12 Best Email Marketing Tools Every Marketer Should Know (2024)

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Email marketing is an essential component to a company’s brand. Email marketing consists of strategies that get people to engage with a business via emails. To become a valuable marketer it helps to specialize in a niche or field. Email marketing will always be in demand, and it’s something that anyone can learn - even without a marketing degree.

What makes email marketing so powerful is its scalability. However, no one sits around and just writes thousands of personal emails every day. That is where email marketing tools come in handy.

We will go over some of the best email marketing platforms and highlight their excellent features and the cheapest plan prices so you can pick the right email marketing software for your business! Scroll until the end for our extra tip to stand out as an email marketer.

Table of Contents

1) Sender

Sender is an easy-to-use email marketing platform equipped with lots of different functionalities. You can send tens of thousands of emails using Sender for a small fee. Even without paying you will have access to 15,000 emails per month.

Efficiency and ease of use makes this email marketing tool suitable for individuals who are just starting a business and are still unsure about their level of commitment. You will not have a lot of access to complex data or a lot of high level automations, but you’ll be able to spread awareness of your product among many different clients. 

This is a better email marketing software for people looking to get their name brand out rather than lure clients deeper into their buyer’s journey with more targeted emails. 

Sender Notable Features

  • Customizable Trigger Automations
  • Google Analytics Tracker
  • Spam Checker

Pros

  • Access to solid audience segmentations and automations at an economical price.
  • One of the best email marketing softwares for novices. 
  • You can send a high number of emails - 15,000 per month without paying.

Cons

  • Only about 40 email templates to work with.
  • The drag and drop editor is slow and cumbersome to use.
  • Not much analytics provided for more data-oriented strategies.
  • Lacks in behavior tracking, platform comparisons and data testing features.

Sender Notable Cost

You’re looking at 2,500 subscribers at $0! Its first tier bracket is $33 for 5,000 and the ability to send a whopping 30,000 emails per month.

2) MailChimp

MailChimp is arguably the most popular email marketing tool in the industry. Not only does it provide more advanced features such as marketing automation and an easy-to-use drag and drop builder, it also comes with a vast range of price points for their paid plans.

This email marketing platform supplies you with an aesthetically-pleasing campaign manager. You’ll be able to craft emails that look fantastic without having to learn anything technical at the cost of $0. 

MailChimp is a good email marketing platform to grow with as it also supplies you with a lot of data. You can learn your customer behavior which in turn will make you a better email marketer.

MailChimp Notable Features

  • Automated Drip Campaigns
  • Customized Journey Creation
  • Behavioral Targeting

Pros

  • You can import your contacts from other popular e-commerce sites like Shopifly, Salesforce, and SquareSpace. 
  • It has well over 500 integration options in total.
  • High quality reporting - ability to track behavior using data from Google Analytics, social media, client engagements, etc. 

Cons

  • MailChimp becomes expensive if you have a large amount of subscribers.
  • You will get charged for inactive contents as well as people who unsubscribe from your newsletters. 
  • No user tagging feature based on their actions in an email.

MailChimp Cost

MailChimp’s “free forever” plan gives you 500 subscribers for 1,000 emails with limited feature access. The first pricing option is only $13 dollars which gives you more email sending volume at 5,000 emails with a 500 subscriber limit.

3) Loops

If you have a SaaS company, you’re going to want a lot of workflow automation options. Loops focuses on delivering a large variety of automated workflows (loops) at an affordable price.

SaaS businesses have different types of clients at different stages of the buyer's journey. Loops gives you workflows that can deal with clients at nuanced stages of their journey. 

It usually costs a lot of money for services with strong automation, but Loops has reduced its cost by hyper-focusing on automation perhaps at the expense of some other convenient all-around email marketing tools.

Loops Notable Features

  • WYSIWYG editor
  • Contact management features
  • Branching logic for user journeys

Pros

  • The interface is simple to understand and looks sleek. 
  • It’s built in with a lot of automated templates (loops) for an inexpensive cost. 
  • Onboarding your marketing team is easy and it has many integrations with other platforms.

Cons

  • Loops does not have a dedicated mobile app, making it difficult to work on the go.
  • The emails created on Loops can lack visual flare, as you’re only equipped with basic text editors and a few email templates
  • Not suitable for more creative industries.

