The 5 Best Email Marketing Platforms for Small Businesses

The success of a marketing campaign can stand and fall with the tools used to carry it out. This is especially true for email marketing, where the platform that you use determines crucial factors such as deliverability or the range of functionalities that can enhance the effectiveness of your campaign, segmentation and personalization chief among them.

Choosing the right provider is especially important for small businesses. Not only is email marketing a prime way to contact and convert customers, with 73% of millennials preferring businesses to reach out to this way. It is also one of the most secure marketing channels to invest in – with a return of $38 for every $1.

It may seem prudent to choose one of the biggest players out there by default, such as Mailchimp. But weighing your options and looking at Mailchimp alternatives is worth your time and effort. Potentially, you can find a solution that better fits your needs, for a lower price.

To get you started, here’s an overview of the 5 best email marketing platforms currently out there for small businesses.

1. Sendinblue

Designed as a simple but holistic email and SMS marketing solution, Sendinblue is currently unbeatable on price.

Their free plan lets users send 300 emails per day to an unlimited number of contacts. The next-level lite plan expands this to 40,000 emails per month, with no daily sending limits, for a monthly $25.

Sendinblue’s drag-and-drop email editor is straightforward and includes a myriad of templates. The platform offers solid options for marketing automation, list segmentation, and personalization. On the higher-tier plans, a landing page builder, A/B testing, and extended analysis options are available.

The downsides are that on the free and lite plans, Sendinblue’s logo is included in emails. Furthermore, since Sendinblue charges by emails and not by the number of subscribers, you also might end up paying more if you contact the same subscriber several times per month.

2. Constant Contact

Especially popular among small businesses, Constant Contact offers plans starting at $20 per month, allowing users to send an unlimited number of emails to up to 500 subscribers. However, prices increase with the number of subscribers on your email list: With 5,000 – 10,000 subscribers, for example, the basic plan already costs $95/month.

For this price, however, Constant Contact offers a massive array of features, ranging from standard list segmentation, marketing automation, and personalization tools, to an advanced landing-page builder, pop-up forms, A/B testing, and a handy marketing calendar.

A big plus of Constant Contact is their excellent customer service, reachable by email, chat, and phone, which offers free personal coaching to get you started.

3. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign provides its customers with excellent deliverability, in-depth reporting tools, and stellar marketing automation features.

In addition, the platform includes a comprehensive CRM system, as well as extensive analytics features. The drag-and-drop editor offers a range of convenient features, such as saving custom blocks, and can be used to build a wide array of email types – from newsletters and A/B testing emails to birthday messages.

Pricing is based on subscriber count and starts at $15/month for 500 subscribers on the lite plan.

4. GetResponse

Europe-based GetResponse may offer the largest library of features out of any platform on this list. From straightforward A/B testing and detailed marketing automation to comprehensive design testing, and video email marketing.

The platform also offers a customized landing page builder, which is part of their Conversion Funnel feature, geared at traffic generation. On the higher-tier plans, webinar and CRM tools are available.

Pricing is based on list size and starts at $15/month for 1,000 subscribers on the standard plan.

5. Mailchimp

One of the most prominent email marketing tools currently available, Mailchimp is a favorite for many small businesses.

Their free plan lets businesses send 10,000 emails per month to up to 2,000 subscribers – which may well cover many a small business’s needs. Once your list expands, though, pricing quickly picks up – starting at $29.99/month for 2.500 subscribers.

Feature-wise, Mailchimp offers a simple but powerful template editor, thorough reporting features, and a landing page builder. Marketing-automation features, however, are basic.

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right email marketing solution can take time and a lot of research. For in-depth comparisons, diving into the websites and reviews of the different platforms is invaluable, as is getting demos, and using info-packed intermediaries such as EmailToolTester.

At the end of the day, with the broad range of email marketing platforms currently available, you are sure to find the right fit for your business. So that you can take your email marketing campaigns to the next level, convince, convert, and grow.