Since the dawn of online marketing, email lists have played a major role in it. While we have new online marketing techniques now, email lists are still one of the best and most personal online marketing channels.
When you find your way to a person’s inbox, you are closer to their wallet. So, from blogs, small businesses to major companies, every online business can benefit from creating and growing their email list.
Why are email lists important?
Here are why email lists are important:
- Emails are more personal as you reach to your audience in their inbox.
- Email lists have email ids of people who have expressed interest in your content or service. This leads to a higher rate of conversions.
- Email marketing is highly targeted. You are sending emails to people who have already expressed interest.
- An email list is like an asset that you own as a business.
- More active users use emails than social media and they check in regularly.
Now that I have told you why email lists are important, let me introduce you to the 7 best list building email software. I will give a brief of the features and their pros and cons so that you can choose the one that is best for you.
Here are 7 best list building Email software
Aweber
Aweber is an email marketing company that was founded way back in 1998. They are trusted by individuals and businesses.
Features
The major features they offer are:
- You can carry out A/B testing to figure which variations of your email copy works the best.
- Aweber has more than 700 responsive newsletter templates.
- It allows you to automate your email marketing depending on the response of your customer.
- You can segment data like link clicks or emails opened to better target your customers.
- Aweber email designs are responsive in whichever device it is opened.
- You can keep track of important metrics like bounce rates, sign-ups, and subscriber activities so that you can use these to device a better strategy.
Do you want to know the best thing about Aweber? All the features are available on all plans! Unlike the competition which withholds certain features for higher packages, Aweber gives even the lowest package all the features. You need to upgrade your plan only when your subscriber base increases!
Pricing
They have 5 plans that you can choose from starting at $19 per month that allows email list up to 500 subscribers to $149 a month that allows up to 25,000 subscribers. For more subscribers, you need to get a quotation from Aweber. You get discounts if you pay quarterly or annually.
Pros and Cons of Aweber
Pros:
- Easy to use and good support to help you out.
- Large range of templates, built-in landing page builder, and easy to set up autoresponders.
- Integrates well with third-party apps and tools.
- You can try it for 30 days for free.
Cons:
- Some templates look out-dates.
- The landing page builder doesn’t come with proper tracking options or A/B testing options.
- Does not offer as many features as many others in the market.
Constant Contact
With over 650,000 customers and 25 years of presence in the email marketing sector, one cannot deny that Constant Contact is one of the top players.
Features
- You can automate your emails through their autoresponder features.
- You can conduct surveys and social campaigns through Constant Contact.
- They boast an impressive 97% deliverability rate. In other words, your emails rarely end up as spam.
- A/B split testing features help you to determine the best-performing bits of your emails.
- Powerful email editor that customizes your email according to your website’s brand colours and templates that can be easily edited with drag and drop tools.
- Automated list management keeps your email list updated on any unsubscribed contacts and removes duplicates.
- Allows you to keep track of important metrics.
Pricing
They have two plans.
- Email plan – starting at $20/month for up to 500 subscribers and increases with the number of subscribers.
- Email plus plan – starting at $45/month for up to 500 subscribers and increases with the increase in subscribers.
You can create professional email campaigns with both these plans but as you might have guessed, Email Plus Plan comes with more features. These features are online donations, dynamic signup forms, event marketing, access to 10 users, and more!
Pros and Cons of Constant Contact
Pros:
- Easy to use and comes with a powerful editor
- Integrates with more than 400 apps and can cater to any niche.
- They offer a 60-day free trial.
Cons:
- The variables we can test through A/B testing is limited.
- The automation provided is very basic.
- When compared to competitors, the price is on the costlier side for the features provided.
Sendlane
Sendlane is one of the advanced email marketing software out there. They use machine learning to figure out the best time to reach your customers, the customers who are more likely to convert, and so on. So, you don’t have to manually test things out!
Features
- Sendlane’s email marketing platform is very intuitive and allows you to create campaigns very easily.
- Intuitive automation based on machine learning helps you target the right audience at the right time.
- You can track the actions on the emails in real-time.
- Sendlane makes retargeting a breeze with its ability to read customer behavior on your website and target emails based on it.
- Micro-targeting can be done through Sendlane to ensure maximum conversions.
Pricing
They do not have different plans which come with different features. The price only depends on the number of a contact in the list and you can access all their features even you are paying their minimum price!
The starting price is $25/month and you can handle up to 1000 contacts. The prices increase as the number of contacts increase. They do not have a free plan, but there is a free 14-day trial you can sign up for.
Pros and Cons of Sendlane
Pros
- Advanced automation allows you to send highly targeted emails based on your customer behavior.
- They have tutorials for everything you need to know about Sendlane.
- Easy to use drag and drop editing features that allow you to customize emails and landing pages.
Cons
- It is more expensive when compared with competitors. However, the features they provide justify the price.
