With an ROI potential of up to 4,400%, it’s easy to see why email marketing has become such an integral part of the marketing plans of successful businesses.
As the opportunities from email have expanded, however, so too have the number of platforms that focus on email marketing.
But with all of the options out there, how do you know which one your business should use? If you read further, we’re going to help you find out.
As we move forward, we’re going to take a look at the capabilities and features of three of the most popular email marketing platforms available today. They include:
- Campaign Monitor
- SendGrid
- Constant Contact
Let’s dive in.
1. Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is a platform whose strengths lie in beautiful design and email automation.
They’re the go-to option for businesses that are focused on using personalization to develop loyal customers. Some of their main functionalities include:
- Easy-to-Implement Email Marketing Automation. With conversion rates as high as conversion rates as high as 50%, email marketing automation has become integral to the success of many businesses.
- Focus on Personalization. They make it incredibly easy to segment your email list and automatically send personalized emails.
- Drag-and-Drop Email Builder. Their easy-to-use email builder allows you to create beautiful, professional-looking emails optimized for mobile or desktop.
Campaign Monitor recently acquired Tagga, a customer data platform. The acquisition was fueled by the desire to gives customers the ability to further personalize their messages on a 1:1 basis in the future. For example, an online watch retailer could look to see top customer who have searched their site for a Rolex in the last 30 days but didn’t purchase. They could then send them an email with their best-selling Rolex watches with a discount offer to entice them to buy.
If personalization and customer loyalty are your focus, it’s hard to beat what Campaign Monitor has to offer.
2. SendGrid
SendGrid is a platform known for being strong in the areas of deliverability, scalability, and reliability.
Their platform is designed for developers and is the go-to option for many of the largest companies in the world. Some of their most important features include:
- Advanced Analytics. Ability to easily track everything from open and bounce rates to unsubscribes and spam reports.
- Unmatched Scalability. Due to their focus on deliverability, they’re able to effectively handle corporate email sending on a large scale.
- Focus on Transactional Emails. Transactional emails are emails that are triggered by a user’s interaction with a web app. For large companies, being able to efficiently send these emails is crucial to their bottom line.
While SendGrid offers an open API to develop into, the technical nature of many of the features can make the platform difficult to use for a team of non-developers. This platform is perfect for development groups looking to build their own functionality but is limited in the out-of-the-box features such as automation and pre-built templates.
3. Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a platform that provides an affordable email marketing solution for small and medium-sized businesses.
They’re a great option for email marketing newbies and non-tech savvy users as they have one of the largest template libraries in the industry. Some of their other features include:
- Simple Email Creation. With over 400 templates, creating branded emails or newsletters is a breeze.
- Focus on Events. Their event registration tool makes them a great option for businesses that regularly run online webinars.
- 60-Day Trial Period. While their features won’t blow you away, the fact that they offer a 60-day free trial makes it well worth it to give their platform a shot.
Constant Contact has been around since the beginning of the email marketing surge and continue to be a great option for businesses. If you’re a small or medium-sized business that’s looking for an affordable email marketing platform, you can certainly do worse than Constant Contact.
Choosing Your Platform
In today’s email marketing landscape there are a plethora of products to choose from. Pricing models, functionality and sophistication separate many of these platforms. More and more customers want the content delivered to them to be personalized to their interests rather than generic mass emails. Review these platforms to find the one that delivers that capability while still being easy to use and affordable. Now that you have an understanding of the capabilities of these three popular email marketing solutions, you should have a better idea of which platform best fits your needs.
So which platform will you go with?