5 Best Email Marketing Tools For Small Businesses

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Best Email Marketing Providers for Small Business

Compare all 5 email marketing platforms

SendinBlue

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In our analysis, Sendinblue emerged as the finest email marketing tool for small businesses. This platform offers strong features that are still simple to use, earning it the highest score in our value for money category. In other words, Sendinblue essentially meets all the requirements for small businesses.

In our analysis, Sendinblue received an amazing 4.3/5 for usability. The Sendinblue editor was excellent at following our line of reasoning when we were designing emails; in other words, all the tools you’ll need to add graphics, buttons, and artistic flair are given in a really logical order. Suggestions for your “next move” along the road are another aid.

Ease of Use

Sendinblue is excellent at assisting you with entering and managing your contacts. When we used their software for testing, it took us no time at all to upload new email addresses. You can import numerous contacts from your computer at once, or even copy and paste them from an.xls file, so you don’t have to enter them one at a time.

After you’ve uploaded your contacts, you should make a few lists so you can categorize them. This was also a quick and easy process that only took us a few minutes. Just keep in mind that Sendinblue allows you to further organize your lists into various folders; for instance, you could combine a list for “Newsletter Signups” and a list for “Welcome Emails” into a folder for “New Customers.” This is excellent if you are managing several campaigns at once, but it does add an additional (optional) step to the procedure!

Design

The 60+ email templates provided by Sendinblue are just as simple to use as its management system. You will reach the “Design” stage after entering a subject line and some preview text for your first campaign. You’ll find some additional options under the “Design Tools” section for those who are familiar with a little bit of programming, but you don’t have to worry about this if you don’t want to! Instead, simply choose “Template Gallery” to access a collection of pre-made email templates. You can sort them by categories, such as templates for newsletters and exclusive offers.

The templates themselves are quite standard; but, if all you want to do is maintain in touch with your customers or advertise a few new deals, Sendinblue will help you get the job done swiftly and professionally.

These templates don’t push the envelope in terms of web design, but they’re a wonderful place to start. You’ll even get sizing recommendations to help you when adding images to emails. You can even begin writing your own code if you find that you outgrow Sendinblue’s template designs.

Mailchimp

Sendinblue is closely followed by Mailchimp, which actually outperformed Sendinblue in our research’s “features” area. Due to the enormous number of organizational options it provides and the fact that its pricing levels are more scalable than Sendinblue’s, it is most suitable for companies with larger email subscriber lists.

Ease of Use

Mailchimp only received a 3.9/5 for usability because, despite providing a ton of fantastic options for both contacts organization and email campaign design, these sophisticated features can be a little overwhelming.

For instance, groups, segments, and/or tags can all be used to manage contacts, despite the fact that at first glance they may all appear to be the same thing. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll value the different tools for organization. While tags allow you to identify subscribers based on the information you already know about them, such as “in-store purchaser” or “lives overseas,” segments allow you to target subscribers based on geography and activity.

The Mailchimp editor provides useful comments as you proceed, which appear on the page and clarify specific functionalities, to reduce any early confusion.

Design

The “Campaigns > Email templates” area of your dashboard contains all 100+ email templates offered by Mailchimp. Don’t be alarmed when you need to click “Create a template” in the top right corner to begin going. Then, you can choose from a wide selection of pre-made layouts and themes.

Although Mailchimp’s drag-and-drop editor accomplished the task, we discovered that Sendinblue’s was more user-friendly and smooth. The upside of this more complex editor is that Mailchimp’s email designs are far more creative and expertly made than Sendinblue’s. The extra work benefits a small firm by increasing its credibility.

GetResponse

Despite not having as many features as Mailchimp or being as inexpensive as Sendinblue, GetResponse strikes a great balance between use and aesthetic appeal. 

Additionally, your customers will like the final products they receive in their inboxes, so it’s not simply a win for you.

Ease of Use

GetResponse’s dashboard is quite easy to use; all of the tools are located where you would expect them to be. We gave it a 4.4/5 for usability. 

It is straightforward to place text, graphics, and other items throughout an email thanks to the drag-and-drop template builder.

GetResponse even makes it simple to add recipient-specific information to your email subject lines, such as name, birthdate, and postal code. Simply choose this while creating a subject line, and it will be applied to each contact you are sending the message to.