Loops Cost

Loops is free for the first 1,000 contacts and you’re capped at 2,000 emails per month. You can upgrade to 5,000 contacts and unlimited sends for $50 a month.

4) Brevo

Brevo is one of the most budget friendly services available. It focuses on offering a wide variety of free email marketing platforms. 

This software provides a lot of services in sales and campaigns in other platforms other than email. It provides you with a basic CRM, which makes it easy for you to incorporate your campaigns on WhatsApp, Facebook, and SMS. 

For companies that do not regularly send newsletters this is a good option. The way the payment works for Brevo is based on the emails you send rather than the size of your contact list. This means that those who only want to pay when they are actively engaging are going to find Brevo to be one of the best email marketing softwares. 

Brevo Notable Features & Cost

  • Push Notifications
  • Transactional Emails
  • Live Chat Widget

Pros

  • Brevo provides a low upstart cost and investment thanks to its pricing model. If you’re not sure about how much you want to dedicate to your email marketing budget, this is a strong service to start with.
  • It has good automations for its price point, giving you options to scale up once you’ve hit a level of competency.
  • Its CRM makes it convenient for businesses that need to manage marketing campaigns across multiple platforms.

Cons

  • Brevo lacks comprehensive reporting features. Gathering high quality data can be a challenge.
  • Like many free email marketing tools your emails will have the “Brevo” logo on them. Some clients may think your emails come off as cheap, spammy, or amateurish.
  • A pricing model on email sending volume can cause scaling limitations when you start to have a larger client base.

Brevo Cost

With Brevo’s free plan, you can have unlimited contacts as Brevo’s sales model is based around how many emails you are sending instead of how many contacts you have.

You can send up to 9,000 emails for free. Upgrading to 20,000 emails costs $25 per month. You can double your emails sent if you pay $40 per month.

5) Hubspot

Hubspot is one of the most popular CRM (Customer Relationships Management) software today. As a CRM tool, it has many different components, including email marketing software. 

Hubspot preaches inbound philosophy. They want people who use their product to attract clients to their businesses rather than the other way around. Hubspot is not what you want to use if you are running a cold email strategy.

Hubspot Notable Features

  • Contact Data
  • Campaign Analytics
  • CRM Integration 

Pros

  • Hubspot integrates perfectly with major CRMs. The all-in-one marketing experience makes multitasking quick and convenient.
  • Hubspot has top tier customer support. Any type of issues you have you will get quick responses.
  • Hubspot supplies tutorials and free certification, making it very beginner friendly and easy to learn how to use it for your email marketing strategy.

Cons

  • Hubspot pricing is affordable for midsize businesses, but rather expensive for small businesses.
  • Many of the email templates provided are not visually-appealing. You’ll likely need to spend time editing them to not come off as generic. 
  • Hubspot is easy to pick up but difficult to master. There are features that will require a lot of trial and error to implement.

Hubspot Cost

Hubspot’s email marketing is included in its broader marketing software deal. It is only free for the first 2,000 emails you send per month. Afterward, it will cost $18 per month or $216 per year if you pay upfront. 

6) Mailjet

Mailjet is a simple tool that doesn’t have a ton of complex features. It can be the perfect email marketing software for people who do not want to get overwhelmed by information. 

Customization for personalized emails is one of its focus points. If you are in a more creative industry and want to integrate more engaging content, then Mailjet will make that process simple and easy.

Mailjet Notable Features

  • Customizable templates
  • Drag-and-drop editor
  • Real-time cloud emailing for transactional and marketing emails

Pros

  • Easy and intuitive modification of pre-existing templates.
  • Provides tools for creating individualized emails while still supplying reasonable scalability.
  • You can put together newsletters, contact lists, and integrate with CRM making it a collaborative friendly email marketing tool. 

Cons

  • Not much customer support provided for free plan users.
  • While it is cheap, one could argue that it is overpriced for how basic the tools are. 
  • Its automation technology is outdated and lacking in more complex features in general. 

Mailjet Cost

Mailjet is slightly different from most other email marketing services in that it charges on emails sent and not the size of the address contact list. You can send 6,000 emails per month on the free plan (200 emails per day as a cap). If you want to scale up it will cost $15 dollars a month, and the next tier after that jumps to $73. 

