A Comparison of the 18 Best Email Marketing Services for Bloggers and Small Businesses

According to the Newoldstamp State of Business Email Marketing Report, 66% of businesses use email as their primary communication channel.

Email marketing is one of the essential tools for successful marketing outreach. It doesn’t matter if you are a business owner or a blogger, email marketing should be a part of your marketing strategy.

The Benefits of Email Marketing 

If you are still unsure whether you need email marketing, just take a look at these few benefits: 

Why You Should Use Email Marketing Services 

Now, that you have a clear idea of why you should use email marketing, let’s get into email marketing services. 

Depending on what you need, they offer many great options such as: 

18 Best Free and Paid Email Marketing Services 

There are numerous email marketing services out there so we’ll narrow down your choice with these best email marketing platforms in 2021. 

Check out our roundup of expert picks (with free options) so you can build your email list. Here's a list of the 18 best email marketing services for bloggers and small businesses: 

To make your decision easier let’s go through the significant features of those email marketing services. 

1. EngageBay

EngageBay is a digital platform for small and medium businesses that combines marketing automation, sales automation, ticketing helpdesk, and a free CRM into a single solution. EngageBay is a complete solution for a business's marketing, sales, and service needs, with features such as Email Marketing, Lead Generation tools, Contact Management, Deal Pipeline, Telephony, Email Sequences, full-service Help Desk Automation, and more.

EngageBay is the new children on the block, but it quickly became the favourite email marketing service for many start-ups or small companies. They provide a large number of email marketing templates that may be easily customized using a drag-and-drop interface. Furthermore, the segmentation and targeting capabilities are excellent.

EngageBay is an excellent email marketing CRM to use because it allows you to personalize your emails, has a lot of formatting possibilities, and it's simple to track your campaign's performance.

The pricing, though, is what truly stands out:

Contacts are priced individually.

• $0/month for the first 1,000
• $8.99/month for up to 3,000
• $29.99/month for up to 25,000
• $47.99/month for up to 50,000

What we like about EngageBay: its range of features at a low price point. Their dynamic, personalized plans are also good. The user-friendly user interface is simple and admirable. It is a modern small-scale platform that cannot offer higher prices.

What they should improve is that e-mails are branded so you have to pay extra if you want to send e-mails without the EngageBay brand. Who is this for those looking to reach customers across different channels emails, SMS, push notifications, etc.) with a powerful but affordable tool. Also, they offer a decent deal for $0 a month in case you are looking for a free tool.

2. Snov.io

Snov.io is one of the most comprehensive platforms for scaling your cold outreach. With its intuitive drag-&-drop editor, you can easily create a custom email drip campaign with auto follow-up messages, triggers, and goals. And by analyzing detailed real-time statistics and maximizing key metrics, you’ll be able to efficiently manage your cold prospects. 

This platform also allows you to find and verify emails before starting your cold outreach campaigns. Besides, Snov.io offers a forever free plan that gives you access to all tools (with some limits), so why not give it a try?

3. ConstantContact 

This is a very popular email marketing tool, especially for small businesses. 

ConstantContact helps you with your email marketing campaign by inquiring about your business. Once you get started they’ll ask you about your industry and your previous experience with email marketing. Based on that, they give you promotional ideas and personalized content.

What differentiates them from other email services is that you get a 60 days trial instead of the usual 14 or 30 days. If you are not sure if you need this for your business, you can at least give it a try at no cost. 

Important features: 

4. ConvertKit 

As we previously mentioned, there are email marketing services that aim at a specific industry. This is one such service. 

If you are a blogger or a publisher, ConvertKit is a tool for you. 

This service is specifically created for Youtubers, bloggers, influencers, and podcasters.

ConvertKit helps you to wrap up your email in an attractive form and send personalized emails to individual followers or subscribers. 

5. Drip 

If you are an eCommerce site owner, you should try out this email tool. It works perfectly with WordPress forms.

By using the automation features of Drip you will always be alert whenever something important happens.

You’ll be able to track metrics such as new visitors, returning visitors, how many abandoned the cart, and who opened the email vs. who didn’t. 

Based on that information, you can create personalized messages. 

Important features: 

6. GetResponse 

This all-in-one marketing platform has more than 350,000 active users from 182 countries based on the 2018 report. 

GetResponse offers easy-to-use functions such as drag-and-drop builder for creating emails. In addition, its feature Perfect Timing will predict when is the perfect time to send emails in order to increase open rates.

It also has some unique features. With this platform, you will be able to create landing pages and webinars as well. 

