How To Develop Email Marketing Software

Email marketing software is often a cornerstone of business-to-business (B2B) marketing.

If you’re thinking of developing your own email marketing software, you’ll need to know what you’re getting into. Email marketing software can be an invaluable tool for businesses, but it’s also very difficult to develop and often even more difficult to maintain.

How To Develop Email Marketing Software

Before you can start sending out emails, you need people to send emails to. How do you get started building your list? Start by adding a banner or form to your website simply asking people to subscribe.

Then, follow these tips.

1. Offer An Incentive

Think of email addresses as a currency: you wouldn’t give money away for free, right? Offering an incentive is the simplest way to gather email addresses.

There are many ways you can do this, of course. Some prefer to give something away for free while others simply offer a newsletter or product updates.

For example, the business newsletter Morning Brew offers readers a simple benefit: their fun, interesting updates every morning.

Search Engine Journal uses a small form in their right sidebar offering daily news—they also ask which topics the user is interested in, which helps them send more valuable content.

You can also offer a checklist, ebook, white paper, or another downloadable asset. Contests and giveaways are another great way to convince people to share their email addresses.

I can’t tell you which is the right or wrong path for your business, but I can tell you that it’s important to have a clear purpose when asking for an address.

This is where a strong call to action comes into play, and copywriting is super important.

Establish your credibility, explain what the emails are for, and get people interested in receiving them.

Simply posting “enter your email for updates” isn’t going to get anyone excited. Instead, share specifics.

By sharing a specific call to action or benefit to providing their email address, you can get more people to subscribe.

Some common ways to entice people to sign up include:

• email series
• free downloads
• free white papers or eBooks
• update lists, like new releases and product updates

Whatever that incentive is, make it clear and enticing, and don’t be afraid to promote it.

2. Follow Email Marketing Laws and Regulations

You’ll also want to make sure your emails follow local rules and regulations, including CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

Don’t let all the legalese scare you—just make sure you never buy email lists and consider using double opt-in options so people know what they are getting into. Finally, make it easy for people to unsubscribe.

Email Marketing Step 2: Provide Great Content

Email marketing is all about expectations, and it’s up to you to set them.

If your call to action is strong, and your follow-up is consistent, then you can count on a successful email campaign.

However, if you promise to send one email per week and instead send them daily, then you’re setting yourself up for failure.

On the contrary, if someone is expecting daily updates or critical product updates and you don’t deliver, then they are likely to be just as upset in that case, too.

This is why the first follow-up email is so crucial to the success of your email marketing efforts.

Send an Introduction Email

For example, here’s a basic welcome email from Airbnb to a new host. It explains the basics of the process and what you can expect to receive from Airbnb.

Spotify sends out a similar email that confirms the subscription and lets them know what they can expect.

Almost all email service providers give you the option to create an automated welcome sequence, so take advantage of it.

The initial follow-up email should be sent immediately as a way to introduce yourself and detail what you plan on doing with your new subscriber’s email address.

It’s better to be long-winded and detailed than it is to be quick and unobtrusive, but if you can pull off quick and concise, then more power to you.

From here, it’s simply a matter of living up to their expectations.

Don’t Pitch Right Away

You’re not running an email list just for the fun of it—you’re there to engage customers and make sales.

Transitioning from an email list that provides tons of free value into a list that pitches a product for money can be a tricky switch to make.

To do it effectively, it’s a good idea to think in advance about your pitching. You don’t want to surprise everyone with a pitch all of the sudden.

You’ll have a much more successful campaign if people expect sales pitches every once in a while.

If you’re going to get in the habit of selling often, try to put yourself in the reader’s shoes.

Ask yourself if your messaging is consistent with the expectations you’ve set. If possible, understand what the customer has shown interest in before, and send similar offers down the line.

Those that send blind offers are far more likely to lose permission to keep doing so.

Again, each business has different needs, and there aren’t any hard and fast rules as to how often you can pitch or provide content.

Just remember that an email list is a permission asset and it’s better to err on the side of caution than to play it loose and reckless.