7) Mailerlite

Mailerlite is a quick and easy-to-use software that is focused on consumers who do not want to spend a lot of money. Its “free forever” plan makes it one of the better free email marketing softwares available.

When you want to start paying for scalability, Mailerlite remains a cost efficient option. It offers a solid variety of tools for a very low price.

Mailerlite Notable Features

  • Drag-and-Drop Email Builder
  • Unlimited emails (for a low cost)
  • Integrated surveys

Pros

  • Mailerlite has a friendly “point and click” interface. The email builder has an easy to use photo and text editor which helps make dynamic looking emails.
  • Offers a wide variety of tools for free such as countdown timers, automation triggers, and a large free image library.
  • An emphasis on visual media, strong integration with Wordpress and is a blogger friendly email marketing tool in general.

Cons

  • There aren’t a lot of data analytics and information-related features.
  • You do not have access to live chat or phone support on the free plan.
  • Convenient features like its HTML editor require upgrading to the paid service.

Mailerlite Cost

Mailerlite is free for the first 1,000 subscribers you have. This makes it really friendly for people wanting to learn a software, and once they hit intermediate proficiency level, they can pay to scale up their campaign. The cheapest paid option is $10 per month followed by $20.

8) Moosend

Moosend has a ton of features that you would expect to only find on higher priced email marketing tools. Moosend is geared for entrepreneurs and small business owners who are looking to scale up without breaking the bank. 

There is a large emphasis on reporting with this email marketing software. Highly compressive graphs and data tables, as well as templates that adapt to the information of your subscribers. It is also to integrate the data from Moosend to other programs for a more comprehensive analytical review. 

Notable Features & Cost

  • Marketing Automation
  • A/B Test Subject lines 
  • Unlimited emails

Pros

  • Moosend is arguably the best email marketing service at its price point.
  • Incredible amount of information services. You can create a highly detailed report to help your decision making with your email campaign.
  • A ton of automated workflows and a large bank of email templates to pick from.
  • Powerful audience segmentation feature which allows you to send highly targeted emails to recipients while still mass emailing.

Cons

  • It discontinued its free service so you’re going to have to cough up money if you want to use it.
  • Not as easy to use as some other free email marketing software. 
  • It lacks industry standard security such as two-factor authentication.

Moosend Cost

You get all of these powerful tools for only 9 dollars a month. There is no free option but you can try out the features of Moosend on a 30 day trial.

9) Benchmark Email

This is an email marketing tool that focuses heavily on aesthetics. Benchmark Email supplies its users with a lot of visual effects, texts, stickers, and images for a visually-appealing email marketing campaign.

Benchmark provides an easy to use platform. It is not geared toward marketing veterans or people who have good technical knowledge. Their demographic is more for someone who has never done marketing before, but needs something simple enough to start. 

This is why there is a lot of emphasis on its email editor. It’s simple to use, and you can have fun creating your own email from scratch.

Benchmark Email Notable Features

  • HTML Code Editor
  • Create landing pages
  • Campaign automations

Pros

  • It provides an up-to-date thumbnail of what your email looks like as you’re editing it on another screen.
  • The aesthetics and responsiveness of their emails are equally good on desktop, mobile, and tablet.
  • It’s simple to navigate, and you can start working on crafting emails without any prior knowledge quickly. 

Cons

  • Since it is focused more on beginners it is limited in its automated features.
  • It is relatively expensive for a software that is targeted toward beginners.
  • The customer support is lacking - very slow service.

Benchmark Email Cost

The free service is very limited. Benchmark Email free model only supports 500 contacts. You will likely need to upgrade to the pro version which is $13 per month and supplies you with 7500 contacts, A/B Testing, and email automation features.

10) Constant Contact

This is one of the oldest email marketing solutions around. Constant Contact was once the most popular email marketing software. With over 6,000 integrations, this email marketing platform can be a useful tool for niche uses.

Constant Contact is an all-in-one marketing tool and does more things than email marketing. It even has its own CRM. The large amount of integration makes it a good tool for larger businesses.

Constant Contact Notable Features

  • Built-in CRM
  • A/B Testing
  • Lead Generation

Pros

  • This email marketing solution provides its own built-in CRM tool, making it a convenient tool for a HR, sales, and marketing team.
  • Has social media friendly features as well as a decent logo designer.
  • Can manage events including registrations, tickets, and tickets.

