Best Email Marketing Tools 2020

Email marketing software makes it easier for businesses to engage with their audience and reach their goals. From sending newsletters to tracking leads, email marketing software is a must-have for any business looking to grow.

In this post, we’re going to look at the best email marketing software of 2020. We’ll also discuss what to look for in an email marketing provider and the benefits of email marketing. Then we’ll give you a step-by-step guide on how to choose the right email marketing software for your needs.

Best Email Marketing Tools 2020

The 6 Best Email Marketing Software of 2020

•  Best Overall: Mailchimp
•  Best for Automation: ActiveCampaign
•  Easiest to Use: MailerLite
•  Best All-in-One Marketing Suite: Hubspot
•  Best Affordable Option: Moosend
•  Best for E-commerce: Drip

BEST OVERALLMailchimp

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Mailchimp is the best overall email marketing software because it has the features that most businesses need, without being overly complicated or confusing. Businesses can schedule campaigns, A/B test copy, and get reports that include open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, and more. Plus, it has the most generous free-forever plans of the software we tested.Pros

• Free-forever plan (up to 2,000 contacts)
• Easy to build and customize campaigns
• Clear reporting that helps optimize future sends
• Integrates with hundreds of software platforms

Cons

• Pricey for larger contact lists (more than 15k subscribers)
• Very limited phone support
• Not designed for advanced marketing teams

Mailchimp’s free plan includes up to 2,000 contacts and up to 10,000 monthly email sends. Its platform is one of the easiest to get used to with drag-and-drop features that allow you to stylize your emails.

Aside from its free plan, there are also three paid plans, which vary in cost based on how many subscribers you have (nonprofits receive a 15% discount):

• Essentials: $9.99 to $270 per month
• Standard: $14.99 to $540 per month
• Premium: $299 to $1,190 per month

Mailchimp is the perfect tool for any business looking for a simple way to send emails to their customers. It has an easy-to-use email editor, and once you upgrade to the first paid plan you get access to more advanced tools such as A/B testing and multi-step journeys. Users will enjoy the easy-to-understand reporting that helps them determine what is working and what isn’t. Things like open rates and click-throughs are easily identified so business owners know if readers are responding to the content.

BEST FOR AUTOMATIONActiveCampaign

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ActiveCampaign is the best email marketing software for automation because it has hundreds of pre-built automations that help you personalize campaigns for each subscriber. There are help guides throughout the platform as you’re getting things set up, plus ActiveCampaign’s customer support is fast and friendly.Pros

• Great automation features that simplify customer interactions
• Helpful, friendly, and fast customer support
• All plan levels include data migration and implementation services
• CRM with sales automation included for free (For a limited time)
• Has 850+ integrations with the most popular software

Cons

• Learning curve can be a challenge
• Lite plan is very limited (and includes ActiveCampaign branding)
• Plans quickly jump in price with the number of contacts

ActiveCampaign is a customer experience automation (CXA) software with email capabilities. Because it is designed to manage contacts and the sales process, it offers more than 850 integrations.

There’s a 14-day free trial to test the software. After that, you will need to subscribe to one of the four paid plans, which you can pay monthly or annually. The discount for paying annually ranges from 15% to 40% depending on the plan. The cost of each plan also depends on how many contacts you have (nonprofits get 20% off). 

• Lite: $15+ per month
• Plus: $70+ per month
• Professional: $159+ per month
• Enterprise: $279+ per month

You can get a plan and adjust it for the number of contacts you have while still getting the basic features of the plan. For example, you can get the Lite plan with 500 contacts but can incrementally increase it to 100,000 contacts for $405 annually. The Plus, Professional, and Enterprise plans increase the customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities of your platform.

ActiveCampaign helps businesses build automations that are customized to increase engagement with subscribers, giving it the edge in this category. The interface is easy to use, intuitive, and includes resources for any questions that come up during the process. It also includes sales automations so your marketing and sales processes can work together to earn more revenue.

