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The 8 Best Email Marketing Platforms

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Email marketing is an increasingly popular digital marketing strategy that involves sending emails to both prospective and existing customers. With the right email marketing platform, your team can easily communicate with customers, nurture leads, keep your brand on subscribers’ radars, and grow revenue for your business. And there are loads of email marketing platforms to choose from.

The best platforms out there offer a range of features, integrations, and user experiences. So, how do you know which is the best one for you?

In this blog post, we’ll discuss what makes email marketing unique, the best email marketing platforms, the features to look for, and which capabilities can really take your email strategy to the next level.

What is an email marketing platform? 

An email marketing platform is software that helps companies organize, create, and track email marketing campaigns sent to their contacts. Using a platform allows businesses to streamline their email marketing efforts, manage important contact information, and better understand how their contacts react to their campaigns.

Email platforms generally allow users to accomplish several essential tasks, including: 

  • Designing eye-catching marketing emails 
  • Storing contact information
  • Creating segmented contact lists
  • Scheduling email campaigns based on specific events
  • Seeing how emails are performing

What makes email marketing a unique platform? 

Email is a unique marketing platform because it enables direct communication with a broad audience while being cost-effective, versatile, and highly customizable. It is a successful way to connect with those who may be interested in your business, convert them into customers, and strengthen your relationship with them at every step of the customer journey.

From first sparking interest to onboarding and upselling, email marketing puts your business in direct contact with subscribers, allowing you to make personal connections through targeted messaging.

Email marketing is also one of the most profitable marketing strategies in use today. According to one global survey of marketers, email marketing generates $36 for every dollar spent. That’s quite an impressive ROI! 

In addition, email marketing platforms offer tools like A/B testing and automation to help marketers target their fragmented audiences easily, saving time and effort for other tasks.

With a great email marketing platform, you can send beautifully designed emails in bulk, track their performance, and manage complex subscriber lists with ease.

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The 8 best email marketing platforms

The email platform your company chooses significantly influences whether your campaigns are successful. Ultimately, you need the ability to design and schedule beautiful branded email campaigns that actually make it to your subscribers’ inboxes and generate action. 

With those needs in mind, here are the eight best email marketing platforms available:

PlatformKey FeaturesPricing
Nutshell Campaigns– Integrates seamlessly with Nutshell CRM 
– Create and schedule one-off emails, broadcasts, newsletters, and drip sequences using CRM contacts
– Built-in reporting and A/B testing
– Nutshell CRM customers can send up to 150 emails per month 
– Additional pricing based on the number of marketing contacts, starting at $5 per month for 100 contacts
Mailchimp– Machine learning-powered segmentation
– Dynamic segments
– Email automations
– Basic reporting and A/B testing
– Free plan for up to 500 contacts, limited features 
– Paid plans start at $13 per month for 500 contacts
Constant Contact– Basic list segmentation 
– Targeted email campaigns 
– User-friendly UI
– Plans start at $12 per month for up to 500 subscribers, offering various features based on tier
ActiveCampaign– Customer experience automation platform 
– Dynamic content 
– Hundreds of integrations
– Plans start at $29 per month for 1,000 contacts
HubSpot– Extensive automation capabilities 
– Customizable email templates 
– Personalization options 
– A/B testing 
– Integration with other HubSpot products
– Starter plan starts at $15 per month for 1,000 contacts 
– Professional plan at $800 per month for 2,000 contacts
Brevo– Email, SMS, and chat marketing tools 
– Basic segmentation 
– Automated workflows 
– Decent reporting capabilities
– Free plan with limited capabilities, paid plans start at $25 per month
MailerLite– Drag-and-drop editors
– Automation workflows
– Advanced segmentation tools 
– Personalized campaigns 
– Help documentation and tutorials
– Free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers, limited features 
– Paid plans start at $10 per month for 500 subscribers
Moosend– Robust automation capabilities 
– Intuitive navigation 
– Reliable customer support 
– Workflow editor 
– Advanced reporting
– Pro plan starts at $9 per month for up to 500 contacts

1. Nutshell Campaigns

Nutshell email marketing platform screenshot

Nutshell Campaigns works natively with the Nutshell CRM to keep all your marketing and sales contacts accessible in one easy-to-use platform. Nutshell Campaigns allows you to create and schedule one-off emails, broadcasts, newsletters, and drip sequences using your CRM contacts, keeping your entire team synced so you can turn more subscribers into buyers.

Whether you want to send a personal email to a potential client or reach thousands at a time with some important news, Nutshell Campaigns makes it easy. Easily use the drag-and-drop editor to customize our selection of email templates or design your own broadcasts and newsletters, and drip sequences to send to contacts.

