One of the important components of having a website is the ability to collect email addresses from your website.
And while we constantly see new trends in the online marketing world, these basic “areas” of online marketing haven’t changed much over the years. Email marketing is definitely one of those; it’s been around for a while now, and it still is considered one of the most effective methods to market your products and services.
The 3rd party systems for email marketing have come a long way, adding many functions to respond to the needs of the business owner, and of the email subscriber. For example, as business owners continue to build their lists, they are finding the need to “segment” their lists so that they can followups with different groups of people in different ways. Because of this, many email marketing tool providers started offering these types of new features, making list segmentation easier to implement. I’m also seeing more providers letting you automate and customize the follow-up process.
The question is…
Should you be using an email system?
And which fancy bells and whistles should you get?
Well, it depends…
You need to think about what type of features you would need to run your email marketing promotions for your business.
Below, I’ve listed some popular email marketing systems, each with some bullets showing the features. One of the features “List Include/Exclude” means that when you are doing a broadcast, you can include or exclude other lists you have. Hope this will help you narrow down the system that is right for you before conducting more detailed research.
Email Marketing Systems
These services focus on “email marketing,” providing tools for you to communicate with your community/target market via emails.
Aweber
- Free version available with limited functions
- Broadcasts and follow-up emails
- Tagging
- Powerful automation with “Campaign” that allows you to segment your audience for targeted email marketing
- Blog broadcast (RSS to Email)
- Easy list include/exclude
- Message builders and templates
- Integration with other third-party tools such as Canva
- Lets you split test broadcasts and sign-up forms
- Includes a free stock photo library to be used in emails
- Landing page builder
- Phone support available
Find out more at https://christinasresources.com/aweber
MailChimp
Free version available with limited functions
- Broadcasts
- Autoresponders (follow-up emails)
- Blog broadcast (RSS to Email)
- Tagging
- Allows you to segment the audience within a list for targeted emails
- Detailed automation for customized customer journeys
- Message builders and templates
- Integration with other third-party tools
- Lets you import contacts
- Lets you split test broadcasts
- Offers unique tools like Content Studio, Creating Assistant, Subject Line helper
- “Facebook Ad Campaigns” allows you to create Facebook ads
- Phone support available with its high-level plan
Find out more at https://christinasresources.com/mailchimp
ActiveCampaign
Starts at $9/month
- Broadcasts
- Autoresponders
- Blog broadcast (RSS to Email)
- Easy list include/exclude
- Message builders and templates
- Integration with other third-party tools
- The automation feature allows you to dynamically segment lists for automated targeted campaigns, etc.
- Lets you import contacts
- Lets you split test broadcasts
- Landing page feature available with high-level plans
- Phone support available
Find out more at https://christinasresources.com/activecampaign
iContact
Free version available with limited functions
- Broadcast
- Autoresponders
- Easy list include/exclude
- Marketing automation based on conditions and custom engagement rules
- Message builders and templates
- Integration with other third-party tools
- Blog broadcast (RSS to Email) is possible via Zapier
- Lets you import contacts
- Split testing available
- Phone support available
Find out more at https://christinasresources.com/icontact
Constant Contact
Starts at $9.99/month
- Known to be easy to use
- Broadcasts
- Autoresponders
- List include/exclude not available
- Message builders and templates
- Integration with other third-party tools
- Blog broadcast (RSS to Email)
- Lets you import contacts
- Offers marketing automation, event marketing, and survey tools as Plus features
- Landing pages
- Phone support available
Find out more at https://christinasresources.com/constantcontact
GetResponse
Free version available with limited functions
- Broadcasts
- Variety of plans from email marketing beginners to pros
- Landing pages
- Marketing automation using Workflows and tags
- Easy include/exclude
- Higher-level plans include great features like event-based automation and abandoned cart trigger
- Split testing
- Blog broadcast (RSS to Email)
- Webinar application available
- Message builders and templates
- Live chat support is available
Find out more at https://www.christinasresources.com/getresponse
Online Marketing Systems that Includes Email Marketing Functions
The following tools are considered “all-in-one online marketing” tools, taking care of email marketing, online selling, affiliate marketing, and more. All those parts are integrated into the same system, working with each other nicely. These tools, in general, are more costly than the above email marketing systems, but if you need an overall online marketing solution, you may want to look into these.
1ShoppingCart (Marketers Choice)
- Starts at $34/month
- Broadcasts
- Autoresponders
- Easy list include/exclude
- Message builders and templates limited
- Integration with some other third-party tools
- Imported contacts need to go through a double opt-in process
- Phone support available
Find out more at http://marketerschoiceonline.com/
Keap
- Starts at $79/month
- Broadcasts
- Tag-based (not list-based) for simple segmenting, include/exclude, and more
- Easy and Advanced automation available for automated marketing campaigns with different complexities
- Blog broadcast (RSS to Email) – possible with a third-party tool
- Message builders and templates
- Integration with other third-party tools
- Date-based campaign driven by individual data (ex. birthday emails)
- Lets you import contacts
- Lets you split test broadcasts
- Landing page feature is available
- Phone support available
Find out more at https://christinasresources.com/infusionsoft
ONTRAPORT
- Starts at $79/month
- Broadcasts
- Tag-based (not list-based) for simple segmenting, include/exclude, and more
- Highly customizable automation that allows automated and segmented follow-up campaigns
- Blog broadcast (RSS to Email) – possible with a third-party tool
- Message builders and templates
- Landing pages and deep integration with WordPress
- Landing page hosting
- Integration with other third-party tools
- Date-based campaign driven by individual data (ex. birthday emails)
- Lets you import contacts
- Lets you split test broadcasts, forms, and more
- Phone support available
Find out more at https://christinasresources.com/ontraport
Do you have any favorite email marketing system that’s not listed here? Please share in the comment section below!
I am surprised that you didn’t cover GetResponse. I use it because it is fairly user friendly.
Mary,
you are right!
We will add in GetResponse as well
You have not mentioned Cloudnet 360. Wondering what your opinion of it would be.
I have not heard of Cloudnet 360. It’s not one of the popular services. I listed the biggies that I have heard of over the years in the industry
Hi, I’m really confused as you have not included Digital Access Pass. They have been around for a long time and have amazing integration.
Alan,
I think of Digital Access Pass as a membership plugin for WordPress. Although it does have built in autoresponders, it’s not one of the big email marketing system, so I did not included it. But I am happy to hear that you love their program. Yes, they have a good reputation 🙂
Could you clarify “List include/exclude not available” and “Easy list include/exclude” please?
List include/exclude means that when you are sending a broadcast, you can include or exclude other email lists.
That’s what I thought it meant, but then I was confused because Mailchimp definitely allows you to select the list you want to send to (and also segments within that list.