Which email marketing software should you choose?

Email marketing is one of the most popular forms of marketing. Due to its effective ability to reach out to people directly to their inbox, it can be a major game-changer when incorporated effectively into your marketing strategy.

However, the general marketing process can be really strenuous. It's important to have the right emails configured to have maximum impact on your marketing. It can become almost impossible to manage the email marketing process manually, especially if your business can't afford to invest in a full-time email marketer.

Thankfully, there's an array of digital solutions available aimed towards resolving the general stress of the manual process, and providing an effective way forward to ensure that email marketing can be carried out properly. These automation tools can be a great way to reduce the time it takes to manage marketing, and save countless hours of stressful manual functions.

Before we take a deeper dive into the most commonly used email automation software, it's really important to ask an integral question.

Email marketing software is a tool designed to effectively streamline the process of email marketing. They can automate every aspect of the marketing process, from email collection to email distribution, as well as core functions like auto-responses.

There is a wide variety of email automation software available, and each comes with its own advantages. Let's look at some of the put some of the best email marketing platforms head to head and see which is right for your business. Should you choose MailChimp or Hubspot? Infusionsoft of ActiveCampaign? We'll break down the pros and cons.

MailChimp is almost synonymous with email automation. It's one of the most commonly used automation softwares in the world. Thanks to its easy-to-use interface and affordable pricing, the software is the tool of choice for a number of startups and businesses looking for a simple way to maintain email lists and send out automated responses to subscribers with variable posting schedules.

MailChimp is great for startups because it offers a free plan that covers up to 2,000 subscribers and 10,000 emails on a monthly basis. This is a great startup point as it allows businesses to start with their email marketing without having to break the bank.

Mailchimp is the perfect tool to initially get started with email automation. It offers the following benefits.

The template editor and startup plan provide a solid base for beginning email automation, which can be a great combo along with the integrated CRM.

Even though MailChimp offers a great starter package, it comes with several limitations.

The biggest limiting factor to MailChimp is the major lack of automation abilities. The software only supports a rudimentary level of automation in contrast to other software that allows a much higher level of automation.

Also, as your list of subscribers grows, so does the price of the platform. MailChimp's intermediate subscriptions are still quite affordable, starting at $9.99 USD per month for the Essentials subscriptions and $14.99 USD per month for the Standard subscription, but these price points jump up substantially as your subscriber lists grow.

Hubspot is a great solution for companies looking to refine their inbound marketing plans and set-up an effective mechanism to effectively collect leads and interact with them. The software comes with an array of extremely powerful tools that allow a much higher level of automation and customization compared to other options.

One of the highlights Hubspot is the ability to efficiently optimize marketing on the basis of collected data. This allows for constant updates to marketing strategies and email automation.

Hubspot has an array of integrated tools, including a CRM, email automation, chatbots and SEO features. The platform is the perfect one-stop solution for all email automation needs, effectively replacing a number of other single-purpose plugins.

Hubspot allows for seamless integration of marketing and sales, which is a difficult combination to achieve. Here are some of the major advantages of going with Hubspot.

The hallmark of Hubspot is the facility to effectively use the software for companies of different sizes. This allows for the convenient scalability of the resources required as your company grows.

Despite having several unique strengths, there are some weaknesses.

Even though Hubspot is one of the most powerful email automation tools available, it can be really difficult to use. It can also be cost-prohibitive for medium-sized businesses.

Infusionsoft is arguably the best campaign builder in the world. Despite a slightly higher cost, Infusionsoft is the perfect option for small businesses looking to have a well-organized approach with their email marketing efforts.

Infusionsoft is definitely one of the leading automation tools in the market. It's widely agreed to be the most well-designed email automation tool. Here are some of the advantages.

One of the crowning achievements of Infusionsoft is visual design. Based purely on the visual options and templates available, Infusionsoft is extremely addictively to use. This makes it really easy to create new campaigns. The customer support is also excellent.

Despite being a visually stunning product, Infusionsoft is definitely an extremely costly choice to make. The high initial fee can be a major detriment to companies looking for an affordable option. Here are some of the negatives of Infusionsoft.

Even aside from the standard high fee, there are major issues threatening the deliverability of emails from Infusionsoft too. Even though the company claims to have a really high delivery rate, it's important to consider that in some cases, actual results are skewed from the company’s claims.

ActiveCampaign is definitely one of our favorites. It's affordable, it has great service and, most importantly, you can rely on it to deliver your emails.

ActiveCampaign definitely offers one of the best returns for the investment. Here are just a few of the key advantages of ActiveCampaign.

ActiveCampaign offers some of the best delivery rates. The customer service is also extremely vigilant, always there to assist with any questions you might have.

We honestly can't pinpoint any major flaws with ActiveCampaign. It's a high quality platform that offers good value for money.

Every email automation tool has its own pros and cons; however, it's important to find the right tool for your business.

But the right tool will only take you so far. You need to put together an email your customers will want to open. Once they open it, you need to provide them a call to action they can't resist clicking on.

For that, you might want to enlist the aid of some experts. A talented graphic designer can help you put together eye-catching email templates, and a skilled copywriter can craft messages that'll bring customers through to your website. Put together the right content and the right tools, and email can be your most cost-effective marketing channel.