50 Tools for Better Email Campaigns
Creating email campaigns that stand out is more work than you might expect. There are a lot of different aspects of a single campaign that marketers have to consider — subject lines, images, copy, and much more. Here are fifty tools that can help you send better email campaigns, faster.
1. Litmus
Litmus is a great tool with features beyond just inbox previews, including spam testing and subject line testing. They offer a 7-day free trial; basic accounts start at $79.
Email on Acid offers inbox previews that are very similar to Litmus’ at a slightly lower price. They also offer a 7-day free trial and their pricing plans start at $45.
3. EmailReach
EmailReach offers inbox previews for a more limited number of email clients than Litmus and Email on Acid, but has robust deliverability testing features built into every plan. Pricing starts at $125 and they offer a 24 hour free trial.
Preview My Email offers inbox testing across a wide variety of email clients for $49 a month. They do not offer a free trial.Subject Line Testing5. SubjectLine.com
If you’re looking for something lightweight, SubjectLine.com is great for narrowing down subject line options for an A/B test. Using a tool to test your options beforehand can help you figure out which one is likely to perform better.Email InspirationIf you don’t have a designer in-house, it can be difficult come up with a layout for your campaigns. The tools below will give you an idea of what other marketers in your industry are sending and help you decide how you’d like your own emails to look.
6. Rival Explorer by Email Aptitude
While you have to create a free account to use it, Rival Explorer is a fantastic resource if you’re looking to get a detailed look at what other marketers are sending. You can sort by industry and tag specific senders that you’d like to keep track of. Unlike some of the other options, Rival Explorer provides the send time, subject line, and email address of each sender.
7. MailCharts
MailCharts is a paid service that gives you an in-depth look at what your competitors are sending. You can build reports to see what specific companies are sending and look at journey maps to analyze their email series. Pricing starts at $42 and they offer a 7-day free trial.
Really Good Emails is a popular site that allows visitors to search their database of other companies’ emails by term or category. They don’t provide send time, subject line, or from address, but they’re good to use if you’re looking primarily for design inspiration.
HTML Email Gallery displays email campaigns from well-known businesses like Uber, Dropbox, Crate & Barrel, and more. You can also browse by many different categories, from email type to color scheme.
HTML Email Designs offers a curated selection of campaigns from popular brands like Chanel and Birchbox, for example.
11. Pinterest
Pinterest is great for checking out email inspiration, among many other things.Stock PhotosIf you’re not using product images, finding photos to use in your emails can sometimes be a pain. Check out these stock photo sites.
12. Shutterstock
13. Getty Images
14. iStock
15. Unsplash (free)
16. Life Of Pix (free)
17. Kaboom Pics (free)
18. Pexels (free)
19. Negative Space (free)
20. Picjumbo (free)
21. FancyCrave (free)
Photo Editing and DesignIf you do your own photography for your email campaigns, you’ll need to edit them. Here are some of our favorite photo editing tools.
22. Photoshop
Photoshop is probably one of the most well-known photo editing tools and is used by many designers and photographers alike.
23. Gimp (free)
(Image via GTK.org)
Gimp has much of the same functionality as Photoshop, and is great if you’re looking for a free alternative.
24. Sketch
(Image via Software.com)
Sketch is great for designing templates and mockups.
25. The Nik Collection (free)
(Image via Online Photo Institute)
If you’re looking for a free online photo editor, the Nik Collection (by Google) is a great choice.
26. PicMonkey
In addition to photo editing functionality, PicMonkey also offers an array of templates that you can use for specific types of projects.
27. Pixlr (free)
Pixlr is very similar to Photoshop, but is free and doesn’t need to be downloaded.
28. Sumopaint
Sumopaint has similar photo editing functionality to Photoshop, but is aimed more towards illustration and design. There is a free version, but you can upgrade to access the program offline and unlock features like high-res image storage.Banners, Ads, and InfographicsThese are some tools we love to use to ensure continuity across our ad and email campaigns. Each of the tools listed has free and paid versions.
