In this article you will understand which is the best email marketing solution for small business owners or starter bloggers and what I am using to keep my email list.
Let all who still believes in Email Marketing rejoice for it still lives and is thriving.
No. I am not kidding.
Contrary to what “experts” have said last year and the years before that. Email Marketing is pretty much alive and is turning out to be an excellent weapon for small business owners. Email marketing without a doubt is the most effective tool in online business. Comparing to social media, email is 40 times more effective according McKinsey & Co. survey.
So the question of what is the best email marketing service is best for small business owners still haunts us. Should we go with the known names? Or are there newcomers and formerly unknown providers that are actually better for you?
Well, to help you out. I created a table that includes 2 of the more popular email marketing service providers and 2 up and coming names. I have listed down their free plans and the price for 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers? Why 5,000 and 10,000? Well, because those two numbers are the perfect benchmarks for your growth as a small business.
Let’s go and check the table below
Going for Free
Whenever a business owner approaches me about email marketing, I automatically tell them to sign up for a free account on any email marketing service provider. Why? Well, because they are free!
All business owners, no matter how big or small they are, should think about email marketing. With a free account, you can literally advertise or push products and promotions to your subscribers for free. So you should think about getting a free account as soon as you can.
Basing on the table I prepared above, your best choice for a free account would be MailerLite or MailChimp. Either way is good but I always stop on the choice that gives me unlimited emails.
This is because I would rather have more emails sent as a test than to think about more subscribers. You will be doing a number of tests for your email marketing campaigns so numbers really matter. If you do the math, 12,000 emails to 2000 subscribers means you can only send 6 emails per subscriber a month. This can be a bit small for some business owners.
A small business averages at around 500-1000 subscribers within a year so the numbers won’t really matter that much. If you can send more than 6 emails to those 1000 subscribers, then that would be much better for you and your business.
Room for Growth
It’s all nice and dandy to rely on your free account but at some point you need to grow. That’s why I put the first benchmark is 5000 subscribers. If you are a small business who is slowly growing, reaching 5000 should be the point where you say, “Hey, my business is actually growing so I should ramp up my marketing as well!”.
So if ever you reach 5000 subscribers, who’s the best for you? Of course you can’t just stick with your free subscription. With 5000 subscribers, you must be prepared to pay. The question is, how much?
Based on the table above, the costliest option would be Aweber with $69 a month while MailerLite can service up to 5000 subscribers for just $10 a month. Now, we see that the price difference is so big but does this mean you are getting tricked?
The difference even gets more jarring once you reach the 10,000 subscriber point. Now, 10,000 might be too far off if you are just starting but you will reach this benchmark in no time. Are you willing to pay $69 or $75$ when there’s an option for $20 a month?
Email marketing might sound like a complex and complicated discipline but the goal is pretty simple. Send an email to a list of subscribers as fast and easy as possible. If your emails marketing service provider can do that then you should be good.
MailerLite’s $10 a month price tag might look shady but it’s actually quite competent on the features side. MailerLite has its own drag-and-drop newsletter editor which makes email creation a cinch. Here are some of its other features:
- Built-in photo editor – Having troubles with your images? Edit, resize, or crop your photos using Mailer Lite’s built-in tools. Now, you don’t have to go to another site or open up another application to get the best photos.
- Subscriber Management – MailerLite has a powerful subscriber management feature that allows you to organize all your subscribers. Just load em up and let Mailer Lite take care of keeping them in line.
- Track Newsletter Results – If you are a sucker for data then this is perfect for you. Track every open, click, spam complaints, bounces, and link activity with every email you send.
- A/B Split Testing – Want to try something out but not very sure how it works? Well, why not try to test using Mailer Lite’s A/B Split Testing feature. See which of the tow performs better and send the best one to the rest.
- Webforms for websites – Create elegant yet simple web forms for your website with Mailer Lite’s Webform Builder. Create them any way you want.
- Email Autoresponders – Automate your email campaign with autoresponders. Create welcome messages, holiday and birthday greetings, and other date based messages. Autoresponders are not available in free plan in MailChimp.
- RSS to email – Got a new blog post and want your subscribers to know it? Use Mailer Lite’s RSS to Email feature. Just set it and forget it. It will work by itself.
- Auto Resend – Problems with your open rate? Why not resend the emails to the subscribers who did not open or do anything with your link? All fully automated.
- Free Newsletter templates – Now you don’t have to bother yourself with creating designs for your email newsletters. Mailer Lite has tons of templates you can use for all kinds of campaigns.
- iPad Subscribe App – Find other ways to gain new subscribers. With the iPad subscribe app, you don’t have to tell them to visit your website to enroll their emails. Create new subscribers as they visit your store or as you meet them in trade shows and other events.
At this point you might be telling yourself: “This guy is practically selling MailerLite to me!”
Well, I can’t deny that. You know why? Because I use MailerLite myself.
Now hear me out. I have been working with a number of small businesses over the past few years and I have seen their struggles and triumphs. I understand their needs and MailerLite is the perfect solution for their email marketing needs.
When your business is growing, you think about value for your money. Will $69 per month justify being able to send emails to your subscribers when there is an option to do the same for just $10? For $10 you get the same features, leg room, and features to create the campaigns you want. What’s more to ask for?
If you are the owner of a growing business and you want to try out email marketing, check out MailerLite. It gives a whole lot of value on every dollar you spend.
Leave A Comment