Email marketing automation has become an invaluable tool for businesses looking to increase leads and engage customers without the tedious effort of manual outreach. The top email marketing automation platforms make it simple to set up targeted, personalized drip campaigns that drive results.
Leading services like GetResponse, Mailchimp, and ConvertKit take the complexity out of building email journeys designed to nurture contacts based on behaviors and interests. Intuitive drag-and-drop editors, pre-built templates, and integration with websites/CRM systems allows for streamlined creation of automated welcome series, promotions, announcements and more.
Key features that the best email automation solutions offer include segmenting contacts, A/B testing subject lines, visual drag-and-drop workflow builders, advanced analytics on email performance, landing page creators, and sign up forms. This enables in-depth tracking of email metrics to optimize engagement.
According to recent statistics, email marketing automation increases leads 2x more than basic email blasts alone. And with ROI increasing by as much as 40% through well-executed campaigns, the impact is measurable.
For managed email marketing made simple that drives tangible outcomes, today’s top automation platforms eliminate the manual busywork through customizable journeys that convert and retain customers better over time.
10 Best Free Email Marketing Automation & Autoresponder Tools
Online marketing campaigns are carried out using various applications and services, one of them is email marketing. By choosing the right email marketing services, the performance of your online marketing campaign will be launched targeting and significant.
What’s an Email Marketing Tool?
An email marketing tool is software that will make your marketing campaign easier. With email marketing services, you can manage and control the connections that are created between you and your audience via email.
Sending bulk emails will also provide insight or performance information on the marketing emails that are sent. For example, the application will track who has opened an email and clicked on the link included in it.
1. MailChimp
mailchimp email marketing
Mailchimp allows you to send drip as a follow-up from website activity, abandoned carts, activity or inactivity, and much more. If you want, you can Mailchimp Group + OptinMonster to send drip emails based on what the subscriber opted in for or from what the user selects in the opt-in form. Mailchimp also offers a lot of integrations and an all-in-one solution for inbound campaigns.
Mailchimp gives you unlimited emails, but with a limited number of contacts, you can send them to. You can get up to 2000 contacts for free. If you want more you need to pay at the lowest $30/month and you can get up to 50.000 contacts with their most expensive plan.
Their prices admittedly can get crazier and crazier, be sure to use their price calculator to see how much you’re going to spend each month with the plan or features that you want Mailchimp can get really expensive more features or contacts you want.
Mailchimp is a bit simple to some automation tools out there. It can send emails to a lot of contacts but it’s definitely shallow. It’s still great at what it does but you won’t get a lot of depth from the tool. On the surface level, Mailchimp will let you do a lot of things:
- send a welcome sequence to new subscribers
- birthday emails with whatever content (like a coupon)
- onboarding series or educational courses
- recover abandoned carts
- follow up on purchases
- customize order notifications from your store
- contact first-time customers
- reward frequent buyers
- re-engage with inactive customers
Mailchimp works best when you want to use its pre-made automation where it suggests some specific triggers based on what you want to do: like sending a welcome series or abandoned cart series. It does speed up operations by a lot. But if you want to be more specific, Mailchimps might not be advanced enough for that.
Overall, Mailchimp is good if you want to get started as soon as possible with a pre-made setup decent enough to get your automation going. For advanced usage, you better look elsewhere.
2. SendinBlue
sendinblue best email marketing
SendinBlue is very popular and one of the best email marketing automation tools. In fact, their popularity is built mainly by an email marketing automation product. They have an exceptional API that makes integrating their email-sending functionality into your own application very easy. It may not be perfect but it’s great and reliable enough for most businesses. Their deliverability rate is at around 93% to 96%.
Their pricing is very interesting, they offer you unlimited contacts on all plans, but only for sending regular email campaigns, like a newsletter for example. The marketing automation features have different rules. They cap the number of contacts at 2000 unless you’re willing to pay a $ 66/month fee. If you do, you will get unlimited contacts for marketing automation as well. Their pricing is very reasonable compared to some other competitors and doesn’t just shoot up and become very expensive later on.
SendinBlue is not just a random company. They’re very serious about their marketing automation features. There are tons of features the deeper you go. You can create multiple workflows and have them all running in parallel to each other. They can even work on the same contacts, and you can even connect them into a chain. This kind of feature is almost unique to SendinBlue only and probably the best feature in the email marketing automation tool.
The features of SendinBlue are very advanced, compared to Mailchimp, the difference is day and night. SendinBlue is an excellent choice if you want to go deep into email automation and other things you can do with it. Their advanced workflow tools will make advanced users very happy.
