Stay up to date
Get the latest news, resources, and guides on email and lifecycle marketing—straight to your inbox.
Email marketing truly is the unsung hero for small businesses.
You might not see it making headlines like social media or flashy digital ads, but when done right, email can be a direct and powerful way to reach your customers and prospects where they engage most – their inboxes.
But choosing the right email marketing platform for your small business can be quite overwhelming.
With countless options out there, all touting different features, capabilities, and pricing models, it’s easy to feel lost in the sea of choices.
That’s why in this post, I’ll walk you through the 10 best email service providers (ESPs) for small businesses in 2025.
I’ve used all of these platforms personally throughout my career, so I’m speaking from experience.
Whether you’re just starting out or looking to switch from your current ESP, you’ll learn:
Brief overviews of each top platform.
- Pricing info to fit small business budgets
- Key features that set each apart
- Primary pros and cons of each system
- Ideal types of businesses for each email provider
Let’s get started.
ActiveCampaign is an all-in-one marketing automation platform that brings powerful email marketing, built-in CRM, landing pages, and other marketing tools together under one roof.
Designed for growing small and mid-sized businesses, ActiveCampaign eliminates the need to piece together different apps and provides robust automation capabilities that drive growth.
Key features
- Drag-and-drop email builder with 250+ responsive templates
- Segmentation and personalized if/then content logic
- 750+ templates for multi-step workflows and campaigns
- Automation based on behaviors, sales interactions, and more
- Built-in CRM with deal tracking, contact management, and pipeline view
- SMS capabilities, landing pages, and 700+ app integrations
- Excellent inbox deliverability
Pros
Cons
Pros
- All-in-one platform marketing platform
- Powerful and in-depth automation features
- Easy-to-use drag and drop email builder
- Great behavioral automation for complex workflows
- Built-in CRM provides complete view of customer
- Robust features and flexibility scales with businesses
- Intuitive interface works for beginners and experts
- Top-notch deliverability into inboxes
Cons
- Can be overwhelming for beginners
- Steep learning curve to leverage full potential
- Must upgrade for certain premium features
- Email editor lacks some advanced functionality
- Can get expensive for mid-to-large contact lists
Pricing
- 500 contacts – $9/month
- 1,000 contacts – $15/month
- 5,000 contacts – $99/month
- 10,000 contacts – $174/month
- 50,000 contacts – $486/month
- Add-ons available for additional features
While all plans include unlimited emails and a full suite of automation features, CRM capabilities start at $23/month plan.
Is ActiveCampaign right for you?
ActiveCampaign is a good choice for businesses that need:
- Powerful marketing automation tools to send targeted messages
- A CRM system built-in to connect sales and marketing data
- The ability to reach customers across different channels like email, text messages, social media ads, etc.
MailerLite is an intuitive, easy-to-use email marketing platform built for solopreneurs, small businesses, and bloggers on a budget.
It stands out for its ease of use, simplicity, and affordable pricing.
At its core, MailerLite focuses on delivering excellent email deliverability and inbox placement without overwhelming users with complex features.
The platform brings together essential marketing tools like email newsletters, lead capture forms, landing pages, and automation into one streamlined experience.
With its streamlined interface, excellent deliverability rates, and powerful free plan, MailerLite removes headaches from email marketing.
Key features
- Intuitive drag-and-drop email builder
- Beautiful, responsive templates
- Landing page builder with lead capture forms
- Automation based on actions and conditions
- Contact management with groups and segments
- Integrations with ecommerce platforms
- Excellent delivery and inbox placement
- Mobile app for iOS devices
Pros
Cons
Pros
- Extremely easy to use interface
- Affordable pricing starts free
- Powerful free plan with core features
- Quick and intuitive email builder
- Great selection of templates
- Excellent inbox deliverability
- Built-in landing page and forms builder
- Quality automation features even on free plan
- Segment subscribers based on behaviors
- Ecommerce features with top platforms
- Active development and new features
- Fantastic support team
Cons
- Light on advanced marketing features
- Basic analytics and reporting
- Automation capabilities limited compared to competitors
- Free plan now capped at 12k emails
- No spam testing or email previews
- Limited customization of subscription forms
- No dropdown or radio button fields for data
- No phone support is available
Pricing
- Free: Up to 1000 contacts, 12k emails
- Growing Business: Starts at $15/mo for 1000 contacts
- Advanced: $21/month with more features
- Enterprise: For 100k+ contacts and extra deliverability features
- Discounts available on annual plans. All paid plans offer unlimited emails, unlimited segments, automation, and access to a wide selection of professional templates.
