Best Email Marketing Software Shortlist
Here’s the shortlist of the best email marketing tools that I’ll cover in this article.
- 1. Salesforce CRM — Best email marketing software with automated marketing features and a CRM for customer analytics
This article will help you quickly compare the best email marketing software available on the market today.
It’s no secret that somewhere around 89% of marketers rely on email marketing as their primary means of customer outreach. Email marketing can be personable, engaging, and attention-grabbing… if you do it right, that is. We’ve all heard of newsletters going unopened, CTAs going unclicked.
So how do you increase email marketing engagement with subscribers, track results, and optimize your campaigns? Email marketing software with the right blend of layout customization, smart scheduling, and customer analytics can help.
Whether you're looking for new subscribers, or you have a massive list of contacts, there is no shortage of software on the market. Here’s my list of the best email marketing software on the market today.
Overview of the 10 Best Email Marketing Software
Here’s a brief description of each email marketing software system I’ve selected that showcases each tool’s best use case and their standout features. I’ve also included screenshots to give you a snapshot of their user interface.
Salesforce CRM
Best email marketing software with automated marketing features and a CRM for customer analytics
Salesforce CRM is a powerful eCommerce email marketing software that allows businesses to set up personalized, automated campaigns across channels easily. It provides comprehensive analytics that allows businesses to monitor the performance of their email campaigns over time, creating actionable insights to inform future decision-making.
Why I picked Salesforce CRM: Users can set up automated email campaigns on a predetermined schedule, ensuring customers receive the message when needed and easily trigger sends based on customer behavior or other criteria such as birthdays or anniversaries.
With its robust analytics suite, users can track key eCommerce email metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and revenue generated from campaigns. The reporting capabilities enable users with access to detailed reports about campaigns to quickly identify where there is room for improvement and act accordingly.
Users can assign different values to leads based on their behavior or other criteria so that users can identify which leads are more likely to convert into customers down the line and focus efforts on those leads first.
Salesforce CRM Standout Features & Integrations:
Features include comprehensive tools for contact management, lead capture, sales automation, customer service, and order tracking capabilities—ideal for the modern eCommerce business.
Integrations are available with other email marketing software such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact. You can also access numerous additional integrations through the Salesforce AppExchange as well.
Pros
- Flexible and comprehensive integration system
- Scalability and customizability
- Robust feature set
Cons
- May not be appropriate for small businesses
- Steep learning curve
HubSpot Marketing
Best email marketing software for in-depth reporting and insights
HubSpot Marketing is an all-in-one platform for managing e-commerce email marketing campaigns.
Why I picked HubSpot Marketing: Their software helps businesses maximize their ROI by optimizing the process of creating, sending, and tracking emails. The platform includes drag-and-drop campaign-building tools, automated segmentation, A/B testing capabilities, real-time analytics, and reporting.
HubSpot Marketing allows users to easily create targeted emails and automated workflows that help them stay connected with customers and prospects. Its drag-and-drop editor quickly builds visually appealing messages that stand out. Automated campaigns can help deliver content based on customer behavior, trigger notifications when a lead takes a desired action, or send content specific to a subscriber's interests. Users can access templates that can be personalized with their content, images, and videos.
HubSpot Marketing makes it easy to track e-commerce transactions on a website by giving users access to detailed reports on sales activities. Users can segment lists based on factors such as customer purchase history, demographic information, or location. This helps ensure that every customer gets content tailored specifically to their needs.
Businesses can also create lists based on user engagement. Those who open or click through emails regularly are sent higher priority messages while those who don’t could get reminders or promotional offers. This allows users to maximize the effectiveness of their email campaigns by targeting customers who are most likely to be interested in what they offer.
HubSpot Marketing Standout Features & Integrations:
Features within their email marketing tools include customizable email templates, email design tools, a drag-and-drop editor, A/B testing tools, CRM integrations, customer personalization and segmentation tools, subscriber preference tracking, branded forms and landing pages, form and email automations, a live chat feature, email and in-app chat support, and analytics on email opens and click-through rates.