Cons

  • You’ll need a large budget to use this email marketing software and it has hidden upcharges.
  • Its email templates are rather dated.
  • For an expensive tool it is surprisingly low on customizability. 

Constant Contact Cost

Constant Contact is an email marketing solution best suited for established businesses. For $12 a month you will only get 500 subscribers, and then you will have to upgrade to 30$ for 1000.

11) ActiveCampaign

This is the email marketing tool you want when you want to push your company into another tier of success. ActiveCampaign is more concerned with being the best email marketing service rather than the most cost efficient.

If you are working with an experienced marketing analyst and your company has a reasonable marketing budget, you will want to consider using ActiveCampaign. It is quality almost all around, and is an industry leader in its automation and data tracking.

You will have top tier scalability and information, albeit at a hefty cost.

ActiveCampaign Notable Features

  • Site & Event Tracking
  • Engagement Scores
  • Advanced Automation Workflows

Pros

  • High delivery rate - emails will seldom go to people’s spam folder.
  • Incredibly detailed and comprehensive reports, data tracking, and analytics for successful email marketing campaigns.
  • Arguably the strongest automation system in the industry.

Cons

  • Not beginner friendly at all, there is a learning curve with many of its features.
  • Among the most expensive email marketing services currently available, and it has a limited trial period of only 14 days.
  • No stock image library available for use within the tool.

ActiveCampaign Cost

This is a serious tool for businesses looking to get the best possible service. This isn’t a marketing tool you buy while you’re still learning. The cheapest plan ActiveCampaign has is $29 per month and it’s limited on a lot of features but comes with a large contact list of 250,000. The next tier after that is $49 dollars per month which will unlock a lot of e-commerce options.

12) AWeber

This is an email marketing software you want if your company has a strong emphasis on sales. It’s very easy to sell your products through email using AWeber, and it has a tremendous amount of features to track your conversions, click through rates, and other data.

AWeber has a hefty price tag compared to most of the email marketing tools that have been mentioned. To get the most out of this service, you’ll want an established sales funnel, so your upfront costs are going to be high in general for AWeber. AWeber is more suitable for businesses looking to upgrade rather than start out.

AWeber Notable Features

  • Sales Tracking
  • Mobile, Phone, and Live Chat Customer Support
  • Magic Links

Pros

  • Will automatically send hyper-targeted emails to clients who have recently purchased products from you.
  • They have three different mobile apps, each one dedicated to a specific niche.
  • It offers robust customer support, an aspect that many email marketing tools neglect.

Cons

  • They do not offer automatic A/B testing.
  • Unsubscribed emails still count toward your already tiny pool of subscribers.
  • It’s free and low budget models are too limited to get any value out of - you’ll need their $30 per month plan to start getting consistent value.

AWeber Cost

As stated, this email marketing tool is on the pricier end in the market. You get 500 subscribers for free, but can only send 3,000 emails per month. When you pay up to $20 you are still capped at 500 subscribers, but you’ll have access to more features. $30 per month is when you can start getting momentum, though you will only be able to get up to 2,500 subscribers which is still not great.

How to Stand Out as an Email Marketer

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In today’s marketing world, it pays to be a jack of all trades. While excelling in a specialty is a good way to stand out, you need to understand some other aspects of marketing to truly become a complete marketer. The end goal is to become more than just an email marketer.

Aside from marketing technical skills, you will also need to sharpen your soft skills. Email marketers need to communicate with other marketers and analysts to create a proper strategy for their campaign. 

In order to understand your colleagues from different departments, you’re going to want to increase your digital marketing literacy. Find some influencers and authority figures you like and keep up with trends in the marketing world. Learn some common tools and marketing terminology.

There are countless resources out there. You can get free certificates on digital marketing on Hubspot or get a free course for Google Analytics on Google

Above all, remember that marketing is a form of storytelling. You’re crafting a narrative that intrigues people and ultimately makes them want to take some type of action. Imagine what the person reading your content is thinking and what actions they are likely to take.

Cake is an online resume builder that provides you with hundreds of professional resume templates (free download) and various great resume examples that help showcase the best you. Landing your dream job will be a piece of cake!

— Originally Written by Christopher Grudge —

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