Is Mailerlite right for you?
MailerLite is a good choice if:
- You’re a small business, solo entrepreneur, or freelancer on a budget but need more than basic emails. It has automation, landing pages, and segmentation.
- You’re a blogger or creative person. MailerLite has features just for sending RSS newsletters, WordPress integration, and video.
- You’re brand new to email marketing. MailerLite has a very simple interface and is easy to use even as a beginner. Their free academy teaches you email marketing skills.
MailerLite works well for small businesses, bloggers/creatives, and people totally new to emails who want an easy tool with useful features at a low cost.
GetResponse is an all-in-one email marketing and marketing automation platform built to help small businesses capture, nurture, and convert leads.
It brings together powerful email capabilities, landing pages, forms, and advanced automation workflows.
It also stands out for its lead generation and conversion-focused features like built-in CRM, webinars, and multi-step sales funnels.
While competitive on ease of use and core email marketing features, GetResponse shines when it comes to converting leads and driving sales through automation.
Key features
- Drag-and-drop email builder with 100+ templates
- Landing pages and forms to capture leads
- Marketing automation workflows based on triggers
- Built-in CRM to manage contacts and pipeline
- Webinars to generate and nurture leads
- Multi-step sales funnels and lead magnets
- Ecommerce features like promo codes and abandoned cart flows
- AI-powered product recommendations
- Excellent analytics and thorough reporting
- Email copy generator with GPT-3
Pros
Cons
Pros
- All-in-one platform with CRM, forms, automation, webinars
- Helps convert leads through sales funnels
- Powerful and intuitive workflow automation
- Great for capturing leads with landing pages
- AI product recommendations increase sales
- Thorough analytics and tracking
- Easy drag-and-drop builder with good templates
- Excellent educational marketing content
- Strong ecommerce features for online stores
- Useful lead generation and conversion tools
- Good value pricing tiers
Cons
- Steep learning curve for some advanced features
- Must upgrade for certain premium options
- Deliverability rates could be better
- Editing experience less smooth than competitors
- Free plan limited to 500 contacts
- Can get expensive with large contact lists
- Fewer integrations than other platforms
Pricing
- Free: Up to 500 contacts
- Email marketing: $15/mo starting at 1,000 contacts
- Automation marketing: $49/mo with advanced features
- Ecommerce marketing: $99/mo with ecommerce focus
- Max plan: For enterprise-level needs
All paid plans offer unlimited emails. CRM and other premium features start at $49/mo plan.
Is GetResponse right for you?
GetResponse is a good choice if you need:
- Automation to segment your contact list based on behaviors and interests. GetResponse makes this easy.
- Spam testing and landing page building. GetResponse has useful design testing and lead generation tools.
- Sales funnels and webinars. You can create multi-step funnels and host webinars to convert leads.
- Live chat. GetResponse’s chat lets you connect with site visitors in real-time.
- Social media ad management. You can run Google, Facebook, Instagram ads directly in GetResponse.
- A free plan with marketing features. GetResponse’s free plan includes a basic landing page, sign up forms, and more.
GetResponse works well if you want powerful automation, landing pages, webinars, live chat, social media ad management, and a useful free plan.
Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, is an affordable integrated marketing platform built for small businesses. It combines email marketing, marketing automation, CRM, transactional email, SMS capabilities, and more under one user-friendly roof.
Its plans are based on emails sent rather than number of contacts, and provide generous limits even on low-cost plans.
While the platform lacks some advanced functionality, it excels at providing versatile tools for small business marketing fundamentals at an accessible price point.
Overall, Brevo consolidates the core marketing capabilities into one seamless experience – making it easy for small business owners to engage their audience without breaking the bank.
