Email marketing in 2024 still holds on as the marketing channel that has the highest ROI. That’s why according to the latest email marketing statistics, 64% of small businesses use it to reach customers and 38% of brands are actually increasing their email budget. That being said, getting started can be a daunting and challenging task. With so many different platforms and tools to use, not to mention all the processes, terms, and strategies. I have created this list of the best email marketing platforms for beginners or small businesses, to help you get started!
Brevo
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) claims to be ‘the best email marketing platform for growing small businesses’, making it great for beginners. The complete CRM suite offers all the features you would expect for email marketing, with some extras thrown in (Facebook Ads and SMS marketing. The dashboard is easy to navigate, the design is simple and modern, and the overall user experience is great for beginners.
Brevo has the ‘Brevo Academy’ which offers free courses and certifications in email marketing, although there are only a handful of courses. There is also a forum available for users to share information and knowledge, which is helpful for beginners. Although these resources are helpful, I believe that more could be done with resources and guides, especially due to the target demographic of the tool.
Pricing can become complex when it comes to email marketing. Brevo offers 4 standard plans, starting with a free plan, to $65/Mo. then custom pricing. There is also the option to create a customized plan based on the number of emails you plan to send – with the option to save 10% if purchased annually rather than monthly.
Top Feature Pick
I personally like the drag-and-drop email builder, although this is common across email marketing platforms, it’s a great feature for beginners and it works seamlessly.
Top Brevo Features:
- Unlimited Contacts and Free Plan: Unlimited contacts in your email list at no extra cost. Free plan for up to 300 emails per day.
- Drag-and-Drop Design and Templates: Drag-and-drop email editor and over 60 pre-built email templates.
- Advanced Deliverability: Actively managed SMTP servers, dedicated IPs for high-volume senders, and a team of email deliverability experts​.
- Integration with E-commerce and WordPress: Specialized plugins for major e-commerce platforms and a WordPress plugin.
- Compliance with Anti-Spam Policies: Tools to comply with international anti-spam policies, such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM Act. Including signup forms with double opt-in confirmation.
- Analytics and A/B Testing: Advanced analytics to track and analyze campaign performance in real time. Includes A/B testing functionality for email subject lines and content.
- Marketing Automation: Supports marketing automation, for messages like welcome series or abandoned cart emails.
- Personalization & Segmentation: Includes dynamic content, custom greetings, and subject lines based on customer data like demographics and purchase history. Advanced segmentation, including behavioral and geographic criteria, as well as a structured system for managing contacts and automated lead scoring.
Moosend
Moosend is one of the lesser-known tools on the list, but it’s a powerful and affordable option for beginners and small businesses. It has all the features you could need to run a successful email marketing campaign including audience management, growth, automation, and data & analytics. The overall design is user-friendly and functions effectively, remaining simple enough to not confuse beginners.
In terms of resources and support, Moosend has a great selection of webinars, video content, blog posts, and a newsletter – providing insights into email marketing. Another feature I particularly like is the email newsletter templates that are ‘designer made’, which allows users to pick a pre-built template and edit it directly.
Moosend offers a free trial for 30 days so you can test before paying. The Pro Plan is the only visible paid plan, however, the pricing model is by subscriber count; it starts at $9/Mo. for up to 500 subscribers and increases from there. There is also an ‘Enterprise Plan’, however, I would recommend a more advanced email marketing tool for enterprise solutions.
Top Feature Pick
While Moosend has many great features – especially with automation, my top pick would be the designer-created templates. Some platforms that provide pre-made templates are often poor quality or low quantity, Moosend has the opposite!
Top Moosend Features:
- Drag-and-Drop Newsletter Editor: Easy-to-use editor compatible with all devices, no coding.
- Marketing Automation: High-converting automation workflows like reminders, user onboarding, abandoned cart, lead scoring, and VIP offers.
- Personalization: Advanced personalization options using subscriber custom fields, product recommendation based on previous purchases, and AI-driven hyper-personalization.
- Tracking and Analytics: In-depth analytics to track user behavior and optimize marketing campaigns, including real-time progression tracking of opens, clicks, social shares, and unsubscribes.
