9 Reasons Your Emails Get Rejected

It’s email dating 101: there’s nothing worse than waking up, checking your email, and find that annoying email from last night – trying to get back into your inbox for a second round.

As with dating, a lot can go right in an email. The person you’re currently sharing your message with might just be the perfect customer for your brand. Your email might appeal to their needs and build a lifelong relationship. Or your recipient may discover that while you two have no chemistry, your product would be a perfect match for one of their friends.

But (also like dating) a lot can go wrong. If you’re striking out in your email campaigns, you’ve got to tweak your pitch. Here are nine reasons that marketing emails get rejected – any of these sound familiar?

1. Your subject lines made a bad first impression.

Your recipient’s experience with your email starts before it’s ever opened – with the subject line. A lot is riding on these 50 characters or less. Some classic subject line “don’ts” include boring copy, ALL CAPS, excessive exclamation points, and – of course – deceiving messages. The subject line “Warning” or “Re:” might earn you opens, but it won’t earn you customers.

What to do:  A/B test all your subject lines. Make sure they reflect your email’s intent.

2. You bored them to death.

Are your emails dry, long, and/or monotonous? Imagine that the recipient is looking for her shoes, her dog is barking to be let out, and she’s late for a meeting. She does not have a year to spend on decoding and analyzing your jargon. This is your chance. Don’t waste it.

What to do: Don’t be afraid of a little “edge,” a human touch, or even a fun, unusual inclusion. And don’t write a novel – the faster you get to your CTA (when you ask for a second date), the better.

3. You forgot to test your display.

You wouldn’t show up to a date in a stained shirt, or with toilet paper stuck to your shoe – which is why you check out your appearance before you arrive. Email is similar. Don’t show up in your buyer’s inbox without testing your display.

What to do: Before you send out an email, test it on all email clients – and don’t forget mobile.

4. You advertised a bigger, better, or cheaper version of yourself.

Don’t exaggerate your height in your online dating profile, and don’t make false promises in your emails. Are you a car dealership? Splendid – I’m in the market for a car! But don’t claim your deals are “once in a lifetime” if you’ll be holding the exact same sale next weekend.

What to do: You’re looking for a long-term relationship, not a one night stand. There’s no need to advertise your challenges, but if you highlight qualities you don’t really have, your customer will eventually find out.

5. You forgot his/her name.

During my worst date in college, the girl admitted she’d forgotten my name. She explained that she’d gone on a lot of dates recently, but the damage was done. Guys and girls, you need to personalize your emails – at the very least, don’t use the wrong name.

What to do: When you email your database, use first names if you’ve got them.  This is easy if your marketing automation allows you to use “tokens” in your emails.

6. You brought up money too soon.

Email is not the place to ask for a sale – it’s like asking your date to buy your dinner while you’re still eating appetizers. Many people read emails while they’re rushed, busy, or waiting in line for coffee, which is why an email is a great place to build relationships with your customers or to educate them on your product or deals. Don’t address your greed – address their needs.

What to do: Don’t mention pricing in your email. Mentioning a free trial or referral program is fine, but don’t overdo it.

7. You overshared. Again.

Your audience doesn’t need emails about how you’re remodeling your building, or how your company recently celebrated its fourteenth month in business. Save these kind of updates for your blog or social…or for a phone call with your mom.

What to do: Keep your emails about the reader. They should be interesting and entertaining to people who aren’t already 100% invested in your brand.

8. You came off as insecure.

Making fun of the competition just makes you look insecure. And if you’re saying this to customers of your competitor, it’s even worse – they hear, “Everything you own is terrible, and ours is better.”

What to do: Take the high road. If you are truly better than your competitors, the proof will be in the results.

 9. You didn’t listen.

Email marketing is about conversations. Don’t send multiple emails on a topic your audience isn't interested in; don’t send the same email twice; and – if you have the technology – don’t offer them content they’ve already viewed on your website or on social.

What To Do: Use marketing automation to listen and respond to your audience’s preferences and behaviors. Set up a subscription center. Run a survey. Listen.

Ok, supernova: you are now prepped and ready to make it past the spam filters, past your audience’s apprehensions, and into their hearts. Still wondering why your emails are getting rejected? Drop me a line in the comments below. 

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Social Media Automation: What Makes Marketers Cringe & the Surprising Truth

If social media automation scares you, think about how email marketing has evolved. Today, most companies see email as the ultimate one-on-one marketing channel irrespective of the industry to which they belong. Yet, how many email marketers send individual emails? At most, companies send individualized emails managed by automation software. In fact, supermarket chain Safeway enjoys a 224% greater CTR than industry average on its emails by using automation; automation to collect customer behavior data and use it effectively.

The future is automation; embrace it.

Even so, there are many marketers who accept email automation but cringe at the thought of social media automation. Do you believe that –

• Automation defeats the purpose of social media?
• Social media automation isn’t as mature as email automation?
• You lose control with social media automation?
• Fans despise automated content?
• Automation destroys the human element?

Well, you’re not alone in harboring these fears, but they’re not necessarily based on fact. Below are reasons why these beliefs are limiting more than preventive and tips to automate your social media marketing the right way. Skip to the bottom of the post to see how you can get hours of your life back using DrumUp for social media management.

Social media automation: Mistake or marvel?

I concede. Nothing can replace the exchange of personal dialogues between you and your customer. But to impact more people, you need to scale one-on-one interaction. Can you manually scale personal conversations? Not likely. You might get to 10 or even 50 people a day, depending on how much time you can dedicate to the exercise. Social media automation, however, can effectively solve this problem.

Let’s revisit common fears about social media automation and address them with examples.

1. Does automation defeat the purpose of social media?

Automation doesn’t defeat the purpose of social media, but the messages you automate could. For instance, even if you use a social media listening tool to sort through noise and identify pertinent conversations in which to participate, how you participate matters. If your reply is a “standard template” with small tweaks, the recipient will sense the lack of effort.

On the other hand, if you understand the situation, acknowledge your subject’s pain/concern and truly try to help, he/she will sense your care. Humor is a bonus; an excellent ice-breaker and tool for endearment.

Automation is merely a means to scale business-customer interactions; it is has nothing to do with the message you broadcast.

2. Social media automation isn’t as mature as email automation

While email marketing software have had a head-start at advancement, social media automation software aren’t far behind. There exist a myriad of intelligent social media solutions in the market. At DrumUp, one of the first solutions we built – the content curation module – was fit with a NLP (Natural Language Processing) algorithm to scan thousands of websites and filter content that is exactly right for your brand to use.

However, the software you choose doesn’t have to be intelligent to bear benefits for your social media marketing. It’s useful to consider automation extra support; extra pairs of hands that can manage work that doesn’t need your personal attention.

3. Does automation take away absolute control?

Why do marketers crave control? They need absolute control to prevent untoward disasters. Messages broadcast by marketers represent brands on public platforms, thus demanding extra care and vigilance. Automation requires relinquishing some amount of control, and this requirement makes many marketers uneasy.