More advanced features also include adaptive testing, automated follow-up emails, retargeting campaigns, custom reporting, and landing page reporting. All of this connects directly to their other services for Sales, CRM, and CMS so you can scale with them as you grow.
Integrations are available natively with 150+ software applications, including Asana, BigCommerce, Canva, Facebook Messenger, Gmail, Instagram, Magento, Outlook, Salesforce, Shopify, Slack, Stripe, SurveyMonkey, Twitter, WooCommerce, and many others.
Pros
- Up to 1,000 automation workflows (Enterprise plan)
- Some features are available for free
- Industry leader in the marketing software space
Cons
- Numerous features can take some time to master
- Pricing structure for multiple products is a bit complex
Campaigner
Best email marketing + SMS marketing package
Campaigner is a cloud-based email marketing software designed for small and midsize businesses looking to scale their email automation and marketing capabilities to the next level. While it caters to companies across various industry verticals, Campaigner is highly suited for ecommerce businesses that want to optimize their email marketing operation and streamline their workflows.
Why I Picked Campaigner: Campaigner is a good option for ecommerce business owners who are looking to tailor their marketing strategies according to their target customers’ buying behavior. Among the many features of the email marketing solution are geolocation tracking, A/B testing, and comprehensive reporting capabilities. It is also equipped with customizable templates, an extensive media library, as well as a robust image editor and sign-up forms.
Another crucial element of Campaigner’s email marketing and automation solution is that it provides users with access to a robust HTML editor as well as the ability to import HTML files. This means more experienced email designers can create emails using third-party software such as Dreamweaver and then simply publish an email campaign through the Campaigner platform.
One of its most appealing features, especially for email marketing professionals and ecommerce owners, is the built-in email designer. The tool features a drag-and-drop mechanism that enables users to efficiently create professional-looking custom emails, complete with various content elements such as images and text. The software also has a selection of customizable email templates for users to choose from.
Campaigner Standout Features & Integrations
Features include A/B testing, contact management, data import/export, external integrations, marketing automation, dashboards, lead management, scheduling, audience targeting, conversion tracking, and notifications.
Integrations include Ninja Forms, Shopify, Magento, Adobe Analytics, Survey Town, Google Analytics, and more using Zapier.
Pros
- Robust email marketing and automation
- A/B testing and optimization
- Advanced segmentation and testing
Cons
- Slightly cluttered and confusing user interface
- Limited native integrations
Omnisend
Best email marketing software for audience segmentation tools
Omnisend is an SMS and email marketing software designed to help ecommerce businesses grow their business using email automation sequences. Their software is designed for small to medium-sized businesses focused on email marketing, with their top-level plan capping out at 500 contacts.
Why I picked Omnisend: Their audience segmentation tools allows you to target specific users and send them customized communications based on their shopping behavior. For example, by integrating Omnisend into your other ecommerce platforms, you can capitalize on your data and segment your customers based on the type of items they’ve purchased, their purchase frequency, their average order value, and many other factors.
Omnisend also automatically attaches a customer lifecycle stage to each person in your database so you can tailor your retention strategies for each customer group too.
To help you get up and running, Omnisend also offers a lot of resources for anyone new to email marketing software. These resources include a wide selection of reports, ebooks, blog posts, podcasts, and interviews, plus their Omnisend academy which includes live training sessions to help you get the most value out of their software.
Omnisend Standout Features & Integrations:
Features include email templates, a drag & drop email builder, unique discount codes, list segmentation tools, contact tags for hyper-personalized messaging, active subscriber growth with pop-up forms, and campaign optimization tools such as A/B testing and a “Campaign Booster” feature that automatically resends your unopened email campaigns. Omnisend also includes detailed campaign reports and metrics, and campaign click maps too.