- Lead Generation Tools: Features for efficient lead generation, including a landing page builder and subscription forms tool.
- Landing Pages: Drag-and-drop builder for creating professional-looking landing pages quickly and efficiently.
- Subscription Forms: Tools for designing email signup forms, with advanced display rules, various form types, and anti-bot protection.
- A/B Testing: Test different elements in newsletters, such as subject lines and content, to enhance engagement.
- Integrations: Seamless integration with various e-commerce platforms, CRMs, and other web apps, facilitating automated workflows.
- Email Templates and Customization: A large collection of customizable email templates for various campaign needs.
- Segmentation: Tools to segment your audience based on behavior and other criteria for more personalized experiences.
- Transactional Emails and SMTP Server: For sending transactional emails and a reliable SMTP server for improved deliverability.
- Dedicated Account Manager and Custom Reporting (Enterprise Plan): Personalized support and tailored reporting for comprehensive campaign insights.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is an all-around email marketing tool for ‘creators’. The tool focuses on use cases for authors, bloggers, musicians, YouTubers, and more. They offer more than simply sending emails and measuring performance, there are additional features for running a paid newsletter and selling digital products for example. There is more of a focus on monetizing content through email marketing campaigns.
ConvertKit has multiple resources to help creators and email marketers, including the Creator University, blog posts, podcasts, a newsletter, a knowledge base, and even pre-selected experts that you can pay to work with (if you need support). Another great feature is ‘free migrations’ where you will get full support with migrating over to ConvertKit from another platform.
ConvertKit’s pricing model is based on the number of subscribers you have. The free plan has limited features and up to 1,000 subscribers. Then you are looking at 2 other plans; Creator for $9/Mo. and Creator Pro for $25/Mo. – each plan increases in price the more subscribers you have, the main key differences for the Creator Pro include:
- Newsletter referral system
- Subscriber scoring
- Advanced reporting
Finally, if you pay annually, you can get 2 months free!
Top Feature Pick
Automations are one of the many benefits of email marketing and my top feature pick for ConvertKit is visual automations. Without stating the obvious it allows users to see automations visually, which helps reduce the complexities involved when setting up automations – especially for beginners.
Top ConvertKit Features:
- Automatic Free Download Delivery: Automatically delivers incentives like ebooks or resources when someone signs up or fills out a form.
- Subscriber Management: Utilizes a single list for all subscribers, organized with tags and segments for targeted content delivery based on interests and other criteria.
- Automated Email Funnels: Supports setting up automated email sequences for various purposes like product launches, welcome series, or re-engaging subscribers.
- Targeted Content Delivery: Enables creation of custom paths in subscriber journeys, allowing for exclusion of buyers from product pitches and other targeted actions.
- Email Personalization and Campaigns: Offers tools for sending personalized email campaigns, including the option to resend to those who haven’t opened them yet.
- Visual Automations Builder: Automates audience organization based on interactions and interests, with pre-built templates for various funnel goals.
- RSS Feeds: Automatically creates broadcasts for blog posts, delivering them to your audience.
- Email Design Flexibility: Clean and clutter-free email writing and design experience, with options to embed multimedia content and use personalization.
- Customizable Sign-Up Forms: Customization of sign-up forms to match branding, collect custom data, and tailor form placement on websites.
- Free Email Templates: Free, professionally designed email templates.
- Creator Network: A feature for growing your audience by connecting with and being recommended by other creators.
- Monetization Options: Includes features like a Tip Jar and ConvertKit Commerce for direct selling to your audience.
- Landing Page Builder: Easy-to-use tools for creating lead magnets, coming soon pages, and profile landing pages to engage and grow your audience.
MailerLite
MailerLite is a top email marketing platform choice. Its features can be simplified for beginners or can be used by seasoned marketers – depending on how in-depth you use the platform. There are options to create email marketing campaigns, build workflows, create automations, use custom targeting, and also integrations that help monetize your subscriber list.
The platform has a great selection of resources available, useful for beginners. These include blog posts, free courses, video tutorials, a community, and the option to hire a ‘MailerLite expert’. You can also support your email marketing efforts with a website builder, lead collection features, and product sales.
