Growing a business has never been easier, you now have access to a lot of tools that not only make it easy to do mundane tasks but get you results too. Email marketing is one such thing that has benefited tremendously from automation and AI.
You can use these affordable and simple email automation programs to turn your new leads into recurring customers. In today’s day and age, there are a gazillion email automation programs in the market. Most of them have a similar skill set but some features separate the others from the rest.
Read Our Blog: Using Transactional Emails in Your Business.
Which email automation program works best for your business?
There are many options available online to help you grow your list. But, before you choose any tool, ask yourself these questions:
- How big is your current database?
- Are you looking for a solution that works on all devices or just desktop computers?
- What kind of budget do you have?
- Which platform offers more value for money?
- Do you want to send emails automatically with a single click or do you prefer doing things manually?
- Is this something you can integrate with other systems like Salesforce, Hubspot etc.?
- Will you need additional services like webinars or social media automation?
Once you answer these questions, you can move further. Email automation platforms will provide you with everything you need to scale up your email campaigns.
We have done extensive research to bring you the five best email automation platforms available in the market today. Not only do we give you a detailed review of these products but also tell you about the most salient features for each of them.
Here are our top 5 email automation platform picks:
1. Active Campaign
Boasting well over 100,000 users right, Active Campaign is a great tool for small businesses that are looking to get into email automation. They offer SMS and email marketing services along with CRM on their site too.
The Automation Builder is a great tool where you get to see the automations that you are building and how they are implemented. The visual approach makes it easier for people not familiar with this automation software. You can make automations across various channels and see them in real-time.
Active Campaign’s easy and intuitive approach to automation makes it easier for people with no experience to use them too. This is the main reason why we highly recommend it for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
You can even do A/B split tests for the sequences that let you choose between two automation sequences. This means that you can even test the delays and touchpoints thus giving you greater power over your final product.
The built-in CRM system with live chat means that Active Campaign can be your one-stop solution or automation and email marketing in one. Email marketing is still one of the best ways to reach out to people to sell your product.
Active Campaign offers you incredible powerful tools without hurting your pocket. This is the reason why many people use it. It has the perfect cost to quality ratio and offers you more than 125 email templates too. The 500 automation recipes and 800 integrations that come stock ensure that you don’t have to look far for things. The custom reporting and SMS services are also great add-ons.
Price: $15/mo for 500 Subscribers.
2. Benchmark
Best suited for agencies, this tool is like a well-kept secret that not many people know about. But don’t let its obscurity fool you. It is an extremely powerful platform that gives you tonnes of features for not a lot of money.
Their design helps them stand out from the crowd in a way that is both visually attractive and utility-based. Their templates are great for people starting out and the platform also has a great user experience. This is one of the reasons that we highly recommend it.
They make everything in such a way that is laid out logically and pleasing to look at too. Best suited for agencies and small businesses that need to get up and running without much training.
Its visual email builder, marketing automation, and survey and polls make it great for anyone looking for a fast solution. The platform has more than 1,500 integration and also features A/B testing.
You won’t have to train your staff to use the platform as it is very intuitive and ends up saving you time in the long run. The aesthetics of Benchmark are on point and the clients will like them too.
Overall Benchmark is a great platform for people looking for a feature-rich and easy-to-use automation platform.
Price: Free for 250 emails/mo or $15/mo for up to 500 Subscribers, unlimited emails.
3. MailerLite
Founded in 2005 the company has grown exponentially since and is one of the founding fathers when it comes to email automation. With 800,000 companies using the platform for their day-to-day activity it is no wonder that it is one of the most well-received ones in the business right now.
Some of its salient features are the Email campaigns that it offers. You can automate your Lead Magnets to be sent out automatically every time someone requests it. You can create newsletters and email promotions from the vast templates they have. You can even schedule out your RSS feed so that every time you publish a new blog post it gets sent out automatically. The A/B testing available is also a great feature to have.
You can segment your subscriber into various groups so that they receive messages that are relevant to their interest. On top of that, you can also build your landing pages and website on the platform.
Why should you get it?
Its marketing automation is second to none in the business and has a multi-step yet simple onboarding process. MailerLite has 24×7 support for its customers. No matter what your problem is, they will sort it out easily.
Their 60+ templates are very usable and will give you a great starting point to craft your emails. On top of that, the industry-leading platform has great support and its own community that will help you troubleshoot in no time. For the price, you get a multitude of things that work flawlessly with each other.
This is the email program we strongly recommend to 75% of our clients.
Price: Free for 1k subscribers/10k emails or $10/mo for 1k subscribers/unlimited emails/unlimited landing pages & websites.
4. Sendinblue
Best known amongst people with transactional email services they have made a stellar reputation for themselves over the years for email marketing and automation.
An email marketing solution with a strong API then Sendinblue is great for you. The marketing automation it has rivals MailerLite and you can also add SMS and live chat to that. The CRM and landing pages that you can create are great and it also has sign-up forms. Their easy-to-use interface and visually pleasing aesthetic make it a great tool for anyone looking for email automation.
Unlike other service providers, they charge based on the number of emails that you send. So depending on your contact list this could add up quickly. The built-in WordPress plugin is great for people looking for a landing page and it has more than 80,000 installations with 4.5 ratings. The seamless user experience that it provides is second to none and will work great for people looking for a lower-budget tool with sophisticated features.
It is very easy to use and the newsletter creation helps it stand out from the rest. If you have a company that is built on newsletters and promotions then this is the right tool for you. Not only that, the personalization available on Sendinblue is well worth the price alone.
You can offer discounts to VIP customers and have dynamic lists too. The A/B testing offered did not use to be a standard but now is. The template designs offered are great and responsive. All the designs have something to offer and are not boring.
Workflow and List management is a breeze on the platform and you can have many triggered campaigns. The fact that you can send receipts and emails with the order details makes it a great fit for people in eCommerce.
Price: Free for 300 emails/day with limited features or $25/mo for 10k emails no daily limit.
5. Klaviyo
Klaviyo is one of the best email automation platforms geared towards the E-Commerce side of things. It is very popular with Shopify site owners. You pay per feature so you only pay for the features that are relevant to you. This way you don’t have to learn features that you aren’t interested in.
The $0.01 price for SMS and $0.03 for MMS are great for anyone looking to add these services. It has 2-way messaging and A/B testing too. The analytics and ROI tracking makes reporting easier and the auto-responders make sure that you have some leeway when dealing with customers.
The Campaign management and Contact management features work flawlessly and are very intuitive. Its drip campaigns and dynamic content makes it great to look at and the design is very user-friendly. The customizable CTAs offered give you great control over your own marketing.
The built-in Image library and event-triggered actions make it a comprehensive suite for people looking for an all-in-one solution. Its list management is also second to none and mobile-optimized emails make it stand out from the crowd.
You can also make use of the social media integration that helps you interact with your client with automated messages. Plus it also has a website visitor tracking feature so that you don’t have to go on Google Analytics to get those statistics.
Price: Free for 250 Subscribers/500 email limit or $20/mo for 500 subscribers/unlimited emails.
In the end
No matter which one you choose you can’t go wrong with these email automation platforms. But it is in your best interest to get one that aligns with your needs. Although each of them is a versatile option for most users, get one that will help you and your company grow. Make a list of the features you need and your budget to help you narrow down the list.
Each of them excels at different things so get one that closely matches your list. Try out a bunch of them as they have free trials. Email marketing and automation can take your business to the next level so it is best that you spend some time picking the right one.