Campaigns also includes built-in reporting to help you track your campaigns, A/B testing so you can easily test and optimize your emails, and AI features that help you quickly write compelling email content.

Nutshell Campaigns offers robust reporting on metrics like delivery, open rate, click rate, and bounce rate. Track overall email performance, audience engagement, and clicks on any links you included in your campaigns. And while your email content significantly influences delivery, Nutshell takes several steps to keep emails out of your subscribers’ junk folders. 

Nutshell Campaigns pricing

All Nutshell CRM customers can send up to 150 emails per month using Nutshell Campaigns for free. If you want to send more than that, pricing for Nutshell Campaigns is based on the number of marketing contacts you have.

Nutshell CRM plans begin at $16 per month for Foundation and go up to $67 per month for Enterprise. Higher tiers provide access to more web forms, pipelines, organization features, and advanced reporting and automation. You can compare all the plans here.

Pricing for the Nutshell Campaigns add-on starts at $5 per month for 100 contacts, and listed pricing ends at $3,985 for 1 million contacts. For example, a typical audience of 50,000 contacts will cost you $390 per month.

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2. Mailchimp

Mailchimp screenshot for the best email marketing platforms post
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Mailchimp has been one of the most popular email marketing providers for years, thanks to its freemium model. Known for its usability and friendly branding, Mailchimp’s platform provides a user experience perfect for small business owners with clear navigation and a clean interface.

Mailchimp leverages machine learning technology to create segments automatically based on the likelihood a customer will shop with a company and their potential spending. Their segments are also dynamic, which means that Mailchimp adds—or removes—subscribers whenever they meet the segment’s criteria.

While powerful, Mailchimp’s automations aren’t intuitive to use or easy to set up. Lacking a workflow editor, new users will face a steep learning curve until they figure out how to set each automation properly. Some users have complained that their interface isn’t intuitive despite its modern design.

Mailchimp’s segmentation is limited depending on the plan used. Even though the company offers advanced segmentation in its highest “Premium” plan, its standard segmentation capabilities are limited.

Live customer support from Mailchimp can also be hit-or-miss, although they offer support articles, email support, and live chat.

Mailchimp Pricing

Mailchimp continues to offer a  free plan for 500 contacts that includes a limited number of forms, email support for the first 30 days, limited reporting, and up to 1,000 monthly sent emails.

Its lowest-priced Essentials plan starts at $13 per month for 500 contacts with a sending limit of ten times the maximum number of contacts. However, this option lacks the advanced reporting and segmentation features of Nutshell Campaigns. 

The Standard and Premium plans include the customer journey builder, behavioral targeting, and advanced segmentation features. These start at $20 and $350 per month for 500 contacts, with email sending limits of 12 and 15 times the contact limit, respectively.

3. Constant Contact

Constant Contact screenshot for the best email marketing platforms post
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Founded in 1995, Constant Contact is one of the most popular email marketing software providers in the market, with more than 600,000 customers. Constant Contact includes capabilities, allowing you to create contact segments using demographic or behavioral data like open rates and CTR.

Users have also praised the UI design, which makes their product easy to navigate, learn, and use, compared to other competitors like Mailchimp.

However, Constant Contact’s features are unfit for companies with robust sales teams that require more advanced sales and marketing capabilities that help teams close sales. Its segmentation is confined to basic field values—e.g., name, company—and behavioral data—e.g., opens, clicks. You can export or email the segments and little else.

Constant Contact pricing

Constant Contact’s plans start at $12 per month for up to 500 subscribers and include their standard email marketing product, landing pages, marketing calendar, website creation, and more.

The company offers a second plan starting at $35 per month, including automated email campaigns, surveys, and polls. A third plan is priced from $80 per month and includes custom automations, custom segmentation, and search engine optimization recommendations.

4. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign screenshot for the best email marketing platforms post
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Founded by Jason VandeBoom in 2003, ActiveCampaign helps 120,000 customers with its “customer experience automation platform.” The platform acts as an all-in-one marketing platform that includes email marketing, marketing automation, CRM, and account management features for companies of all sizes and industries.

ActiveCampaign allows you to add dynamic content to your email campaigns, personalizing your messages based on your contacts. The platform offers hundreds of integrations and highly-rated customer support.

However, ActiveCampaign is a complex platform with multiple features that can even overwhelm experienced marketers. Mastering ActiveCampaign’s large array of features will require extensive training and patience. 

ActiveCampaign pricing

ActiveCampaign’s pricing starts at $29 per month for 1,000 contacts and one user and goes up to $1,059 per month for 50,000 contacts in its Enterprise plan. (ActiveCampaign offers custom pricing for accounts with more than 50,000 contacts.)

All ActiveCampaign’s plans include its marketing automation capabilities, email marketing, and some integrations. Its higher-tier plans also include landing pages, SMS marketing, and lead scoring.