7. Moosend 

A stunning email newsletter service is useful to create beautiful email campaigns. Moosend will help you to grow your email list rapidly. At present they are offering 

8. SendInBlue 

SendInBlue is a great platform for email marketing beginners with a limited budget. It comes with a free plan which is somewhat limited but still very helpful. 

It is very easy to use and even without any prior knowledge, you can create a marketing campaign.

Those who are willing to pay for this service should know that the pricing is based on the number of emails you send not on the number of your contacts. 

Important features: 

9. AWeber 

AWeber is a very simple and effective tool that has been a choice of many for over 18 years. 

It comes with all the essentials such as automated email sequences, creating mobile-responsive signup forms, designing email newsletters, and so much more.

You can also easily integrate it with your WordPress website. 

Just to mention that it also supports live chat, phone, and ticket-based emails. It even invented the email autoresponder. How great is that? 

Important features: 

10. MailerLite 

For all of you who are on a tight budget right now, MailerLite can be your solution. 

Until you reach 1000 subscribers, you can use this tool for free. If you are a small business, this can be a great starting tool.

11. Keap 

Keap, which is previously known as Infusionsoft, is one of the best platforms for small businesses. 

Besides email marketing, this powerful email marketing platform includes customer-relationship management and much more.

It allows you to create customer profiles that will help you to define your target audience. Defining your target group is crucial for successful conversion. 

Important features: 

12. ActiveCampaign 

Their general goal is to achieve better results with fewer emails. If this is what you want as well, here is an email marketing provider for you. 

ActiveCampaign is a user-friendly platform that does more than just to easing your troubles with its automation features. You can also monitor your social media, all from one place.

It brings real value to any type of business by empowering its email marketing campaign. 

Important features: 

13. MailChimp 

This email tool is great for both bloggers and website owners. It also comes with a free plan. 

MailChimp is one of the leading email marketing providers which is no surprise considering their constant evolution. They even offer social media integration which is a huge benefit.

You can find on their website many educational resources which can be of great help at the beginning. 

Important features: 

14. CampaignMonitor 

Like the name says, this tool helps you to easily monitor your email campaign and have complete control over it. 

CampaignMonitor tailored with hundreds of pre-built templates you can choose from, depending on what you want and need. Personalized emails based on users’ interests can get you loyal customers and an increase in sales.

If you are using WordPress, you can create a Campaign Monitor subscribe form in WP form in just a few minutes. 

Important features: 

15. BenchmarkEmail 

BenchmarkEmail aims at simplicity. As they claim on their website, their goal is to get you to “stop wasting your time with complicated email marketing services.” 

They emphasize that customer relations are the key to a successful business.

What their platform mostly focuses on is smart and timely automation, expanding the audience with easy signup forms, and customized emails. 

You can even improve your campaign by using one of their features which tracks your success with real-time reports. 

Important features: 

16. iContact 

iContact email marketing provider has been providing email services since 2003. 

Besides their automation tools and simple email editing, you’ll also get a top of notch customer service.

They give you your own strategic advisor who is there to help you find the right marketing strategy. The advisor will also give you an explanation about the features they offer and how you can make the most out of them. 

Like that is not enough, they also offer Social+ marketing consultants. With their help, you can create social posts that will boost your online presence. 

Important features: 

17. AutoPilot 

What makes AutoPilot different from its visual marketing tools? 

They have a drag-and-drop interface that you use for everything from automation to email customization.

18. Ontraport 

Ontraport has all the aspects of the email marketing service you need. They can help you improve your customer relations and marketing campaign, and increase your sales. 

You can create a complete campaign by using this platform. It even has a great feature for e-commerce which allows you to directly sell to your customers online.

This platform gives you an insight into detailed reports which answer all the important questions such as what channels your customers come from, how long does the conversion takes, and so much more. 

Conclusion 

As you could see, email marketing services tend to make the whole email marketing process a lot easier. This is definitely an investment worth making. The majority of newsletter services support almost all website platforms, so you can use any service from above in your blog or website. 

List building is an inevitable process to grow your blog. Email marketing services can help you to build your email list rapidly. Among various alternatives, you have to find a suitable one according to your needs and future plan. 

But you may not able to use the full power of the email newsletter service under the free plan. To get the best result you should start with a paid plan. 

Now you know what each of these services has to offer, it is up to you to decide which one will serve you the best.

Diana Nadim

She is a writer and editor who has a Master degree in Marketing. She combines her passion for writing with her interest in research and creates thought-provoking content in various fields. Besides working as a contributor writer for TrustMyPaper. Follow her on Twitter.

Write For Us