If you plan to build a strong business online or offline, you need to use some kind of email marketing platform. But, each type of business has different needs, and each email marketing platform has different pros and cons. Nothing is perfect. However, having an email marketing platform that you like, will use, and understand is priceless anyway.
* Aweber.com – This is a common program that you’ll notice a lot of internet marketers use to promote their business. It is intuitive if you plan to send plain text emails and has most of the bells and whistles in terms of being able to segment your audience, send autoresponder emails, and track how well your campaigns are doing. There is no free plan; the more subscribers you get the more you pay. It’s tricky sending video or files via the system.
* MailChimp.com – If you love sending beautiful emails full of graphics, MailChimp might be what you want to use. You can even import your own templates. There are many integration options that you’ll love – including the ability to work with Facebook, and with an upgraded account you can even get form hosting. Plus, you can get many metrics and even turn off the MailChimp logo if you’re worried about maintaining your brand. If you have a member site, MailChimp can be wonky; the native templates leave something to be desired, and sometimes it’s clunky.
* ConvertKit.com – If you need a lot of automation you can use ConvertKit to pick and choose who gets what in your list. You can move (automatically once it’s set up) your audience from one list to another due to their actions. Plus, you don’t pay for a contact more than once just because they’re on more than one list. The tagging and advanced segmentation is second to none and they have awesome forms. Other than lacking in some customizability, ConvertKit is an email marketer’s dream.
* GetDrip.com – LeadPages just purchased Drip, making it one of the most sought-out email marketing platforms around right now. It’s pretty new, but if LeadPages likes it, it must be amazing. It’s a lightweight option to people who cannot afford the big ones like Infusionsoft, but want to get stuff done fast like the big dogs. What’s more is that there is no learning curve. It is a lighter weight version, so it’s designed to do just a few things and do them very well.
* MadMimi.com – This very intuitive email marketing platform with a very specific look is popular with creative types. Due to the fact that it doesn’t offer much in the way of analytics such as A/B testing, it will be difficult for a true internet marketer to use. However, it does have some great reporting features.
* iContact.com – Some people consider this to be the very best of all the email marketing platforms, but all that ends if you have more than 100K subscribers. But, you can easily use iContact for email campaigns due to their step-by-step guide. They have a huge library of templates, great reporting, easy customization and they’re easy to use.
* Infusionsoft.com – This is a very in-depth email marketing solution that offers pretty much everything, but at an “everything” price too. This is meant for large businesses with the budget to burn money. It has all the universal tracking you’ll need to be truly responsive to your audience, with automated actions based on your users’ behavior. If you understand about the consumer’s buying cycle you’ll know why this software is so powerful. Drawbacks are the expense and you really need a professional help you use it, which adds up to more expense.
* Simplero.com – This is really an all-in-one solution that can be used as an email marketing platform because it includes lists and autoresponders, plus some pretty awesome features such as segmentation. At the same time it’s very basic. It depends on your goals as to whether this system will work for your needs. If you need all the bells and whistles, another platform might be better. But check back with them as they’re improving all the time.
The best way to choose what to use is to write down what you need the software to accomplish, how much your budget is, and then compare each choice to make sure it has what you need it to have.