Email Marketing

Updated 04-03-2013

With all the social media sites out there, many business owners have forgotten the benefits of good, old-fashioned email marketing. While posting a Facebook status may temporarily catch the attention of your readers, actively emailing interested subscribers can target them and help you keep them engaged. Using an email marketing service will help you create newsletter signup forms, manage your small or large subscriber lists, create well-designed messages and track the effectiveness of your emails. Our reviews break down and compare the different email marketing providers, looking at key differences so you can find the perfect service for your needs.

Email Marketing


Services: Our Ratings: Bottom Line:
GetResponse Rating:stars
Attractive and intuitive email marketing service with fantastic email editor, easy-to-read analytics and a spam checker
Benchmark Rating:stars
Pricey yet high quality service with excellent email editing interface and hundreds of templates to choose from plus 24/7 live chat support
SimplyCast Rating:stars
Most affordable service with free plan for up to 2,000 contacts; interactive email editor is one of the best
Mad Mimi Rating:stars
Sleek email composer and streamlined process for adding contacts; not for users who want to use their own HTML
Campaigner Rating:stars
Cheap yet basic solution with limited templates best for those with HTML knowledge; excellent 24/7 customer support
Constant Contact Rating:stars
Pricier service but has nice template customization; not recommended for Mac users or those who want to edit their own HTML
iContact Rating:stars
Free for up to 100 contacts; on the pricier side for up to 500 contacts but stellar email and HTML editor might be worth it for some users
VerticalResponse Rating:stars
Good value service for under 500 contacts and great email creation; however, analytics fall short with reporting lag

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Email
Marketing
Overview

Why Do I Need an Email Marketing Service?

Email marketing is a fast and efficient way to communicate with your clients and direct traffic to your business and/or website. Using a regular email client to write your messages and store contacts could work, but as your contacts list grows, the more tedious it will be to manage your subscribers and keep track of the effectiveness of your email campaigns. This is where email marketing services come in. With these sites, you can single handedly create customized newsletter signup forms, manage large lists of contacts, design and create creative messages and track your progress by looking at open and click rates as well as other reader analytics. Many of these services even allow you to split your subscriber lists into segments, so you can test different emails against one another to see which is more effective. All of these tools combined can help grow your business and get closer to your readers.

How We Reviewed These Email Marketing Services

Our team of in-house reviewers signed up for and tested each of these email marketing services. They added contacts, tested the different options for designing and creating emails, sent emails to subscribers with different email browsers and reviewed the way each site displays email reports and tracking. The overall ranking and value is measured by looking at the price and how it corresponds with the email or contact allowance of each service, as well as the quality of the email creation tools and email analytics.


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Disclosure: NextAdvisor.com is a consumer information site that offers free, independent reviews and ratings of online services. We receive advertising revenue from most of the services we review. Our editors thoroughly research and whenever possible test each service we review and offer their honest opinions about each one. We are independently owned and operated and all opinions expressed on this site are our own.