Integrations include AfterShip, Amazon Advertising, GemPages, Gorgias, LoyaltyLion, Okendo, ReCharge, ShipStation, Shopify Flow, Smile.io, Typeform, Yotpo, ViralSweep, and others. You can also access additional apps by connecting through a paid Zapier account.
Pros
- Comprehensive resources section
- Easy to create campaign-specific landing pages
- Deep Shopify integration
Cons
- Has a bit of a learning curve
- Embedding multiple images into an email can be time-consuming
ActiveCampaign
Best email marketing software for targeting the full customer lifecycle
ActiveCampaign is a customer experience automation platform and email marketing powerhouse that is about as feature-rich as they come.
Why I picked ActiveCampaign: As a customer experience platform, ActiveCampaign has invested a lot of time and effort into creating solutions that target the full customer lifecycle, as well as different types of users, like B2B, B2C and ecommerce clients.
They also offer customized solutions for key industries such as Agencies, Bloggers & Influencers, Education, Enterprise, Entertainments & Events, Fitness & Nutrition, Healthcare, Non-Profit, Small Businesses, Real Estate, Technology, or Travel & Hospitality. If you work in one of those niche sectors, I definitely recommend taking a closer look at their industry-specific email marketing solutions.
ActiveCampaign Standout Features & Integrations:
Features include unlimited email sending, advanced email templates (broadcast, triggered, targeted, transactional, etc.) a drag-and-drop builder, segmentation, subscription forms, site and event tracking, conditional commitment, e-commerce store integrations, predictive sending, and marketing attribution.
Integrations are available natively with 75+ software applications, including adTorch, Bonjoro, BurstSMS, Calendly, ERJA, Facebook, FuseDesk, Google Analytics, JustCall, Magento, NativeForms, Pipedrive, Shopify, Slack, Spiffy, Xoxoday Plum, and others. ActiveCampaign also has a RESTful API to support any additional custom integrations you may need.
Pros
- Out-of-the-box automation templates
- Simple to create branded email templates
- Easy to set up powerful automations
Cons
- Customizing an email’s design can sometimes be difficult
- Has a bit of a learning curve for beginners
SendinBlue
Best email marketing software for scalability
Sendinblue is a digital marketing platform designed for growing businesses of any size. Their platform offers a range of tools to help businesses personalize their communications with customers, and convert them from window shoppers into purchasers using specialized landing pages and signup forms.
Why I picked Sendinblue: I selected Sendinblue due to the scalable nature of their platform. They offer a free version of their marketing platform that includes enough features to get you started, with the option to add more paid features as your business grows.
Sendinblue Standout Features & Integrations:
Features include email and SMS marketing for unlimited contacts, a CRM to strengthen customer relationships, marketing automation and segmentation tools, transactional emails, custom landing pages, a customer-facing chatbot, signup forms, and Facebook ads retargeting. That’s not all though.
They also offer more advanced tools to help you improve your email marketing outreach, including open and click-through reports, email heat maps, A/B testing tools, a send-time optimization analysis tool, and real-time campaign statistics.
Integrations are available natively with BigCommerce, Gleam, Magento, Ninja Forms, PrestaShop, Shopify, Shopware, Typeform, WooCommerce, and WordPress. Additional integrations are also available through a combination of Sendinblue’s API, third-party plugins, or by connecting through a paid Zapier account.
Pros
- No limit to subscriber database
- Straightforward onboarding
- Easy to customize emails
Cons
- Advanced tutorials can be difficult to find
- Automating a drip marketing campaign is not very intuitive
SendGrid
Best email marketing software for multichannel marketing campaigns
SendGrid is a Twilio product, meaning you get access to email marketing, as well as WhatsApp, SMS, and video solutions. They are currently used by large companies like Airbnb, Glassdoor, Instacart, Spotify, Uber, and Yelp.
Why I picked SendGrid: As a multichannel service, SendGrid is great for those who view email marketing as just one of many conversational platforms through which they want to communicate with their customers. Because of this, it can be more complex than others on this list but it’s worth it if you want touch points across every device and app type.
