Email marketing platforms are service-based platforms that marketers use for email marketing...with a variety of services, resources, and tools, the platforms allows marketers to do much more than simply send emails. But, you'll say which platform should we use?? Which platform is best for email marketing? No worries, here I'll tell you everything.
In this article I'll share with you a few email platforms that you can use to build your email list whether you're a small business owner an entrepreneur or influencer building an email list is essential today so that you can send out follow-ups and build that audience that where you're in complete control. Through that audience you can also start email marketing, can also promote various products or offers and make commissions after getting sale.
Few Top best email marketing platforms that I've personally used myself and got an awesome response are:
If you're just starting to build your email list or if you're already building an email list and you're thinking about changing platforms now of course this all depends on what Your purpose is where your business is. MailChimp is the most popular ones that beginners start with. I think the reason why most people start with MailChimp is because there's a free plan.
Now at this time their free plan offers up to 2,000 contacts or 2,000 subscribers and not being able to pay you know having to pay that monthly fee is a perk so if you are thinking of starting then, perhaps MailChimp is for you but you are of course limited with the features and the tools and here the audiences that you can create is one if you're just starting out MailChimp will do it because they still offer things like tagging and audience segmentation.
If you want to tag them in with particular tags if they click a particular link then you know what they're interested in or not interested in so these are the types of things you may use in the future but if you do want to build multiple sets of audiences then you're going to have to upgrade to their next plan which is still quite affordable. If you do plan on promoting products as an affiliate these are things you might want to consider before signing up and paying and building your email list and subscribers on that platform apart from that MailChimp is a great way to just start building your email list and if you do plan on creating your own products then go ahead and try MailChimp now.
ConvertKit
Convertkit is an another good platform which have awesome e-commerce type functions. So personally, I've not used convertkit for my business however I've doubled in it through a free trial as well as used it for my clients. So, convertkit really prides itself on being a platform for content creators and focuses on delivering emails that are text rich. What i mean by that is they're not image or design heavy they're really focused on delivering great content so a lot of bloggers, youtubers and people that are creating regular content are using this platform to share those hero pieces of content with their email list so who's it for well it's for creatives that are really wanting to make a bigger impact and they're wanting their content to be seen by their community.
If just go with monthly pricing details of convetkit because we're doing that currently however with your yearly plan you do get two months free which is a really nice option there is a free plan up to a thousand subscribers. But again it's missing the automations which is something i would highly recommend if you're getting excited with email marketing it's well worth your time and effort. To go up into a higher paid plan so for 300 subscribers it's nine dollars per month. If we look at what the creator pro gives us... personally I don't think the creator pro offers enough value for anyone getting started with email marketing. Unless you're really taking it to that next level. So, let's ju.95-oist go with the creator version. So, at 300 subscribers it's nine dollars per month and let's jump up to 5000 again 79 per month.
ConvertKit also have some clever features like link tagging which is great for anyone that's wanting to go to that next level with their email marketing.
ActiveCampaign
Active campaign may be a little bit beyond beginners. I've used activecampaign for a while and my experience with that was really awesome. It is a really great platform especially from a workflow perspective. And what I mean by workflows is automations so these are like a sequence of emails that are sent out automatically to your email subscriber and these are a really great way to add a bit of customization to the experience of your new subscriber giving them a certain type of content as they flow through that process.
The only tricky thing with active campaign is you can dive really deep into that sort of tech savvy stuff which I definitely did and focus too much on creating these perfect nature sequences and less on actually getting more people into my list so if you're wanting to take your email marketing to that next level it's a really nice place to do so. So who's it for?? well, entrepreneurs that are really wanting to focus on selling digital products so whether that may be a course an ebook templates and so on the customization capabilities of active campaign will enable you to really create that more bespoke customer journey which will make your new subscriber feel like you've created this journey just for them which is a really nice personal touch and is awesome for selling online.