Fortunately, like AI’s popular control mechanism – the kill-switch, social media automation software have built-in control mechanisms that help marketers retain complete command over marketing. Settings, filters, delete buttons, review mechanisms and easy access to each of the listed features via apps across devices makes it easier for marketers to place trust in automation software. Many automation software companies also maintain open communication with their users to ensure that their specific needs and met, and concerns are addressed.

4. Do customers despise automated content?

Not necessarily. What customers despise is impersonal content that suggests an apathy towards them. Customers are unlikely to care about automation if the messages are relevant to them and their needs. In fact, automation can help you create and deliver messages that are more relevant to your target groups.

Relevance in the previous paragraph refers not only to the content of your messages, but also their frequency, delivery time, tone, design and ease of navigation. It pays to focus on the details, because they can amount to the success of your social media marketing efforts.

5. Does automation destroy the human element?

This post below could have been scheduled. I know it’s not human, but… :)

With the assistance of automation, you can scale the human element by increasing the relevance of the content you share, targeting specific people and delivering your messages on time and consistently.

The only time that automation ever kills the human element is when the marketer in charge of it slips up and makes an error. Some errors include spamming customers, sharing irrelevant and pointless content and making contact at inconvenient times during the day. By automating the delivery of the “right messages”, you could make a real impact in your target market.

For more, you could read The #1 Mistake You are Making on Social Media (and How to Stop It).

Now that we have cleared the air about what automation isn’t, let’s discuss what automation can bring into your life.

Social media automation: Uses and benefits

Sure, automation doesn’t hinder marketing, but why choose to use it? If used correctly, automation can transform your social media presence and help you achieve business goals. In fact, if you choose to ignore social media automation, you might miss out on a considerable amount of traction.

1. Save time to spend on more pressing issues

The most obvious benefit of social media automation is that marketers can stop “fighting fires” and focus on actions that move the business needle. Although publishing, liking and monitoring social media posts are important tasks, they don’t represent the big picture of social media marketing well.

With social media automation, you can not only schedule posts in advance http://drumup.io/schedule-posts-add-blog-feed-social-media-tool and maximize promotion returns, but also easily identify which conversations actually justify your attention and find PR and partnership opportunities that you may never find otherwise. For instance, by setting up “marketing event” as a keyword, you can identify the right events to attend to meet customers of marketing products.

2. Stay active when customers are without losing sleep

Publish your content at the wrong time and your customers may never even see it. If your company is competing in the global market, your social media page has got to be active through the day; a feat that can seem hectic for anyone to accomplish manually. With automation, you can identify “windows of activity” and ensure that there are posts getting published during them.

Once you have discovered your windows of activity, using a tool like DrumUp, you can ensure that there’s something going out during those windows, without having to manually schedule posts.

3. Attract fans and future customers effortlessly

Imagine building your following brick by brick; you would have to find opportunities or exposure manually, one step at a time. Instead, what if you used an algorithm to hunt for opportunities and for content to share within it? By automating both, you would save so much time. Every marketer knows the time and effort it takes to create great content.

On DrumUp, you can set-up three types of content sources, within minutes. First, add RSS feeds to your blog and the blogs you follow for news and content ideas. Next, set-up important industry keywords for content suggestions. Finally, bulk-upload your best-performing social media posts into content libraries (you can also do this individually per post). Once all of this is done, these three types of content streams can serve as content repositories for you to custom schedule or “1-click schedule” to share on your social media pages.

4. Make a lasting impression on fans

People pay attention when you do something incredible; respond quicker than expected or join conversations where your brand is relevant. To do this, you need to have ears sharper than your own, eyes that can search through large numbers of social media posts real-time. What you set-up as watch keywords matter, because they decide the types of conversations that you set yourself up to join. Don’t limit yourself to the obvious possibilities. Bear in mind that social media can be used for anything from branding to sales, PR and customer support.

When you do find conversations to participate in, use a personal tone and humor if possible, to leave a lasting impression on fans.

Now that we have discussed the benefits of social media automation, let’s conclude with the important pointers to bear in mind when implementing your strategy.

How to social media automation right

Among the factors that result in social media success are your discretion of what to automate, how much to automate and what the content of the messages should be.

1. Don’t spam your audience. Choose the best frequency of posting for each social media platform. For instance, on Facebook posting five times a day may be seen as a heinous crime, but on Twitter, publishing five posts a day is a necessity.

2. Choose what to automate. While you can set evergreen posts on repeat publishing schedules, it’s probably not a good idea to set time-sensitive posts like a review of the latest elections or changes in algorithms of social media platforms on a repeat posting schedule.

3. Be smart about delivery times. Based on who your target audience is, assess when they might be active on social media, and ensure that there always are posts going out at those times.

4. Customize your content. Don’t use standard “template” messages that your audience might find “bleh” or annoying. Show that you are making an effort.

5. Maximize your efficiency. Choose a social media management tool that can maximize your reach and engagement, by allowing you to store and sort content, and set it on extensive and specific publishing schedules, across your social accounts, easily.

Wrap

There’s no reason to shy away from social media automation because it simply means to expand your current capacity. It doesn’t take anything away from your content, and in fact, can help you craft more personalized and relevant marketing messages. Now that you know this, it’s over to you to make the most of social media marketing with the support of social media automation software.

Feature image via Pexels.com

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16 Email Marketing Tools You’ll Want for 2018

As the New Year rolls around, it's a good time to start incorporating new email marketing tools into your routine. But, who has time to try and test a bunch of marketing tools? Not to worry. Pinpointe has you covered.
We've created a list of 16 email marketing tools that we've vetted and believe are essential to your email campaign success this year. The tools are designed to save you time, help you create stronger emails, grow your list and give your response rates the boost they need in the New Year.

Images

Tool #1: Pixabay

Free image library

Every email needs a quality image (or two) to draw subscribers in, but they're often hard to find and expensive. Unless you've started creating your own image library by taking pictures of your employees and clients, you're probably turning to stock photo sites. And stock photo sites are pricey. Not to mention the images are sometimes cheesy, to put it politely.
Pixabay is a great solution. It's a FREE photo library that looks and acts just like the pricey stock photo sites. You can search the database and get dozens of great options with every search. You should add the photographer's name to your post, but other than that, the images are yours to use.

Tool #2: IM FREE

Free image library

IM FREE is another photo website you can lean on. The photos in this collection are professionally done and provide quality images for business concepts that are harder to visualize, like education or technology.
The database is searchable, but it's easiest to search via categories like Nature, Transportation or Lifestyle.
This photo library doesn't have the wealth of images that Pixaby does, but it's always growing. It's a good one to bookmark and keep an eye on, especially if you're looking for a more obscure photo.

Tool #3: Pinpointe's image library

Free image library

Pinpointe customers don't have to get photos from a third-party site, they can access an image library from their account.
As you're creating an email, all you have to do is click on the Image Library and you'll have hundreds of pictures to choose from. Forget searching, downloading, resizing and importing a photo. Simply pick the images you want and drop them into your email template. Done.