Key features
- Intuitive drag-and-drop email builder
- Beautiful responsive templates
- Workflows and automation based on triggers
- Built-in basic CRM
- Transactional and SMS email capabilities
- Lead capture forms and landing pages
- Real-time chat widget for websites
- Excellent deliverability and inbox placement
- Generous contact and email limits
- Affordable pricing based on emails sent
Pros
Cons
Pros
- Extremely affordable pricing
- Unlimited contacts even on lowest plan
- Built-in CRM and real-time chat for free
- Transactional and SMS email capabilities
- Easy-to-use drag and drop editor
- Quality modern templates included
- Powerful triggered automation workflows
- Versatile tools for small business owners
- Excellent educational marketing content
- Lead capture forms and landing pages
- Generous limits on low-cost plans
- Strong deliverability to inboxes
Cons
- Light on some advanced features
- Steep learning curve for extensive features
- Workflow builder not as robust as competitors
- Analytics and reporting capabilities limited
- Must pay to remove Brevo branding
- No custom HTML editor for templates
- Deliverability results fluctuates
Is Brevo right for you?
Brevo is a good option if you want:
- Low cost plans starting at just $35 per month. Brevo is very affordable.
- Powerful automation you can set up based on email and website activity.
- Transactional and SMS email capabilities. Brevo can send key alert style emails.
- Easy WordPress integration. Brevo has a highly rated WordPress plugin.
- Free CRM software. Even Brevo’s free plan includes basic CRM tools.
In short, Brevo is great if you need an affordable email and marketing platform with automation, transactions, SMS, WordPress, and free CRM.
Mailchimp is a widely used email marketing platform built for small to mid-sized businesses.
Known for its monkey mascot Freddie, Mailchimp combines easy-to-use email campaigns and automation with landing pages, surveys, and e-commerce features.
Mailchimp stands out for its excellent templates, thorough reporting, and abundant integrations.
While the platform excels at the email fundamentals, its extensive capabilities can be overwhelming for new users. But for established businesses seeking a feature-rich, expandable tool, Mailchimp is a top choice.
Key features
- Intuitive drag-and-drop email builder
- Hundreds of free templates to choose from
- Automation based on subscriber behaviors
- Signup forms, pop-ups, and landing pages
- Surveys and polls to collect user feedback
- Ecommerce tracking and integration
- Social media and Google Analytics integration
- AI-powered copywriting and content tools
- Deliverability optimized for inboxes
- Access permissions for teams
- Over 800 app integrations available
Pros
Cons
Pros
- Beautiful, professional email templates
- Powerful analytics and thorough reporting
- Versatile automation features
- Excellent integrations for marketing stack
- Ongoing development of new features
- Embedded e-commerce capabilities
- Easy-to-use visual email builder
- Lead capture and list growth tools
- Email copy AI assistant via GPT-3
- Renowned deliverability and inbox placement
- Great educational marketing content
- Ideal for established small businesses
Cons
- Steep learning curve for new users
- Free plan now very limited
- Must upgrade for some key features
- No multilingual site or templates
- Potentially overwhelming array of options
- Expensive compared to competitors
- Navigation and workflows can be confusing
Pricing
- Free: Up to 500 contacts, 1,000 emails
- Essentials: Starts at $14/mo for 500 contacts
- Standard: More features from $40/mo
- Premium: For advanced needs from $299/mo
Offers pay-as-you-go options. Volume discounts available. All plans include unlimited emails. Must upgrade for marketing automation, advanced analytics, and other robust features.
Is Mailchimp right you?
Mailchimp is a good choice if you:
- Need lots of integrations. Mailchimp connects with hundreds of apps and platforms.
- Want an all-in-one solution. Mailchimp has forms, landing pages, CRM, and automation workflows.
- Offer online services. Mailchimp lets you take appointments and payments.
- Want to sell through email. Mailchimp has ecommerce features to sell products in emails.
If you need a tool with abundant integrations, all-in-one functionality, service booking options, and built-in ecommerce.
Omnisend is an email marketing platform built specifically for ecommerce businesses and online stores. It combines powerful email capabilities with SMS marketing, cart abandonment flows, and advanced segmentation.
It stands out for its deep integration with all major ecommerce platforms, automation tailored for online retail, and excellent templates optimized for selling.
While it lacks some general marketing features, Omnisend excels at helping digital retailers engage customers and drive repeat sales.