5. HubSpot

HubSpot screenshot for the best email marketing platforms post
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As one of the foremost players in the digital marketing industry, HubSpot has been a prominent CRM software provider for many years. The company offers email marketing as a part of a more extensive suite of tools including a CMS, marketing automation, and sales software.

HubSpot’s email marketing platform has extensive automation capabilities, a selection of completely customizable email templates, and personalization options for your audiences. You can also take advantage of other features like A/B testing, performance analytics, and more.

If you are a HubSpot user, its email marketing platform integrates with its other products seamlessly. Some users have also indicated the HubSpot mobile app is useful, especially for sales reps who regularly travel. Note that users have also complained about HubSpot’s reporting feature, which makes it hard to understand their opportunity deal flow.

HubSpot pricing

HubSpot’s offerings can seem quite inflated for companies that want  simple capabilities without unnecessary features. The Starter marketing plan starts at $15 per month for 1,000 contacts. To get email campaign reporting and marketing automation, you’ll have to pay for the Professional plan, which is significantly more expensive at $800 per month for 2,000 contacts.

HubSpot’s free and Starter plans can be excellent options when you’re just starting out, but if you’re a growing company with many sales and marketing contacts, HubSpot can get very, very expensive.

6. Brevo

Brevo screenshot for the best email marketing platforms post
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Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, is an email marketing platform aimed at small, medium-sized, and enterprise-level companies. The company offers email, SMS, and chat marketing tools as well as a CRM, landing pages, and retargeting features to over 175,000 customers worldwide.

You can segment your contact list using basic filters—e.g., opens and purchase history—from which you can create an email campaign. Also, you can set up automated workflows that create new segments dynamically based on demographics, behavioral, and lead-scoring data.

As with most email marketing platforms mentioned here, Brevo offers decent reporting, automation, and segmentation capabilities.

Brevo pricing

The company has a free plan that includes limited email marketing capabilities—e.g., it allows up to 300 emails per day—but unlimited contacts, advanced segmentation, and a workflow editor.

The other plans offered remove the sending limits and allow marketing automation for a greater number of contacts. These plans start at $25 per month and also include A/B testing, custom branding, and more.

The Starter and Business plans remove the daily sending limit and allow marketing automation for a greater number of contacts. These plans start at $25 and $65 per month, respectively, and increase based on the number of emails you send each month and the other add-ons you choose. Custom pricing is also available for enterprise customers.

7. MailerLite

MailerLite screenshot for the best email marketing platforms post

MailerLite is another popular email platform due largely to its ability to offer simplicity without sacrificing functionality. The platform provides comprehensive features, including drag-and-drop editors for email and landing page design, automation workflows, and advanced segmentation tools. Users can easily create personalized campaigns tailored to specific audience segments, driving engagement and conversions.

When it comes to customer support, MailerLite offers help documentation, tutorials, and a support team that can assist users via email and live chat.

While MailerLite’s segmentation capabilities are robust, users may find certain advanced targeting options restricted in lower-tier plans.

MailerLite pricing

MailerLite offers a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers and one user, providing essential features such as automation and landing pages but limiting you to one user and 12,000 emails per month.

Paid plans start at $10 per month for 500 subscribers, offering additional features like newsletter templates, advanced reporting, and ongoing support for three or more users. The Advanced plan starts at $20 per month for 500 subscribers, and customer enterprise plans are also available.

8. Moosend

Moosend screenshot for the best email marketing platforms post

Moosend offers a compelling platform tailored to both novices and seasoned marketers. With a sleek interface and intuitive navigation, Moosend simplifies the email marketing process, making it an ideal choice for small to medium-sized businesses seeking efficiency in their email marketing.

One standout feature of Moosend is its robust automation capabilities. Moosend automates tasks such as segmenting contacts and personalizing campaigns, saving users time and effort. The platform’s workflow editor makes it much easier for users to create complex automation sequences, ensuring a seamless customer journey from signup to conversion.

However, Moosend’s segmentation capabilities, while adequate for most users, may feel limited for those requiring highly granular targeting. Unlike some competitors, Moosend’s segmentation tools lack advanced options in its lower-tier plans, potentially limiting the precision of targeted campaigns.

Customer support from Moosend is generally reliable, with a combination of helpful support articles, email assistance, and live chat available.

Moosend pricing

Moosend has a reasonably simple pricing structure and offers two plan tiers, Pro and Enterprise, which are priced based on the number of contacts.

The Pro plan starts at $9 per month for up to 500 contacts and goes up to $5,480 for 1 million contacts. Fifty thousand contacts will cost you $416 per month. An Enterprise plan is available on a custom pricing basis.