Tool #4: Rszr

Image resizer

How many times do you need to resize an image? Too many to count, right? Whether you're adding an image to your email or changing out the cover art on your Facebook page, marketers need an easy-to-use photo-resizing tool. You could use well-known, feature-heavy software like Photoshop, but if you just want a basic resizing tool, try Rszr.
Not only can you resize and save an image in a few clicks, but you can also do some basic editing like cropping or erasing part of a photo. It's the perfect tool for on-the-go marketers.

Tool #5: JPEGMini

Image compression

As you're creating an email campaign, file size might not be a top priority, but it should be. Image files are notoriously large and they can slow download times. If you're sending an email with a large JPEG, it could take additional time to load on a subscriber's phone or laptop. It's a pet peeve for subscriber's who want to view emails quickly.
Before you add an image to your email, or to any digital platform, use JPEGMini first. You simply upload the picture and it compresses the file for you. No quality is lost. The picture looks the same; the file size is just smaller.

Tool #6: Awesome Screenshot

Editable screen-grab tool

Need a screenshot? Whether you're showing customers how to do something online or want a snapshot of your own website for marketing purposes, use Awesome Screenshot.
This tool lets you capture the entire page, including the content that's "below the fold." In other words, if you need a snapshot of a website that you have to scroll through, this tool can do it. It captures it all. And, you can even edit the image afterward.
You can access the tool through its website or you can download it as a Google Chrome extension, so it's always on your toolbar.

Email brainstorming

Tool #7: Answer The Public

Brainstorming tool

Do you ever run out of ideas for email campaigns? It happens to everyone. You can only send so many coupons, right? When you're stumped for ideas, turn to Answer the Public. This website can help you brainstorm ideas.
Simply enter a keyword into the search bar and Answer the Public shows you what kind of questions people have surrounding your topic.
For instance, if an animal shelter is looking for ideas for their next email campaign, they can enter the words, "adopt a dog" into the search bar. Answer the Public provides a visual wheel of questions that people typically look up when they're planning to get a new four-legged friend.
Here's the "wheel of questions" that Answer the Public provides pertaining to the keywords.

You can use these questions to inspire email content. For instance, one of the questions is, "Why does it take so long to adopt a dog?" Create a blog post that answers this very question and send it to a segment of your list that's shown interest in pet adoption.

Email design

Tool #8: Canva

Graphic designer

To spice up your email, add a graphic. Don't have graphics skills? Don't worry. Use Canva. This online platform makes it simple for anyone – even those with zero graphics knowledge – to create stunning graphics.
Create a cool graphic for an event, upcoming contest or holiday sale. The options are endless. Here's a quick graphic created for an event using Canva: 

Yes, creating a graphic takes a little more time than just typing up a quick message, but visuals have the ability to draw a subscriber in and help them digest information faster.
Research from 3M shows people process images 60,000 times faster than text, which is why taking a few extra minutes to create a visual is a worthy investment.

Tool #9: Bomb Bomb

Video email

Adding video to your email can add a personal touch. Bomb Bomb is a tool you can use to record a quick video for your customers and engage them in a way that text can't.
This tool is especially helpful for sales teams who work best face-to-face. Create a video to check in on your existing clients, or record a special welcome message for new clients. Remind clients about an upcoming appointment with a quick video or remind them about an approaching deadline.
Bomb Bomb makes it simple to record a video from your laptop and insert it into an email. Once subscribers open your email, the video starts moving instantly, which encourages customers to open it. 
Give it a try, and see how you can incorporate video into your email marketing strategy.

Spam detection

Tool #10: Mail Tester

Spam scoring tool

Even the most reputable companies can send an email that gets trapped in a spam folder.
Without knowing it, you may have made choices in your design or text that spam filters don't like. Adding too many images, using spam words or accidentally including broken links in your email can keep your email from inboxes.
Before you send your email, put it through a spam checker to make sure your email is delivered. You can send a copy of your email to Mail Tester and you'll get a spam report. The report shows you what to fix to pass through spam filters. It's a simple step that ensures your subscribers will see your email.
 

Tool #11: Pinpointe's spam checker

Spam scanning and scoring

Pinpointe users can run a spam test right from their account. Just create your email and run a test with just one click. You'll get a spam score and a report that shows you how to improve it. It might suggest eliminating spam words or changing your subject line from ALL CAPS to lower case. Once you make the suggested changes, run the test again to make sure spam filters won't flag it.
Having the spam checker accessible while you create an email is a big time saver. You don't have to leave the site to know if your email is "spammy."

Email automation

Tool #12: Pinpointe's triggered emails

Automate emails

If you're still sending emails manually, it's time to move into the modern area of email marketing and use automation.
With Pinpointe, you can pre-make emails and trigger them to send automatically based on a specific time or behavior. For instance, if a subscriber RSVPs for an event, that action can trigger a confirmation email that thanks him or her for signing up and reiterates all of the important information.
You can also schedule emails to arrive in a subscriber's inbox on a specific date.

Analytics

Tool #13: Google Analytics

Next-level metrics

As you create and send emails, you have to gauge your success by checking your analytics. Most email service providers give you access to data like, open, click-through and conversion rates.
That's a great start, but if you're ready to use grown-up metrics, turn to Google Analytics. With Google Analytics you get next-level data that gets down to the granular level.
If you're using a reputable email service provider like Pinpointe, you can link your campaigns right to Google Analytics for a streamlined switch.
Accessing in-depth data helps you make changes to your email campaigns that can dramatically improve your response rates.

Tool #14: Google URL Builder

Link builder for Google Analytics

When you add links to your emails, create the URL in Google's URL Builder. By doing so, you can help Google Analytics track the success of specific campaigns.
You'll be able to see which email drove the most traffic to your website, or how many subscribers signed up for your newsletter after receiving a special offer.
Basically, you get more detailed data by building individual links for each campaign.

List growth

Tool #15: Woobox

Contest tool

Hosting a contest is one of the easiest ways to collect new email addresses. However, hosting a contest can be time-consuming if you don't have the right tools.
To help manage the contest and the contacts that come in, try Woobox. You can create giveaways, photo submission contests, fun quizzes – you name it. 
You can also use Woobox to create a customized Facebook tab that features products, encourages fans to shop or direct them to your newsletter sign up form.

Tool #16: Hello Bar

Sign up banner

Sit back, relax, and collect email addresses from your website with a Hello Bar. The Hello Bar is a small bar that sits at the top of your website and encourages visitors to sign up for your email list.
It's a great alternative to a pop-up ad, which can sometimes turn visitors off. The Hello Bar isn't annoying or disruptive, it just sits at the top of your site. It's usually a bold color to draw visitors to it. The purple bar below is an example of a Hello Bar.

There you have it. With these 16 tools,  you'll get your year off to a great start.



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Email List Segmentation: How Much is Too Much? Not Enough?

 You probably know by now that segmentation improves email marketing performance significantly, so if you’re still operating primarily in “batch and blast” mode it’s time to start slicing and dicing your subscriber file.