Pricing is again modeled by subscriber count, but the good news is MailerLite also has a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers. Then there is a Growing Business plan from $9/Mo. and an Advanced plan from $18/Mo. – again increasing in price depending on subscriber count. There is also a custom enterprise option for those with over 100k subscribers.
If you opt for annual payments, you will save 10%!
Top Feature Pick
My top feature for MailerLite is the transactional email process and build they have. These can be tricky to set up and get right, but the whole process is simplified and works effectively with MailerLite.
Top MailerLite Features
- Campaign Creation: 3 editors (drag-and-drop, rich-text, and custom HTML) for creating email campaigns. Also includes an AI email generator, newsletter templates, and a free image library.
- E-commerce Integration: Integration with e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce. Also supports monetizing newsletters through Stripe.
- Workflow Automation: Intuitive automation builder for creating advanced marketing workflows, including triggers for automatic email delivery, RSS campaigns, auto-resend campaigns, and integration with Facebook custom audiences.
- Targeted Campaigns: Segmentation, tagging, and personalization tools to deliver content based on subscriber interests, geography, behavior, and more. Also includes a preference center and delivery by timezone feature.
- Campaign and Subscriber Management: Tools for managing email lists and campaigns both on desktop and via a mobile app. Includes iPad signup forms, subscriber management tools, and a custom unsubscribe page builder.
- Performance Monitoring: Continuous campaign performance monitoring, with features for tracking email metrics, survey answers, e-commerce sales, and new subscriber data.
- Engagement Tools: Increase engagement with interactive content blocks in newsletters, including quizzes, surveys, coupons, galleries, countdown timers, and event RSVPs.
- Landing Pages and Websites: Tools for building landing pages and websites, with customizable sign-up forms, pop-ups, and integration options for e-commerce platforms.
- Email Personalization: Offers personalized content delivery with segmentation based on behavior, interests, and other subscriber attributes.
- E-commerce Features for Email Marketing: Tailored tools for e-commerce businesses including automated buyer journeys, e-commerce platform integration, and dynamic product boxes in emails.
- Mobile App for Campaign Management: A mobile app for managing campaigns and subscriber activity, including the creation of rich-text emails, campaign preview and scheduling, and tracking form performance.
Klaviyo
Klaviyo positions itself as a marketing automation platform, with dedicated features to email marketing. The platform also has a focus on retail & e-commerce, wellness, and restaurants – providing features including segmentation, flows, campaigns, reporting, and AI integration. Klaviyo also has a heavy focus on data integrations, allowing users to make more data-driven decisions with email marketing.
Klaviyo has a relatively large number of resources to support those in email marketing. In addition to blogs and guides, there are case studies, a community, live trainings, an academy for courses and qualifications, and additional resources. The platform also has a ‘marketplace’ of agencies that you can work with if you need extra support. You can also check out these email marketing tips for extra help.
The pricing model for Klaviyo is based on the number of contacts you have, not the number of emails you send. There is a free plan, which has limitations on contacts and features, and then there is an email-only feature from $45/Mo. If you want the SMS marketing features added on top, it will start at $60/Mo.
Top Feature Pick
One of the top picks for me is the segmentation capabilities of Klaviyo, which are very advanced and effective. Not only does it use real-time data, but it also presents the user interface in a simplified way, without complex code and forms.
Top Klaviyo Features
- Customer Profiles: Detailed insights into customer behavior, including their interactions and purchase history, to help tailor marketing strategies.
- Segmentation: Advanced segmentation capabilities using various conditions like location, purchase history, engagement metrics, and data from integrated tools.
- Data Science and AI: Utilizes data science for segmenting and automating messages and employs AI for content creation and decision-making.
- Multi-Channel Marketing: Supports marketing across various channels, including email, SMS, mobile push notifications, and customer reviews, with over 300 integrations available.
- Automation: Automated message flows and triggers for email and SMS.
- Templates and Personalization: Library of customizable email and SMS templates for various campaign types, along with dynamic content capabilities.
- Reporting and Analytics: Multi-channel performance visualization, custom reports, and benchmark comparisons to optimize strategies.