SendGrid Standout Features & Integrations:
Features include advanced email design tools (drag & drop or pure HTML), email automations like recurring emails or time-based drip series, dedicated IPs and custom domains, signup forms, email testing features, customizable templates, email campaign analytics, and list management tools.
Integrations are available natively with 120+ popular software systems, including Airtable, Bluecore, eData Source, FullContact, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Softlayer, Twilio, WordPress, Yieldr, Zapier and others.
Pros
- Detailed email tracking and analytics
- Robust APIs and SDKs, making it a favorite among devs
- Exceptional email deliverability rates
Cons
- Some advanced automations not possible
- Complexity for beginners
Drip
Best email marketing software for ecommerce businesses
Drip is an email marketing software built specifically for e-commerce businesses. It was designed to help online retailers link their email drip campaigns directly to the customer buying cycle.
Why I picked Drip: Drip’s email platform offers advanced email segmentation so you can be confident you’re tailoring your communications according to your customer’s preferences and recent actions.
For example, Drip’s customer segmentation data will tell you whether a consumer is first learning about your product, dangerously close to making that purchase, or is a loyal repeat customer. Also, thanks to their many pre-built templates and automations, you can spend less time crafting emails and more time developing your email marketing strategy.
Drip Standout Features & Integrations:
Features include advanced customer segmentation tools, email personalizations, an email builder tool, a point-and-click visual editor, or the option to design using custom HTML codes. They also offer a playbook of automated best practices emails, such as welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, and post-purchase campaigns.
Integrations are available natively with over 100 software applications, including BigCommerce, Facebook Custom Audiences, Gravity Forms, Insightly, Magento, PayPal, Pipedrive, Shopify, Sleeknote, ViralSweep, WooCommerce, and Zapier.
Pros
- Excellent list segmentation options
- Campaign duplication feature helps you save time
- Great reporting features
Cons
- UI takes some getting used to
- Has a learning curve, especially for beginners
MailChimp
Best email marketing software for beginners
Mailchimp is a well-known email marketing and automation tool with features that define the email marketing software space. In addition to being a trusted email marketing tool, they also offer website, commerce tools and other assorted marketing features, including connections to payment processing systems.
Why I picked Mailchimp: They’re a great email marketing software for beginners, offering a detailed marketing library, help center, and 24/7 email and chat support. On top of that, they also offer more advanced educational information like their Expert Insights and Industry Trends news feeds, plus their training program — Mailchimp 101 — which walks users through their long list of features from start to finish.
Mailchimp Standout Features & Integrations:
Features include pre-built email templates, audience segmentation, a CRM, behavioral targeting, customer journey mapping, marketing automation, transactional and trigger-based emails, role-based access, a creative assistant, email scheduling, A/B testing, dynamic content, reports and analytics, surveys, and recommendations. Their more advanced features include lead generation, dynamic content, automation workflows, and online store integration.
Integrations are available both natively or through third-party connections, and include over 300 popular applications like Chargebee, Firebase, Formstack, Patreon, Recurly, Shopify, Stripe, Squarespace Commerce, Typeform, QuickBooks, and many others. They also have a mobile app for both Android and iOS devices.
Pros
- Easy audience list segmentation
- Robust analytics and reporting features
- Easy to use
Cons
- Lean customer support
- Multivariate testing locked to Premium plan
Constant Contact
Best email marketing software for automatic subject line testing
Constant Contact is an easy-to-use email marketing software that’s been floating around marketing team tech stacks in some capacity since 1996. Although they have gone through many changes in focus over that time, they have always been marketing-centric. And now they do email marketing really, really well.
Why I picked Constant Contact: I included Constant Contact in this list because I appreciate the depth as well as the automation of their subject line testing tool, also known as A/B testing. You have full control over how many customers you want to send each test version too, and the option to determine the winner after 6, 12, 24 or 48 hours. Once your campaign’s reached your desired threshold, Constant Contact will automatically send the email with the winning subject line to your remaining audience.
