Despite what many people think, email marketing is far from dead. It’s one of the most effective marketing tools used to provide an optimum user experience. Not only does it keep a simple and low-maintenance open portal of communication with your customers, visitors, and target audience, but it also provides you with invaluable insights resulting from these forms of communication.
On the other hand, choosing the best email marketing software can be pretty overwhelming. There’s certainly no shortage of options when it comes to email marketing solutions, which makes choosing one over the other confusing. Most people would go with the most popular software: ConvertKit. However, ConvertKit isn’t for everyone. If you feel that you’re paying too much or you’re limited by its features, then perhaps it’s time to look for a ConvertKit alternative software to find a more suitable tool. After comparing different email software solutions in terms of price, features, ease-of-use, you’ll be able to find that best suits your needs.
So, before settling on an email software, here are some tips to help you with your choice:
Why do you need email software?
First things first: why do you need an email marketing solution? If you’re looking for a way to keep an open portal of communication with the generated leads, then you’re looking in the right place. However, if you’re looking for a more comprehensive marketing solution as an e-commerce business, then separating email marketing from the rest of the process is the wrong choice. You’ll need to look for a solution that links your email marketing to the rest of your marketing strategy.
How easy it is to use?
Unless you’re an IT expert, chances are that you don’t want something that’s very complicated to use. Your choice of email software should focus on its ease-of-use; preferably a tool that offers drag-and-drop features.
How much personalization does it provide?
Your email marketing software should provide you with all the tools you need to personalize your emails.
You should look for software that offers the following features:
Personal domain configuration
The last thing you want is for your emails to be sent to the spam folder. To avoid that, you need to ensure the credibility of your emails, which can only be done by creating an authenticated company domain name. On the plus side, this will increase your response rate.
Personal delivery
Customers appreciate feeling special, and there’s nothing more special than sending them emails that address their names specifically. A good email marketing tool will enable you to personalize the delivery of mails to direct the email body to each one of your customers directly.
Email creation features
Image Source: https://pixabay.com/vectors/email-email-marketing-newsletter-4284157/
What is the range of features offered to help you in creating your emails?
Here are some of the features you’ll need to use:
Creating forms
If you’re sending emails prior to an event or for survey purposes, the easiest way of doing that is through creating forms. It makes your job easier and it’s the most practical solution for your audience as well.
Diversity of templates
You don’t want to create an email from scratch every time. Sometimes you’ll also need some help in finding the best way to send an email. Using email marketing software that has a library of diverse templates will make your job so much easier.
Customization of templates
Offering templates can be a great feature, but it’s not complete unless you have the ability to edit these templates and customize them to suit your needs. The customization process also needs to be smooth and easy to implement to avoid wasting time and effort.
Multiple language support
Most emails are formatted to suit the English language, but if you’re creating emails for local customers using a different language, you’ll need to ensure that your language is supported in the email creation. For instance, if the direction of the language goes from right to left, using an email creation tool that doesn’t support this language will send chaotic emails.
Automation &AI
The main reason for using email marketing software is having the ability to send emails in bulk. But merely sending emails is not enough in this age, you need to ensure they’re being received. Good email software will automate this process while using AI to validate the delivery of your future campaigns and give you recommendations, such as send-time optimization and content placement.
Scheduling
Lastly, the best content creation tools all have one thing in common. It saves your time by allowing you to create all your content at once, scheduling it to be delivered at the proper time to the target audience. This feature will save you a lot of headaches with its practicality, allowing you to focus on other tasks.
Does it offer mobile optimization?
Let’s face it: the majority of your audience will check their email through their smartphones. If the emails you send aren’t customized to be viewed on mobile devices, then the response rate you get will be hugely affected. The email marketing software you use should provide responsive email features, allowing the emails to be optimized for mobile devices.
Can you diversify your campaigns through it?
Using an email marketing tool that limits your marketing activities isn’t really a very efficient way to proceed with your strategies. You want software that allows you to be as flexible and creative as you want with your campaigns. It should provide you with options to create newsletters, welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, or other emails that get triggered by certain actions.
Does it improve deliverability?
The deliverability of your emails depends on many factors, some of which have to do with the tool you use, but others are not. Using email software that offers an authentic domain name will prevent having your emails end up as spam, but the way you practice your email creation process plays a major role in their deliverability as well. A good tool will enable you to improve your process by providing the following:
- KPI to help you understand processes flaws and identify the problem.
- Insights about inbox delivery, spam delivery, backlisting, and spam trap hits.
- Automated alerts whenever an email is sent into the spam folder or in case there’s a failure in delivery.
Does it provide cancellation links?
As required by law, an individual should be able to cancel their subscription to any mailing list they’re included in. As such, the email marketing tool you use should offer cancellation links in their templates.
Does it provide segmentation of data?
One of the most important features of an email marketing tool is data segmentation. This feature allows you to categorize your target audience depending on age, location, interests, activities… etc. By doing so, you’re making sure that your emails reach the target customers who’d be interested in the email and not anyone else. You don’t want to send a newsletter about a concert in New York for someone living in Chicago.
Does it provide testing features?
Sending an email before testing it is a huge risk you don’t want to take. Your email software should provide you with testing features to test your email before it is sent to your audience. More advanced email tools will give provide A/B testing features as well, which enables you to test the same campaign on different subjects. After getting the results and evaluating the efficiency of both campaigns, you can choose the most efficient one to send the rest of the emails to.
Does it provide accurate analytics?
Just like every other aspect of marketing, operations are only half of the work. The more important portion of the job depends on the performance of the operations, which you can only measure by acquiring accurate analytics of your campaigns. It’s imperative that you choose email marketing software that gives your real-time analytics to understand your data and optimize your performance.
What kind of support will you get with this software?
If you’re stuck between two email software providers who offer the same features, then the deciding factor would be the support they offer through their customer service. If you’re stuck in the middle of an obstacle, will you be able to contact them for support? What’s the level of support they offer?
What’s the future of this software?
Sometimes you’ll need to send emails that contain content that’s regularly updated. You want to make sure whoever receives the email will be able to view the updated data, not an outdated version, which requires the ability to include dynamic and real-live content. You also want to choose software that won’t be outdated in a few years. Emails that provide embedded buying, GIF support, and interactive features are the future of email marketing.
Choosing the best email marketing software can be overwhelming. You might also think that all email creation tools are the same, but that’s not true. The best email marketing tool will provide a comprehensive solution to satisfy all your needs in one place. It will be easy to use, customizable, and its list of features will provide the utmost practicality and efficiency. The emails you create using this software will provide the best user experience while giving you everything you need to analyze, improve, and maximize the efficiency of your email marketing process.
