Written by By: Lisa Wozniak
If you’re a small business owner that’s involved in social media, you’ve no doubt heard of the importance of email marketing for your business. While some believe it is the modern day version of direct mailers that have replaced the postcards and flyers that once overflowed from our mailbox, nothing could be further from the truth. Email marketing is an effective way for small business owners to accomplish everything from brand loyalty to lead generation. Some of the most common ways business owners have accomplished this through email marketing is by using it in the following manner.
• Newsletters
• Promotional Campaigns
• Invitation Emails for Events
• Catalog emails to highlight new products or services
• Lead-nurturing emails
• Survey Emails
• Transactional Emails sent after a purchase is made.
The difference between email marketing and the standard direct mail marketing campaigns of yesteryear is that with email marketing, it is all trackable with today’s software options. A business owner can now track which email addresses have been unsubscribed, which are closing without being opened and which ones are translating to direct sales. With this knowledge we can now make much smarter decisions with how we apply our marketing dollars. Be warned however, not all Email Marketing Software is created equal. We’ve put together a quick view of the 4 Heavy Hitters in Email Marketing to help you make the decision that best fits your needs.
1. Constant Contact – is a terrific email software that is very user friendly and has grown by leaps and bounds into mass media lately. Their television commercials can be seen almost daily on several channels. They are a mobile friendly email software that offers everything from easy contact uploading to social media integration and spam management. They offer suggested captions and images in their design templates as well as a great library tutorial for those who may not be tech savvy. Their list management system offers and impressive tool that automatically updates the email list to adjust for unsubscribes, bounces and inactive emails in the advanced subscription. The pricing for this software is based upon the desired features and the number of contacts in your list.
2. Get Response – was ranked as the best Low-Cost software by Business News Daily for 2015. Like Constant Contact they are also known for being user friendly among those who may be technically challenged. With several predesigned templates to choose from it maintains a drag and drop feature that makes generating emails quick and easy. They also feature customer support available through phone, live chat and email for those who get stuck in the process. They offer autoresponder and A/B Split Testing and their subscription price points are based solely on the number of contacts in your list. All features are available at all levels their pricing only accounts for the number of contacts in the list. Their one downfall is the limit to the number of landing pages. Get Response offers 1 landing page available per month, which may be of concern to those who plan on running several campaigns at the same time.
3. Lead Pages – focuses the majority of their attention on the actual landing page/lead page and their ability to track and analyze the data from that page. Their basic subscription offers unlimited landing pages and lead boxes with Advanced HTML Export for the tech savvy. They integrate very well with Word Press sites and offer A/B split testing at the Pro Version Subscription level. Their downside, if any, can be contributed to the fact that they do not offer Email Service Provider (ESP) services, but they integrate with most out on the market today. So, if you already have an ESP like Mail Chimp, Aweber, Get Response, etc. you would need to integrate your ESP with them to obtain the results of some of the other software mentioned. If you do not have an ESP you can set this up within Lead Pages but the features are very limited compared to most ESPs on the market.
4. Infusionsoft – is often thought of as a one stop shop for all of your online marketing needs. They offer personalized communication, A/B split testing, email analytics, web form analytics, landing page performance, reach and effectiveness, automation and even shopping cart with automated communication. So if you are running an e-commerce site and want to ensure that your customers are receiving communication from you after every order, Infusionsoft will do this for you. For those tech savvy entrepreneurs that love numbers and thrive with analytical statistics, this is like Christmas morning! Few other softwares offer the reporting features that can be found with Infusionsoft, it really is the best of the best when you want to track the success of your journey in online marketing. That said, this software may not be as user friendly as some of the others mentioned and all of the wonderful bells and whistles that come with this fantastic program have a cost associated with it. If you want the Rolls Royce of online marketing management this is your best choice!
Let’s face it, there are several companies out there that offer email marketing software and services at every level of your email marketing journey. We’ve just put together our favorite 4 Heavy Hitters in Email Marketing. Choosing the right one depends where your business is at in their marketing efforts and where you want to take your email marketing projects. What we know for sure this that every company, large or small will benefit from the efforts of email marketing. Being able to track the success of your campaigns will help you to grow a larger and more targeted customer base and grow your business. Let us know which email marketing software services work the best for you and why.