Constant Contact Standout Features & Integrations:
Features include hundreds of branded templates, automated emails, list segmentation, social media integrations, text-to-join, and comprehensive, real-time reporting. Their contact management features are also helpful, including the ability to upload contact directly from Excel, Outlook, Salesforce, or other programs where your customer data exists. Beyond just email, Custom Contact also includes landing page builder tools to help you capture more leads.
Integrations include over 300 apps in their library, including native connections with Canva, Eventbrite, Facebook, Facebook Ads, Gmail, Google Ads, Instagram, Salesforce, Shopify, Stripe, Twitter, WooCommerce, Vimeo, WordPress
Pros
- Advanced marketing automation
- Professional pre-made templates
- Beginner friendly
Cons
- UI needs work
- Slow customer support response
10 Best Email Marketing Software Comparison Chart
This comparison chart summarizes basic details about each of my top email marketing software selections. You can view pricing details and the availability of free trials or demos side-by-side to help you find the best software that works for your budget.
Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Salesforce CRM Best email marketing software with automated marketing features and a CRM for customer analytics | 14-day free trial | From $25/user/month (billed annually) | Visit Website |
2 | HubSpot Marketing Best email marketing software for in-depth reporting and insights | 30-day trial + free plan available | From $50/month | Visit Website |
3 | Campaigner Best email marketing + SMS marketing package | 30-day free trial | From $59/month | Visit Website |
4 | Omnisend Best email marketing software for audience segmentation tools | Free plan available | From $16/month | Visit Website |
5 | ActiveCampaign Best email marketing software for targeting the full customer lifecycle | 14-day free trial | From $39/month | Visit Website |
6 | SendinBlue Best email marketing software for scalability | Free plan available | From $25/month | Visit Website |
7 | SendGrid Best email marketing software for multichannel marketing campaigns | Free trial + freemium plan available | From $15/month | Visit Website |
8 | Drip Best email marketing software for ecommerce businesses | 14-day free trial | From $39/month | Visit Website |
9 | MailChimp Best email marketing software for beginners | 30-day free trial + free plan available | From $13/month | Visit Website |
10 | Constant Contact Best email marketing software for automatic subject line testing | 60-day free trial | From $9.99/month | Visit Website |
Other Email Marketing Software
If the software options above still don’t meet your needs, here are a few other options you may want to look at:
- WooCommerce - Best email marketing software for small to large-sized online merchants using WordPress
- BigCommerce - Best email marketing software for reliability
- Aweber - Best free email marketing software
- Convertkit - Best email marketing software for sharing ideas and connecting with an audience
- Campaign Monitor - Best email marketing software for usability and ease of use
- GetResponse - Best email marketing software for conversion funnels
- Moosend - Best email marketing software for pre-built trigger campaigns
- Moxogo - Best email marketing software for RFM analysis (recency, frequency, and monetary value)
- Braze - Best email marketing software for mobile-first audiences
- ActOn - Best email marketing software for B2B specializations
- MailerLite - Best email marketing software for managing paid newsletter subscriptions
How I Selected the Best Email Marketing Software
Wondering how I selected the best email marketing software for this list? To craft this top 10 list, I reviewed and evaluated a wide range of popular email marketing programs. I further honed my list by using my selection criteria below to see how each platform compared to the next one.
I hope these core criteria will help you narrow down your search. However, it’s important to remember that choosing an email marketing platform will depend on your specific needs.
Selection Criteria
Here's a short summary of the selection criteria I used to develop my list of the best email marketing software for this article:
A User-friendly UI and UX:
When you’re evaluating email marketing software, there are two components to their user interface (UI) that you should consider. The first is the user interface that the marketer sees on the back end. The second is what the end-point customer sees. Both user interfaces should be intuitive, customizable, clean, and attractive.