Key features
- Drag-and-drop email builder with ecommerce focus
- Beautiful templates designed to sell products
- Advanced behavioral segmentation
- Workflows triggered by purchases and behaviors
- Abandoned cart automation
- SMS capabilities to re-engage customers
- Social integrations for retargeting
- Product recommendations based on habits
- Sales tracking across email, SMS, and ads -CRM to manage customer lifecycle
- Deliverability optimized for inboxes
- Mobile app to manage campaigns
Pros
Cons
Pros
- Specialized for ecommerce email marketing
- Deep integration with all major shopping carts
- Powerful behavioral automation for sales
- Excellent abandoned cart capabilities
- Effective product recommendation engine
- Omnichannel workflows with SMS and social
- Very strong email templates optimized for ecommerce
- Easy-to-use drag and drop editor
- Robust sales tracking across channels
- Lifetime value metrics and customer analytics
- Free plan with complete features
- Excellent educational marketing content
- Stellar customer support team
Cons
- Light general marketing automation features
- Deliverability rates could improve
- Limited to 12 sends per contact monthly
- Fewer integrations than some platforms
- Must pay to remove Omnisend branding
- No predictive send time optimization
- Lacks spam testing and previews
- Maximum of 5 MB for images
Pricing
- Free: Up to 250 contacts, 500 emails/month
- Starter: $16/mo for up to 500 contacts
- Standard: $65/mo for up to 5,000 contacts
- Pro: Advanced features, premium deliverability
Volume discounts available. Unlimited contacts on all paid plans. Can purchase additional email sends as needed. SMS capabilities and other add-ons available.
Is Omnisend right for you?
Omnisend is a good choice if you:
- Have an online store. Omnisend integrates directly with all major shopping carts.
- Need ecommerce automation. Omnisend has pre-made automation templates for transactions, cart abandonment, cross-selling, and more.
- Want modern email and form designs. Omnisend has many attractive templates.
- Need performance benchmarks. Omnisend can compare your brand’s metrics against industry standards.
It works great for online retailers who want automation to boost sales, beautiful design templates, and insights based on industry data.
Moosend offers a breath of fresh air in the email marketing software space.
Don’t let the playful moose mascot fool you – this platform packs some serious capabilities for small businesses on a budget.
It keeps things simple by focusing on the email and conversion essentials, not overwhelming you with an endless array of complex functionalities. Its intuitive drag-and-drop builder empowers users to create professional, on-brand campaigns with ease.
One of Moosend’s most outstanding attributes is its workflow automation that facilitates timely creation of sequences that engage subscribers, promote offers, recover abandoned carts, and more. Generously, automation is included even at the remarkably affordable $9/month tier.
While it may not have all the enterprise-level perks, Moosend wins big points for delivering robust functionality without big budgets or headaches.
Key features
- Intuitive drag-and-drop email builder with templates
- Lead capture landing pages and forms
- Contact management and list segmentation
- Pre-designed automation workflows
- Detailed analytics and thorough reporting
- Spam testing for optimized deliverability
- iOS and Android apps for on-the-go access
- Unlimited emails on all paid plans
Pros
Cons
Pros
- Extremely affordable pro plans starting at $9/month
- Generous and fully-featured free plan
- Unlimited emails across all paid tiers
- Pro-level automation included
- Strong analytics and reporting capabilities
- Quality modern template designs
- Reliable deliverability into inboxes
- Responsive live chat support agents
- Mobile editing via iOS and Android apps
Cons
- Learning curve for some advanced functionalities
- Form builder needs refinement
- Limited integrations compared to market leaders
- Occasional deliverability fluctuations
- High minimum purchase for credits
Pricing
- Free: Up to 150 contacts, unlimited emails
- Starter: $9/mo for up to 500 contacts
- Pro: More features from $16/mo
- Business: For sophisticated use cases
- Pay-as-you-go credits: $350+ minimum purchase
Is Moosend right for you?
Moosend is a good affordable option if you:
- Need unlimited emails with pro features but no branding. Moosend has generous limits.
- Want excellent automation templates to save time. Moosend has 18 detailed workflow templates.
- Need detailed analytics and reporting. Moosend provides thorough reports and insights.
It offers great value with unlimited emails, tons of automation templates, and robust analytics – all for a low price.
In the wide world of email marketing platforms, Mailjet distinguishes itself by offering a robust feature set focused on collaboration, automation, and transactional capabilities. And it does so at budget-friendly price points, making Mailjet an intriguing option for senders on a budget.
Mailjet stands apart with its real-time multi-user email collaboration – allowing teams to work together on campaign creation like a marketing Swiss army knife.
The platform also provides small businesses with versatile tools to craft triggered messages and workflows based on subscriber behaviors.
For ecommerce brands, Mailjet offers transactional emails to power timely communications like order confirmations and shipping updates.
