Best Email Marketing Softwares for 2022

Contrary to popular belief, email marketing continues to remain one of the most important marketing channels for companies. In fact, the top email marketing software offers the highest return on investment (ROI) in comparison to other marketing channels. Currently, the best email marketing software provides an ROI of $38 for every dollar spent [1].

Besides, nearly 4.03 billion people around the world have a registered email address [2]. This is why email marketing will always remain one of the most used marketing tools. Companies and brands that overlook email marketing are likely to lose customers to their competitors who deploy a full-proof email marketing strategy.

Often, companies do not have a clear game plan regarding how to kickstart email marketing and the top email marketing software. It is important to note that the best email marketing software, platforms, and services come with different price tags, features, and points.

Although all the top email marketing software comes with a wide range of features, you should pick a tool that caters to your business requirements.

If you are looking for an email marketing tool for your business, you have arrived at the right place. This article will explain how email marketing software helps businesses, what are factors you should consider while choosing a tool, and more.

What is an Email Marketing Software?

Email marketing is a relatively new marketing channel and can be classified under direct as well as digital marketing that makes use of emails to promote products and services.

The best email marketing software plays an important role in making customers more aware of new developments in your company. It is safe to say that modern-day marketing strategies are incomplete without email marketing.

Some of the top email marketing software offers a range of benefits and helps to formulate effective marketing strategies to achieve different business objectives.

Email marketing software help with:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Improving lead generation
• Building relationships
• Enhancing customer engagement

The success of your email marketing strategy depends on the email marketing software you choose to work with.

There are two main considerations you need to think about while choosing the best email marketing software for your business:

• Your requirements and whether the software can address them.
• Whether the top email marketing software according to your research fits within your budget.

Besides, the best email marketing software should enable you to design emails seamlessly, create tailored messages, create market segments, and provide detailed analytics of your email marketing efforts. Apart from this, the top email marketing software should ensure that your emails reach the primary inboxes of your recipients.

At the end of the day, email marketing is all about finding the right time to capture the interest of your target audience.

Why is it Important to Choose the Top Email Marketing Software for your Business?

In the last section, we talked about what email marketing software is and a few points you should consider while purchasing the tool. Selecting the most suitable email marketing software for your business can go a long way in defining the success of your marketing campaigns.

One of the most efficient ways to determine whether email marketing software can benefit your business is to try them out.

Personal email marketing software has multiple limitations. Unless you are an experienced designer and understand the nuances of design, you may find it difficult to match the tone and theme of your brand.

The best email marketing software offers a wide range of benefits. They can take your company’s content and email marketing strategies to a whole new level.

Here are some of the major reasons why you should combine email marketing with your content strategy.

• Email marketing software offers better results in comparison with most marketing channels.
• The best email marketing software facilitates seamless customer engagement and retention.
• Email campaigns encourage users to take action and interact with your brand.
• The best email marketing software helps you enhance your brand’s awareness.
• Email marketing allows you to create and deliver personalized content that aligns with your recipient’s preferences.
• The top email marketing software drives more traffic to your website and attracts loyal customers.
• Emails can integrate with all your other marketing channels with ease.

How do Email Marketing Softwares Work and What do They Do?

Email marketing software should ensure your life becomes easier. They should have the ability to automate mundane tasks involved in email campaigns. Besides, the best email marketing software should allow you to create and deliver engaging and appealing emails to your subscribers and customers.

While looking for a top email marketing software, you should ensure that it has these ‘must-have’ features.

Segmentation

Segmenting your audience is one of the most effective ways to increase the ROI of your email campaigns. Email marketing software allows businesses to craft promotional emails and targeted marketing campaigns for their target audience

When you make customer groups, it is easier to create targeted marketing campaigns and craft promotional emails that are in line with their preferences. Besides, when you segment your audience based on their behavior, location, demographics, you can dish out content that resonates with them.

Some of the best email marketing software leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to evaluate user behavior in real-time and modify your email marketing strategy on the go.

