If you have a website, you need to have an email list. Whether it’s an eCommerce site, a blog, an online forum, or any other type of website, building an email list will allow you to directly message your customers, your leads, and your biggest fans any time you have something to say. You won’t have to wonder if they saw your new blog post or your latest post on social media, with email marketing your message gets sent straight to their inbox. Plus, according to HubSpot, 99% of consumers check their email every day.
But you can’t just open up your Gmail account and send emails out. First of all, that’s time-consuming. You also won’t be able to tell when someone opens your email or clicks on a link. You need email marketing software that allows you to automate your email marketing, track opens and clicks, allows you to easily create professional-looking, eye-catching emails that your subscribers will love reading, and more.
But with so many email marketing services on the market, how do you choose the one that’s right for you? Depending on the type of website you have, your needs, and your budget, not every email marketing service will be a good match.
So, here’s how to choose the best email marketing software for your business.
Ease of Use
If you’re new to email marketing, you want to make sure the email marketing software you choose is easy to use. Luckily today, many of the best email marketing services make it incredibly simple to create one-off emails as well as email campaigns that are not only functional, but look great too.
Look for an email marketing service with a drag and drop email builder. Drag and drop email builders will allow even complete beginners to create awesome emails. If you’re not confident in your email designing skills at all, even with a drag and drop email builder, consider choosing an email marketing service that provides a number of pre-built email templates you can use. With email templates, all you have to do is replace the text and images with your own and voila, you’ve got a gorgeous branded email.
Consider the Type of Emails You Need to Send
Next, you need to consider the types of emails you need to send to your subscribers. Depending on the type of website you have, you’ll may need to send e-newsletters, a welcome email series to new subscribers or customers, event-triggered emails, and so on.
For instance, if you have an eCommerce website, you’ll want to be able to send abandoned cart emails to your customers. Not all email marketing services will allow you to do this and do it well, so you’ll want to choose one that does.
You also will want to pay attention to the personalization features an email marketing software has. Personalizing your emails is important. In fact, according to Campaign Monitor, personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%. Sending email messages that are personalized to an individual’s exact needs and situation will give you better results.
Look at Integrations
You also want to make sure the email marketing software you choose integrates seamlessly with your other software. Integrating your email software with your favorite apps and web services will allow you to do more with your email marketing.
For instance, if you have an online store with Shopify, you’ll want your email marketing software to integrate with Shopify in order to automate your email marketing based on the actions your customers take in your online store. Or, you may want to choose an email marketing software that integrates with a tool like Automate.io. Automate.io allows you to connect your email marketing to over 100 popular apps like Salesforce, Hubspot, Facebook Lead Ads, Google Sheets, Gmail, and more.
Plans and Pricing
If you’ve just launched your website or started your business, sticking to your budget is important, so you’ll want to consider plans and pricing. Of course, you don’t want to pay for an email marketing software that doesn’t allow you to do what you need to do, even if it’s cheap. On the other hand, you don’t want to spend a bunch of money on a robust solution with countless features you don’t need either.
So, if you’re a beginner, instead of paying a bunch of money right from the start, choose an email marketing software that allows you to grow with them. Many email marketing services offer scalable pricing.
With scalable pricing you can start off paying a lower price for 2000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month, for example. As you grow your email list — and your business, you can upgrade to a higher priced plan that offers more features and the ability to send unlimited emails to an unlimited number of subscribers.
Test It Out
Just like you would test drive a car before you buy it, you should also test drive email marketing software. You’ll never really know if something is right for you until you try it out. Luckily, many email marketing services offer free trials, so that you can try it before you buy it.
Use the tips above to determine the best email marketing software for you, narrow the list down to the top 3-5, and sign up for a free trial of each. Then, create some emails templates, send out test emails, and see how you like each solution.
Over to You
With these tips for how to choose the best email marketing software for your business, you can select an email marketing software that fits your exact needs. Once you choose an email marketing software and start growing your email list with a lead generation tool like OptinMonster, you’ll be on your way to increasing conversions with email.