Marketers who practice list segmentation see better open and click-through rates, fewer unsubscribes and better deliverability. The reasons are obvious: segmentation creates discreet audiences we can laser-target with offers, creative, and information crafted specifically for them, at just the right time. This in turn improves relevancy and response, while decreasing complaints or blocking. Who among us doesn’t want to see more of this kind of email in our inbox: messages that speak to us as if we’re the center of attention, and show up at the perfect moment (or not at all?)

Too Little?
Let me begin by addressing the easy part of the question: how much email list segmentation is not enough?

Zero segmentation for one – so get on with it already! I’d also suggest if you’re not segmenting by at least these key attributes, you’re leaving opportunity on the table:

Customer Life Cycle Stage (new, existing, loyal, inactive) – new customers have different needs – and response propensity – than existing or inactive customers, so recognize these distinct stages with message appropriate to each

Geography – Simple geographic segmentation is necessary and relevant to national and certainly global companies. Accounting for seasonal, weather, cultural and current events differences reflect an understanding of where your customers live and how geography affects their habits, lifestyle and needs. It also allows you to hyper-target distinct populations with super-relevant messaging when a specific event – like a natural disaster, sporting or political event – takes place.

Product/Brand Interests – You’re likely not selling one product at one price point, so recognize your customers by product type, brand interests, or your different lines of business.

Purchase History – Not all buyers spend alike, which is why analyzing them by the tried-and-true RFM (recency, frequency, and monetary amount of purchase) formula can yield insights as to who your most valuable customers are, who needs nurturing, and who deserves your most lucrative offers.

Of course there are infinite additional ways to segment (age, gender, education level, content preferences, lead scores, sales funnel stage, customer personae and more), many of which depend on your business type and marketing goals. Still, if you’re newer to segmentation starting with the four types above will at least get you moving in the right direction.

Too Much?
With segmentation so powerful, 1:1, dynamically customized email is on the rise and easier than ever to implement in most ESP and marketing automation platforms. Sophisticated marketers have embraced email automation to the point where so many of their campaigns are sent based solely on individual behavior or conditions, that they’re facing a new challenge: how much segmentation is too much?

I’m all for email marketing automation – in fact automated campaigns produce somewhere along the lines of 5x the revenue and ROI of broadcast email – so much so that these highly-targeted “triggered” emails (like cart abandonment, welcome and onboarding campaigns, up-sell offers, etc.) should be part of most if not all programs. The downside? You’re often sending to an audience of one or very few people, which can leave most of your email subscriber base untouched if you haven’t built a diverse and multi-layered messaging mix.

Consider that you might be over-segmenting if:

• You have no broadcast email campaign in your program such as a newsletter, monthly bulletin, weekly special, featured news item, monthly webinar or content, etc. Yes, broadcast campaigns have their place in your overall mix: they provide continuity, credibility and a predictably recurring touch-point for your entire list. You want this because not every subscriber will be equally engaged nor engaged to the point of qualifying for automated email.

• You’re not conducting segmentation or engagement analysis to mine for high-value customer segments and buyer correlations. Which subscribers open and click on your email the most? Who are your frequent buyers? Have you searched for correlations between product purchases and/or content interests across categories?Mine your data for the propensity and interest of customers who purchase one thing to also need a related product or service. Do women who buy a dress almost always return to purchase an accessory like jewelry or a handbag to go with it? Do guests in your resort hotel usually need to book local excursions and activities – or ground transportation to and from the airport? Do first-time diners come back within the next 30 days to eat in your restaurant again – or recommend it to friends? Searching for behavioral correlations like these can yield opportunities not only for automated 1:1 cross-sell, up-sell and follow-on offers, but also for campaigns segmented to a group of like customers based on purchase history.

• All of your email campaigns are automated based on individual behavior. Yes, you want as many 1:1 automated campaigns as possible relevant to your business, but these are by far not the only email campaigns you should be sending.

• You’re seeing declining open and click-through rates across your list. Again, likely an indication that you’re not engaging often enough with large swaths of subscribers to keep them interested.

Optimize Targeting with a Diverse Messaging Strategy

Optimal segmentation is both art and science and is achieved by creating a multi-layered email campaign strategy that ranges from broad to specific and includes a mix of general, promotional, categorical, segment-specific, and individually-triggered messages. True, the most sophisticated (and successful) email programs can become complex due to the risk of high frequency and/or overlapping campaigns for certain subscribers, which is where suppression and campaign prioritization rules can help. But once we accept that balance – neither too general nor too specific a level of segmentation – is key, and that subscriber engagement is our priority, we’re fully harnessing the power of email.

Check out our Email Marketing courses to learn more about how you optimize your targeting and strategy.

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24 Days of Christmas – Email Campaign Idea

With the festive season imminently creeping up on us you should have all your Christmas marketing collateral planned. If not we have a handy, and fairly easy, idea that can be created quickly using Maxautomation.

Something that has become quite popular over the years is online advent calendars. These can be used by many industries including retail – offering discounts and gift ideas or others businesses simply offering resources and tips.

Here’s our quick guide to setting up a ‘24 Days of Christmas’ automated email marketing campaign within Maxautomation:

The overall workflow will be made up of emails and delays with a few decisions thrown in there but to begin with we’ll start with a list of subscribers who have signed up to your ‘24 Days’. You should aim to send these subscribers an email welcoming them and thanking them for signing up – this way they are reminded of what they can expect to receive from you over the coming weeks.

The next item to add to the workflow would be a delay. As this is a Christmas advent calendar the first email should be sent on 1st December so, adding a delay until this date will ensure the email is sent on that specific date and at a time of your choice.

This can then be followed by a ‘Day 1’ email and offer. The delays and emails can then be repeated for your whole advent calendar workflow.

Some examples of offers you could be sending within your emails include:

Free delivery

2 for 1 offers

Discount deals

Free gift with purchase of another item

3 for 2 offers

They can also include:

Free resources (download of guides, images, webinar etc.)

Links to useful content

Featured content

Tips and hints

As with many things in life, they are great to begin with but the novelty soon wears off and people become disengaged. A good way to ensure your subscribers are still interested is to add a decision into the workflow after a certain amount of days.

We added ours in after 7 days and asked if the previous email had been opened. If ‘yes’ the user would continue to receive ‘Day 8’ email, if ‘no’ the user would be sent another email asking if they are finding the calendar useful and still wish to receive emails going forward. If they were to click they would then receive the ‘Day 8’ email and continue to receive daily offers. If there was no response they would be added to the ‘end’ of the workflow and would no longer receive emails of this nature going forward.

The workflow can then continue again right the way up until Christmas.

As this is an advent calendar, you should promote that users sign up before the 1st of December. This helps to increase engagement by creating a sense of urgency to sign up. On the first day of the calendar, I would suggest switching the form to sign subscribers up for a new workflow that offers a range of resources not in an advent calendar style.

So there you go, a simple 24 Days of Christmas automated email marketing campaign set up in no time at all! Why not have a go for yourself by signing up for a free trial account of Maxautomation!

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3 Changes To Your Email Marketing For Success

 So you have email marketing set up for your business, but it’s not doing as well as you would like. What changes can be made to encourage better results? Take a look at our suggestions to help destine your email marketing for success.