EASIEST TO USEMailerLite

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MailerLite is the easiest email marketing software to use because it has a drag-and-drop interface that makes it fun and intuitive to create the design you want. Simplicity is at the heart of the company’s mission, which is why the software has a clean and streamlined look.Pros

• Drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to design emails
• Free plan for up to 1,000 contacts
• Email support
• Lots of email templates to choose from

Cons

• Doesn’t include CRM functionalities (Though it allows for integration)
• Limited integrations
• Need to provide a lot of company information to get an account set up

MailerLite has designed a superior user-friendly platform, making it the best choice for ease of use. Should users experience any problems, there is email support to answer any questions and troubleshoot.

It offers a free-forever plan that includes 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 email sends. If you need more bandwidth or want more advanced features (like the ability to remove MailerLite branding), there is a paid plan. Cost depends on how many subscribers you have. You can pay monthly or annually, but with an annual plan, you get a 30% discount. Nonprofits also receive a 30% discount. Here’s a breakdown of the cost:

• Up to 1,000 contacts: $10 per month
• 1,001 to 2,500 contacts: $15 per month
• 2,501 to 5,000 contacts: $30 per month
• 5,001 to 10,000 contacts: $50 per month

MailerLite includes all of the essentials for email marketing, without cluttering their system with advanced features. This makes it the perfect fit for businesses looking for a straightforward approach to email marketing that they can master in days, not months.

BEST ALL-IN-ONE MARKETING SUITEHubspot

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Hubspot is the best all-in-one marketing suite because it has great tools and reporting for all of your marketing campaigns across various channels (website, social, email marketing, and more). You can store all contact information with Hubspot’s CRM and attract an audience through lead forms, live chat, and online ads.Pros

• Full marketing suite with CRM, social media, blogging, as well as email marketing capabilities
• Email health tab helps keep deliverability rates on track
• Only pay for the contacts you are marketing to
• Track leads throughout their buying journey
• Helpful online training resources

Cons

• Does not have a free-forever plan or a low-cost plan
• Not for businesses strictly looking for email marketing tools
• Difficult to integrate a separate CRM, like Salesforce or Pipedrive
• Steep learning curve to fully unlock the marketing potential

Hubspot is a leader in CRM services that include email marketing. The platform can handle everything from emails, social media posts, and blog publishing, making it the top platform for an all-in-one marketing solution.

There’s a 14-day free trial, and then you’ll have to subscribe to one of their three paid plans. While it’s free to store unlimited contacts, once the number you email surpasses the included amount, you will have to pay an additional fee. Save 10% on the first two plans if you pay annually (the Enterprise plan must be paid annually). 

• Starter (up to 1,000 contacts): $50 per month
• Professional (up to 2,000 contacts): $800 per month
• Enterprise (up to 10,000 contacts): $3,200 per month

Hubspot combines all of your marketing activities in one place so you can have a centralized view of how contacts interact with your website, Google ads, social media, and email marketing. It provides insights into the buyer’s journey, helping business owners better tailor their marketing efforts for success. The platform includes a robust training platform that not only reviews how to use the system but also highlights the best practices for successful marketing campaigns.

BEST AFFORDABLE OPTIONMoosend

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Moosend is the best affordable option not only because its paid plans cost less than most on the market, but also because you can pay either by the number of subscribers or by the number of emails sent, depending on which option is cheapest for you. Plus, its tools are user friendly and make it easy to get attractive and timely emails out to your audience.Pros

• Lowest plan costs
• Option to pay only when you send emails
• Easy to customize templates or use one from the template library

Cons

• Can’t send emails from a Gmail or Hotmail address
• Less-sophisticated user interface
• Limited integrations

Moosend is a cost-effective platform that gives users the choice of how to get billed: by subscribers or by email. Phone support is included that can help if you have trouble customizing one of the numerous templates provided.

