Expert Tips For 7 Best Email Marketing Services for Small Business (2021)

Email marketing is one of the most tried-and-true and consistently reliable forms of marketing available – and it comes with a wide variety of benefits that mean it should be a staple in any business marketing arsenal.

For one thing, email marketing is generally remarkably cost-effective by comparison to other marketing approaches. An email itself typically costs nothing to send. Still, for your email marketing campaign to be truly effective, it’s essential to utilize the exemplary email marketing software service for the job – which will entail some cost.

Still, when stacked up against all sorts of other forms of marketing, email marketing is consistently one of the most affordable and cost-effective and likely to prove to be a worthwhile investment of resources.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, businesses in the United States see an average 4300 percent ROI (Return on Investment) with email marketing.

All the same, effective email marketing does largely depend on utilizing the right email marketing software, not least of all to ensure that your emails get reliably delivered.

If you don’t choose wisely, there’s a risk that you’ll end up paying for a service that yields a dismal deliverability rate, therefore costing you money, time and also undermining your entire marketing effort.

Here are seven of the best email marketing services for small businesses as of 2021.

1. SendinBlue

SendinBlue offers a complete SMS and email marketing service for businesses and has the distinction of being one of the fastest-growing email marketing businesses in all of Europe.

Simplicity is the name of the game with this service, with a simple drag-and-drop email editor allowing for even complete novices to email marketing to create beautiful, elegant, and highly engaging emails that can make all the difference.

SendinBlue also offers a series of beginner-friendly marketing automation tools that allow for the creation of automatic follow-up emails, transactional emails, timed bulk emails, and more.

The free plan for SendinBlue allows for unlimited contacts and up to 300 emails a day, although the emails will Include company branding. Paid plans start at $25 per month, with the option to add SMS services – although these can influence price depending on specific requirements. 

2. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is known for being one of the most important and rapidly growing email marketing services globally and one of the most beginner-friendly.

With this service, managing email lists, templates, scheduling, and more, is straightforward and intuitive – and the company offers unparalleled customer support, ranging from phone lines to email and live chat to a great library of valuable resources.

Constant Contact also offers excellent live training seminars across the United States, helping anyone proficient in email marketing.

The service begins with a 60-day free trial, with no credit card requirement, and after that, paid services start at as little as $20 a month.

3. Drip

Drip is an email marketing service that shines for people working in eCommerce and digital marketers and bloggers. It can be described as a powerful enterprise service.

Importantly, their email marketing software integrates seamlessly with the leading website building and content management systems, including WordPress and WooCommerce, which makes it easy to incorporate things like pop-ups and signup forms to your website as a way of drawing in and converting more leads.

Drip is notable for its intelligent automation tools, including split testing features, list groups, a visual automation workflow builder, and more, that help you reach targeted customers very precisely to increase sales.

Recently, Drip has included SMS features.

Drip offers a free trial, after which the service costs $49 per month for access to all features.

4. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is explicitly aimed at professional marketers, authors, and bloggers and is easy to use and notably powerful at what it does.

The feature of this service that most stands out is that It makes it especially easy to offer content upgrades and various incentives via email signup forms and makes it very easy to set up autoresponders.

ConvertKit allows you to quickly categorize subscribers and divide them between those who have already made a purchase and those who haven’t, allowing for a more targeted and personalised form of marketing.

The company offers a 14-day free trial (complete with a 30-day refund policy), and subscription pricing starts from $29 per month.

5. AWeber

AWeber is well known for being one of the oldest and most well-established email marketing services in the world and one of the most popular.

The tools they offer are particularly useful for small and medium-sized businesses, and include features for a/b testing, detailed email tracking, list management, autoresponders, and more.

This service integrates seamlessly with most platforms, including WordPress.

AWeber has a limited free plan that allows for up to 500 subscribers, with subscription pricing starting from $19 per month.

6. GetResponse

GetResponse is popular and easy to use and primarily simplifies email marketing for small businesses.

This service features a drag-and-drop campaign builder, allows for effectively categorizing and segmenting contacts, and has beautiful and responsive signup forms and landing pages, among other things.

Customer support is available by phone, live chat, and email, and the GetResponse help section contains plenty of free learning materials, including videos, how-to guides, webinars, and more.

GetResponse offers a 30-day free trial, followed by a subscription starting at $15 per month. 

7. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing services globally, not just because of its memorable mascot and name. This service comes with a “forever free” email marketing plan that allows sending 12,000 emails to up to 2,000 subscribers.

Mailchimp features an easy drag-and-drop email builder, as well as autoresponders, the ability to categorize and segment subscribers easily, and more. It is also easily integrated with various eCommerce and website-building platforms, including WordPress, Shopify, Magento, and more.

Mailchimp offers significantly fewer features than many other services but can stand out as an entry-level service.

Paid Mailchimp plans start at $10 per month for 500 subscribers, with the cost increasing for every additional 500 subscribers. However, for an unlimited audience and more advanced features, you would need to pay for the $299 per month plan.