Which Email Provider should I use?
In this blog I will explore a few of the more common known email providers and which one is best for you?
Straight of the bat I have no affiliate links in this post. Some of these solutions I have used and others I am a partner for but this post is not to promote any system over another.
The first question I would be asking is what is your overall objective with email marketing? What do you want to get out of providing information via email to your customers and prospects?
It may be utility lead, as in you want to provide useful information and been seen as a resource?
You may want to use it to generate leads or even nurture leads?
It may be and probably all of these?
I realise that I am asking questions and not providing answers yet but trust me these are important.
The next thing to consider is budget, how much are you expecting or willing to pay to provide an email service and this of course links to the first set of questions.
The last thing to consider is are you looking to build persona's and understand more about your prospects and customers and use the data you gather? If so are you looking to integrate this with other data sources say from your website?
Once you understand what you really want from a system and how much you may be looking to pay you can start thinking about the systems.
Lets start with the most obvious choice when it comes to email marketing and that's Mailchimp.
Mailchimp lets you get started for free and enables you send a few thousand emails a month to a small list. It is very easy to use with drag and drop functionality and templates to use. It has really understood the process of offering a usable system for free if you are looking for the basics. They understand that when you have invested your time in building your lists and understanding of the system there is a very easy path to move to a paid service with ease. you would move to the paid service when you want to send more emails or need more contacts in your database. There is also lots of advanced options such as A/B split testing and lots lots more on the paid plan.
The next option I would consider is Aweber. This is a paid service that is again really very easy to use and offers some excellent functionality to help you build your mailing list. It has some clever features that enable you to do some great things with auto- responders and means you can deliver courses and keep prospects warm on drip campaigns very easily. Again this is a very simple system to use and is for those who are getting a little serious when it comes to email marketing.
Along side Aweber I would consider Constant Contact. This is another leader provider and has an excellent and really easy to use system. Moving data into Constant Contact is easy and sending your fist few emails is very easy to do. Where this system come into its own is all the extra functionality and outstanding support that all comes as part of the monthly cost. You can create and manage landing pages and event registration with ease. This is ideal for the small business that wants one system for managing email and events and lead registration. The Support is exceptional and they also offer the ability to have a managed service if thats what you would like. Pay a partner to manage the system on your behalf.
If your really serious about email and digital marketing and want a seriously intelligent CRM and Email system in one then I would be thinking about Infusionsoft. These guys are pros and have an amazing system. This is not for the feint hearted. If you are prepared to spend the time setting this system up correctly and invest the time to understand the power then this is a lead generating machine. You will find that most of the pros are using this and for a reason its amazing but comes with a price tag to match. However get it right and that price tag is nothing.
The final options are systems that are embedded into marketing automation systems and they offer email as one part of the system. It may not be as comprehensive as the above but links all into one system that manages your website, CRM, email and social media all in one place.
I wont let on which systems I use or partner with but if you would like some advice which system is best for you simply drop me a line at david@davidmarkshaw.com
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Author- Speaker - Consultant. Passionate about all things digital.