Personalization

Why is segmentation so important? Customer segmentation enables you to personalize your email marketing campaigns. In the current business landscape where improving customer experiences is a priority for marketers, personalization is very essential.

In your quest to find an email marketing tool for your business, ensure that it comes with the merge tags feature. This makes it easier to customize your email subject lines along with the email copy.

There are many email marketing solutions that use dynamic content to create and deliver emails. This ensures that the most important content is included in the email depending on your customer group.

User interface

It is important to note that email marketing platforms should ultimately help marketers and make their life easier. While choosing email marketing for your company, choose a tool that comes with an easy-to-use interface and has a very short learning curve.

When the learning curve is short, users have a fair idea of how to make the most of all the features. A drag-and-drop editor is one of the best features to have. If your team has email designers, choosing an email service that includes HTML email templates is a good idea.

If you do not have a team of email designers, ensure that the email marketing system offers a wide range of customizable templates to craft emails to showcase your brand.

Automation

Email marketing has numerous aspects that are mundane and repetitive in nature. This is where automation comes in. Thanks to advances in technology, the best email software come with automation features that can help you save valuable time.

Email scheduling, engagement tracking, role-based account access, delivery receipts, and email scheduling fall under the email automation umbrella.

Testing

Testing is one of the most important components of a successful email marketing campaign. The top email marketing software includes split testing and the A/B testing functionality that enables you to try out different elements of your marketing emails against one another.

This allows you to determine which email copy, subject lines, email design, call to action, and email formats are doing the best. Testing will pave the way for higher ROI on your campaigns and ensure that your email campaigns keep improving each time you create one.

Analytics and reporting

If you create a top-notch email campaign and do not track its key parameters, you cannot determine whether your campaign is a success or not. You should be able to define the goals of your email campaign and find means to track them. This will give you a clear idea of whether your campaign is doing well or not.

However, if you rely on manual tracking, it can cost you considerable time and resources. The top email marketing software comes with analytics and reporting tools that help you track the key parameters of your campaign. Some of them include bounce rates, click-through rates, open rates, and more.

What are the key factors to consider when choosing the best email marketing software?

An email marketing software allows you to expand your business by saving considerable time and converting your leads into customers. Besides, they also enable you to convert your customers into repeat customers without you having to lift a finger.

There are a few factors that you need to consider while choosing the best email marketing software for your business. These factors draw a line between the good and the best email marketing software.

Keep in mind that many email marketing companies will tell you that they offer the best in class features. However, you need to research and analyze why some email marketing software is more popular than others.

Here are some of the main factors you need to consider while choosing the best email marketing software.

Cost

What separates a $40/month tool from a $100/month tool?

At times, a very few features, and other times, a lot of features. For instance, HubSpot could cost 10x more than most email marketing software. However, it is also one of the most well-rounded sales and marketing platforms that comes with features such as live chat, landing pages, and social media management.

On the flip side, ActiveCampaign is one of the most cost-efficient email marketing solutions on the market and also offers immense value.

However, remember that comparing email marketing software solely based on cost is a gamble. This is why you should also consider the other factors in this list to ensure that you are buying the right tool for your business.

Here’s a list of some of the best email marketing software along with their pricing for different account sizes.

Do not forget that cost and value are not the same things. Omnisend, ActiveCampaign, and HubSpot are all-in-one sales and marketing platforms that are loaded with features that go beyond the realms of email marketing. The rest of the email marketing software mentioned in the list solely focuses on email marketing and is primarily used to automate email campaigns.

Ideally, you do not want to keep toggling between different email marketing systems. This is why you should opt for a tool that provides you with features that not only cater to your present-day requirements but provide value in the long run.

Opt for a tool that offers the best chance to expand your business.

Ease of use

There are plenty of email marketing tools in the market that involves a steep learning curve. In some cases, marketers have spent as much as three to four hours to create an email marketing template that is suitable for a mobile device.

A number of email marketing tools provide visual email-creators and easy-to-use interfaces. However, some have the edge over the other due to different reasons.