You don’t have to organize all of your contacts at once after uploading; you can add contacts one at a time by inputting their name and email address as well as adding contacts to lists. Just as simple is creating lists with GetResponse. Just remember to keep things short and straightforward since clients can see them when they subscribe and unsubscribe.

You can learn more about Email Marketing from Blog For Small Biz masterpiece: 8 Complete Guide to Email Marketing with Best Tips

Design

The outstanding simplicity of GetResponse extends to the 220 email templates it offers (the most of any platform on this list!). They already have header logos and CTA buttons, among other useful features. The templates from GetResponse are among the most fashionable ones we’ve seen, and it received the highest design rating in our research—a 4.7/5—for its templates.

If you want to have more design freedom without being totally on your own, you can select the “blank template” option instead. It comes prepopulated with more basic content areas.

MailerLite

MailerLite performed poorly in terms of ease of use and customer care, but it excelled in terms of features and appearance, which may deter newcomers. It ranks fourth because, while it’s a great platform, we only suggest it for people who have some prior knowledge of email marketing platforms.

Ease of Use

MailerLite and Constant Contact tied for the lowest ease of use rating in our analysis with a 3.8/5. We discovered that the dashboard’s layout wasn’t particularly reasonable when we evaluated it. For instance, in order to preview an email, you must leave the template editor (rather than simply viewing it in the editor).

Campaign planning can also be frustrating. You must design the automation process from the start because there are no readymade templates to use. MailerLite can accomplish all of your needs, however, there is a slight learning curve associated with using this program.

Design

The more than 100 templates in MailerLite are really well-designed, and you can alter them using a simple drag-and-drop builder or, for more complex editing, custom HTML.

MailerLite has appealing themes, but one major drawback: you have to submit your own images because the software doesn’t come with any free picture galleries. Smaller companies that don’t currently have a lot of visual assets may find this frustrating.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact provides responsive customer service and simple methods for adding contacts. However, because of its simple template designs and automated features, it is best suited for a part-time email marketing job or a small business with a few campaigns.

Ease of Use

It’s simple to add contacts to Constant Contact; in fact, there are a few different ways to go about it, so you’re sure to find one that suits your needs. You can upload contacts from numerous apps, like Shopify and Zapier, in addition to manually uploading, copying and pasting, and uploading from a file.

The slightly old appearance of Constant Contact’s template editor is countered by the useful advice and direction that is provided as you change.

Design

Although Constant Contact offers over 100 themes, the styles are rather simple. The majority use a straightforward header-image-text structure, which works but isn’t really innovative.

The template gallery for Constant Contact is likewise less well-organized than those of its rivals. There aren’t many readymade categories to browse, but you can search using your own keywords.

How to Choose the Right Email Marketing Service for You

You just received a ton of information about email marketing platforms, but you might still be unsure about how to proceed. Read on for some helpful advice as we’re here to speed up that process.

Identify Your Top Priority

There are innumerable characteristics that you should look for in your email marketing provider, and there are also countless features available everywhere you turn.

This has a tendency to quickly become overwhelming. Consider your company’s objectives and capabilities, and then decide what is the most important thing for your email marketing supplier to excel in. The choice will then become simpler. For instance, GetResponse is clearly the victor if you need to keep your campaigns diverse with various template styles because it provides more templates than any other platform.

Browse Your Own Inbox

Your choice of email marketing software will largely depend on the type of content you intend to produce for your audience. Why not browse through your own inbox for newsletters and promotions you’ve previously received to get ideas for the emails you’d like to send?

You can then consider which platforms will be most useful for assisting you in recreating certain trends if you enjoy a specific template design or personal touch in any of these emails.

Make Use of Free Trials

Every provider mentioned in this article offers a free plan or a free trial, so if you’re in a bind, there’s nothing to lose by signing up right away! Trial periods are an excellent way to test out a platform’s dashboard and template editor before committing.

Summary

The top email marketing options for small businesses are listed above. After hours of investigation, we are confident that no matter which platform you pick from this list, you won’t be disappointed. To sum up:

Sendinblue is our top pick due to its easy-to-use editor and fantastic price. Having said that, Mailchimp is a great option if you plan to grow over time.

Have you made up your mind yet? Post a comment; let us know which option you went with!