- SMS Marketing: Direct two-way communication with customers and includes AI-powered tools for text response suggestions.
- Web Forms: Tools for creating mobile-friendly pop-up, fly-out, and embedded forms for list growth and data collection.
- Integrations and APIs: Integrates with a variety of tech stack tools for unified data use and automation.
- Campaign Management: Simplifies customer segmentation and campaign personalization, backed by advanced customer profiles and pre-built templates.
AWeber
Aweber is an email and automation solution that is classed as ‘easy-to-use’, making it a perfect email marketing platform for beginners. Their key focus is increasing revenue, customer engagement and retention, and automation. Similar to other tools on this list, AWeber can integrate with other tools such as Shopify, WordPress, Facebook, and PayPal. They also provide free migrations if you want to move across from another platform.
In terms of support and resources, they have a YouTube channel with over 550 videos that offer insights into the tool and email marketing. There is also a knowledge base and custom templates available, in addition to ‘Certified Experts’ where you can hire people to support your marketing efforts.
AWeber’s pricing is based on the number of subscribers you have. Again, there is a free plan available which offers limited features and up to 500 subscribers. The other pricing plans are slightly complex, with additional T&Cs surrounding ‘unlimited subscribers’ and ‘Subscriber Fees’. You can check out the pricing page to learn more.
Top Feature Pick
My top AWeber feature is the integration of Canva. When designing your emails, you have the ability to create images within the account using Canva. This improves workflow and saves time!
Top AWeber Features:
- Easy Integration: Connects with tools such as Facebook, PayPal, WordPress, Shopify, Zapier, and many more.
- Landing Pages: Ready-made landing pages and sign-up forms that can be easily added to websites.
- E-commerce Capabilities: Enables setting up online stores quickly, supporting payment collection in various currencies, and includes features for upsell, cross-sell, and abandoned cart emails.
- Email Automation: Pre-built automations that are easy to customize and activate, saving time and increasing sales through targeted email campaigns.
- Content Promotion Automation: Automates marketing efforts to increase engagement across various channels like Etsy, YouTube, and blogs.
- Template Library: Large library of pre-built email templates for various needs.
- Campaign Automations and Marketplace: Automates email sending and personalization with built-in campaigns, and provides a marketplace for importing pre-built campaigns.
- Advanced Technology: Features like AMP for Email allow for more interactive emails, while the platform ensures industry-leading email deliverability and detailed analytics for campaign performance.
- Expert Support: Access to Certified Experts for advanced marketing guidance and free migration services for easy platform transition.
- List Management: Simplifies managing subscriber lists with tools to ensure the right people receive the right email at the right time.
- Segmentation and Tagging: Allows creation of custom segments based on subscriber behavior, purchase history, and other criteria, enhancing targeted marketing efforts.
- Integrations: Integrates with a wide range of CRM systems and other business tools, expanding its functionality and versatility for various business needs.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is an email marketing, automation, and CRM platform. On the email marketing side of things, the tool has features such as segmentation, campaign creation, and automations. The automation features are where ActiveCampaign stands out, with contact scoring and pre-made automations to choose from. Some of the features could be considered more advanced for beginners, however, I still believe it’s a great email marketing tool for beginners.
There are a ton of resources available to support beginners with email marketing, these include blog posts, case studies, user communities, recommended experts to work with, and a personal favorite of mine – automation recipes.
When it comes to pricing, ActiveCampaign is separated into Marketing, Sales, and Bundles, which then have further pricing structures. For marketing, pricing is based on the number of contacts and unfortunately, there is no free plan. For the Lite plan, you are looking at $29/Mo. which can increase to $149+ for the professional plan. Enterprise solutions start at $259/Mo.
Top Feature Pick
My top feature of ActiveCampaign is the all-round automation functions. With scoring features based on engagement, tagging, and performance reporting, it’s a well-thought-out feature.
Top ActiveCampaign Features:
- Advanced Email Segmentation: Highly targeted email campaigns by segmenting contacts based on their interactions, behaviors, preferences, and data collected from integrated platforms.
- Email Automation: Powerful automation capabilities that enable the creation of complex, automated email sequences triggered by specific actions or behaviors of the contacts.
