Top Email Marketing Software
How much does email marketing software cost?
Most email marketing service providers offer monthly plans based on the number of contacts you have and the number of emails you want to send. These plans range widely, starting from $10 or $20 per month, all the way up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month.
Some email software providers, like Zoho Campaigns, offer pay-as-you-go pricing in addition to or instead of a monthly fee, meaning you only pay for the emails you send.
The final cost factor to consider is add-on features. Add-ons are extra features that you can add on top of your basic plan. Common add-ons from email marketing providers include text messaging and AI.
Must-Have Email Marketing Software Features
When comparing email marketing providers on the market, consider the features you need to achieve your business goals. Here are some key features to keep in mind as you do your research:
Send Volume
Most email service providers limit the number of emails you can send per month based on the size of your contact list and the plan you choose. If you run regular campaigns, such as a weekly newsletter, make sure you choose a plan with a sufficient number of sends.
Also consider whether you need transactional emails, including password resets, purchase confirmations, and other automated sends. These types of emails are often counted separately from your total allowed email sends.
Migration
If you currently use another tool to manage your contact list, you'll need to choose an email marketing platform that can handle the data migration. Most platforms allow you to upload a file or copy and paste names and contact details. Some even integrate with popular business tools to make this data transfer seamless.
Even rarer, but still possible to find: platforms that offer onboarding assistance. This onboarding assistance includes inputting all your contact data into the new system. This assistance is only available with some providers, and even then, it usually comes only with their most expensive paid plans.
Integration
Because email is just one piece of a larger digital marketing puzzle, you need to make sure your email platform can connect to the other software you use. At the very least, see if you can integrate the following:
- Social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X)
- E-commerce platforms (e.g. Shopify)
- Sales Platform (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.)
- A Content Management System (CMS) (e.g. WordPress)
If your email software doesn't connect directly to these tools, see if it can connect to Zapier. Zapier has thousands of integrations, so you might be able to use it as an intermediary to connect your email to all your other tools.
Email Builder and Design Templates
All providers on our list have a drag-and-drop email builder with templates. You can drag and drop different design elements, such as text blocks, image blocks, and button blocks, into the email you're creating. Or, you can use the provider's templates. In either case, no coding is required.
All providers have this feature, so you will need to test each provider to learn the nuances between them. These nuances can have a big impact on your user experience and will help you decide which provider to choose.
automation
Most email marketing platforms have an automated workflow builder that allows you to set up rules that will automatically trigger email sends. For example, if you're an ecommerce business that wants to send a discount to each customer during their birthday month, you can create an email with a discount code and set the trigger to the first day of the month. Once the first day of the month arrives, this automated workflow will pull all customers from your contact database who have a birthday during that month and send them an email.
Each platform has a slightly different system for creating workflows, but they typically have a way to visualize these flows with something like a flow chart.
Overall, it's about personalization and automation. Those are my two biggest priorities. How can we streamline our internal processes? How can we streamline our customer journey? How can we make everything more efficient? But at the same time, how can we personalize the experience for each consumer that goes through the funnel?
Kelli Jo Cesarz, CRM Manager at TRANZACT
Audience segmentation
Segmenting your contacts into groups allows you to send them targeted emails that are meaningful to them, which increases engagement. Most email marketing tools have audience segmentation capabilities. You can create groups for new customers, returning customers who buy at least once a month, dormant customers who haven't purchased anything in over six months, etc. You can then use these groups to create marketing campaigns and automated workflows.
A/B Testing
Look out for testing tools. This is common, but not as common as the other features in this section, so not all providers have them. Testing allows you to send multiple versions of an email to different segments of your contact list to see which version performs best. For example, let's say you want to test two different subject lines. You could send the first version to group A and the second version to group B to see which version gets more emails opened.
Regulation and Compliance
Congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act in 2003 to protect consumers from unsolicited email and other marketing messages. Companies that send email must follow regulations under the act, such as not using false or deceptive language and providing recipients with a way to unsubscribe. If they fail to meet these requirements, they can be fined or otherwise penalized by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Any email service provider you use must follow CAN-SPAM guidelines to avoid fines.
AI Tools
Artificial intelligence is driving software innovation across every industry, and email marketing is no exception. Many of the email platforms on our list offer AI tools to help with design, copy, and more. As more providers offer AI tools, these tools can be a useful way to streamline the campaign creation process.
Does email marketing still work?
Email marketing is a huge channel, considering how many people use email in their daily lives. However, you need to consider whether it's right for the type of business you run. In particular, email marketing is well suited to local and ecommerce businesses.
If you decide to use email marketing, make sure you have a system in place to measure whether it's successful. Common email metrics to track include:
- Open rate: Percentage of recipients who opened the email
- Click-Through Rate: The percentage of recipients who clicked a specific link in the email
- Bounce Rate: Percentage of email addresses that did not receive emails
- Unsubscribe Rate: Percentage of recipients who clicked the “unsubscribe” button after opening the email
Conclusion
Email marketing software can be a vital component of your marketing toolkit, once you find the right one for your business. As you evaluate the options on the market, ask yourself how many contacts and email sends you need. Do you need basic functionality or advanced features like automation, segmentation, and AI? Use these questions as a starting point.
After evaluating seven providers, Mailchimp comes out on top overall for its breadth of features, ease of use, and price. However, if you're new to email marketing, Zoho Campaigns or Constant Contact might be a better choice, while more experienced marketers might prefer Brevo or Campaigner.
Email marketing software FAQs
There are many types of emails that a business can send using email marketing. The main types include:
- Transactional Emails: Transactional emails include order confirmations, shipping notifications, password resets, etc. They are functional in nature and have to do with how revenue is earned.
- Promotional Emails: Promotional emails advertise products, announce sales, or provide discount codes to encourage recipients to make a purchase.
- Email Newsletter: Email newsletters provide updates about your business. They are informational in nature and may direct recipients to your website, but they don't directly lead to sales.
- Retention emails: Retention emails keep customers on your contact list engaged with your business. For example, you can remind customers about items in their cart or promote items that are about to go out of stock to keep them in the loop about your brand.
No, you don't need a customer relationship management (CRM) platform for email marketing. All you need to get started is an email contact list. However, if you already use a CRM for sales, you can transfer your contact list into your email marketing software.
Mailchimp is an email marketing platform, not a CRM. However, it does have a contact database of subscribers to send emails to, similar to how a CRM stores information about your customers. If you want full CRM functionality, you'll need a dedicated CRM tool.
Many email software providers, including Mailchimp, Zoho Campaigns, Brevo, OmniSend, and GetResponse, offer free plans for businesses just getting started with email marketing. These plans usually have limited numbers of contacts and sends. For paid plans, Zoho Campaigns offers the lowest starting price of any provider on our list at $3 per month.
methodology
The MarketWatch Guides team spent over 100 hours testing about 35 marketing software solutions, including Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Semrush, Google Analytics, and more. These providers can help with some or all of the following marketing areas:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Text/Short Message Service (SMS)
- Email Marketing
We surveyed 200 professionals in 2024 who currently use marketing software or have used marketing HR software within the past year. We analyzed the survey results to determine the following evaluation criteria:
- User Experience (7%)
- Pricing (8%)
- Functionality (65%)
- Customer support (5%)
- Reputation and reviews (15%)
For more information on our rating system, please see our complete marketing techniques page.
