Best Email Marketing Software in 2024

Most business owners are now becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of email marketing software tools, realizing that such solutions will allow them to improve their business communication efforts. For many, though, it is still difficult to define a clear list of advantages and profits that would merit adopting such programs in their company. To prove that there is indeed much to gain from professional email marketing tools, we’ve prepared this guide for you to give you a detailed look at what this type of software has to offer.

A good course of action when looking for the best among email marketing tools for enterprises or smaller businesses is to sign up for at least a few free trials or demo and starter unpaid plans from leading email marketing software providers. With that method, you will have the opportunity to test the important elements and you will get a good comparison of the capabilities of the selected apps. You will also be able to understand what is email marketing software better. The best thing to do is to try services that currently have the highest SmartScore rankings and Customer Satisfaction Rating in our email marketing software reviews: RedCappi reviews, Campaign Monitor, ActiveCampaign, AWeber, Constant Contact, HubSpot, and MailChimp. 

It may also be a good idea to examine some of the most popular alternatives available on the market. See our Top 10 Alternatives to ActiveCampaign guide for a reliable list of solutions worth trying out.

Email marketing software is welcome in every company handling a large customer database, and looking to summarize contacts under one roof and deliver information in a synchronized manner. The scale and niche of the business are most of the time irrelevant, but there are few specific scenarios where demand generation software is most needed:

• Businesses looking to provide valuable information via email newsletters. It is quite often in every business that customers need a bit of on-boarding in order to make a purchase, which is exactly why email marketing systems exist. Companies use them to provide relevant information to their customer lists via email newsletters and to allow them to sign up on their platform in order to gather information.
• Businesses looking to provide leads with ‘irresistible’ and ‘one-time’ promotional offers. Just as in the case of extended product information, companies can use email marketing systems to provide irresistible offers that can engage leads and convert them into customers.
• Businesses looking to personalize their emails. The biggest advantage of email marketing systems is that they allow companies to personalize the email templates they’re using, ideally by including logos, slogans, and relevant information, or by generalizing the content to save time. This helps to build a stable and individual relationship with each customer, and make them feel as if they were your most important contacts.
• Publications, media outfits, and influencers that need to build and manage a lively community. With an email marketing software, influencers and online media outfits can build and foster relationships with their community through newsletters. Influencers from social media personalities to podcasters can take advantage of email marketing.

• AWeber: An outstanding email marketing platform with superior autoresponders and robust feature suite, designed to meet the needs of businesses from all scales and niches.
• Constant Contact: As the name indicates, this effective platform allows companies to improve customer relationships, and it is loaded with templates and learning materials.
• HubSpot: A popular marketing tool packed with all functionalities necessary to create compelling content, and to deliver it in a fast and engaging manner.
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud: Another powerful Salesforce.com member in charge of providing effective marketing solutions, as well as guaranteeing a strong marketing presence on social media.
• MailChimp: A well-known email marketing service for small business and mid-sized companies that offers business-enhancing marketing plans and analytics.

For a more detailed list of products, you may want to check out our Top 20 Email Marketing Software ranking. You’ll find a much wider selection of products for comparisons there.

There are many different types of email marketing software, varying from free and basic tool suites to ultra costly and accurate programs. Features can also be categorization criteria, as certain programs do nothing but summarize contact lists, while others are more robust and they allow marketers to personalize their email newsfeeds, track and compare customer behavior and conversion rates, and even do some custom branding. Deployment is also an important factor based on which there are:

• On-premise email marketing systems. These are covered with a single license and are hosted on the client’s local server. They qualify as the most expensive ones, due to the fact that they require complex setup and occasionally some hardware installation.
• Software-as-a-service (SaaS) email marketing systems. These are usually paid per month and are hosted on the vendor’s server. The business owner is not responsible for installation, updating, and maintenance.
• Cloud-hosted email marketing systems. Most of these offer free basic plans and qualify as the most affordable ones due to their universal access and the fact that the client doesn’t need to update them or to for maintenance.

There are few essential features the best Email Marketing software should have in order to help you generate successful campaigns, namely those which can reach even ambitious prospects that can be measured in future:

