Best Email Marketing System
for Small Business?
How to Choose the Best Email Marketing System for your Small Business
First, do NOT spend too much time on this. Pick one, start growing your email and using a smart email strategy. If the email marketing system you choose doesn’t fit your needs, it’s pretty easy to transfer your email contacts over to a new system.
First we are comparing the basic features that most small businesses need and want, between three of the most popular email marketing systems: Mailchimp, Mailerlite and Constant Contact.
Our favorite?
Here’s how Mailerlite compares themselves to Mailchimp on their website. FYI the best way to find comparisons is on a product Pricing page where they will list features and pricing tiers):
And here’s how Mailchimp compares themselves to Mailerlite, plus Sendinblue and ConvertKit on their website. Sendinblue and ConvertKit offer different pricing structures for advanced features like landing pages, analytics, drip campaigns and autoresponders etc.
The best email marketing system for small business comes down to two, in our humble opinion: Mailerlite and Mailchimp. But every business is different. There are some businesses that could benefit more from ConvertKit. However, for small business with a smaller number of email/contacts, a free account on Mailerlite or Mailchimp makes the most sense.
Here’s a list of the most popular email marketing tools. Remember, go right to the “Pricing” tab on each website to look for the features, limits and pricing of each subscription or product, and each of the tiers they may offer. Scroll down and they will often also include a comparison chart with their main competition.
If you are a small business that has an email contact list of less than 1000, Mailerlite and Mailchimp have the most features for free. If/when your lead generation skyrockets, you can migrate your list on to a different platform or simply upgrade your subscription to the next tier on Mailerlite or Mailchimp.
THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS IS TO REMEMBER THAT “ANALYSIS PARALYSIS” IS REAL, AND WILL PREVENT YOU FROM GETTING MORE STUFF DONE! Do NOT spend hours comparing each platform and researching and comparing. Make a choice, and get to work! Starting with a free account usually makes the most sense in most small business scenarios.
When making the decision on which email marketing tool to use, keep in mind these main features that you’ll want to use for reaching and retaining customers plus increasing your customer referrals:
- Landing page(s)
- Autoresponder(s)
- Segments and tags (for grouping email/contacts)
- Drag-and-drop easy formatting of emails and email newsletters
- Templates for emails and newsletters (to make life easier)
There are more features for lead generation, funnels and analytics but for most small businesses, it’s more important to spend time on posting new content to your socials, sending emails to your contacts and providing great value and customer service. Build the foundation first, and automate and/or schedule it out in advance, for your marketing (including email marketing). Then when that system is working well, hire someone to study your analytics and build more funnels and drip campaigns for more growth.
A few pro tips:
- use a “batch work” approach to building your email marketing plan and system (example: dedicate every Friday morning from 8a – 9a to updating your email contact list and making sure new contacts are added, tagged and segmented correctly. By scheduling a specific timeframe weekly (consistently), it becomes a habit and you’ll get more done
- plan and schedule a monthly email to two different segment/contact lists: one email to current customers and leads reminding them of you, your service/product plus a second email to your local colleagues and fellow small businesses who may be good sources for referrals (goal: create immediate business plus increase referrals)
- always include a CALL TO ACTION (call to action) in each email, asking for something: respond with how we can help you, please refer us to your friends and family, click to purchase this fantastic product, etc.
most importantly... remember that you own your email contact list! you don't own your social media accounts!! focus on reaching customers on your socials but finding ways to get them onto your email list! THen you are free to contact them when you want, how you want, to say what you want.
