As an online business owner, you want to grow your audience and engage them in an authentic and organic way. This engagement should in effect, lead to conversions. One of the best ways to do this is by employing Email Marketing. In this article we are going to breakdown the “why” behind email marketing and the 5 top tools you can choose from to satisfy your needs.
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Why You Need Email Marketing Right Now
‘Email Promotions and Automation’ is one of the quickest and foolproof ways to really advertise and engage your customers on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. As a matter of fact, it is a great way to target buyers with promotions that are tailored to their specific needs and wants. Note that customers want an authentic experience. So, this is a perfect way to show your customers how your product can benefit them.
Customers are more likely to engage with discounts and offers that suits their wants.
A fabulous way to grow your customer email list is to have an automated pop-up when your users arrive to your site. Create one that is suited to your brand and is engaging for customers to sign up. When customers browse products, but never made a purchase they could benefit from an email giving them more information or offering them a discount for first time buyers. Who can ever resist a discount?
For your loyal customers you can offer other discounts and promotions throughout the month to show your appreciation for their loyalty. Emails can be scheduled to remind these customers of monthly sales promotions etc.
The Best Email Marketing Tools
There are plenty of email marketing tools that can accommodate websites. Investing in a solid platform will enable you to boost engagement and optimise your sales funnel. So, it’s definitely worth the expense. Here are the best picks in 2018 for Email Marketing tools.
Active Campaign
Active Campaign is one of the most feature-packed Email Marketing and automation tools on the market. It is user friendly and includes its own CRM system (customer relationship management) which sets it apart from the competition. Sales + CRM organises all of your customer data and includes sales automation that leads to more conversions.
All the tools you need to make meaningful connections and grow your business are pretty much bundled here. The best thing about Active Campaign is the ability to create marketing automation sequences affordably and with ease.
First of all, for those who are unfamiliar with marketing automation, it is the ability to create pre-built sequences of emails that are sent out to people on your list when certain conditions are met. Another amazing offer is Zapier integration, which means that you can connect Active Campaign to 1,000+ other services, including Salesforce, Lead Formly, Quote Roller, Xero, Calendly, Acuity Scheduling, Evernote, Goto Webinar and much more.
Key Features
- Email and Marketing Automation
- Sales + CRM
- Messaging that enables you to respond to customer behavior
- Advanced Reporting
- Integrated Forms
- Site Tracking
- Training and Support
- Migration services so you can move from any other Email Marketing service
- Gmail extension
- Email Segmentation
Mail Chimp
Mail Chimp is one of the most popular and recognisable names in Email Marketing. Furthermore, it is the world’s largest marketing automation platform. The best part of Mail Chimp is that it offers excellent features in its free package. It is worth noting, however, that some advanced features – like integration with Google Analytics – are only available on paid plans. Mail Chimp is for any website owner looking for a high level of polished and an amazing set of features.
Key Features:
- Provides an all in one email marketing automation
- You can streamline your marketing by using their Social Media Ad Campaigns
- Google Remarketing ads
- Email Templates
- Abandoned Cart
- Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads
- Landing Pages that give your customers clear call to action (think more conversions!)
- A comprehensive mobile app for on the go
- Flexible design templates
- Advance analytics to grow your business
Constant Contact
The offerings at Constant Contact are similar to MailChimp. Unfortunately, Constant Contact does not have a lifetime Free tier. Never-the-less, it makes up for it with 24/7 Customer Service and advanced features. It is an excellent for the growing and expanding Small Business.
Key Features:
- Unlimited emails and subscribers.
- Provides dozens of email campaign templates to choose from, suitable for any field.
- Includes 24/7 support service via phone, emails, and live chat (although they only take emails during the weekend).
- Offers easy-to-read reports on your campaign’s performance.
Email.icu
Email.icu is an email marketing tool especially designed for small businesses. Its robust features stand out from the competition. One of the more stunning features of Email.icu is the ability to use customisable templates that allows you to focus on your message.
Key Features:
- Contact list capacity starting from 2,500
- Contact Organisation
- Send unlimited emails
- Customisable templates
- Customer Care
- Email Automation
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is a full featured email marketing platform for professional bloggers, authors, and marketers. It is also extremely easy to use and incredibly powerful.
This platform allows users to easily send content upgrades and incentives with email signup forms. Likewise, it comes with easy-to-manage auto-responder allowing you to send drip emails. In addition, users can easily organise contacts into to interested, active or previous buyer. Consequently, these features makes it great for marketing automation. It is a great tool for professional bloggers, authors, and website owners that have marketing businesses.
Key Features:
- Email Marketing Automation
- Easy-to-embed, customisable opt-in forms
- Reporting to help you keep track of your growth
- Concierge Migration from other Email Marketing Tools
- Text-based emails that help you avoid Spam Filters
Get Response
Get Response is another all-in-one marketing and automation email platform. Grow your lists, increase conversions, and optimise your audience engagement with beautiful emails and auto-responders, high-converting web forms, laser-sharp segmentation, and unique delivery tools. Get Response is for small businesses (that have already grown exponentially) and large established corporations.
Key Features:
- All-in-one Service: Email marketing, Webinars, Landing Pages, and Marking automation
- Online Marketing tailored to your Industry
- Drag and drop template creation specific to your brand
- CRM offered with certain packages
- Social Media integrations
To Conclude…
In order to have optimum success with your online business Email Marketing is a crucial. It’s clear that there’s no such thing as a one-size fits all email marketing service. However, when it comes to the industry these 5 options are the best there is. Choose the service that best suits your needs and your budget. The take away here is that you need Email Marketing to grow your business and engage your followers/customers in an authentic and organic way.
