The 19 Best Email Marketing Services in 2020
Email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with your customers, prospects, and fans. And, along with SMS marketing and your website, email marketing is one of the few channels that you truly own.
With email, you’re in complete control of what the content is, who it’s sent to, when it’s sent, how often, and much more. Other channels like paid advertising and social media use complex algorithms that may prevent accurate targeting and make it hard for you to get your content in front of the right people’s eyes.
Focus on building your owned marketing lists, including email and SMS, because these are the most direct and controlled ways to communicate with your customers. Combined with your website, email marketing is an extremely powerful and effective tool that can help to grow your business.
What is an email marketing service provider or platform?
An email marketing platform—sometimes referred to as an email marketing service or email service provider (ESP)—is a tool used to create and send emails to a specified list of email addresses.
They can be used to send anything from monthly newsletters to shipping confirmation emails, back-in-stock notification emails, abandoned cart emails, and other communications.
Email marketing has come a long way since the early days of the internet. As email providers like Gmail have become more advanced, email marketing tools have had to adapt to offer cutting-edge technology that can keep up with the changes.
Most of today’s email marketing tools have built-in features that allow you to create templated emails, email marketing campaigns, automation flows, segments, lists, and much more.
Below are the top 19 email marketing platforms in 2020.
Best email marketing platforms
An email marketing platform is one of the first tools a new business chooses when they’re getting started.
Below is a list of the top 19 best email marketing platforms. This is not a comprehensive list, but is designed to encompass a wide variety of platforms for companies of different sizes and use cases.
Best free email marketing platforms
2 | Klaviyo
Price: Free to start with no credit cart for up to 250 contacts, forever. Pay only for the number of contacts you have over 250.
Year launched: 2012
Target audience: Growing businesses—small, medium, and large growing businesses can take advantage of Klaviyo’s ease of use and powerful features.
Klaviyo features: Pre-built automations and campaigns, advanced segmentation and personalization features, list import and export features, signup forms, ecommerce platform integrations, Facebook ads integrations, A/B split testing, and much more.
2 | Mailchimp
Price: Free to start
Year launched: 2001
Target audience: Entrepreneurs and new brands just getting started.
Mailchimp features: Email template building and campaign scheduling features, open and click tracking, signup forms, and landing pages.
3 | SendInBlue
Price: Free to get started
Year launched: 2007
Target audience: Small and medium businesses.
SendInBlue features: Email marketing, SMS marketing, chat, marketing automation, transactional email, landing pages, and retargeting.
4 | ConvertKit
Price: Start for free
Year launched: 2013
Target audience: Professional creators.
ConvertKit features: Email automations, email designer, sign up forms, landing pages, and integrations.
5 | Campaign Monitor
Price: Get started for free, basic plan starting at $9/mo
Year launched: 2004
Target audience: Medium and large businesses.
Campaign Monitor features: Email campaigns, marketing automation, personalization, contacts, and segmentation.
6 | Hubspot
Price: Free to start
Year Launched: 2006
Target audience: Small and medium-sized businesses.
HubSpot features: CRM, email marketing, lists and segmentation, personalization, and reporting and analytics.
7 | MailerLite
Price: Start free
Year launched: 2010
Target audience: Small- and medium-sized businesses.
Mailerlite features: Rich text editor, drag-and-drop editor, newsletter templates, landing page builder, and form builder.
Best email marketing platforms with a free Trial
8| Drip
Price: $49 to start, free 14-day trial
Year launched: 2013
Target audience: Ecommerce companies, bloggers, and digital marketers.
Drip features: Email template building and campaign scheduling features, open and click tracking, signup forms, and landing pages.
9 | ActiveCampaign
Price: Free trial
Year launched: 2003
Target audience: Businesses of all sizes.
ActiveCampaign features: Built-in CRM, list customization, list triggers, lead scoring, predictive sending, and form builder.
10 | Aweber
Price: 30-day free trial, pricing starts at $19/mo and up
Year launched: 1998
Target audience: Small and medium businesses.