Having a clean and uncluttered UI also helps to create a strong user experience (UX) for both marketers and recipients on your email contact list. You want to invest in email marketing software that will simplify your marketing efforts, allowing you to get more done in less time. That’s why my choices below all have high scores in the UI and UX categories.
Usability:
While it's true that usability does go hand-in-hand with UX and UI, I prefer to use it as a separate evaluation criteria. For my list below, I’ve also carefully chosen software that is considered easy-to-use by marketers at large, meaning their software is easy to learn and master. I also pay attention to whether the company offers good tech support, user support, tutorials, or other training too.
Usability also covers the specific marketing features that are included in the software too. You don’t want software that requires advanced graphic design or computer coding skills to make your marketing communications look top-notch. Instead, I selected email marketing systems that make building beautiful, information-packed newsletters and advertisements as easy as possible.
Software Integrations:
Of course, email marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Instead, you’ll want a system that connects with the rest of your marketing tech (MarTech) stack easily, allowing data to flow freely from one system to the next.
To save you time, I’ve noted key software integrations for each tool in this list. These include other digital marketing tools, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, social media platforms, and payment processing systems.
Automation Features:
The main goal of investing in email marketing software is to send efficient email communications at scale. That's why it’s crucial that the system you use has automation tools included.
Advanced features like email automations allow you to send out targeted email campaigns at a cadence of your choosing, based on your pre-set automation workflows. This will help you and your team reach more customers on a regular basis, with less work required on the back end.
Data Management and Analytics:
As they say, the devil’s in the details, and you won’t get a sense of the success of your email marketing campaigns without robust data management and analytics tools. You want software that tracks key metrics like deliverability rates, email opens, click-through rates, conversions, and unsubscribes automatically for you.
Price:
I always try to select software with pricing that matches the depth and breadth of the features and capabilities being offered. I also tend to favour systems with flexible and transparent pricing models that clearly state which features you’ll receive at each price level, and which you won’t.
Free trials are a good way to test drive a system before you actually commit to a monthly contract. In many cases, free demos are available as well.
If you're a startup or running a small business, you may also be able to use a free plan to start. However, free plans (also called freemium plans) will never include as many features as a paid plan alternative. You'll have to weigh the pros and cons of each depending on your specific business needs.
Email Marketing Software: Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some frequently asked questions and answers that people often ask about email marketing software and its possibilities for online businesses, as well as issues like cart abandonment and users opting to unsubscribe from email lists.
What is email marketing software?
How do you know if you need email marketing software?
What are the main features to look for when evaluating email marketing software?
Why is email marketing software useful for ecommerce teams?
What should ecommerce teams look for in an email marketing tool?
Other Marketing Reviews & Resources
I hope this list helped you get a better understanding of how email marketing software can support your customer outreach efforts.
I also recommend reading our Marketer's Guide on How to Build a MarTech Stack that Scales and 26 Types of Marketing Software and What They Do too.
If you’re looking for other marketing tools, I suggest you check out:
- Best Marketing Software
- Marketing Management Software
- Social Media Management Software
- Marketing Dashboards
- Marketing Analytics Software
- Affiliate Marketing Software
- Marketing Automation Software
- Marketing Intelligence Software
- Mobile Marketing Software
- SMS Marketing Software for Ecommerce
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Need expert help finding the right Email Marketing Software?
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The Takeaway
Email marketing software has emerged as a powerful tool for businesses to engage with their target audience and drive results. Throughout this review, we have explored various email marketing software options, considering their features, usability, customization capabilities, and analytics. It is evident that these software solutions have greatly simplified the process of designing, executing, and tracking email campaigns, enabling businesses to deliver personalized and impactful messages to their subscribers.
By leveraging email marketing software, businesses can effectively nurture leads, build customer loyalty, and achieve their marketing goals with ease. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect further innovations in this space, empowering marketers to refine their email strategies and deliver even more targeted and compelling content to their audience.
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