options for importing contacts
• WYSIWYG editor
• Detailed tutorials
• Pricing (better than most in this class)
• Auto responders
• Easy sign up forms (no intermediate pages like Constant Contact)
• Archive email newsletters
• Free online surveys

-          Cons:

• Limited image hosting space
• Exported reports are limited
• Fee to remove iContact logo from emails
• No A/B testing

-          Conclusion: iContact is very competitively priced at $19/month for up to 2,000 contacts. They are a very solid solution with a straightforward email editor. The biggest knock on iContact is their limited image hosting.

Constant Contact

-          Pros:

• One of the oldest email marketing services in industry (since 1996)
• Free removal of Constant Contact logo from emails
• WYSIWYG editor
• Multiple options for importing contacts
• Spam checker
• Excellent customer support

-          Cons:

• Exported reports are limited
• No A/B testing
• Image hosting is limited (but not as bad as iContact)
• No auto responders
• WYSIWYG editor is limited to Constant Contact templates; not your own HTML
• Extra fees for archiving email newsletters and online surveys

-          Conclusion: Constant Contact is no doubt the leader in email marketing. They spend by far the most on advertising, and their big company status is backed up by their excellent customer service. They are a bit costlier than most of their competitors in their league at $30/month for 500- 2,500 contacts. Not as flexible as iContact or Aweber, but solid nonetheless.

AWeber

-          Pros:

• Free removal of AWeber logo from emails
• WYSIWYG editor
• Scheduled auto responder
• Integrates with many shopping carts
• In depth reports
• A/B testing
• Good at fixing “spammy” emails

-          Cons:

• No free image hosting
• No free trial
• Limited options for importing contacts

-          Conclusion: AWeber is a decent email marketing service. All the email marketing solutions will block spam emails, but AWeber does a good job of helping users fix these problems. If you’re using ecommerce, AWeber looks like it’s one of the best solutions. They lack many of the features of iContact, but they are reliable and well priced at $10 for 500- 2,500 contacts.

Pricier solutions:

Infusionsoft

-          Pros:

• Much more than just email marketing, a CRM (like Salesforce) allowing you to manage all contacts and leads
• Free trial
• Auto responders and auto reminders
• Ecommerce integration
• Extremely robust (can integrate via API with other solutions)
• Low learning curve for basic features
• Good customer service

-          Cons:

• Pricey
• Weak shopping cart
• Lacking functionality of other high-priced CRMs

-          Conclusion: Infusionsoft may be overkill for many small businesses, but for those small to medium-sized businesses that need a powerful CRM to manage sales, marketing, relationship management, invoices, tasks and much more it is extremely powerful. Infusionsoft allows you do everything from create landing pages to capture leads; store these leads, make notes, and schedule follow ups; tag leads for specific email marketing campaigns; and process credit cards once they become a client. They are higher priced than any of the other solutions in this article at $199/month for up to 10,000 contacts for their most basic package.

There are many different solutions available that can help your business with its email marketing. It is important to understand the exact needs of your business before making a decision. Never underestimate the power of a quality CRM to manage prospects, leads and customers. If you’ve done your research and found what you think is the right solution then sign up for the free trial (if available) and test out their customer service.

Turbo would like to know if you have experience (good or bad) with any of these solutions, or if you’ve had experience with email marketing solutions not mentioned here. Feel free to leave us a comment.

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About The Author:  Tom Sullivan is the senior account executive at Turbo Social Media. He has managed accounts for a wide variety of businesses, from small “Mom and Pop” businesses to multi-million dollar corporations. His success in business stems from his entrepreneurial drive and his desire to do “whatever it takes” for his clients to be successful. Tom received his BA in Business Management Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He is a former collegiate rugby player and he enjoys playing softball, golfing, camping, and snowboarding in his spare time.

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