Whether your email marketing has been running for months or years, it’s vital to take a step back every now and then to look at your process to ensure you it’s maximising its full potential. If you have found yourself in this position and looking for ways to improve your email marketing, take a look at our 3 top changes we suggest.

Automate your Emails with Automation

Automation is a crucial tool for email marketers. Without it, you will be trailing behind your competitors who are using it. Not only does automation save time and money, it also helps you to improve your overall relationship with customers. So how can automation help change your email marketing?

Targeted Email Programmes
Welcome, nurture, loyalty and milestone are just a few of the countless email programmes you can create based on the behaviour of subscribers – engaged or not engaged with an email. Using automation saves time having to create and send multiple daily emails as once it’s set up it does all the work for you!

Save Time
Having automated workflows/programmes allows you to send multiple campaigns 24/7, which is a massive time saver. Once a workflow is set up and running, emails can be sent throughout the day leaving you time to carry out other important tasks.

Planned Campaigns
Visualising and creating workflows/programmes in front of you will encourage you to plan more meticulously. Having a workflow and all its stages will open your eyes to more opportunities and will benefit your overall marketing strategy.

Personalised Emails
Automated emails and personalisation go hand in hand. Combined they allow you to tailor your emails and send unique content to individuals, creating a more personal and relatable customer experience.

Relevant Emails for Recipients
Automation allows you to tailor and send email campaigns more efficiently. Sending relevant content to suitable recipients will encourage more clicks and in return create more conversions.

Clean your Lists

Keeping your lists clean is standard practice for email marketers. It can sometimes get neglected but your subscribers are one of the most important components of email marketing so here are a few tips to help you maintain a clean list of data.

Double Opt-In Subscription
A double opt-in process provides extra peace of mind and an archived record that individuals have signed up to receive your marketing campaigns. It’s also great for highlighting any errors to the users’ details allowing them to edit and rectify if necessary.

Provide a Preference Center
Having a preference center allows your subscribers to update their details if any changes take place, this, in turn, helps to keep your list up to date and clean.

GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be coming into legal force in May 2018 so it should be of high priority on your list. It will affect the way you collect your email marketing data in quite a big way. It’s good to get to grips with all the changes, regulations and how to ensure you are up to date with your data collection now.
Find out more about GDPR here.

Let People Unsubscribe If They Want To
As part of the CAN-SPAM Act, every email you send must include a clear unsubscribe link and you must then honour these opt-out requests promptly. It may seem like a step backward to make it easy for users to unsubscribe but it is actually very beneficial for keeping your data lists clean. When sending campaigns you are aiming to target engaged users so it’s good practice to get rid of the uninterested recipients.

Take a more in-depth look into your list housekeeping here.

Measure, Analyse and Improve

Analytics are there for a reason, they allow you to track and evaluate the results of your campaigns – whether they are good or bad. Making time to take note of the number of opens, clicks, bounces and unsubscribes can give you an insight into what is working well and what isn’t – which is crucial for any email strategy.

Once you have the stats in front of you – don’t just ignore them. Findings should be addressed and adjustments to your future strategies should be made. These changes should then be monitored to ensure they are helping to improve your campaigns and not sending them backward!



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Don’t Do It! Most Common Email Marketing Mistakes

 Email marketing is one of the simplest forms of marketing, however, even with its simplicity there are a lot of common mistakes that Marketers can make. We’ve put together some of the most common email mistakes and tips on how to avoid them.

Mistakes in Subject/Preview Lines

Subject and preview lines are one of the most important components of an email however this is where mistakes are often made. Marketers tend to focus a lot on the actual content of the email and, more than often when testing or reviewing, the subject and preview lines are overlooked.

The best way to avoid this is to send test versions of your emails to a group of people within your office – this way the chance of mistakes slipping through the net is much more unlikely.

Email not Optimised for Mobile

In this day and age not having your emails optimised for mobile is a cardinal sin and there is no excuse for it. Up to 75% of emails are opened on mobiles or tablets so it’s crucial that you make them compatible for mobile viewing.

Your email builder should offer the option to create mobile-optimised templates at the least or in other builders such as Maxemail, the builder will automatically create a mobile version which can then be edited.

When testing your email always ensure you check it on mobile variants too!

Using A ‘No Reply’ Email Address

A big part of email is being connected and able to communicate – having a ‘no reply’ email address signifies the complete opposite. Recipients like to know there is someone ready and available to talk to if needed but being faced with an email they can’t reply to can lead to missed engagement opportunities.

To combat this you can use an email such as ‘contact@’ to encourage correspondance and include details of how recipients can get in contact with you if required. This promotes a much more friendly and helpful customer service.

Non-Personalised Content

Every recipient is different and has varied interests. Often Marketers send bulk blast emails to their whole list of contacts without regard to what individuals are actually interested in. Not only does this cause low engagement/click through rates it increases the amount of unsubscribes and spam marking as recipients are effectively being spammed with information they are uninterested in.

To keep your customers engaged and subscribed to your emails, personalise your emails to suit individuals. Use a mixture of segmentation, dynamic content and automation to tailor your emails to be relevant for recipients.

Find out some more tips on personalisation.

Not Using Automation

Automation is the hottest trend within the email marketing industry at the moment, so not using it would be one of the biggest mistakes you could make! Marketers can spend hours trying to create perfect workflows for customers’ and their journeys, but with automation, this time can be significantly reduced. Multiple programmes and workflows can be set up within minutes with ease and emails are so much more targeted for recipients – which ultimately improves the experience for recipients.

We’ve recently launched a brand new visual marketing automation system, Maxautomation. Find out more here!



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Building A Winning Email Strategy

 When it comes to email marketing it’s imperative you have a good strategy in place, but what makes a winning email strategy? Take a look at some of our suggestions to creating that winner email marketing strategy…

Plan, Plan, Plan

The saying “failing to plan is planning to fail” is extremely relevant within email marketing. Without a well thought out and up-to-date plan you are not going to be able to reach your goals. A lot of Marketers find it useful to plan by each quarter of the year, allowing key dates, events and promotions to be addressed and promoted accordingly.

Content is crucial and will be the main component of your emails, so it’s a good idea to have a plan of what will be sent and when. Taking the time to research, and strategise is beneficial to any marketing team.

You should also be conducting regular industry and competitor research to find out ‘what’s hot and what’s not’ your particular field. Keeping on trend is key to a winning content strategy.

Reliable and Relevant Data

What would be the point in dedicating time to planning specific content if the recipients are not interested? It’s essential to ensure your data is from reliable sources including website sign-up forms, attending networking events, social media sign up tabs etc. as opposed to bought data lists. Whichever method you choose to obtain your email addresses by, it’s vital to be clear of your intentions with the user’s details. By asking people to subscribe it ensures that they are happy and interested in receiving emails from you.

Automated Emails

Automated emails are considered the cherry on top of the cake for a winning email strategy. They are extremely effective as they allow you to set up multiple workflows and customer journeys. By adding automated emails to your strategy you can save time and money, send relevant content to recipients and enhance your process.

