Top Email Marketing Platforms & The Best Email Marketing Platform Of Them All
Email marketing platforms – also known as blast email software or email newsletter platforms – should be deployed by every business or nonprofit on the planet. But the question then becomes: What’s the best email marketing platform? What features & functions should you seek in email marketing software? This article highlights some of the most established email marketing platforms and their pros & cons – plus we offer a recommendation for what we consider the best email marketing software platform, and why.
What Is An Email Marketing Platform?
An email marketing platform offers a software system that lets you create and send blast emails…to customers, prospects, investors, stakeholders, and more. Email marketing software also lets you upload permission-based lists, segment them as needed, and send your emails to people on those various lists.
Why Can’t I Just Send Group Emails From My Regular Email? Why Do I Need To Use An Email Blast Software System?
There are 2 main reasons why every business & nonprofit should be using an email marketing platform:
1) Email Marketing Platforms Help Prevent Your Company or Personal Email From Being Blacklisted
When you send group emails through your regular email, the emails are sent all at once. This creates a “red flag” situation where it’s highly likely that your email address will be blacklisted by multiple email monitoring systems, because those big group emails look like spamming. When you send an email to a group of people using an email marketing software platform, the emails are sent separately, or one at a time, to the people on your list. This mode of sending emails helps prevent your email from being blacklisted. If you do get blacklisted, it takes time and is often hard to get OFF the blacklist. While this is going on, business colleagues, customers & prospects may not be able to receive emails you send because their spam filters will spot your email’s status as being blacklisted, and the spam filters will not let the email reach your intended target.
2) Email Marketing Is One Of The Most Cost-effective Ways To Consistently Reach Out To Customers & Prospects
Email marketing is, hands down, one of the cheapest ways to consistently reach out to your customers & prospects. Some email marketing platforms are free up to a certain point, but even the paid versions are affordable even for the most modestly sized organizations.
What Is Permission-based Email Marketing?
A permission-based email marketing program means that customers, prospects, or anyone interested in your products, services, or action have signed up to receive your email newsletters. Interested parties can sign up for your email newsletter on your website, from a link in your email signature, or they can manually sign up if you’re doing face-to-face marketing, such as at a trade show or conference, a festival where you have a table or booth, a speaking event where prospects can see you in action, and more.
Permission-based email marketing platforms require that you’ve got permission to send emails to the people on your list.
In contrast, if you buy a list from a list broker, whether they’re legitimate or not, that is not considered permission-based email marketing.
DID YOU KNOW:
• More than half the world’s population (more than 4.2 billion people) were active email users globally in 2022. By the end of 2026, that figure is projected to exceed 4.7 billion.
• 55 percent of consumers say email is their preferred digital channel for business communication. – (Source: Constant Contact)
Top Email Marketing Platforms To Consider
There are a lot of email marketing platforms out there. Here’s a look at them, and highlights of pros & cons:
Constant Contact — www.constantcontact.com
Pros:
- Easiest to use
- Massive array of blast email templates
- Best tech support with real people based in the USA to help you
Cons:
- It’s a paid service
MailChimp – www.mailchimp.com
Pros:
- Well known email marketing platform
- Free version (send up to 1000 emails per month; but email support only for 30 days & limited access to design templates)
Cons:
- Confusing, overly complicated user interface
- Limited email design templates
- Terrible tech support even at paid levels of the software
- AI content generator is not offered at lower subscription levels
Brevo – www.brevo.com
Pros:
- Email marketing combined with a customer relationship management system
- Friendly user interface
- Customer support is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish
Cons:
- Overkill if you just need email marketing or already have a customer relationship management system already in place
- Pricey – the standard business offering is $65 a month. The starter package is $25 month.
- Huge limitations on the number of emails that can be sent per month with their free verions.
Aweber – www.aweber.com
Pros:
- A user-friendly interface for designing & branding blast emails
- No limit on the number of emails you send per month
Cons:
- Aweber’s mandatory, 2-step confirmation process is required before someone can be added to your lists. While this helps with deliverability, it’s a total pain, and you will lose many potential subscribers with a 2-step confirmation process.
- Their standard option is a reasonable $20/month. But their premium version starts at $899 per month.
Our Recommendation For The Best Email Marketing Platform: Constant Contact
We have used Constant Contact for 15+ years for our clients. Many of our clients were so frustrated with other email marketing platforms that, when they called us, we first had to calm them down and then show them how easy it is to use Constant Contact. Here are just some of the reasons why we consider Constant Contact email marketing the best email marketing platform:
- The Best Tech Support: Constant Contact offers phone support with friendly human beings based in the United States. Even better, you get free phone support at all subscription levels.
- Easy To Use: Constant Contact’s interface is friendly, intuitive, and super easy to use. Various pre-programmed newsletter design elements can be inserted into your email with simple drag-and-drop functionality. Plus, it’s easy to change colors, typefaces, text size & insert photos with simple clicks and drag-and-drops.
- Cost-effective: Even a basic email marketing subscription gets you access to a huge array of design templates that can be custom branded with your company colors, your logo, etc. The Lite version starts at just $12/month. The standard version offers tons of functionality at just $35 a month – with pricing based on the number of contacts. The first tier is from 0-500 contacts & prices gradually adjust higher as you increase the size of your list over time.
- Insightful Analytics: Once you send an email, you’ll see analytics on who opened your email, who clicked through, emails that bounced & more. These analytics give you immediate, numbers-based insights on the content that resonates with your customers & prospects.
- Easy Contact Uploads & List Management: It’s fast & easy to upload contacts into your lists with drag-and-drop functionality. Once an individual has been added to one of your lists, it’s fast & easy to do a search & make changes or update their information as needed.
- Multiple Marketing Functions Available: Constant Contact got its start in email marketing. But depending on your subscription level, you also can get access to additional marketing functions, including Email Automations, Event Management, Landing Pages, SMS marketing, Social Media Posts & Monitoring & Surveys.
- AI Content Generator: CC now sports a really cool AI content generator that can help you spiff up your text – and apply various styles to the language – from Friendly or Informational to an Enthusiastic Tone.
- Nonprofit Discount: Constant Contact offers nonprofits & charities a 20% discount for a 6-month subscription prepay, and a 30% discount for a 12-month prepay.
Regardless of which email marketing platform you choose, it’s important that you deploy Email Marketing into your marketing & sales mix of strategies. Email marketing is, quite simply, one of the fastest, most cost-effective ways to market to existing customers and prospects. By choosing the best email marketing platform, you’ll be doing your business or nonprofit and your bottom line a favor.
Need help with deploying email marketing for your business or nonprofit? Contact DeWinter Marketing & PR for email marketing assistance.
Just want to start a free trial or set up an account with Constant Contact? Here’s a handy LINK straight to Constant Contact.
