Aweber

Aweber is one of the leading email service provider platforms that has around 115,000 users worldwide. When it comes to your email marketing, this platform is great for allowing you control all the steps involved in that process. It is generally described as one of the easier platforms to use as well whether it’s customising broadcasts, designing opt-in forms or building out your autoresponder campaigns. There is also some handy reporting tools and analytics built in to the system that helps with understanding where your campaigns can improve and what you are doing right.

Some of the great stuff:

• User friendly drag and drop campaign builder for auto responders
• You are able to link multiple opt-in forms on your site to the same list instead of needing to create a separate list per opt-in.
• Creating tags based on links that are clicked which helps you provide the right content to those who want it and allowing you to track who is clicking what

Some of the not-so-great stuff:

• No automations. Someone is only able to enter an automation if they opt-in or you tag them. There are no options when people purchase, click an upsell etc
• The templates need revamping. Fortunately it is still easy to design your own templates but still can result in a lot more time spent on it than just choosing an pre-designed template.
• Your subscriber quota includes duplicates and unsubscribes. So if you have someone on multiple lists it counts as more than one contact even if it is the same person and when someone unsubscribes, it still reflects the contact number, which you pay for.

Pricing:

Its pricing is quite simple and is based on the number of subscribers you have in your account. It starts out at $19 per month (for less than 500 subscribers) and can go up to $69 a month for up to 10,000 subscribers.

The MyFunnelTeam Rating: 3.5/5

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a giant when it comes to email service providers with its 17-odd million users. This is in large part, due to the forever free plan it offers users which is great for startups and getting onto your feet with an email service provider. While its newsletter templates are pretty neat, this platform is a very simple approach to email marketing and is not something you want to consider when going a bit more in-depth into your direct marketing and what you need it to be able to achieve for you. It is a fairly user friendly platform with built in drag and drop features on many of its features which is perfect for those who are just starting out and need to learn their way around these kind of tools.

Some of the great stuff:

• It’s great for starting out because it’s free.
• Decide on when you want emails to go out and customise the mails to suit different time zones
• E-commerce integrations available for online stores for targeted campaigns and communication with clients.
• Customer targeting according to their behaviour and preferences.
• Mobile app helps you manage your account on the go

Some of the not-so-great stuff:

• Segmentation is limited in its capacity
• Automation workflows may be confusing to navigate
• Restricted to one list per campaign and you cannot send to multiple lists

Pricing:

Mailchimp offers a free forever plan with limited capability (obviously) and then its plans start from $10 a month going up to $199 per month. (note the billing is done annually).

The MyFunnelTeam Rating: 3/5

ActiveCampaign

Active Campaign is one of the most popular email service providers in the world of marketing automation. It’s best described as an affordable provider for small businesses with its software being really well designed. If you are looking for in-depth marketing automations in the form of workflows, broadcasts and autoresponder campaigns, then this is the right place to start.

Some of the great stuff:

• Contacts are primary focus, one contact counts as one no matter how many lists the contact is part of
• Contacts info can include a lot more than just email address
• Tags are really helpful in managing your contact behaviour
• Segmentation is handy because it allows you to set defining characteristics
• Nice drag and drop builder when creating automation workflows

Some of the not-so-great stuff:

• Not so user friendly for the non-technical minds out there
• Automation builder gets tricky as the campaign gets more detailed
• You cannot send mails out according to different time zones.

Pricing:

Active Campaign has a 14-day free trial following which you have different options available according to the size of your contact list, for example a lite package can start out from $9 per month for a contact list of 500 contacts while for a list of 5,000 contacts for the same package will cost you $69 a month. It all depends on the size of your list and your business operations.

The MyFunnelTeam Rating: 4/5

InfusionSoft

For anyone who has ever heard of Infusionsoft, you may have heard that it is not the most simple platform to get going on. But when you do get it done, you are introduced to an all-in-one email marketing solution meaning that it offers numerous things like customer relationship management, email marketing, marketing automation and e-commerce capabilities. So you are not only able to communicate with subscribers but also reach out to prospective clients and incorporate your shopping cart into the mix.

Some of the great stuff:

• Their campaign builder is really impressive and gives you the opportunity to create freeform campaigns however complex you want to achieve.
• There is a giant 3rd party marketplace that offers pre-made campaigns, apps and services that come in both the paid and unpaid options. The pre-made campaigns can then be imported into your account fuss-free.
• E-commerce integration means that you do not have to worry about making two separate platforms talk to each other and do what they need to, it is already done for you, making it a lot simpler to get done.
• Cool onboarding process. You get 5 sessions one-on-one with a personal coach who helps walk you through the beginning stages and helps you build 3 campaigns.

Some of the not-so-great stuff:

• Confusing interface. If you are not technically-minded, then think twice before going for this one. The interface can be very confusing at times and requires a certain level of understanding to get the most out of the software.
• There is no option to split test.
• It is extremely difficult to sign up (and leave). It is a drawn out process to get started, the onboarding is a paid feature, and you have a 1-year contract to sign with a penalty imposed if you leave before it’s up.
• The help centre is a standalone site which can make navigating issues trickier

Pricing:

Pricing options vary according to the amount of contacts you have but it starts at $99 per month plus the $299 onboarding fee. Don’t forget you need to sign a 1-year contract too.

The MyFunnelTeam Rating: 3/5

Constant Contact