Key features
- Collaborative drag-and-drop email builder
- Collection of responsive templates
- Contact segmentation with filters
- Workflow automations and autoresponders
- A/B split testing capabilities
- Transactional and triggered email
- Third-party integrations and APIs
- Contact and subscription management
- Deliverability optimization consulting
Pros
Cons
Pros
- Real-time multi-user email collaboration
- Affordable pricing based on sends
- Generous free plan available
- Intuitive interface and easy learning curve
- Quality automation and trigger capabilities
- Transactional and SMS email inclusion
- Reliable deliverability and inbox placement
- Excellent technical customer support
- Integration with major ecommerce platforms
Cons
- Light templates and design options
- Workflow builder less advanced than competitors
- Limited segmentation options
- No dedicated landing page builder
- Must upgrade for some premium features
- Steep volume pricing for high senders
Pricing
- Free: 6,000 emails/month
- Essential: Starts at $11.50/month for 15,000
- Premium: Advanced features from $35/month
- Volume discounts available
Is Mailjet right for you?
Mailjet is a good option if you:
- Need lots of integrations. Mailjet connects with 80+ apps and platforms.
- Want to collaborate on email design. Mailjet lets multiple users work on emails together.
- Don’t need advanced features. Mailjet is very affordable for basic email needs.
Mailjet is great if you want easy collaboration, abundant integrations, and basic email capabilities at a low cost.
Constant Contact rose to prominence as one of the early pioneers in email marketing, cementing itself as a ubiquitous name in the space.
But with today’s marketplace brimming with innovations, does it still merit a spot at the top?
At its core, Constant Contact caters primarily to small business owners, combining email essentials with extras like digital storefronts, logo creation, and social media management.
For sending basic email newsletters, the software delivers adequately. However, it noticeably lags behind competition when it comes to advanced automation and sophisticated segmentation capabilities.
With premium pricing but an average feature set, Constant Contact may not be the best option for savvy small business owners.
Key features
- Drag-and-drop email builder with templates
- Contact management and list segmentation
- Email automation with basic triggers
- Event promotion and management tools
- Social media publishing and scheduling
- eCommerce storefront integration
- Logo creation and marketing design
- Third-party app integrations
Pros
Cons
Pros
- High deliverability rates to inboxes
- Quality selection of email templates
- Useful features for event promoters
- Caters well to real estate niche
- Educational marketing content for beginners
- Smooth onboarding and learning resources
- Responsive customer support channels
Cons
- Expensive compared to competitors
- Light automation and segmentation capabilities
- Some features disjointed from core platform
- Dated-looking interface and template designs
- Steep learning curve despite simple UI
- Lack of predictive inbox delivery optimization
Pricing
- Starts at $12/mo for 500 contacts
- Up to $120/mo for 10,000 contacts
- Volume discounts available
Is ConstantContact right for you?
Constant Contact is a good choice if you:
- Run in-person or online events. Constant Contact helps manage event invites, registrations, and tickets.
- Want to charge for events. Constant Contact lets you sell tickets and charge registration fees.
It works well for anyone running events that need help with invites, registrations, and ticket sales.
Kit stakes out a niche audience of bloggers, podcasters, creators, and digital course businesses. It aims to help them better monetize and engage their audiences through targeted email marketing capabilities.
The platform focuses heavily on creating email sequences, automations, and workflows based on subscriber behaviors and purchases. This allows creators to deliver highly tailored content experiences.
It also provides landing pages, forms, and tools to sell digital products directly.
While Kit certainly shines in its focused niche, it lags behind category leaders when it comes to breadth of features, deliverability optimization, and sophisticated segmentation capabilities.
So, if you just want to send regular email newsletters and aren’t focused on selling to an audience, other email platforms may be better for you. Those other platforms can offer more value for general email marketing needs.
Key features
- Behavior-based email automation
- Tools to sell digital products/memberships
- Landing pages and forms to capture subscribers
- Sequences for onboarding subscribers
- Integration with major shopping carts
- Contact management with tags
- Deliverability and spam monitoring
Pros
Cons
Pros
- Specialized for digital creators’ needs
- Helps monetize and engage audience
- Powerful segmentation with tags
- Workflows based on purchases and actions
- Easy lead capture and list building
- Built-in digital storefront
- Great automation templates out of the box
Cons
- Light general marketing automation features
- Expensive for mid-large contact lists
- Limited template selection
- Mediocre email editor
- Basic reporting lacking some key metrics
- No predictive send-time optimization
Pricing
- Free: Up to 1,000 subscribers
- Paid plans from $99/mo
Is Kit right for you?