While some tools are feature-heavy and hard to use, there are tools that are rich in features but extremely easy to use.

Deliverability

An email marketing system is not worth investing in if your emails are hitting the spam folder. This is why deliverability is a very important factor you should consider while choosing the best email marketing software.

To ensure your deliverability rates do not dip, there are some things your email marketing tool should be able to do:

These include:

• Get rid of troublesome clients
• Keep track of black listed contacts
• Flag customers for review if they receive a lot of complaints or bounced emails
• Handle the reputation of their IP addresses

The best email marketing software that will feature in our list of the best email marketing software in 2022 do all of the above. We believe that you can expect a deliverability rate of around 98-99% with all the tools on display in this article.

Email marketing features

Most of the email marketing tools in this article will provide you with standard features that you will expect from an email marketing tool. However, you need to pick tools that can go above and beyond your basic needs.

Besides, the additional features will primarily provide the best results in less time.

Marketing automation and CRM features

If you are a large-sized business, it probably is a good idea to work with an email marketing solution that comes with pre-built marketing automation and CRM functionality.

There is a very thin line between email marketing software and a marketing automation tool. You can read more about the difference between the two to get a better understanding.

Email marketing solutions work perfectly fine when emails are sent to the right people at the right time. However, the data that is required to trigger these actions are primarily stored in a CRM system. Although you can use a CRM system as a separate entity altogether, integrating automation with CRM saves time.

Reporting and analytics

Although a lot of email marketing tools provide a wide feature-set, they fall short on the reporting and the analytics front. On many occasions, it becomes difficult to understand how an email marketing tool is helping you generate a positive ROI.

Types of email campaigns

The best email marketing software allows you to craft different types of email campaigns.

An email marketing tool should help you create the following types of email campaigns.

• Welcome series – When customers provide their personal data or purchase something for the first time, a welcome email or a series of welcome emails will help you increase engagement.
• E-newsletter – You should be able to determine whether your email marketing tool will be able to create newsletters that are tailored to each subscriber or user.
• Abandoned cart – Abandoned cart emails need a link between an email and a website. These two components need to be “in sync” with each other. Thus, if you want to automate abandoned cart emails, you should first ensure that your email and web are connected to each other. Once you ensure that, you can configure the rules and deliver abandoned cart or reminder emails if and when required.

Some of the other types of email campaigns include post-purchase series, high spenders series, and re-engagement campaigns.

Top Email Marketing Softwares for 2022

As mentioned earlier, there is plenty of email marketing software in the market. Choosing the right software for your business could turn into a tricky affair considering the options at your disposal.

Thorough research is required while choosing the best email marketing software for your company. This entire process of choosing the right tool for your email campaigns should involve reading online reviews, testing the different features of the tool during the free trial, and more.

MailerLite – best for the basic email marketing features at cost-effective prices

MailerLite provides all the basic email marketing features without having to shell out a lot of money. It is an excellent tool for someone who is looking for a no-hassle email marketing software. If you need an email tool to create newsletters and send emails, you should consider MailerLite.

Besides, it also includes a ton of features that facilitate team collaboration. MailerLite is one of the most user-friendly platforms with a list of features that are extremely easy to use.

The good news is that the platform also offers some basic level of automation tools, pop-ups, surveys, and landing pages. This means that you are not limited to only the most basic email marketing features. Even the user interface (UI) is pretty straightforward.

The platform comes with a drag-and-drop editor, which makes it easy for users to design a top-quality email. You can segment your customers to improve the customization of your email campaigns with features such as A/B testing.

MailerLite is an ideal choice for anyone who wants to work with a simple email marketing tool at an affordable rate.

Check out the price points for the tool below:

• 1-1,000 subscribers – $10 per month
• 1,001 – 2,500 subscribers – $15 per month
• 2,501 – 5,000 subscribers – $30 per month
• 5,001 – 10,000 subscribers – $50 per month
• 10,001 – 15,000 subscribers -$75 per month
• 15,001 – 20,000 – $100 per month
• 20,001 – 25,000 – $120 per month
• 25,001 – 30,000 – $140 per month

Users can get a 30% discount if they opt for the annual billing option, making it one of the most affordable email marketing software out there.

