Think about how many emails end up in your spam folder and how many of them you actually read to the end. In fact, email marketing can be one of the most effective lead generation methods. But only if each email is useful and valuable to your audience. Email newsletters are the best way to tell your customers about company news, announce a promotion, show off new product features, or share helpful blog posts.
There are numerous apps for email marketing automation to help marketers focus on content and spend less time on technical tasks. They simplify work, increase email campaigns’ effectiveness, and collect relevant data for analysis.
But how can you choose a really convenient and functional solution? To make it easier for you, we have analyzed several automated engagement platforms on various parameters: business opportunities, functionality, pricing, usability, etc. And now, we are ready to share the 5 best tools for email marketing automation that will bring your marketing to the next level.
Retainly
This is a capable and rock-solid automated customer engagement platform built to ensure that more of your customers come back to your business, time and again. The service provides effective interaction with customers in an “all-in-one” format. One solution automates the SMS messages, push notifications, and emails, creating an immersive omnichannel customer experience.
Retainly offers advanced features for email marketing automation:
Full automation of the testing and sending email processes. This relieves the burden on the marketing department and allows it to focus on more strategically important tasks;
Deep segmentation of customers to set up the proper communication and increase conversion;
Personalization based on behavioral models and a customer journey map;
Advanced analytics. A business can analyze email campaign metrics, increasing efficiency and conversions.
The Retainly team has many successful cases of email marketing automation for HoReCa, eCommerce, retail, fintech, and iGaming industries.
In short, Retainly is the best option for making a quantum leap in email marketing. This app keeps your messaging personalized, consistent, and relevant. The platform provides all new users with a 14-day free trial so that they can understand all the features and possibilities of the platform.
MailerLite
Built for bloggers and small companies, MailerLite has a really intuitive, simple, and user-friendly interface, which makes all the difference for small, non-technical companies.
There are various automation options for emails: RSS campaigns, time zone schedules, personalization, sending by specific triggers, reminders, A/B testing, segmentation, and much more. It is possible to choose ready-made automation scripts or set your own parameters and triggers. Analytics, like most other services, shows the main performance indicators: opens, clicks, unsubscribes, etc.
The final point worth noting about MailerLite is that they offer a few options for creating emails: a visual drag & drop editor, an inline rich text editor, and a custom HTML editor.
Thanks to the drag & drop editor, it’s easy to create professional email campaigns that resonate, even if you are just starting your marketing journey. MailerLite has a large template library, but all of them are available only in the paid version.
Mailchimp
The service is positioned as a universal marketing platform for small businesses. There are simple features for creating email campaigns, as well as the ability to complicate email strategies when the business starts to scale and grow.
Numerous templates provide freedom and flexibility in creating emails for different tasks and business niches. Audience segmentation can be based on various parameters, including behavior. For example, you can select a segment of people who did not read the article to the end, saw the promotion but did not take the target action, etc.
You can automate work with emails using ready-made workflows or create your own interaction scripts. Also, there is an integration with third-party services and A/B testing.
HubSpot
Full marketing automation platform for small and midsize businesses. This solution has many integrations to effectively synchronize the company’s inbound and outbound marketing as your business grows, marketing processes become more complex, and you are ready to run multi-channel campaigns.
Key features include a drag-and-drop email editor, a large package of templates, detailed personalization, commerce and transactional emails, A/B testing, time zone delivery, etc.
The solution is optimized for any type of device. Post-send email analytics and comparative reports will help you analyze key metrics and results of email campaigns, as well as find new insights for communication with clients.
Omnisend
This service is often used in email marketing for eCommerce. The software has numerous innovative features for eCommerce marketers, from driving product reviews to reducing cart abandonment. Omnisend allows marketers to create, manage, and analyze email campaigns to increase conversion rates.
The functionality includes the ability to create transactional letters, newsletters, and automated email flows. There are predefined segments for eCommerce, for example, regular customers.
Templates for creating email newsletters are universal, although here, you will not find the variety of options that other services offer. But to create an information letter, the program’s capabilities are pretty sufficient. The editor is easy to get the hang of and intuitive for customizing all the blocks for your business needs. Like Retainly, it allows you to supplement email campaigns with push notifications and SMS messages.
What tasks do email automation solve?
For most companies, the main goal of email marketing is sales. They are the end point of communication. Newsletters can also indirectly push the user to make a purchase, but at the same time, they serve other important functions as well.
Increasing audience confidence through expertise. Customers are more likely to turn for services and goods to those companies that have shown their deep expertise.
Building long-term relationships. Emails are direct communication, and this is the best way to push the person to take the target action. If you show concern for the reader in every email, you will become something more than just another company in the inbox.
Increasing in the number of repeat sales. This is most relevant for retail marketing strategies. Newsletters are a good way to bring users back to the website so that they make purchases again and again.
Getting feedback. You increase the importance of communication by asking customers to share their experience via email. The person perceives it as a personal contact that allows him to make a contribution to the brand’s development. This technique is often used in hotel digital marketing and restaurant marketing strategies.
Accompanying the user at every stage of decision-making. If you work in fintech marketing, you sell an expensive and complex product. So customers, as a rule, need some time (sometimes a lot of time) to decide and make a purchase. Newsletters warm up and maintain the audience’s interest, so after a while, potential clients could make a choice in your favor.
How to choose a platform for email marketing automation
No matter what industry you are in (restaurant marketing, digital marketing for eCommerce, fintech marketing solutions, etc.), a capable marketing automation platform will always help streamline business processes and workflows.
The user interface is one of the most important features, as you are going to use the software in your day-to-day activities. Make sure the platform you choose is intuitive, highly responsive, and user-friendly. Remove any hassle when switching between tools, features, tabs, and marketing communications.
When picking a tool, consider what changes may happen in the future. Maybe in a few years you’ll want to send SMS to clients or do RFM testing. Software scalability determines how much you can achieve before you outgrow it and need another solution. The scalable platform grows with your company, reducing costs and eliminating the need to implement new software.
The next essential point is how to analyze the effectiveness of email marketing. Analytics and reporting help to track every small step of your marketing strategy: distributing the budget up to your business goals and forecasts, launching mechanics that really work, personalizing email communications, etc.
Feel free to explore all the features of email marketing software, compare it to your needs, and pick the one that will be as convenient and comfortable as possible. Anyway, you can always test several options during the free trial.
We know how difficult it may remain to choose the most appropriate solution for your workflows, business specifics, and scaling plans. The Retainly team is always open to having a chat. You can order your free personal demo anytime to see how your project’s automated engagement platform capabilities work. Start your growth in email marketing with Retainly.
Are you willing to uncover how Email Marketing Automation can grow your business? Read our recent blog, ‘Email Marketing Automation Can Grow Your Business. Yes, Really.‘ to know more!