Moosend’s Free Forever plan includes 1,000 subscribers, plus there’s a Pro Plan and an Enterprise plan with tiered pricing. You’ll need to contact Moosend for Enterprise plan pricing. The Pro Plan is priced based on the number of subscribers. Below is the cost if you pay monthly, but you’ll receive a 20% discount for annual billing. You’ll also receive a 25% discount if you’re a nonprofit. 

• Up to 2,000 subscribers: $10 per month
• 2,001 to 2,500 subscribers: $20 per month
• 2,501 to 5,000 subscribers: $30 per month
• 5,001 to 8,000 subscribers: $40 per month

You can opt to pay for the number of emails sent (includes unlimited subscribers), which Moosend calls credits. For $1, you get 1,000 credits, which is equal to 1,000 email sends. With this option, you get the same features that are included in the Pro Plan, such as landing pages, and transactional emails. 

Moosend is one of the cheapest email marketing tools on the market, but it’s robust enough to satisfy most email marketing campaigns for small businesses, winning our spot for the most affordable option. It allows you to pay either by the number of subscribers or by the number of emails sent, so you can choose which option is most cost-effective for your business. 

BEST FOR E-COMMERCEDrip

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Drip is the best email marketing software for e-commerce businesses because of it’s sophisticated workflows combined with advanced list segmentation. This combination means that subscribers receive personalized emails triggered by their shopping behaviors on your site and receive timely follow-ups based on how they interact with your emails.Pros

• Simple yet powerful drip campaigns
• Easy to set up and use
• Excellent customer support
• Sophisticated contact list segmentation

Cons

• Lacks a few key integrations
• No drag-and-drop functionality for designing templates
• Support only available weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST

Designed to improve the online user experience for shoppers, Drip is the best email marketing software for e-commerce companies. Its user support is available to help with issues setting up and using the service. We especially like how you can segment your lists so users get the best possible experience from your website and email alerts.

Drip has a 14-day free trial and has one plan that ranges from $19 to $1,599 per month depending on how many contacts are in your account. Here are a few of the price points:

• Up to 500 contacts: $19 per month
• 501 to 2,000 contacts: $29 per month
• 2,001 to 2,500 contacts: $39 per month
• 2,501 to 3,000 contacts: $49 per month

For costs above this number of contacts, it’s best to get details directly from the website. The tiered scale goes up to 140,000 contacts for $1,599 before you need to contact them for custom enterprise pricing.

Drip is built for e-commerce, which means its workflows, email templates, and lead generation forms are designed with e-commerce best practices in mind. It includes advanced segmentation and customization that allows you to hyper-target your campaigns in order to increase user engagement.

best email marketing platform 2021

1. Pabbly Email Marketing

Pabbly Email Marketing is an email service provider that is highly desirable for larger-sized companies. This is because all the plans Pabbly include access to workflow automation, email scheduling, and SMTP routing in addition to many other desirable features.

Pabbly also has a drag-and-drop email editor that makes it extremely easy for customers to customize their emails. Scheduling emails to be sent in the future is also very easy with the Pabbly Email Marketing automation and autoresponder tools.

2. SendPulse

An integrated messaging platform, SendPulse has crafted an artificial Intelligence-based system that enables it users to communicate with all devices by email, SMS, Web push and SMTP (users enjoy a free SMTP server). Renowned for its ease-of-use, SendPulse can be relied on to carry out enterprise-level email campaigns. Offering a pretty extensive free trial period, you’ll be able to send bulk emails (i.e. 15,000 emails to 500 subscribers, SendPulse’s equivalent of HubSpot’s contacts).  We recommend you check out the GIF-creation feature. Adding these to email campaigns can result in major spikes in click through rates.

3. MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the most popular email service providers in the world. In fact, this company has millions of users in over 175 countries. Large and small companies alike use MailChimp due to its simple, yet highly-effective features and tools.