Positives

• The email analytics function offers valuable insights
• Excellent landing page template choices
• Creating workflows is pretty straightforward
• The automation can be set up very easily
• Integration with third-party tools

Negatives

• Some features are not user-friendly
• The image editor needs improvement
• At times, the tool becomes slow while importing contacts
• Omnisend – one of the best omnichannel email marketing software

When it comes to ease-of-use, not many tools can make their case against Omnisend. Omnisend is one of the best email marketing software out there when we talk about ease of use.

The tool is loaded with a wide range of features including SMS messaging and automated email to ensure faster lead conversion.

Although most of the top email marketing software has these features, Omnisend takes it to a new level. The platform binds together email marketing, Google Customer Match, Facebook ad retargeting, and web browser notifications to ensure that users can stay connected with their customers.

Besides, Omnisend has a lot of features that make it easier to create segmented campaigns. Segmented campaigns allow you to target only the most relevant customers at the right time.

Omnisend comes with pre-made automation that triggers based on the actions taken by customers. Some of these customer actions include welcome emails/messages, cart abandonment messages, and more.

The repository of drag-and-drop templates simplifies the entire process of creating visually pleasing branding emails.

Similar to a lot of email marketing software, the pricing points depend on the number of contacts you have in your subscriber list.

Check out the pricing for 500 contacts below:

Free: $0

Includes:

• Reports
• Pop-ups, boxes, and signup forms
• Omnisend-branded email marketing campaigns
• 15,000 emails/month

Standard: $16 per month

Includes:

• SMS campaigns and automation
• Audience segmentation
• Email campaigns
• 24/7 chat and email support
• Signup forms, pop-ups, and boxes

Pro: $99 per month

Includes:

• Priority support
• Advanced reporting
• Facebook Customer Match
• Web push notifications
• $80 free SMS credits/month
• 15,000 emails/month
• SMS campaigns and automation

Enterprise: Custom pricing

Includes:

• Reports
• SMS campaigns and automation
• Email migration
• Custom IP address
• Deliverability support
• Web push notifications
• Email campaigns
• Audience segmentation

The Standard plan is arguably one of the most popular plans. The fact that you can create unbranded emails is a strong enough reason to purchase this tool.

Positives:

• The pop-up features work wonders to increase the size of your subscriber list.
• The integration options are amazing and allow you to link Omnisend with a bunch of websites and applications.
• Users without any coding experience can create the most engaging email campaigns.
• Excellent value for money due to the automation options.

Negatives:

• The tool offers limited font options
• Omnisend is not very economical for small businesses and startups.
• The product picker does not function properly unless cookies and cache are cleared.
• The SMS subscription service is not cost-effective

Drip – best for newly launched e-commerce businesses

Drip is one of the most recently launched email marketing software in the market. It is actually a CRM that offers email marketing to e-commerce businesses.

It is one of the best email marketing software for e-commerce merchants who are looking to establish a presence. The tool offers independent shops the same set of segmentation and automation features for email marketers as larger e-commerce stores.

It is one of the best email marketing software for companies that are just starting out.

Drip helps you understand key commerce metrics that are linked to purchase behavior and customer intent. The tool allows you to bifurcate your audience based on new visitors, returning customers, and more. Besides, the platform enables you to target the most relevant customers with frequent offers.

One of the best parts about Drip is that it allows you to connect with your customers across multiple touchpoints including emails. It also comes with a revenue attribution feature that offers a clear understanding of which email campaigns are bringing in money – an ideal feature for e-commerce shops.

The dynamic segmentation options, in-depth analytics, and personalization features make Drip one of the best tools to set your email marketing in motion.

The pricing is primarily based on the number of subscribers in your account. Each plan comes with the same benefits and features.

Check out the pricing points for different numbers of subscribers in the list.