We’ve recently launched a brand new visual marketing automation system, Maxautomation. Find out more here!

Assess Analytics

Analytics are there for a reason, they allow you to track and evaluate the results of your campaigns – whether they are good or bad. Making time to take note of the number of opens, clicks, bounces and unsubscribes can give you an insight into what is working well and what isn’t – which is crucial for any email strategy.

Improve and Monitor

Following on from the previous point about analytics – valuable information regarding your campaigns should not be ignored. Findings should be addressed and adjustments to your future strategies should be made.

Collectively all these points will help you to achieve a winning strategy, however, similarly to planning a smooth journey and needing a reliable mode of transport to take you there, you need the right tools to help you implement your strategy. Emailcenter can provide you with a range of tools and services including Maxautomation, to Maxemail and Maxecommerce.



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Best Email Marketing Services Find out which software to choose

I wasn’t a big fan of email marketing until I actually took the plunge, signed up with email marketing service and added an email opt-in box for my most visited pages.

Results?

After 2 months I had already 5000 subscribers (yes, I know it also largely depends on my traffic which I’ve built up using this traffic strategy here.)

It’s nearly 40x more effective than Facebook or Twitter. And it has the power to deliver a “3800% ROI and $38 for every $1 spent, according to Campaign Monitor (#2 on my list).

But before I signed up with ConstantContact (#1 on my list), I decided to test out them out to know which one is actually good.

Here’s a rundown of the top 10 best email software for small business. I’ve personally used almost all of these ten over the past few years. And I continue to use at least one or two on a weekly basis.

Let’s get started.

Email Marketing Software for Who?

We’re not going to cover expensive, complex software like HubSpot or Infusionsoft. Those are great. But they can also set you back thousands of dollars each year and they are mostly towards enterprises.

Instead, we’re going to take a look at the most practical and realistic email marketing providers based on what YOUR needs are. So these ten are perfect for:

• small business owners
• writers
• musicians
• artists
• photographers
• wedding planners
• and so on…

Best Email Services for Small Business (Review)

We’ll start with the best ones that you should definitely check out. The middle group contains some perfect options that can get a little more sophisticated (depending on what your goals are). And then the bottom few should probably be avoided so you don’t waste any more time and money.

Check them out!

1. Constant Contact: Best for Small Business (free trial)

Constant Contact is one of the oldest email marketing software options on the market. They’ve been around. And they’re popular for a reason. Here’s why.

CONS

#1. Embedding their opt-in forms on your website are limited. They work just fine. But your ability to edit their form design options are limited (unless you’re hiring a designer / developer to customize for you).

PROS

#1. They have easy-to-edit, pre-designed email templates for almost every scenario imaginable. So it’s perfect for everything from brick-and-mortar businesses, to online businesses or blogs, and all special occasions in between (like Birthdays, etc.). Their email template library is among the biggest as well.

#2. There is something to be said for reliability. They’ve been around for a long time because they work. Email deliverability is good (so you don’t have to worry about emails not getting through to subscribers for some reason). And they’re a great choice for basic, one-off email campaigns like a simple monthly newsletter to a big list. According to their data, “98% of Constant Contact emails hit customers’ inboxes” vs. “77% of regular email”.

#3. I’ll be honest: Their interface used to be kinda clunky. But they’ve recently had a facelift and the new one is extremely easy to use. It might not be as smooth and sexy as MailChimp, or as user-friendly as Drip or ConvertKit, but it’s right there at the top of the pack.

#4. If you are looking for simple automation, Constant Contact can help you there, too. It’s not as sophisticated or fully featured as Drip or Autopilot, but it can help you deliver few nice follow-up messages simply and easily.

#5. Constant Contact does police its service to make sure people aren’t using it to spam subscribers. However, I’ve found that they’re a little more lenient with customers and not as aggressive in stopping or suspending accounts (like MailChimp, for example).

#6. Constant Contact offers a longer than usual 60-day free trial. That gives you a LONG time to test out their service and make sure you’re happy before committing to them (or paying them a dime).

Do I recommend it? Yes!

Constant Contact is one of the best email marketing services you can choose. They’ve got a giant template library (with tons of variety). The email builder is good for beginners on up to advanced users. And they have an excellent 60-day free trial so you have almost no risk when signing up.

Go www.ConstantContact.com

2. MailChimp: Easy to use and affordable

MailChimp is easy to use, offers beautiful pre-built templates, and inexpensive.

There’s a reason they’re among the most popular email marketing services for small businesses, sending a billion emails each and every single day.

CONS

#1. MailChimp is perfect for many. But might not be right for everyone. They enforce a strict double opt-in policy and prohibit many different kinds of both content and industries.

The reason? Sending a billion emails isn’t the hard part. Actually getting those delivered– through spam filters and into someone’s inbox – is the problem. By keeping a tight leash of how their services is used, they’re able to deliver (pun intended) better performance for all of their customers who are abiding by their guidelines. So this is point could actually be a PRO or a CON depending on how you look at it.

PROS

#1. Beautiful pre-designed templates that you’ll actually want to use ‘out-of-the-box’. Seriously.

Many other email marketing services (even those listed below) come with pre-designed templates that look like they’re from the 90s (you know, Geocities-style). They almost force you to go out and pay a designer for a custom one.

However, you don’t have that problem with MailChimp. You can easily get by with one of their preset designs and all you have to do is upload an image, tweak the colors, and you’re good to go.

#2. MailChimp is also one of the most user-friendly options on the list, too.

Their campaign builder is intuitive, guiding you through each step of the way. You’ll quickly get the hang of it after creating your first few campaigns. And then you can simply copy an existing campaign to update and send a new one in less than five minutes.

#3. Easy to use segmenting options also help you identify specific groups of people that might be suited to a special deal or maybe need a few incentives because they haven’t interacted with your emails in a while.

Instead of a complicated setup, they provide a few helpful ‘shortcuts’, like selecting an average of the last few campaigns or a simple star rating, to quickly identify and send to these groups.

#4. MailChimp integrates with almost every other popular software for small business you can think of. For example, they’ll natively work with popular platforms like Shopifyso that you can automatically add new customers from your store to an email list and then automatically send them a follow-up campaign. (Or if you’re advanced, you can integrate with Zapier to really unlock its potential).

#5. MailChimp’s automation feature continues to get better and better. But one of the things I love most is that they have ‘templates’ you can simply copy and paste. For example, instead of having to manually try and string together a bunch of complicated emails to form one sequence, their library has them pre-built so that you can simple point, click, and then update content before it goes live. That means it might only take an hour, instead of a full day, to create and go live.

#6. MailChimp has a forever free account that lets you have up to 2,000 subscribers. (There are some plan limitations to be aware of, however.) From there, it rises up to only about $10 / month depending on subscriber count.

Do I recommend it? Yes

MailChimp is easy to use, inexpensive and comes packed with beautiful pre-built designs.

One of the options below might have one or two better features, however it’s going to be hard to beat MailChimp’s all around excellence.