What to look for in an email platform

There are dozens of email marketing platforms on the market with a wide range of different features. Your business might have very specific email marketing needs that one solution meets better than another. However, there are also a few critical features every email marketing tool should provide.

Here are the top things to consider when researching the best email marketing newsletter software:

Usability

Email marketing platforms should make creating and scheduling campaigns as easy as possible. Look for a platform with easy-to-use features like premade campaign templates and a drag-and-drop email editor.

Automation

There are many uses for automated email campaigns, from creating templates to sending out email sequences. A platform that lets you automate tasks like segmentation and email sending will save your team vast amounts of time.

Audience segmentation

Personalizing emails for groups of contacts helps you reach your audience with exactly the message they need to hear. Look for a platform that simplifies audience segmentation and lets you build contact lists based on whichever criteria you choose.

Drip sequences

One-off emails have their place, but multi-email drip sequences are extra powerful when you want a contact to receive multiple emails throughout their journey. An email marketing platform with drip sequences lets you automatically trigger campaigns based on your chosen criteria to give contacts the right message at the right time. 

Reporting and analytics

How will you know what’s working without data-driven insight? Your email platform should measure each email’s and campaign’s impact and track metrics like click, open, unsubscribe, and bounce rates. 

Customer support

Even with plenty of training, your team may still encounter times when they need customer support. The right platform will have readily available support when you need it.

Integrations

Chances are that your team could use a few integrations to get the most out of your email marketing efforts. For example, integrating your email marketing platform and CRM allows you to sync marketing and sales data, improve reporting, and so much more. Search for a platform that integrates with the other tools in your tech stack.

Web form builder 

One of the most effective ways to capture leads and grow your mailing list is through web forms. A good email marketing platform should include at least a basic web form builder allowing for some customization and essential fields. It should provide easy-to-use form creation offering an embeddable link for you to add the form to your chosen web page.

Landing page builder

A landing page builder is another essential tool for generating leads and building your lists of contacts. Today’s top email marketing tools include features that let you build attractive landing pages for your promotional campaigns through a drag-and-drop interface. 

The builder should also offer integrations allowing you to add forms, meeting schedulers, and more for an interactive and engaging landing page experience.

Built-in CRM system

Gone are the days when a CRM was purely a sales tool for managing contacts. The realization of the connection between sales and marketing has given birth to modern CRM systems with robust functionality that blurs the line between the two.

The CRM systems of today collect detailed customer data and include a wealth of features, including email marketing functionality. The combination gives sales and marketing teams the information they need to create personalized messaging and experiences for prospects and customers.

Customization options

Getting your message across is one thing. Initiating a unique and memorable brand experience through your emails is another. That’s why it’s important that your email marketing software gives you the power the tailor your email with the design, colors, fonts, and imagery you prefer.

While templates are important to help you get a quick start on those emails, complete and easy customizability is essential.

A/B testing

Having the ability to send out different versions of your emails to small segments of your mailing list for testing is a vital component of any email marketing platform. A/B testing gives you the opportunity to see which version the smaller segments respond to best, helping you optimize the emails you send to the rest of your list.

Why your email marketing platform may not meet your CRM needs

The platforms analyzed above offer robust email marketing features to communicate with your leads, but there’s one thing you should still consider. But most of them leave a lot to be desired when it comes to their CRM capabilities. In particular, most of them lack features that help you close the sale after developing a relationship with a contact through email marketing.

It’s important that your email marketing software works hand in hand with your CRM, just as your sellers and marketers should work collaboratively to grow your business. That way, everyone on your team can see the impact of your email marketing efforts to maximize each interaction with a lead.

So instead of buying an email marketing tool and a CRM and trying to wire them together, we recommend using a growth software suite that unites sales and marketing features into one platform.

Such software combines the traditional features of an email marketing platform (i.e., newsletters and broadcasts, campaign automation, segmentation) or text message platform with one of a sales tool (i.e., pipeline automation, sales reporting, lead scoring).

Using a growth platform leads to better alignment between your sales and marketing teams, which, in turn, will drive greater business growth.

Supercharge your sales and marketing with Nutshell

Nutshell Marketing is built right into Nutshell’s CRM platform, which means your team can manage all their sales and marketing outreach out of the same tool, easily create custom audience segments based on their customers and leads, and instantly see who’s engaging with their messages.

With your CRM, email marketing software and SMS tools all under the same roof, you won’t have to worry about data getting out of sync or important customer context getting lost.

As we’ve written before, an integrated growth software platform encourages sales and marketing alignment, which is one of the largest opportunities for improving business performance. Nutshell’s comprehensive CRM system, with its Email Marketing and Landing Page tools, gives you the ultimate growth software platform to take your email marketing to the next level.

If that sounds interesting, start a free trial of Nutshell today!

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