Best Email Marketing Software: 4 Platforms Ranked

Email marketing platforms make creating and sending your email campaigns a breeze. With the right platform, you can save time, drive sales, and stay in touch with your customers while you’re at it.

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But how do you know which one to choose? To help you out, I’ve rounded up some of the best email marketing platforms out there and ranked them based on their features, ease of use, pricing, and other factors.

So, let’s take a look at what they do, how they differ, and which platform may be the best fit for you in 2022.

1. Omnisend: The all-in-one solution

Omnisend is one of the most full-featured email marketing platforms on the market.

Unlike other email marketing software, Omnisend’s visual drag-and-drop campaign builder lets you design great-looking emails and is fully HTML-customizable.

This means that you don’t have to be an HTML wizard to use their campaign builder, but if you are, you can create much more advanced marketing campaigns. With that said, simply designing and sending out emails manually will only get you so far, and omnichannel marketing automation is where Omnisend stands out.

Previously, omnichannel marketing was relatively expensive and only used by larger companies with the budget and resources to spare. However, Omnisend’s pre-built, easy-to-use automated workflows dropped the high entry barrier and made automated omnichannel marketing reasonably affordable for most.

In addition to email marketing, Omnisend lets you send SMS campaigns, web push notifications, as well as Facebook and Google Retargeting ads to your customers. On top of all that, Omnisend’s smart segmentation allows you to target them based on their shopping behavior.

But even if all you need is just a simple and easy-to-use email marketing platform to create basic eCommerce campaigns, it’s hard not to recommend Omnisend as the best choice for eCommerce marketers.

What’s more, you’ll be able to introduce more complex capabilities to your marketing campaigns as your business grows. Omnisend’s free plan already includes all the features mentioned here, and the platform’s paid plans start at $16/month (for Standard) or $99 a month (for Pro).

All this is only a glimpse of what Omnisend offers, and the best way to see what it can do for you is to give its free plan a try.

2. Mailchimp: The beginner’s choice

There’s no question that Mailchimp is the most popular kid on the block. After all, the platform has a 70% market share, making it the undisputed industry leader. But being popular does not always mean being the best for everyone.

Ease of use is what Mailchimp does best, and that’s how it managed to capture more than two-thirds of the market. Like Omnisend, Mailchimp allows you to build emails with a drag-and-drop interface and a variety of templates that let you seamlessly create email marketing campaigns in minutes.

Some areas where Mailchimp can struggle to meet your needs are advanced features and automation. For example, even though you can design automated workflows, you can’t see them visually.

It’s also worth noting that Mailchimp does not allow affiliate marketing. While there are some slight caveats, including affiliate links in your marketing emails, can get your Mailchimp account removed. So, depending on your business model, you may want to consider other email marketing platforms.

When it comes to pricing, Mailchimp’s free plan offers limited features. This means that you won’t be able to use advanced automation, A/B testing, or retargeting ads for free. But if all you need is an easy-to-use tool for creating basic email marketing campaigns, Mailchimp definitely has you covered.

3. ActiveCampaign – A powerful email marketing software

ActiveCampaign is a powerful email marketing software that stands out for its ability to create 1:1 experiences that connect across all channels throughout the entire customer lifecycle. Its robust email marketing tools enable businesses to create and send personalized emails, automate campaigns, and track results.

What sets ActiveCampaign apart is its vast library of over 900 pre-built automation, which combines transactional email, email marketing, marketing automation, e-commerce marketing, and CRM. This makes it easy for businesses to provide personalized experiences that span the entire customer journey.

With ActiveCampaign’s powerful automation capabilities, businesses can create sophisticated workflows that respond to customer behavior in real-time. These workflows can include triggered emails, personalized messages, targeted ads, and more, all designed to deliver a seamless customer experience across all channels.

ActiveCampaign’s intuitive interface and detailed reporting make it easy to manage and track your email marketing campaigns, and its machine learning capabilities enable it to automatically adjust its recommendations based on how your audience is responding to your campaigns.

Overall, ActiveCampaign is an excellent choice for businesses looking for powerful email marketing software with advanced marketing automation capabilities and the ability to create 1:1 personalized emails at scale. Its features and integrations make it a versatile tool for businesses of all sizes.

4. Klaviyo: Well-rounded but expensive

Klaviyo is an exceptionally versatile email marketing platform. With that said, if you’re a small business owner on a tight budget, you may want to look for more affordable options.

For experienced marketers, Klaviyo offers an intuitive interface with multiple sophisticated features, including an informative dashboard, automated email workflows, and advanced reporting.

Like others on this list, Klaviyo has a drag-and-drop email builder, but it’s slightly less extensive than what some other email marketing platforms have to offer.

Similar to Omnisend, Klaviyo lets you create complex email marketing campaigns from the ground up. Signup forms, email templates, audience segmentation, and omnichannel marketing automation are all included in Klaviyo’s extensive toolkit.

But all that high-end versatility comes with a hefty price tag, which gets heftier fast as you acquire more subscribers.

If you’re a veteran marketer with a budget to spare, Klaviyo’s heavyweight feature set may be a great option.

5. Constant Contact: Robust but basic

If Mailchimp’s ease of use makes it the beginner’s choice, then Constant Contact might be the best for marketers with the most undemanding of needs.

At a glance, Constant Contact might seem like just another email marketing app that only provides a bare-bones feature set—one that lacks the bells and whistles of advanced email marketing apps. And while it’s true that Constant Contact doesn’t have as many advanced features as its competitors, the essentials are all there.

Other than a 60-day free trial, Constant Contact offers two paid plans: Email (from $18/month) and Email Plus (from $40/month). Both plans include robust email marketing features like product drag-and-drop, automated abandoned cart emails, and store integration. But if you want the full feature set, you’ll have to upgrade to Email Plus, which offers audience segmentation, additional automation, and more.

For marketers who work across additional channels, Constant Contact also has solid social media integrations, allowing you to run ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Google. However, there’s no native support for SMS marketing or web push notifications.

For this reason, Constant Contact might be a good fit for you if you’re planning on sticking with basic email features, as opposed to running sophisticated omnichannel marketing campaigns.

Final thoughts

As you can see, there’s a platform out there for every type of marketer. If you need an email marketing platform that does it all, Omnisend or Klaviyo are strong contenders, with Omnisend edging out Klaviyo in terms of pricing.

Mailchimp and Constant Contact, on the other hand, are both great choices for marketers who are just starting out. Although they might not offer the extensive feature suites of their competitors, their simplicity and ease of use are why so many people love to use them.

Whichever platform you choose, there’s no denying that email marketing is still the king of digital marketing tools. And if you can master email marketing, the sky’s the limit to the success your business can achieve.

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