29. Piktochart
You can use Piktochart to create various different types of ad banners, but where they really stand out is in their infographic builder, which is super intuitive and user-friendly.
30. Canva
Canva is great for creating Facebook or Twitter ads and has a handy built-in stock photo resource.
31. Venngage
Venngage specializes in infographics. They have a ton of different templates, plus they make it really easy for non-designers to create their own.CopywritingThese tools will help you improve the copy in your email campaigns — they’re especially helpful for longer, text-based emails.
32. Hemingway App
If you’re prone to wordiness, the Hemingway App is a great tool to help you write more direct, concise copy.
33. Grammarly
Grammarly is a level up from spell check and catches mistakes that spell check won’t, like errors in word usage (think “your” vs. “you’re”). It’s also available as a Google Chrome extension to make your copy editing even more effortless.
34. Draft
Draft is a more robust tool for longer form copy. One of the best parts about Draft is that it allows multiple users to edit a document and saves each version as a revision. List GrowthWhile growing your email list isn’t part of physically creating a campaign, it’s critical when it comes to improving your email strategy overall. Here are some tools that will help you collect more email addresses and, in turn, send more campaigns.
35. Privy
36. OptinMonster
37. SumoMe
38. Justuno
39. PadiAct
40. WisePops
Landing PagesMarketers use landing pages for a number of reasons, from thank you pages to welcome mats. If you want to have a landing page associated with a particular email campaign, here are some tools you can use. All of these offer signup collection methods in addition to landing page templates.
41. Unbounce
42. Leadpages
43. KickoffLabs
Deliverability TestingSending a test campaign to a deliverability testing tool can help you identify any potential issues in your email that could cause you to land in the spam folder.
44. MXToolBox
MXToolBox allows you to test various different aspects of email deliverability, including email headers, domain names, and more.
45. Mail Tester
Mail Tester is great for testing a specific campaign and can help you identify content issues that could cause your email to end up in the spam folder.
46. Sender Score by Return Path
Sender Score is a good tool to test your sending reputation overall. As a rule of thumb, you want your sender score to be above 70 to ensure that you’re not landing in the spam folder.AgenciesIf you’re looking for a more full service way to send your email campaigns, consider hiring an agency. These agencies specialize in email marketing:
47. Fuel Made
Fuel Made is an agency focused on building ecommerce websites for Shopify Plus stores — this includes email marketing. If you decide to work with Fuel Made, you’ll get the personal, devoted attention of our talented team working to help you achieve your goals.
48. Email Aptitude
Email Aptitude focuses exclusively on the email marketing. They provide strategic services, full-service email management, and competitive email intelligence technology.
49. Hawke Media
Hawke Media’s email marketing team has insight from partnering with over 120 brands, and can execute across the full spectrum of email marketing efforts, including: email lifecycle strategy, ESP migration and management, wireframing, design, copywriting, coding, split testing/ optimization, and reporting.Email Service ProviderOnce you’ve crafted the perfect email campaign, you’ll need to use an ESP to actually hit send. We might be a bit biased on this front.
50. Klaviyo
.yuzo_related_post img{width:260px !important; height:250px !important;}
.yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{line-height:16px;background: !important;color:!important;}
.yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover{background:#ffffff !important; -webkit-transition: background 0.2s linear; -moz-transition: background 0.2s linear; -o-transition: background 0.2s linear; transition: background 0.2s linear;;color:!important;}
.yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a{color:#323b43!important;}
.yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a:hover{ color:}!important;}
.yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover a{ color:!important;}
.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_text {color:!important;}
.yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo_text {color:!important;}
.yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{ margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px; padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px; }
jQuery(document).ready(function( $ ){
//jQuery(‘.yuzo_related_post’).equalizer({ overflow : ‘relatedthumb’ });
jQuery(‘.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps’).equalizer({ columns : ‘> div’ });
})