Go www.MailChimp.com

3. Campaign Monitor: Good looking templates

Campaign Monitor has a lot to like. They’re big (helping over 200,000 customers). And despite being around for awhile, they’ve kept pace with the latest email marketing trends.

CONS

#1. Campaign Monitor’s closest competition on this list for best all around is MailChimp. But unfortunately, unlike them, they do not offer any type of free plan after the 30-day trial period.

PROS

#1. Campaign Monitor has been around for awhile, but their email templates are anything but dated. They’re sleek and modern. And can be quickly customized with the drag and drop campaign builder.

#2. Campaign Monitor also allows you to segment your database and automate email campaigns to that leads get one message while existing customers get a different one. That’s extended with their ability to hook into your website or application and send off transactional emails triggered to send at the exact right time.

#3. Campaign Monitor’s App Store is among the best, helping you sync your email database with other internal tools like your CRM, store (like Shopify) and even WooCommerce. Their App Store also includes integrations like AdRoll, which will allow you to automatically run retargeting ads to the people on your list as they browse around the internet.

#4. You can send 2500 emails to 500 contacts for only $9/month. That puts them at one of the most affordable options on this list.

Do I recommend it? YES

Campaign Monitor is perfect for those looking for affordable email marketing software with beautiful templates that can go out a few times a month to a big list of contacts. They’re a solid introductory tool.

Go www.CampaignMonitor.com

4. Active Campaign: Expensive, but flexible

ActiveCampaign goes beyond basic email marketing and includes marketing automation with sales and a fully featured CRM.

If you’re looking for a solid all-in-one tool, this might be it.

CONS

#1. Pricing for basic email features is A-OK. But when you want to take advantage of their extra features (like sales automation and CRM) it’s gonna set you back $49 / month to start with (no matter how many subscribers you have).

PROS

#1. ActiveCampaign covers all the basics well. So you get the normal one-off email campaigns. But you also get more advanced automation and segmentation, too.

#2. Many small business don’t have (or need) a fully-fledged CRM (like Salesforce). It would just be overkill.

You do need something though to manage basic contacts and keep track of who’s interested in your services (or who might be interested again in the future). ActiveCampaign solves that problem by providing a more well-rounded CRM tool than most you’ll find on this list.

So now you can see and track all marketing + sales-related information inside one easy to use tool.

#3. ActiveCampaign has a unique contact discovery feature that will automatically try to pull in more information about each new contact (like their location, social profiles, and more).

#4. There’s a critical difference between when someone’s a basic marketing lead vs. a sales-ready one. ActiveCampaign helps you automatically tell the difference by applying triggers and rules that change someone’s status based on the actions or behavior they might be exhibiting (like visiting your website over and over, looking at key pricing pages, etc.)

Do I recommend it? Yes

ActiveCampaign delivers a solid email marketing service for a completely affordable $9/month.

And although pricing can get more expensive with some of the extra features, the fact that you have them at your disposal (without having to add a bunch of other tools to the mix) is an awesome perk worth checking out.

Go www.ActiveCampaign.com

5. GetResponse: Most popular among bloggers

GetResponse aims to be an ‘all-in-one’ platform to grow your business. It extends beyond just the usual email marketing stuff and into landing pages, full-fledged marketing automation and also webinars.

CONS

#1. The starting email price of $15/mo for 1000 contact isn’t too bad. But if you’d like access to their advanced features (like webinars), that price quickly jumps up to $49/month. And that’s for only 100 attendees! If you want more, it jumps up to $165/month.

PROS

#1. GetResponse comes packed with over 500 email templates and 1,000 stock images to quickly create your first campaign. The bulk of which look pretty clean and modern.

#2. GetResponse can also deliver dynamic content. So content blocks on each email can be personalized to each subscriber’s personal history and data.

#3. GetResponse also comes with segmentation and automation features that can help you easily follow up with customers (without actually doing any of the heavy lifting).

#4. Another item that sets GetResponse apart is their webinar offering. You can create, host, and deliver webinars or live meetings. Integrating this component with your email marketing makes follow-ups a breeze and can help speed up lead gen for B2B companies or professionals.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

GetResponse delivers another solid option with current, updated email designs at a budget-friendly price.

If you’re a B2B company or see yourself using webinars, their native integration and ability to host those for you can be a huge benefit.

Go www.GetResponse.com

6. VerticalResponse

VerticalResponse is more of a bare bones, straightforward email marketing service that just does one thing well. They’re a nice option for newsletter sending or other campaigns that are being sent to a larger group of people.

CONS

#1. They do have a free plan, but otherwise the pricing tends to be on the higher end for what they offer, considering their feature set…

#2. Although it seems like I’m nitpicking, their feature set is also a little ‘slim’ compared to some of the other email services listed above.

PROS

#1. VerticalResponse has 700 templates to choose from. They’re not the best I’ve seen compared to some of the companies on this list, but they’re pretty good and not as bad as a few others, either.

#2. Their data boasts a high 98% inbox deliverability (which as we’ve discussed, is becoming a bigger hurdle each and every day).

#3. VerticalResponse packs some advanced reporting features that help you figure out what subscribers would like to read more of. And their friendly toolset helps recommend or tell you what to do next in order to get better engagement, more opens, and higher click-through rates.

#4. They have a completely free plan up to 300 subscribers. And who doesn’t like free?!

Do I recommend it? Yes (and no)

There’s nothing wrong with VerticalResponse. They have a solid offering.

But is it any better than the others listed higher here? Not really. And it’s slightly more expensive.

So feel free to try them out. Otherwise take a look at the others listed here.

7. Drip

Drip (recently purchased by LeadPages) specializes in being a ‘lightweight’ email automation tool. (I’ll unpack what that means in a second.)

They include some sophisticated features and kick things off with a free plan (which never hurts). Here’s a list of their PROS and CONS.

CONS

#1. Depending on what you need an email marketing service for, Drip’s features might be a little overkill. If you’re just trying to send a basic campaign once a month, there’s probably better options listed here on this list.

You can send basic, one-off campaigns with Drip. But it’ll be a little more complicated and you might end up paying way more than you need to. Which brings us to…

#2. Drip has a free plan (which is great), but after that, their pricing jumps up to $49 per month. That’s on the expensive side (considering the limitations on subscribers, etc. at that low level).

Once again, if you just need to send out basic email newsletters to a big list of people, you’ll probably end up paying more than you need to with Drip.

PROS

#1. Drip’s value lies in its automation rule builder. There are 18 triggers and 16 actionsthat can be selected to quickly create sequences that follow up with customers without your involvement.

For example, let’s say someone abandons their shopping cart before purchasing. Drip can help you create a follow-up sequence that will send out a few reminder emails, or even include a discount to come back and purchase, all while knowing whether or not that person actually does end up taking action.

If they do finally purchase, that ‘trigger’ will be recorded and updated in Drip so that they no longer receive these emails (and instead get something else, like an upsell for a related product).

#2. These automation sequences sound complicated because they kinda are. But Drip’s visual workflow builder makes the process easy and intuitive.