• Segregated Email Lists. The email list is the basis of every direct marketing campaign, where the team gathers contacts from different sources. An email marketing tool is supposed to summarize contacts from all possible lists (online databases, association lists, list brokers, trade shows, LinkedIn connections, etc.), and to keep the new one updated with minimal manual effort. At the same time, you should be able to segregate and categorize contacts depending on their location, consumer behavior, age, preferences, or whatever category that may be relevant for you.
• Customizable Design. A big part of any email marketing campaign’s success can be prescribed to email design, namely the looks of your layouts, subject lines, and call-to-actions. The ideal email marketing tool should be empowered with a large customization capacity that allows you to change these elements in order to eliminate any possibility that your email will be tagged as spam.
• Tracking and Reporting. Most email marketing systems have robust measurement dashboards that allow you to measure your marketing results and to divide budgets accordingly. The data can, later on, be used for generating reports, as for instance sent/unsent emails, open rates, hard/soft bounces, and many others.
• Testing. Using email marketing software, you should be able to test and optimize your campaigns before sending them out to your complete email list. By testing, we refer to standardized A/B standards, which make it possible to examine separate variables rather than the entire content. Both positive and negative click-through rates and spam compliance evaluators serve to indicate whether you should push a campaign through or to drop it instead.
• AutoResponders. This is one of the most important features every email marketing system should have. It is because auto-responders automate a large portion of your marketing work and increase conversions by simply informing senders that their email has been received. At the same time, auto-responders can be used to notify regular clients on promotions and discounts and to confirm their subscriptions on your website. Likewise, you can use follow-ups to offer free trials or information sheets to unfamiliar audiences.
• CRM Integration. It is absolutely normal for a business to expect the world from its email marketing software–the truth is that the good ones among them are not even close to being cheap, which makes us understand by default that they’re going to fit within our software infrastructure. Technically, we should be able to integrate them with any program, but what matters the most is how they’ll synchronize with our CRM system. The CRM integration streamlines the relationship between sales and marketing, and increases both ROI and overall positive effects of your campaigns. In the meanwhile, your CRM will be a critical source of customer data and relevant competitive information, which is more than enough to transform your relationship with customers into a productive and entertaining experience.

Check out our What Is Email Marketing Software guide for a more comprehensible list of typical features and modules available in most solutions.

Email marketing software is used for commercial communication with individuals/groups, most often in the form of sales, business requests, promotions, advertisements, or any similar activity aimed to improve customer loyalty and overall brand recognition. This being said, email marketing keeps a business connected with its customers even after sales have been completed.

Digital communication on its behalf, allows the business to target literally every audience on low research and production costs, and get to know all of their interests, shopping habits, likes and dislikes by simply holding a list of valuable contacts and maintaining its accuracy. At the same time, customers benefit from a more personalized relationship and individual treatment for support and important information. Let’s see how that works:

• Targeted Marketing. Let’s be honest to ourselves: traditional marketing is not targeted marketing. The time of promoting products on popular TV shows is far behind us, because people have changed, the same as their habits. Email marketing allows you to target a specific group of contacts you’ve chosen on the basis of carefully planned criteria, and to customize the message in accordance with what they’d expect to see. That’s how the magic of higher conversions actually happens.
• Measured Effects. You’ve advertised a service in the local newspaper, and that’s great because you know that many people read it. Still, how could you know the exact number of readers that paid attention to it, or at least of those who came and purchased your service based on what they read? That’s the miraculous power of email marketing: it helps you forecast results, and measure effects based on them. With an effective EM tool, you’ll never risk being ambiguous and immodest and you will draw achievable and realistic metrics concerning your open rates, delivery accomplishment, subscriber retention, or click-to-deliver rates. Consequently, you will estimate which recipients are most responsive, and you will orientate your next campaign towards that specific group.
• Cost-Effectiveness. ROI may as well be the most appealing and meaningful advantage of email marketing systems since you’re supposed neither to print anything nor to pay any external party to advertise your work. As the Direct Marketing Association claims, email marketing converts $1 of investment into $40 of revenue, so there is no reason not to consider it for your business too.
• Easier Sharing. There is no easier way to share marketing forms than the email one because it takes but few seconds, and a couple of clicks. The purpose is to inspire subscribers to share your content with other users who’re not on your contact list, acting as your so-called brand advocates. Of course, you’re the ultimate beneficiary in the case, because you become more exposed and gain credibility based on it.
• Brand Awareness. There is nothing bad in reminding customers about your existence so that they would have you into consideration for future purchases. Each additional email adds value to your marketing strategy, assuming it has been strategically planned and designed to attract enough attention. It is your way of ‘staying there’ even with no deals on the horizon, and to be in a much more likely position to be chosen than competitors who market the traditional way.
• Collaboration and Teamwork. Take advantage of teamwork by using an email marketing software solution’s collaboration tools. These tools range from task assignment, commenting, file sharing, and group chats. Work on updating contacts together and reply to incoming emails simultaneously. With this, everybody can share the load.

Price is a very important factor to consider when choosing the right email marketing solution for you. Moreover, the price is usually determined by the kind of payment scheme you choose. Today, there are three common payment schemes or pricing plans. Here they are:

• Free. Access to good email marketing platforms doesn’t have to break the bank. In fact, some solutions are available at no cost. Meanwhile, some offer free versions of paid plans or freemium options, which are good for small businesses and growing companies.
• Monthly Subscription. This is probably the most popular one today. Plans are billed per month. And, this makes it easier for businesses to try out software solutions. They shell out a manageable amount of cash without overcommitting to a solution.
• Annual Subscription. A yearly plan is perfect for businesses that are already set on a program for the long haul. Also, it is usually priced lower than monthly subscriptions. However, opting out is not that easy.

There are many factors to consider when choosing the best email marketing software solution for you. Different businesses have different needs. So, you really need to find a good one that matches your requirements.

Also, you really have to find a solution that is more likely to be used by your organization. This is a really hard act to balance. But, one has to remember the bottom line. Purchasing the right software is not the end of it. It is just the beginning.

You would have to get used to the platform and develop best practices over time. Staff would undergo training and maybe you would experience pushbacks. If you are lucky enough, you won’t experience these birthing pains. However, you should expect the worst and prepare for software adoption thoroughly.