- Integration with other apps and software is not satisfactory.
- Migrating list from elsewhere needs to be done manually.
iContact
iContact has stayed on the top of the market through its rebranding and its acquisition in the year 2012 by Vocus Inc. iContact helps you to create effective professional email campaigns through its simple and straightforward approach to email marketing.
Features
- Powerful segmentation options to ensure that you send customized emails to different segments for higher conversions.
- Using their RFM segmentation feature you can identify your best customers.
- It has retargeting features that let you retarget customers who have shown interest in your products.
- You can track your return on investment through iContact.
- You can make your campaign smarter by using their automation features.
Pricing
You can try iContact using their 30-day trial that offers you a peek into their basic version. After that, you need to opt for either their Base plan or Pro plan that comes with more features. Their minimum pricing starts at $14/month for up to 500 subscribers and increases with the number of subscribers and features.
Image Hosting is another expense you can expect. iContact’s free image hosting allows storage only up to 5 MB and anything more is going to cost you.
Pros and cons of iContact
Pros
- Easy to use with around 700 responsive templates.
- Easy to integrate with social media platforms and other tools.
- Has split testing on all plans, built-in data tracking, and reporting.
Cons
- You have to opt for higher plans to unlock many features.
- Storage is very low, so you might have to pay extra for image hosting.
Mail Chimp
If you know anything about email marketing, you have probably come across Mail Chimp. That is how famous and reputed Mail Chimp is in the email marketing sector.
Features
- It has a great email designer and a wide range of ready to use campaign templates to choose from.
- You can analyze your customers’ purchasing patterns to understand which products need to market to them for better conversions.
- It has advanced segmentation options that allow you to target the right segment with the right emails.
- International customers? No problem. You can reach them in their time zone.
- Using Mail Chimp, you can run campaigns simultaneously on your social media platforms as well.
Pricing
Mail Chimp has an amazing fully functional Free Plan that allows up to 2000 subscribers and you can send up to 12000 emails per month. It comes with an autoresponder, A/B testing, and reporting features.
Other than that, they offer 3 plans: Essentials, Standard, and Premium with different levels of features. Essentials start at $10/month and Standard at $15/month. Based on your requirement you can opt for a plan.
Pros and Cons of Mail Chimp
Pros:
- It has a free plan and other plans are nominal as well.
- You can A/B testing with many variables.
- Has advanced segmenting tools and easy to import subscribers.
Cons
- Creating autoresponders, the first time can be difficult as it not intuitive the first time.
- The signup forms that come with Mail Chimp is not satisfactory.
HubSpot
HubSpot is an award-winning email marketing software. It is recommended by many enterprises for their easy and smart features that can be used without confusion. Being a premier Google partner is definitely a plus too.
Features
- Great mail tracking tools that tell you when emails are opened and links are clicked.
- It has a content management system that makes it easy to plan, create, and execute campaigns.
- HubSpot’s design manager allows you to highly customize your newsletters.
- It’s reporting and other tools help you increase your conversion rates.
- It has a powerful automation system that makes targeted email marketing very easy for you.
- You can import contacts to your email list with a single click.
Pricing
HubSpot offers a Free plan where you can manage up to 1 million contacts. The only downside is that it is going to have its name on every email. Other than the free plan you have 4 other plans: Starter plan @ $50/month, Basic plan @ $200/month. Professional plan @ $800/ month and Enterprise plan @ $2400/month. You get more features as the price increases.
Pros and Cons of HubSpot
Pros:
- It has a permanent free plan.
- It has great customization tools and provides better insights.
- It has a Live Chat option.
Cons:
- It doesn’t offer as many features as its competitors.
- It might not be suitable for complex sales processes as it lacks flexibility.
ConvertKit
Relatively new to the market ConvertKit has made a name for itself as the best and pocket-friendly email marketing solution for creators and bloggers.
Features
- It provides easy automation options to improve your customer journey with just a few clicks from your side.
- You can manage your subscribers using the tags and segments features.
- It integrates greatly with WordPress websites.
- You can create custom opt-in forms with the desired call to actions to make your audience do as you direct.
- Autoresponder features make your life much easier by automating certain types of emails.
Pricing
ConvertKit offers a Free plan where you can manage up to 1000 contacts and comes with many basic features. Their Complete Plan comes with many more features and the pricing starts at $29/month and increases with increasing contacts.
Pros and Cons of ConvertKit
Pros
- It is easy to use and comes with 24/7 email support and live chat.
- It doesn’t charge for duplicate contacts.
- New features get added regularly.
Cons
- It doesn’t come with as many customization options as its competitors.
- The A/B testing option is also very limited.
That is all the basic information that you will need to choose the perfect email list building software for you. Hope you found this informative and leave a comment below about which one you are choosing and why!
