In part I of this blog, we discussed what functions of email marketing are the most important to you and your business. In this blog, we’ll give a rundown on two email marketing platforms that we are able to use for our clients, and their highlights. Again, there’s not one software solution that is considered the “best” platform, but rather to bring some of the available options to your attention and see if it resonates with what you’re looking for.

Email Marketing Platform Options

Businesses can choose from a wide range of services to help implement successful email marketing campaigns. Below are two email marketing platforms that are deemed most popular by small and medium-sized businesses:

Email Marketing Platform: MailChimp

MailChimp is an all-in-one resource for email marketing. Their clean, simple and customizable interface makes creating campaigns, managing subscriber lists, and reviewing analytical email performance easy. Below are the advantages of using MailChimp.

• Cost: If you have less than 2,000 subscribers, you can use MailChimp’s most basic plan for free. However, you have a limit on how many emails you send a day.
• Analytics: MailChimp provides thorough analytics that allows you to see how many subscribers have opened your email, which links were clicked the most, compares responses to industry averages, and how many have unsubscribed from your mailing list.
• Email List: You can add subscribers one by one, importing a CSV file, copy and paste from files, import from Salesforce (or other services), or upload spreadsheets. Afterwards, you are able to organize lists into groups or segments.
• Campaigns: MailChimp offers a variety of basic email templates to get you started. They even do a walkthrough of the setup process. You can easily edit layouts with drag and drop features, and you can save your layouts for future use. You are also able to upload as many pictures as you want without upgrading.
• Automated Emails: If you pay a little extra a month, you can send automated emails to subscribers immediately after they sign up or to thank them. You can also integrate it with your website and send emails to users based on website activity.
• Support: Free accounts can only use the self-service support feature, Knowledge Base, which provides Q-and-A articles. Monthly and pay-as-you-go customers have chat and email support service 24/7. However, weekends are limited to email service only.

Email Marketing Platform: Constant Contact

Constant Contact is one of the largest and fastest growing premium email marketing services that also is easy to use for all experience levels: from beginner to expert. It has extensive tools to help you manage your lists, campaigns, and analytics. Below are the other advantages of using Constant Contact.

• Cost: Constant Contact provides you with a 60-day free trial that allows you to have up to 100 subscribers and send an unlimited number of emails. For up to 2,500 subscribers, they charge you $40/month.
• Analytics: You are able to track opens, clicks, revenue from campaigns, and compare open rates between mobile and desktop. You are not able to compare your results to the industry averages to see how well you are doing.
• Email List: You can add subscribers one by one, adding multiple contacts at once, pasting them, uploading them with a file (constant contact accepts more formats like xlsx, .vcf, and .xls), or by a variety of apps including Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, and Salesforce.
• Campaigns: Constant Contact has more ready-to-use email templates with better designs than both MailChimp and Salesforce. You can edit layouts and content with the drag-drop editor that’s easier to use with more design flexibility than MailChimp. However, you are only able to upload five images for free. Afterwards, you will need to upgrade to MyLibraryPlus.
• Automated Emails: They have very limited automation capabilities. You can only create autoresponders that will be sent once someone joins your list. You cannot integrate it with your website and send emails to your users based on their website activity.
• Support: Phone, chat, and email support are offered Monday through Friday across all time zones in the US and Canada, plus weekend email support. Also, helpful resources are available such as community forums, recorded video tutorials, and online seminars are available.

Keeping in touch with customers on a consistent basis is one key to retaining your current customers and bringing in new ones. And email marketing does just that, with the added bonus of being a cost-effective marketing tool. If you are unsure of which email marketing platform would be best for your business, or you need an experts help in creating engaging campaigns, contact the marketing specialists at Vision Advertising for all of your email marketing needs.