Kit is a good pick if you:
- Want to send highly targeted campaigns. Kit has great segmentation and tagging tools.
- Sell digital products or subscriptions. Kit lets you sell digital goods right in your emails.
Kit is great for sending ultra-specific email campaigns and selling digital products, memberships, and services.
How do you choose the right email marketing platform?
Choosing the right email marketing platform is a big decision.
The platform you pick will shape how easily you can talk to your customers. It’s like picking the perfect vehicle to take your business where it needs to go.
Let’s go through the most important things to look for.
Is it easy to use?
First up, you want a platform that’s easy to use. For most business owners, complex tools with steep learning curves will just slow you down.
To choose an easy-to-use platform, you should consider these factors.
- Interface and navigation – Is the dashboard intuitive with options easy to locate? Or does it feel confusing?
- Learning curve – How steep is the ramp-up to master the system? Are educational resources available?
- Email builder – Does the editor use drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG, and templates to simplify design? How easy is it to customize and format emails from scratch?
- Feature discoverability – Can you easily find and understand all capabilities, or do advanced options feel buried?
Platforms like MailerLite and Sendinblue shine here by blending power with simplicity. But sometimes simpler means less advanced features.
Email design and customization
Your platform’s email editor is your toolkit to craft branded, engaging messages. You should assess its creative potential, personalization, and flexibility using these factors.
- Design quality – Are a wide variety of templates available right out of the box? Do they allow ample customization without coding skills? Can you save your own templates for re-use?
- Personalization – Can you tailor content with merge tags, segments, or conditional logic?
- Custom coding – What level of CSS/HTML customization is supported?
- Media options – Are rich media like images, GIFs, video, and social integrated?
- Styling control – How much control do you have over text, colors, fonts, buttons, dividers, and design elements? Does the editor feel limiting or wide open for creative freedom?
- Collaboration – Can multiple users jointly create and review emails?
While a platform like Constant Contact offers ease of use, its templates and personalization lag MailChimp’s more advanced editor.
Automation
Workflow automation is like having your own virtual assistant. It follows up with contacts and triggers campaigns based on their behaviors and interests. It is invaluable for turning insights into targeted engagement.
Here are key considerations:
- Trigger capabilities – What user actions can spark a workflow? Purchases? Form fills? Link clicks? API events?
- Conditional logic – Can you segment conditions with AND/OR and nested logic?
- Actions – What actions can automations perform? Can they add tags, enroll in sequences, update contact data, notify sales?
- Workflows – Can you create multi-path automations with if/then branching?
- Workflow templates – Are pre-made templates available to expedite automation?
Visual workflow builder – Is the interface intuitive or overly technical?
Analytics and Reporting
Driving performance improvements starts with visibility – you can’t optimize what you can’t see. That’s why a platform’s analytics dashboard is so crucial.
Analytics are like your platform’s instrument panel. They display all the key metrics you need to optimize the performance of your email marketing campaigns.
When assessing a platform, you should look out for the following:
- Email metrics – Do you have access to opens, clicks, send/delivery rates, and bounces? Can you filter and compare reports by campaign, segments, and date ranges?
- Behavioral data – Does it track clicks on links, page visits, and on-site behaviors? How granular are the insights?
- Integrations – Can you connect analytics from your CRM, web analytics, and advertising accounts?
- Custom reports – Can you create and save custom reports tailored to your goals vs. pre-set reports only? Does it allow for deep segmentation filtering and comparisons?
- Visualizations – Are reports easy to digest with charts, graphs, and visuals?
Integrations
Like powerful accessories that augment a vehicle’s core capabilities, integrations dramatically expand what your email marketing platform can do.
Integrations seamlessly connect your email platform with other essential business systems across your tech stack. This allows you to execute sophisticated automations and synergize data between tools.
Depending on your needs, you can check integrations like:
- Ecommerce – Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, etc.
- CRMs – Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, etc.
- Webinar software – GoToWebinar, Zoom, etc.
- Marketing automation – Marketo, Eloqua, etc.
- Ad platforms – Facebook, Google, LinkedIn
- CMS platforms – WordPress, Drupal
- Form and survey tools – Typeform, SurveyMonkey
Carefully evaluate which add-ons you need right from the start and which you may want down the road as you grow. For example, ecommerce brands should prioritize shopping cart integrations.
