If you are a web host or a small business that wants to get more sales or reach more potential customers then email marketing is one way to accomplish this. Email marketing is where potential customers or interested users opt in to receive future follow up emails from your business or organization. After users have opted in then they can receive further email communication from your organization.
Email marketing software can be many things but to put it simply: collect email addresses from possible customers -> maintain the email list -> email your possible customers -> make sure uninterested users can opt out of the email list.
These are the top 5 email marketing software today: Aweber, GetResponse, Constant Contact, MailChimp, and SendGrid.
Aweber – Aweber is a popular choice and favorite among many small businesses and bloggers. Aweber has been around for a while and their pricing starts at $19 dollars per month.
For $19 dollars per month you can have up to 500 subscribers. Aweber has plans ranging from up to 500 subscribers all the way up to 25,000 subscribers. If you have more than 25,000 subscribers then you can contact Aweber to get a quote for your email marketing needs.
GetResponse – The starting plan for GetResponse is $15 dollars per month. This starting plan will allow up to 1,000 subscribers in your mailing list. For $49 dollars per month you can have up to 5,000 subscribers, $165 dollars per month you can have up to 10,000 subscribers and starting at $799 per month for over 100,000 subscribers.
The starting plan from GetResponse includes only email marketing while the other “advance” plans include webinar support.
Constant Contact – The unique thing about Constant Contact is they will offer you a free trial for 60 days. No credit card information is required to use this free trial. Another unique thing about Constant Contact is they are owned by EIG (Endurance International Group), EIG is the parent company of web hosts like BlueHost, HostGator, and FatCow to name a few.
The starting plan with Constant Contact is $20 dollars per month and supports up to 500 subscribers. If you choose to prepay for 6 months the price would be $18 dollars per month. If you choose to prepay for 12 months then the price would be $17 dollars per month.
MailChimp – MailChimp offers a “free” plan that will support up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. The catch with the free plan from MailChimp is it doesn’t come with any support. If you need email or chat support from MailChimp you will have to upgrade to the $10 starting plan. The $10 dollar per month supports up to 1,500 subscribers.
SendGrid – SendGrid provides three ways for its customers to send out emails thru SendGrid’s system. You can either use their API, STMP relay, or use their marketing tools. With their marketing tools you can create templates and send your messages but you will have to upload your subscriber list to SendGrid. SendGrid is a email marketing software provider but they are more “technical” than compared to Aweber, MailChimp, GetResponse, and MailChimp.
The starting plan for SendGrid is $9.95 per month. This plan includes support for 40,000 emails per month. SendGrid also offers a free 30 day trial of their service.