5 Genuinely Useful Email Marketing Tools (Free & Paid)

With social media growing and so many new technologies and forms of communication born into our daily life, it’s hard for businesses to get wrapped up in the “latest and greatest”.

But, as great as social media, smartphones and voice-activated devices are, you shouldn’t neglect other great inventions and forms of communication. Email is one of them.

In a recent eConsultancy email marketing census, they found that 74% of marketers said they believe email to still be one of the highest channels for delivering ROI in five years’ time.

So, here is our list of the top five genuinely useful email marketing tools including both free and paid platforms, for all business sizes and budgets.

#1: MailChimp

One of the most used email marketing tools out there, MailChimp is an affordable solution for businesses big and small. Since entering the world of email in 2001, it’s now grown into an all-in-one place for your marketing needs.

For clients, the platform’s marketing CRM helps you to collect data about your contacts, so you can create an action plan that will generate conversations they’ll want to engage in.

The Benefits:

• Know who you’re talking to through email segmentation so that you can say the right things and put your users first.
• Look like a pro with elegant, easy-to-use design tools that bring your brand to life.
• Spread the word across multiple platforms including social, email, ads and more with the integrated campaign tools.
• Use the analytical tools to turn data into insights, getting smarter recommendations the more you use it.
• Create a campaign within minutes using the built-in templates, ready-made segments and 1-click automation.

#2: dotdigital

If you’re a bigger company looking for an email marketing tool that’s a little more up-market and has advanced automation capabilities, dotdigital is the platform for your business.

Although it’s slightly more pricey compared to some of the smaller-scale email platforms, you’re able to empower your marketing team to create an omnichannel experience, delivering engaging conversations across every channel.

Some of the most loved features include it’s stunning and simple to use design. Get beautiful templates that are perfectly structured for all devices, drag and drop content blocks removing the need to code and an advanced image editing app that’s built-in to the programme.

Plus, there’s the opportunity to personalise your data fields with integrations with Nosto and similar partners, add product recommendations pulled from your eCommerce platform may that be Magento, Shopify or other and the ability to add dynamic content.

You can also save time through the development of pre-built blocks, templates and social links and work efficiently through the “restorer” feature, automatically saving your sessions.

The Benefits:

• ROI. Make £32 for every £1 spent.
• Personalise. Put your data to work and create unique customer journeys.
• Automate. Save time and resources by automating your emails.
• Relevancy. Use AI and other intuitive tools to create relevant content.
• Efficient. Drag-and-drop makes it easy to design show-stopping emails.

You can learn more about dotdigital’s email capabilities, here.

#3: HubSpot

HubSpot was primarily a marketing, sales and service software that is based on a top-quality CRM at its core. Its three hubs allow you to do different things:

• Marketing Hub: Grow traffic through lead generation, convert more customers through marketing automation and run and complete inbound marketing campaigns at scale, reporting on these through analytics.
• Sales Hub: Save time with your sales generation by getting deeper insights into prospects. Automate the tasks you hate such as email tracking and scheduling meetings so that you can close deals quicker.
• Service Hub: The customer service software helps you to connect with customers through ticket allocation. You can then work on exceeding their expectations by obtaining customer feedback through the knowledge base features to make worthwhile changes in the future.

Emails within HubSpot

A part of the inbound marketing on HubSpot, is email creation, automation, and segmentation. Below is a list of ways you can use HubSpot to make the most of these features:

• Nurture leads into customers with email workflows. These emails are sent after a client takes a specific action.
• Customise email workflows so you can react to client actions. E.g. If your email workflow prompts the customer to buy from your online shop, you can customise your workflow to stop emailing them when they’ve gone through the checkout.
• Create Buyer Personas to identify what type of customer you’re emailing. Are they more responsive to email marketing than others? Do they like product recommendations or company updates? This will breakdown your contacts to make your marketing efforts more effective.
• Create stunning email templates with the easy-to-use, email builder.
• Use the automatic features to pull through CRM data so that you can quickly personalise subject lines and content for each recipient.
• Use the email analytic tools to run A/B tests to improve open rates and clickthroughs.

#4: Benchmark

Benchmark is a powerful email marketing tool that ditches advanced email complications, bringing you a friendly, use-today platform. With free plans available, this is a great “I’m new to email” platform that doesn’t compromise on high-quality technology.

Spend less time on setting up the system and use it as a quick fix to getting quality email content in front of your clients in an eye-catching way and at a time that matters.

The Benefits:

• An easy to use, drag and drop editor with quick set-up times so you can (almost) instantly get emails out to desired customers.
• Use List Builders, Automations, Surveys & Polls to build a loyal fanbase that engages with your email messaging.
• Get your hands on stunning email templates that have been expertly designed for any occasion. These templates are based on types of emails like basket abandonments, sales and similar, industries such as technology, construction, fashion and more and finally, occasions. Occasion templates include Black Friday, Easter holidays, summer holidays, spring sales and so on.
• AB Testing, Inbox Checker and Reporting features to help you create better campaigns by understanding how subscribers interact with your emails.

#5: SendGrid

SendGrid is another email marketing tool that you can utilise to send simple but highly necessary emails to your clients. For example, you can easily create emails such as password resets, product promotions, email newsletters, shipping notifications or other.

The Benefits:

• Simple, easy-to-use automation. Save time by automating recurring emails or time-based drip series–without needing developer help.
• Work to your taste. Create emails using HTML, drag & drop editing, or your preferred mix of both.
• Make your emails visually flawless. Keep your emails pixel-perfect and error-free with integrated testing tools in Marketing Campaigns.
• Actionable insights with real-time analytics. Enjoy key email marketing metrics at your fingertips so you can easily make data-driven decisions to improve.

Takeaway

Each platform mentioned is built by experts and are valuable, reliable and secure email marketing tools to have. However, which tool will be best suited to you depends on your business needs and of course, budget.

Although there are free and paid versions of the different platforms, remember that email marketing isn’t a tactic to cut costs on. Email marketing, in general, is fairly inexpensive and so, paying for a high-quality product that will genuinely work and bring your business benefit, is a no-brainer.