One of the most important benefits of MailChimp is the fact that there are over 300 integrations on MailChimp that help you match the perfect tool to your business. MailChimp also allows you to create and implement landing pages, and other digital marketing tools. So, if you want to create more advanced strategies, you can do so with MailChimp. MailChimp also has a free email service plan.

MailChimp is also compatible with Cincopa, a video email marketing software program that makes it easy to embed videos into emails. Cincopa helps companies to see a 150% increase in click-through rates with video thumbnails. Cincopa can also be integrated with other top-tier email service providers like GetResponse and ConstantContact. Cincopa can capture lead information from people who interact with videos. It can also provide in-depth analytics which are extremely beneficial. Did we mention that you can send videos in email from within MailChimp when using Cincopa?

4. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is one of the most widely used email marketing platforms in the world. This is because it is highly user-friendly, it comes with over 100 email templates, and it is extremely easy to manage contact on the platform. Further, setting up and running drip campaigns and scheduling regular emails at certain points of the year such as holidays or birthdays is very simple with Constant Contact. In addition to these beneficial features, bounces and unsubscribes are updated automatically, give you tremendous insight into your email lists.

5. HubSpot

HubSpot offers a wide variety of email templates that users can choose from. Additionally, the ESP makes it easy for users to create custom email templates. So, whether you prefer custom or stock templates, HubSpot is ideal. With this platform, you can also run A/B testing so that you can see which email version is having the most success.

This is very beneficial for any company trying to generate leads or revenue through email. HubSpot also has a very high deliverability rate, and allows you to personalize your emails based on factors such as country, device type, and list inclusion. You can also get highly detailed analytics regarding your email campaign performance with HubSpot, and you can easily integrate with social media. As with MailChimp, integrating HubSpot with Cincopa can yield amazing conversion results.
6. AWeber

Unlike email marketing tools such as HubSpot and MailChimp, AWeber is primarily aimed at entrepreneurs and smaller sized businesses. Simplicity is the primary goal of AWeber and they accomplish this goal very well with their software. People who are just getting started with email marketing often find that the AWeber setup is ideal. AWeber also has a very high deliverability rate, which ensures that your emails actually make it to the recipients as they are intended to.

7. iContact

iContact is an email service provider that is mostly known for having excellent customer support. This makes this service ideal for customers who are not very tech savvy and who will need a lot of help getting set up and running the emails on a regular basis. iContact has been in existence since 2003 and was one of the pioneering companies in this space. All customers get matched with strategic advisors who assist with email marketing efforts and help customers to use tools effectively. This is a very nice feature.

8. GetResponse

GetResponse is another top ESP. This platform offers landing pages, a CRM, and other helpful tools such as a webinar solution in addition to offering a great email platform. One of the most important features of GetResponse and one of its key competitive advantages is that it is available in over 20 languages. This makes GetResponse a truly global ESP. It also has a lot of storage space. Additionally, GetResponse has over 500 email template and a calendar interface-based drip campaign tool. This makes it much easier to schedule email send dates.

9. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is another email marketing tool that offers live chat. So, if having good customer service is important to you, then this is a good option for you. ActiveCampaign also has a high-quality CRM, which is a beneficial tool. The CRM can help you to provide your customers with high-quality content in within your emails. Further, ActiveCampaign has a tool called “lead scoring” which rates the quality of your leads. Tools like this are extremely valuable for sales teams.

10. SendinBlue

SendinBlue has many different pre-made automation campaigns which you can browse. You can select the campaign that you feel is best for you or your company and get started on it. SendinBlue is a widely used platform and that is why over 30 million emails and texts are sent on it every single day.

Even though SendinBlue has create pre-made automation campaigns, it is also easy to create custom ones. So, if you do not find a pre-made campaign you like, then you can easily build one from scratch with your own preferences. SendinBlue also has a forms tool that you can use to collect leads with. You can categorize your leads into lists once you capture them.

Conclusion

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