• 1-500 subscribers – $19 per month
• 501-2,000 subscribers – $29 per month
• 2,001 – 2,500 subscribers – $39 per month
• 2,501 – 3,000 subscribers -$49 per month
• 3,001 – 3,500 subscribers – $59 per month
• 3,501 – 4,000 subscribers – $69 per month
• 4,501 – 5,000 subscribers – $79 per month
• 5,001 – 6,000 subscribers – $99 per month
• 6,001 – 7,000 subscribers – $109 per month

Every plan comes with email and 24/7 live chat support. You can try and test the different features for free with a 14-day free trial.

Positives:

• The tool is extremely easy to use.
• Drag and drop templates
• The email builder tool is excellent even for users with limited technical expertise.
• E-commerce contact management.

Negatives:

• Some users have experienced downtime while using the tool
• Customer support is not very consistent. It is a hit or a miss situation.
• On some occasions, it is not easy to tell the difference between a campaign and a workflow.
• There is a steep learning curve involved.
• When it comes to affordability, it takes a beating when compared to some of the other tools.

ConvertKit – ideal for bloggers, creators, influencers

ConvertKit is one of the most loved and popular email marketing software out there.

It is an ideal choice for different types of content creators. These include musicians, artists, video producers, and bloggers to name a few. The platform primarily focuses on nurturing and engaging the audience with e-commerce platforms, membership sites, and landing pages.

Users have access to all the tools that are needed to convert casual visitors on social media platforms, YouTube videos, Facebook pages, and more into leads.

If you are looking to create automated email funnels cost-effectively, ConvertKit should be high on the list. To set up automated sequences of emails, you will be guided through a very simple visual flow chart.

Instead of having multiple contact lists, ConvertKit puts all your subscribers in one list. However, users can still tag their subscribers manually to segment them on top of the auto-tags based on their behavior to enhance the personalization element of your campaigns. This is excellent for creators with larger audiences.

The platform is ideal for delivering emails with neat and tidy formatting. Besides, the tool does not have complex designs or elements to distract you.

Similar to other email marketing software, ConvertKit’s pricing depends on the size of your subscriber list.

Check out the pricing below:

• 0-1,000 subscribers – $29 per month
• 1,000 – 3,000 subscribers -$49 per month
• 3,000 – 5,000 subscribers -$79 per month

What makes ConvertKit one of the best email marketing software is the wide range of third-party direct integrations. As of now, ConvertKit offers over 70 third-party integrations, custom reporting, and customizable forms.

The support team is there to assist you for 12 hours each day from Monday to Friday. The support is limited on the weekends and at night.

Positives:

• The tool’s affiliate program offers a good opportunity to monetize your subscriber list.
• Users do not have to pay for subscribers that have “ghosted” them or stopped opening their emails.
• Users can integrate ConvertKit with more than 70 third-party applications.
• Ease of use

Negatives:

• Limited designs in the landing page system.
• Unlike other email marketing software, ConvertKit does not provide a free plan.
• The platform does not offer URL tagging and tracking.

Sendinblue – best email marketing software to grow your subscriber list

Sendinblue offers a fully-automated email marketing software for businesses who are looking to scale. If your business is just starting out and you are looking to grow your list, Sendinblue is a top email marketing software to do that for you.

The tool offers a wide range of drag-and-drop editors with tons of automation options that optimize your email marketing campaigns.

Besides the incredible automation features on offer, Sendinblue also provides a bunch of lead nurturing tools to help your business grow such as:

• Retargeted ads – Effective ads that primarily rely on past online interactions.
• Sign up forms – Insert forms on your website to collect user information.
• Landing pages – Craft the most engaging and actionable web pages to gather leads.
• Facebook ads – Make the most of Facebook marketing to nurture your leads.

With all these features, the platform helps your business attract more customers, leads, and grow.

The tool offers a free plan that offers you unlimited contacts and a limit of around 300 emails per day. This is an amazing deal for solopreneurs or a bootstrap startup.

The email builder is one of the easiest tools as it comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor. You can design aesthetically pleasing emails without any hassles.