- Personalization: Advanced personalization features for emails, enabling the sending of content tailored to the individual preferences and behaviors of each contact.
- Dynamic Content: Allows for the creation of emails that change based on the contact’s data, ensuring relevant and engaging content for each recipient.
- A/B Testing: A/B testing tools to optimize email campaigns by testing different elements like subject lines, content, and send times.
- Email Design Templates: Customizable email design templates.
- Reporting and Analytics: Detailed analytics and reporting features, giving insights into email campaign performance, including open rates, click-through rates, and engagement.
- Marketing Automation Integration: Integrates with the broader marketing automation features of ActiveCampaign.
- CRM Integration: Integrates with ActiveCampaign’s CRM system, enabling a more cohesive strategy between email marketing and sales processes.
- Campaign Management Tools: Provides tools for efficient management of email marketing campaigns, including scheduling, sending, and tracking.
GetResponse
GetResponse has many different marketing features, including email marketing. One of the standout ‘features’ of GetResponse is the ‘AI-Powered Email Marketing’ which is something that is ideal for beginners. Although almost every tool has added AI to its mix, GetResponse has implemented it everywhere possible, which helps beginners with tips to write subject lines, email copy, and even AI-enhanced A/B tests. Coupled with the drag-and-drop builder, it’s a great email marketing solution for those just starting out.
Similar to many other marketing tools, GetResponse has many available resources to help users, including webinars, videos, blog posts, a newsletter, and also an online marketing certification. They also have a 24/7 customer support team available to help with any product inquiries, just in case you get stuck using the tool.
GetRepsonse has many different options when it comes to pricing, although no free plan. For generic email marketing, the pricing starts at $19/Mo. increasing to up to $119/Mo. for the higher tier plan. There is a 15% discount for monthly payments, a 30% discount for annual payments, and a 40% discount for a 24-month plan. Pricing is also based on the number of contacts you have.
Top Feature Pick
The integration of AI is my top feature pick for GetResponse. For a beginner starting out in email marketing, using AI can save you time on the basics – freeing up more time to learn the tool and email marketing processes.
Top GetResponse Features:
- E-commerce Integrations: Connects with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Magento, Presta, and WooCommerce.
- Abandoned Cart Reminders: Automatically triggered reminders to recover customers who have abandoned their shopping carts.
- Product Recommendations: Enhances sales by displaying timely product recommendations based on customer behavior.
- Website Builder: Drag-and-drop editor without the need for coding skills, complete with pre-designed templates and AI wizard for layout and color scheme selection.
- Paid Ads: Create and optimize Meta and Google ads directly from the platform.
- Webinars: Allows hosting webinars to connect with audiences.
- Conversion Funnels: Build compelling customer journeys with funnels that combine relevant tools for your campaign goals.
- Advanced Segmentation: Organize contact lists based on subscribers’ behavior and engagement, using custom tags and dynamically-updated segments.
- Email A/B Testing: Test different aspects of emails such as subject lines, images, layouts, and CTAs to boost open rates and engagement.
- Email Analytics: Track key metrics like open and click-through rates, bounce and unsubscribe rates, and monitor order history and revenue in one dashboard.
- Social Media Integrations: Enables social sharing, list growth via Facebook, and automated social updates for newsletters.
- Mobile-Focused Design Tools: Create mobile-responsive emails, with tools to hide specific elements or sections for mobile devices.
- AI Email Generator: Uses GPT-3.5 technology to quickly generate emails with industry-optimized text and subject lines.
- Email Templates: Pre-designed templates for different purposes like product discounts, friendly hellos, and various industry-specific needs.
- Customizable Templates and Photo Editor: Build custom templates with branding and use a built-in photo editor for professional designs.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp, if you didn’t know by now, is a marketing, automation & email platform, well-known for its simplicity and the availability of email templates. When it comes to email marketing for beginners, Mailchimp is probably one of the most simplistic to use. Through it’s ease of navigation, templates, and drag-and-drop builder, you can have email campaigns up and running in no time. However, there are more in-depth features if you need them.