Generally, if we see pricing details of ActiveCampaign, consider you've 500 subscribers in your email list, because this is what we've sort of been comparing against all platforms. So, their light plan has 15 per month. They do not have a free option. However, ActiveCampaign got marketing automation, they've got everything else you sort of need under that light plan the comparison to plus is easier again taking things to the next level. So, this is really customized content that's going to be delivered to your subscribers. And I mean it does jump up quite significantly in the fee. So, I would stick to ActiveCampaign's light version. So, let's see how many... how much it will be with 5 and 110 dollars a month. So yes, it's pricey it does do a lot and ActiveCampaign is really great from a CRM point of view as well so they do offer more of a sales functionality. But if you're just looking for email marketing, ActiveCampaign can be a quite an expensive option.
Mailerlite
Mailerlite is the little dark horse in the email marketing world it is becoming a really popular alternative to mailchimp. As it's super affordable and easy to use this comparison shows a great snapshot of why you might choose mailerlite over mailchimp. They pride themselves on offering all features to all paid plans so you only pay more when your subscriber list increases and you can make the assumption that as your list increases... your businesses is growing as well. So, paying a little bit more for a bigger list kind of makes sense. But who's it for?? well, anyone getting started with email marketing because it's really easy to use there's a free version up to a thousand subscribers and it has really impressive integrations with a lot of platforms so you don't need a middleman like zapier to help you out.
If we take a look at pricing section of mailerlite, the minimum they offer is a thousand which is fine. So, you can set up a free account with mailerlite which is nice to see and to be honest with you looking through the free plan versus a premium plan, I think mailerlite offers a lot. So, it's basically does everything you need it to do. It offers the landing pages, email automation, Segmentation even ab split testing for free which is incredible. So yep, if you've got a thousand subscribers the free plan of mailerlite is amazing. Let's jump up to 5000 subscribers just to compare costs so 5000 subscribers is looking at $30 a month which I think is so reasonable if you jump to annually you have a saving of over a hundred dollars which is amazing.
Flodesk
Flodesk is the platform that I personally use for my email marketing. And it is such an easy platform to use and it's got such beautiful designs so it's really focused on creating emails that your community want to receive. But it's not just a pretty face, flodesk's got all the tech you need with workflows forms landing pages and so on. But one of the really cool things about flodesk is they don't charge you more for more subscribers so it's just one flat fee for everybody so if you're really focused on growing your email list maybe you haven't quite worked out how to monetize it yet. But you're growing that list then, this is going to be the best option for you so who exactly is it for well anyone that's really focused on creating a beautiful design aesthetic and wants to share content with their audience to create a bigger impact and to grow that community. If you're interested in giving flodesk a try then go and sign up to their free 30-day trial.
Now, if we see pricing details of flodesk which is $38 per month and gives you everything. So you have all the automation, you have all the functionalities, all the segmentation, landing pages... etc etc. And you can have a list of a thousand.. ten thousand and million people on your list and it's not going to cost you any more. So, I think Flodesk is an great option for you to start your email marketing journey.
Conclusion
From my experience I found that if it is something you're wanting to jump to one thing to know is even if you are a beginner. Once have a think about what you're wanting to do with your email marketing moving forward because even if you go for a cheap or free option now it's going to be really expensive once you start growing your list or once you start adding new features then, it may become quite costly, prohibitive and you may jump to another platform.
And that jumping from platform to platform is a headache. It's really annoying to do not only is it getting all your subscribers over from one platform to the other but setting up all your workflows again any of your templates. I would recommend just having a bit of a think about where you want this to head in the future and just planning for that when you choose your platform, stick to one of the above best platforms and grow your earnings using email marketing.
If you don’t want to miss out my next articles, leave me a follow on medium.com where also I started writing articles now-a-days. And finally, thanks for reading! I always appreciate your thoughts and comments — share them below.
Vrushal,
(Freelance Writer and Web Developer)
0 Comments