Aweber features: Pre-built email templates, list management, autoresponders, and landing pages.
11 | Constant Contact
Price: Free trial, starts at $20 / mo
Year launched: 1995
Target audience: New businesses and small businesses.
Constant Contact features: Send emails, manage lists, create email templates, use of their free image library, and an integration with Facebook ads.
12 | Omnisend
Price: Free trial
Year launched: 2014
Target audience: Growth-focused ecommerce brands.
Omnisend features: Email automation, email campaigns, SMS campaigns, forms, reporting, and audience segmentation and targeting.
13 | GetResponse
Price: Free 30 day trial, pricing Starting at $15/mo
Year launched: 1999
Target audience: Small and medium businesses
GetResponse features: Email marketing, landing pages, marketing automation, webforms, and analytics and testing tools.
Paid email marketing platforms
14 | Iterable
Price: By request
Year launched: 2013
Target audience: Large businesses.
Iterable features: Growth marketing, personalized marketing, email marketing, direct mail, and mobile marketing.
15 | Bronto
Price: By request
Year launched: 2002
Target audience: Enterprise brands.
Bronto features: Personalization, email automation, technology partner integrations, analytics and reporting, popup forms, and SMS.
16 | DotDigital
Price: By request
Year launched: 1999
Target audience: Business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), and not-for-profit (NFP) marketers.
DotDigital features: Marketing automation, email, SMS, chat, reporting and analytics, product recommendations, landing pages, and forms.
16 | Listrak
Price: By request
Year launched: 1999
Target audience: Large retailers.
Listrak features: Cross-channel orchestration, SMS, social, behavioral-based triggers, predictive personalization, and customer insights.
17 | Sailthru
Price: By request
Year launched: 2008
Target audience: Enterprise brands.
Sailthru features: Personalization, analytics, dynamic audiences, campaign builder, and A/B split testing.
18 | Emarsys
Price: By request
Year launched: 2000
Target audience: Large ecommerce and retail brands
Emarsys features: Omnichannel automation, reporting & analytics, personalization, integrations, and a customer data platform.
Choosing an email marketing service
Email marketing is a great way to connect with your audience and form personal relationships. Email marketing tools have become more sophisticated over the years, and not all are created equal.
Below are some questions to ask of your prospective email provider before committing:
- Can I easily build email segments and lists using properties I know about my customer, actions the customer has taken, and more?
- Can I easily create new templates?
- Can I easily create new email campaigns and pull in relevant personalized data into these emails, such as product information, date of birth, and other properties?
- Can I easily create email automation and flows that will trigger based on a user’s actions, such as signing up for an email newsletter, placing an order, or requesting customer service?
- Is there an easy way to collect information about my customers and have this automatically sync with my email tool, such as by using signup forms?
- Is there an easy way for me to find and review information about a customer?
- Do I have an easy way to import and export list data?
- Do I have to sign a contract or do I have flexible, month-to-month pricing?
- Am I billed on how many emails I send, how many contacts I have, or pay a flat fee?
- Is there an easy way for me to measure email return on investment (ROI) in the platform?
- What reporting features are available? Does the tool only report on opens and clicks or can I go deeper to truly understand the effectiveness of my campaigns and automations?
- Is there pre-existing templates for email campaigns and automations that I can use to save time in getting set up?
- Does this tool integrate with other tools I’m using, such as the ecommerce platform I’m currently on?
- Can I easily build out relevant automations, such as abandoned cart flows, welcome series flows, and shipping notifications?
Keep in mind that each email marketing platform has its own strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the day, you should make the decision to go with the one that meets the unique needs of your business.
The best email marketing platforms for your business
Whether you’re just getting started with email marketing or a seasoned veteran, this list will have a tool for every use case.
From segmentation to personalization to reporting and analytics, you’ll find a tool that can help you connect with your audience with one of the most effective mediums available to you. But the best email marketing tool will be unique for every business based on their own goals and audience.
Ready to get started for free? Try Klaviyo today. No contracts, free to start, and month to month pricing lets you cancel anytime if you’re not happy.
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