How to Write a Great Email Newsletter

Let’s talk about the difference between a good newsletter and a bad newsletter.

The first sign that you’ve received a bad newsletter is that you don’t recall ever asking to receive it.

Typically, this happens when a business either fails to maintain a regular email routine or manually adds someone to their list after receiving a business card or personal email.

Make sure everyone remembers you—the best way to do this is not to let your emails lapse for too long. Try to send an email at least once a month, or once a week if you can.

I find the most compelling newsletters are those that do a great job of mixing messaging and updates.

For example, while the email might contain a list of product updates and images, it’s balanced by a personal message or friendly memo.

Use your newsletter as a way to further your relationship with the reader/customer rather than to pitch them.

Save the pitch for unique updates, offers, and announcements.

Use Email Automation Carefully

If you’re just starting out with an email list, it’s easy to imagine you’ll have time to personally respond to every new subscriber.

Once you start getting more than a handful of subscribers, it becomes next to impossible to keep up.

You’ll start to get more and more complex campaigns, and following through with everyone all the time is impossible.

Top marketers seem to do this exact thing. How?

Their secret is email automation.

It automatically sends out emails that you schedule in advance.

By scheduling a set of emails to send in advance, you can prevent “going dark” for any length of time.

Oftentimes, companies plan out a series of emails—ranging from a few days to a few months—that automatically deliver, warming up anyone who signs up for your list.

That way, when you do need to announce a new product or sale, you can count on the fact that they are paying attention.

Since you’ve built up a relationship over several weeks or months, you’re much less likely to annoy your readers.

Email Marketing Step 3: Analytics and Segmentation

Now that you understand the basics behind an effective email campaign, let’s talk about how to take things to the next level.

Specifically, using segmentation and analytics to refine your broadcasts and generate even better results than a basic campaign.

How To Understand Email Analytics

We’ve talked before about the importance of analytics in web copy, and email is no different.

Every email service provider I’ve ever worked with provides complimentary analytics.

Though they’re all important, the three most important are open rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribes. Let’s break down each one and see what there is to learn from it.

First, your open rate explains how many people open your emails. It’s based on a single invisible tracking pixel that loads when someone clicks on your message.

When looking at open rates, it’ll usually tell you how well you’ve built your relationship with readers. Ideally, people are excited to read your emails and open them quickly.

If your open rate is low, it usually means you have a lot of unengaged subscribers. You need to work harder on providing value and managing expectations. Here are a few tips on raising your open rate.

Next, your click-through rate, or CTR, shows how many people clicked on a link (if any) in your email.

If your CTR is low, it means that your message is either not targeted enough, or simply not getting through. In this case, focus on improving your copy.

Finally, your unsubscribe rate tells you how many people have clicked the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of your email.

If your unsubscribe rate is high in relation to your opt-in rate, then you’ve passed the point of building value and writing good copy… you’ve got some serious work to do.

Essentially you’ve built a sieve and people that sign up eventually leave. If this is you, try to examine when people are leaving and take action based on those leaks.

If they’re leaving after a certain automated email, then re-work it. If they’re leaving after marketing messages, then re-work the way you present offers.

If they’re leaving early on in your email funnel, then you need to fix your original call to action so that it’s in harmony with what you’re sending.

Email analytics are critical because, if you’re paying attention, they’ll give you very specific clues as to what you’re doing wrong.

Of course, the key here is “paying attention.”

How To Segment Your Email Marketing List

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, email segmentation is the practice of splitting up your email list into more targeted groups.

Here are a few ways to segment a larger list:

• customer list (in comparison to leads who haven’t bought)
• newsletter subscribers
• daily email list (in comparison to weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc)
• demographics, such as age, location, or job title
• interests, such as marketing or sales topics

Just like targeting in paid ads, dividing your list gives you the ability to send more targeted communications.

For example, some customers want both product and sales updates, while others might only want to hear about new versions. Sales team leads might want to hear about a new sales feature but not a new marketing tool.

best email marketing

Mailchimp

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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.

Conclusion

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