You can set up a series of steps visually to get an overview of how the entire sequence will look. And you can then create those ‘branches’ depending on whether someone does or doesn’t take action.

#3. Drip goes beyond your standard email marketing software by also managing each contact’s lead status. For example, if someone buys or doesn’t buy, each contact gets ‘tagged’ to keep track.

#4. Drip’s pricing can get expensive when you have a lot of contacts, but for new customers (with low list numbers) they have a free plan to get started with. Can’t beat free!

Do I Recommend it? It Depends…

Drip is great. If you plan on taking full advantage of the automation sequences and you enjoy creating those complicated branches depending on what people do.

Only looking for a monthly newsletter-type software? You might want to look elsewhere.

8. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is similar to Drip in that it’s a powerful email marketing service that can slice and dice your contact list to send targeted emails. So you can pull off sophisticated sequences if you’d like, but it’s still simple and enjoyable to use.

They also specialize with professional bloggers, for reasons that you’ll soon see, although anyone can obviously use them.

CONS

#1. Feature overkill might be an issue with ConvertKit if you’re just looking for something nice and simple. Yes, you can do basic email broadcasts to a large list with them. However, their value comes down to being able to segment audiences and send perfectly tailored emails.

#2. Many of the email services listed here will either have a completely free plan or at least a free trial. ConvertKit has neither. Instead, if you’d like to sign up, their pricing starts at $29 a month for up to your first 1,000 contacts.

PROS

#1. ConverKit’s superpower is segmentation. They allow you to create specific forms or other incentives that can be tied back to your post’s topic.

Then the system will automatically record what they downloaded and ‘tag’ that subscriber for you when it comes time to send out a new deal or promotion that would be perfect for those customers.

#2. These calls to action can be included at the bottom of the post or even inside the post content simply to help you generate more subscribers, faster. They have a WordPress plugin that can help you simple install and then integrate them into your posts. And these CTAs are responsive to your website design (meaning they’ll expand or shrink depending on the device.

#3. ConvertKit also provides a few landing page templates to choose from (unlike almost every other email provider listed here).

So you don’t need yet another tool for that, too. Instead, you can use ConvertKit as an all-in-one solution for generating opt-ins for your newsletter, courses, webinars, and more.

And the WordPress plugin can help you host the landing page on your own website, so nobody will know the difference when they visit the page.

#4. ConvertKit’s segmentation means that you can also create those automated sequences for people who just joined your list. That means you can set-and-forget parts of your marketing strategy once it’s up and running, freeing up some of your time to go back to focusing on everything else a small business owner has to worry about on a daily basis.

Do I recommend it? It depends…

Yes and no. Pro blogger or big content site? Then yes, definitely.

Are you interested in tight segmentation of contacts based on what they downloaded (or where they downloaded it)? Then again, yes.

However, for everyone else, it might be overkill.

Go www.Convertkit.com

9. Autopilot

Autopilot can send emails and create powerful, automated sequences like the other guys. But it can also do much more.

Integrating other popular software options allows you to send off text messages, fire off Slack messages, change a contact’s status in your CRM, deliver offline postcards in the old-school mail, and way more.

CONS

#1. Once again, just looking to send a basic email newsletter? Autopilot is probably not a good fit for you, then. It can do that. But it’s designed for small businesses who want to leverage the power of segmentation and automation more.

#2. Autopilot can do a TON. But you have to be comfortable setting up integrations between a bunch of different services. If not, you’ll be limited through

#3. Autopilot is a more advanced tool, so it’s pricing tends to be more advanced as well (compared to the more straightforward email marketing broadcast tools listed here). Pricing starts at about $25 bucks for up to 1,000 contacts.

PROS

#1. If you’re looking for an email tool that does just more than email, and instead integrates with other parts of your business to deliver a seamless customer experience, Autopilot is a perfect choice. You can setup a ‘customer journey’ that takes new website visitors through an entire lead nurturing or purchase process, tying in multiple different channels or tactics.

#2. Autopilot’s email builder is among the easiest to use. The interface is intuitive so that you can simply point and click your way to creating a new campaign in a few seconds.

#3. Autopilot lets you create ‘smart segments’. These are pre-set criteria, like someone opening your email or visiting your website in the past week, that dynamically update. That means as new people meet your established criteria (even in the future), this list will updated automatically and add them as well.

#4. Last but not least, Autopilot offers a free 30-day trial so you can test drive their service. So if you’re on the fence, you can at least try it out for a few days to see if it will meet your needs (or be too complicated for what you’re trying to do).

Do I recommend it? It depends…

Autopilot is great… if you plan on using it to its full potential (and don’t mind getting your hands dirty). Otherwise, it might be overkill and slightly cumbersome for beginners or people looking for a simple monthly newsletter option.

10. AWeber

AWeber used to to be one of the most popular email marketing software companies, often used and touted by almost every big name blogger.

What’s changed since then? Well, to be honest, not a whole lot. Existing competitors have upgraded. New competitors have sprung up.

CONS

#1. It doesn’t seem like AWeber’s changed much over the last 5+ years to be honest. Things have been upgraded. New templates have been introduced. But otherwise, many of the same features seem to look and work just like they did half a decade ago.

#2. To their credit, there are over 700 templates to choose from. However, many of their designs now seem outdated or heavily reliant on stock images… which brings us to the first PRO on the list.

PROS

#1. AWeber’s pre-designed 700+ templates seem to rely heavily on stock images. The good news is that they also include 6,000+ stock images to chose from. That’s incredibly helpful, because otherwise stock images can be (1) time consuming to find the right one, and (2) expensive if you’re buying high-quality images one at a time.

#2. AWeber also lets you match color schemes from emails to the forms you use on your website. That provides visitors with ‘continuity’ and can help increase conversions and retention.

#3. AWeber’s automation sequences haven’t changed much. But they do allow you to create basic workflows with built-in waiting periods and tags. Applying tags to contacts is the secret because it allows you to have different automation sequences interact with each other depending on a contact’s tag. For example, someone tagged as “Customer” might get removed from one campaign (so they no longer receive sales messages) and then added to another (to cross-sell them related products).

#4. AWeber has a 30-day free trial to try out their services. And then if you want to move ahead, you’ll get up to 500 subscribers for $19/month (which is one of the better deals you’ll find).

Do I recommend it? No…

There’s nothing wrong with AWeber per se. Their offering just seems a little stale. And their pricing isn’t as good as some of the competition (like Campaign Monitor or MailChimp) for what they offer.

Review Conclusion

Email marketing is still your best shot at generating new customers.

And yet, most small businesses don’t even send enough email campaigns on a monthly basis.

The result? You’re leaving money on the table. Lots of it.

Fortunately, you can get started with Constant Contact and their 60-day free trial.

MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, and ActiveCampaign are similarly simple tools to get a new campaign out the door by the end of today.

If you’re looking for more sophisticated options, Drip, ConvertKit, and Autopilot are worth a look.

Otherwise, older industry options like AWeber have begun falling behind in recent years.

They’re not awful. But for the same money (or less), you could do better.

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