The more pre-built integrations available, the more value an email platform provides over the long haul.
Deliverability
Deliverability is what determines if your emails actually make it to subscribers’ inboxes.
You can have amazing email content, automation, and analytics – but none of it matters if your emails get blocked or banished to spam folders before readers ever see them. That’s why assessing a platform’s deliverability track record is so critical.
Here’s what to look at:
- Historical deliverability rates – What percentages of sent emails make it to the primary inbox historically? How do inbox placement rates compare across major ISPs like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc? Does the provider proactively monitor and optimize deliverability over time? High historical rates signal the provider’s emails reliably hit inboxes. Anything consistently under 90% should be a red flag.
- Inbox placement tools – Are there confirmations, warm-up “ramp” sending, dedicated IPs, and other optimization tools? These features help establish your domain’s reputation and authority with ISPs when starting out – crucial for deliverability.
- Spam testing – Can you pre-test spam scores before sending? Knowing an email is likely to be flagged before you hit send is invaluable. Look for providers that allow this.
- Bounce management – How does it handle bounces and attempt to re-engage inactive subscribers? Does it automatically remove hard bounces after retries to maintain your domain’s reputation? Smart bounce management ensures minor issues don’t hurt your sender score long-term.
- Authentication – Does the platform implement vital protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC? How does it stay ahead of emerging threats and issues? Proper authentication confirms your domain’s integrity and protects brand reputation.
Customer support
Even with the most intuitive tools, you’ll inevitably need support at some point. . Therefore, you should evaluate a platform’s support channels, responsiveness, and resources.
- Channels – What mediums are available – email, phone, chat, self-service? Are channels available 24/7 or only during business hours?
- Response times – How fast do they resolve tickets and respond to inquiries? Are SLAs provided and honored?
- Self-service – Is the knowledge base, community forum, and documentation robust?
- Onboarding – Are onboarding resources and training available?
- Technical expertise – Can they provide guidance about deliverability, automation, and customization?
Scalability
As your business grows, you need a platform that can keep pace with your changing needs. Here are four key factors to consider:
- Audience size – Is the platform built only for small businesses, or can it scale up to large enterprises? For example, a tool designed just for small biz may max out at 10,000 subscribers, while an enterprise solution could handle millions.
- Email volume – Are caps based on contacts, emails sent, or unlimited plans available? For instance, if you foresee sending 100,000 emails per month eventually, ensure your platform can handle that volume cost effectively.
- Advanced features – Does it offer enterprise-level functionality if you expand?
- Pricing model – How does cost scale in alignment with your growth? Your platform should reward growth, not punish it. Make sure bigger plans offer savings.
More tips
Finding your ideal email marketing platform is a big choice. Here are my top six tips to make the selection process stress-free and successful:
Consider your budget
Platforms range wildly on cost depending on features. Be realistic – outline what you can spend long-term based on your business model. Whether you need a forever free version or can invest in capabilities, don’t break the bank. There are affordable options at every level.
Take them for a test drive
Don’t just window shop – take advantage of free trials to experience platforms hands-on. Set up campaigns, dig into reports, and collaborate with your team. Hands-on test drives reveal if a platform feels like the right fit.
Make sure into includes key features
Map out your must-have capabilities – automation, templates, integrations, analytics, etc. Then methodically check that contenders deliver those necessities. Don’t compromise on features essential for your strategy and goals.
Learn from other users
Had experience with a platform? Check third-party reviews and testimonials to hear unfiltered implementation experiences from fellow users. This real-world feedback provides insights the vendors won’t highlight.
Evaluate integration needs
Factor in what systems – CRM, ecommerce platform, sales tools – need to integrate with your email solution. Seamless connectivity ensures you can execute integrated campaigns and leverage insights.
Consider your growth trajectory
Think big picture – choose a platform that can scale with your evolving business needs over the long haul. Don’t limit future capabilities due to short-term constraints.
In conclusion
Selecting the right email marketing platform is a crucial decision for any small business. Ultimately, the right solution should completely align with your business goals while integrating seamlessly into your existing tech stack.
With a thoughtful approach, you can make an informed choice that sets your small business up for success.
Let me know if you need any other tips for picking the perfect platform!
Stay up to date
Get the latest news, resources, and guides on email and lifecycle marketing—straight to your inbox.