Currently, Sendinblue offers four main pricing plans. Check the pricing of different tiers below.

Free: $0 per month

Includes:

• SMS marketing
• Email template library
• Chat
• Unlimited contacts
• Up to 300 emails per day

Lite: $25 per month

Includes:

• Up to 100 emails
• A/B testing
• Ability to remove the Sendinblue logo
• No daily sending limit

Premium (most popular plan): $65 per month

Includes:

Marketing automation
Retargeted ads
Landing pages
Telephone support

Enterprise: Custom pricing

Includes:

• Dedicated IP
• Customer success manager
• 20+ landing pages
• Customized email volumes

When you have just started your business, the Lite plan is probably the right option for you. However, as your business starts to scale, you should probably consider opting for the Premium option.

Positives:

• What makes Sendinblue a standout email marketing software is its pricing. The affordable pricing plans allow you to reach a larger audience without having to shell out a lot of money.
• The tool has one of the best customer support teams that offer assistance in six languages.
• The transactional email service is very reliable and ensures users that their emails have reached their recipients.

Negatives:

• Although Sendinblue can be integrated with third-party applications, the options are very limited.
• The free version lacks some key features such as social media support and more.
• The interface is not very straightforward compared to some of the other tools in the market.

What are the best practices to utilize email marketing software optimally?

Avoid purchasing email lists

One of the main reasons why email marketing is such an effective marketing channel is because your subscribers want to engage with your business. However, when you purchase email lists, it takes away the novelty and trust as you are more likely to spam their inbox with content they are not interested in.
Besides that, a lot of countries have introduced stringent rules prohibiting marketers from sending irrelevant emails. For instance, under the CAN-SPAM ACT, you can be fined up to $16,000 for sending incorrect emails.

While choosing the best email marketing software is important, you should also be able to figure out how to use it optimally.

The success of your email marketing campaigns primarily depends on the open rate. If you are sending emails to your purchased subscribers, the open rate is likely to dip. Not to forget, if there are spam complaints registered against your address, your email address can also be blacklisted.

The arrival of GDPR is another reason why purchasing email lists is a bad idea.

Use merge tags to create personalized content

Think about it. Would you rather open an email titled “Hi/Dear (your name)” or “Hello Customer”?

It is probably the former right? Any type of data you collect from your subscribers should be utilized to create personalized content that can be sent to your contacts.

If an item can fit into a column within the CSV file next to their email address, a merge can do the trick. A merge tag is an ESP-specific code that enables you to personalize your email campaigns so that your customers are engaged.

At present, first and last names are one of the most common merge tags that are in use. Apart from these, you can also use cards such as the number of emails opened, products purchased, data of the previous visits, company name.

Making use of merge tags is one of the best ways to start personalizing your emails.

Create catchy subject lines

Please note that the subject lines of your emails should be catchy, straight to the point, concise, and urge the recipient to open your email.

Ensure that the subject line does not exceed more than 30 to 50 characters. They should stand out from all the other chaos your recipients see on their screen. One way to grab the attention of your audience is to use numbers, symbols, and emojis.

Welcome series for new subscribers

If you have not deployed email automation yet, it is a good time to do so. The best email marketing software comes with powerful automation tools that are more often used in a string of emails that welcome new subscribers into the list.

The autoresponder emails are delivered automatically when new users subscribe to your content. You can define the timeline of these emails so that your subscribers get emails on different days. You have the ability to define the frequency of delivering these emails based on your business requirements.

Email formatting

Emails should not be wider than 500 to 600 pixels. If they are wider than that, your subscribers may have to scroll horizontally on their devices.

Please note that you should not send mails from a “no-reply” email address such as noreply@laurenwhite.com. Use a name that your subscribers will recognize instantly.

Fit your marketing message and call to action (CTA) above the fold so that your audience can see it immediately. Do not use more than three fonts and keep track of the formatting of the entire piece of content. The best email marketing software allows you to place your brand’s logo at the top of the email. This ensures that your recipients can recognize your brand at first glance.

Email marketing software: FAQs