For resources, Mailchimp has tools, podcasts, series, films, blog posts, case studies, and the option to hire experts to support email marketing. There are a good amount of email templates to choose from, with the option of purchasing custom designs from external websites too.
You’ll be glad to know that Mailchimp has a free plan for 1,000 monthly email sends. The pricing model is based on the number of contacts you have and Mailchimp actually gives you one month free on the Standard and Essentials plan. From there you are looking at a starting price of $13/Mo. going up to $350/Mo. for premium.
Top Feature Pick
Rather than one particular feature, overall I like the simplicity of Mailchimp and think it’s great for beginners who want to start email marketing for small businesses.
Top Mailchimp Features:
- A/B Testing and Analytics: A/B testing and analytics tools to create marketing campaigns, with suggestions for improving content and optimal send times.
- High Delivery Rate: The platform boasts a delivery rate of over 99%.
- Email Templates: Expertly-designed templates that users can customize with HTML to express their brand and impress their customers.
- Integrations: Integrates with tools including Canva, Salesforce, Instagram, Shopify, Google Analytics, WooCommerce, QuickBooks Online, Squarespace, and Zapier.
- AI and Data Tools: Leverages powerful AI and data tools for crafting better-performing emails and generating professionally written, on-brand marketing emails.
- Advanced Analytics and Reporting: Track, analyze, and optimize campaign impact with advanced analytics and reporting tools, integrating with software like Shopify and Google Analytics.
- SMS Marketing: Mailchimp plans to introduce SMS marketing, allowing seamless integration of email, SMS marketing, automation, and data-driven insights.
- Personalized Support: Paid plans include access to a team of specialists who assist with onboarding, troubleshooting, and strategic guidance.
- Automations: Options to set up single email automations in the Free plan and more comprehensive automated workflows in Standard and Premium packages.
- Email Campaign Delivery: An advanced delivery infrastructure with built-in email authentication, 24/7 abuse monitoring, and technical support.
- Drag-and-Drop Builder and Content Studio: An easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder and content studio for creating and managing marketing materials.
- Transactional Email: Capability to send transactional emails like order confirmations using API or SMTP.
- Mobile Features: Tools to create, edit, and track email campaign performance on mobile devices.
HubSpot
Finally, we have HubSpot – probably one of the most well-known tools/resources for marketers. While HubSpot isn’t necessarily an email platform, it still has the functionality to perform email marketing. This includes standard personalization, A/B testing, campaigns, and also the integration of AI. It’s a great choice for beginners who don’t want to learn the complex features of email marketing and just want to simply ‘send emails’ to their audience.
HubSpot has a ton of resources available, not just for email marketing, but for marketing in general. This includes blogs, courses & certifications, videos, case studies, and more. You shouldn’t expect bells & whistles with the HubSpot email builder, but for beginners, it has everything needed to get started.
HubSpot’s pricing is split into multiple different packages. For marketing, it’s based on the number of contacts. It’s also split into Individuals & Small Teams / Businesses & Enterprises. For the former, you can access tools for free, but if you want to start email marketing, it would be the Starter Plan for $18/Mo. with a huge jump to $800/Mo. for the professional plan. It’s a slightly complex pricing structure, so be sure to check out their pricing page to learn more.
Top Feature Pick
The top feature pick for me in HubSpot is the ability to send automated emails from blog posts. This comes with internal blog management on the CMS platform and just makes communication a little easier.
Top HubSpot Features:
- Independent Email Creation: Design and send professional emails without needing designers or IT.
- Drag-and-Drop Editor: Craft professional email campaigns that display well across devices using a drag-and-drop editor.
- Personalization Options: Tailor emails to each subscriber using their lifecycle stage, list membership, or contact record information.
- A/B Testing and Analytics: Optimize email campaigns with A/B tests, learning which subject lines and content drive engagement and sales.
- AI Content Writing Features: Generate email marketing messaging quickly using AI content writing features.
- Integration with CRM: Automatically integrated with your CRM to track the effectiveness of your messaging.
- Extensive Template Library: Proven to drive customer engagement within the inbox.
- AI Writing Assistance: Helps generate new copy and fine-tune existing text (public beta).