3. ConvertKit Email Marketing for Online Creators
ConvertKit Email Marketing for Online Creators
If you need marketing automation for your company, maybe this is one on your list. marketing automation softwareConvertKit allows you to send targeted autoresponders to subscribers based on their last interaction with your email with Automation Rules. They offer advanced featured of a CRM without the price tag. You should try their blueprints that you can use to quickly and easily create autoresponder sequences for almost any situation. We think that ConvertKit might be the best marketing automation software for bloggers who want to run targeted campaigns.
Like we said before ConvertKit is created specifically for bloggers. But it’s not limited to bloggers, e-commerce stores, and other businesses that can benefit from this tool. Similar to Mailchimp the module simple. You can create your own automation based on plenty of triggers and then also set separate rules that put simpler automation in motion.
There are four main types of triggers available: the subscriber joining form, getting a tag added, custom field value changing, and purchase happening. Next, you can connect a trigger to any number of Events, Actions, and Conditions. Actions are things like sending an email sequence or single email, adding or removing a tag, moving the subscriber to another list, and set some custom field value. Conditions are “if” clauses determined by tag or custom field values. Events are additional triggers that speed up the automation workflow.
You combine those elements to create the automation sequences that you desire. ConvertKit can also be integrated with a bunch of other platforms, including e-commerce. You can use it to handle communications via, WooCommerce, Shopify, and many others.
On the surface level, ConvertKit is simple but as you go deeper into it, you will see other features that will help you set up all kinds of automation sequences. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have any pre-made templates for automation, everything has to be created from the ground up, this may cause some problems for beginners.
4. Drip Email Marketing
Drip Email Marketing
As the name suggests, it’s an app designed to streamline the drip email process. It’s a very simple tool that can do heavy work for you. It has email-gathering technology, a pre-made template, and drag-and-drop elements for simple creations.
We just had to include Drip on the list. The reason for this is simplicity. We value tools that make things easier even for beginners. We believe that Drip is a very enjoyable tool for everyone. Beginners will be grateful for this tool and advanced users will enjoy using it even more.
There are two main sections of Drip, Rules, and Workflows. Rules are Drip’s version of “if”. You can use it to set a trigger and then a corresponding action. This is where the magic happens.
Drip is very impressive in how it approaches the topic of marketing automation and how to make itself useful and easy for everything. This is one of the best email marketing automation tools for people who love an easy interface that makes the setup process simple.
5. Intercom Email Marketing
intercom email marketing
Intercom is an automatic messaging service for users via email, messaging applications, and push notifications. You can target the right people for important messages or promotional messages. In this case, you can target those who do on your website or product.
A better way of communicating helps you to increase the productivity of your products. By using the services of an intercom, you can send an e-mail marketing that is automatically connected with the people when they are most ready to engage. It also allows you to post an application and an automatic website that is connected to the user.
Not only that, but the intercom also allows you to send messages automatically in the form of images, videos, applications, and emojis that tell the most powerful emotions about your product.
The good news is, that you can do the trial period given to you. The trick is simple, enter an email and confirm then log in to access the dashboard.
6. Clevertap
clevertap best email marketing
Clevertap stands out as an invaluable marketing platform for brands looking to increase user engagement and sales through targeted, automated campaigns personalized in real-time.
A major advantage Clevertap offers is the ability to easily integrate email efforts with other channels like mobile push and web notifications for unified messaging. This consolidated approach enabled through Clevertap’s straightforward dashboard improves campaign performance across devices.
Clevertap also empowers non-technical marketers to build sophisticated workflows with no coding required through an intuitive drag-and-drop journey builder. Pre-defined templates and best practice frameworks ensure new email marketers can create high-converting drip campaigns that evolve based on subscriber behaviors quickly.
The platform is also flexible in linking existing email service providers you have or utilizing Clevertap’s default ESP optimized for scalability. This allows existing email subscriber data to integrate seamlessly while leveraging enterprise-grade delivery infrastructure.
And with real-time user data syncs, personalized dynamic content, and machine learning capabilities driving automation, Clevertap enables next-level email marketing execution at scale. Brands ranging from Fortune 500 companies to startups have increased their ROI significantly through Clevertap.
So for forward-thinking email marketing automation tightly integrated across channels, Clevertap checks all the boxes to engage customers in a smarter, more measurable way.
7. Constant Contact
constantcontact
Constant Contact started over 20 years ago as one of the first email marketing platforms catered to small businesses and nonprofits. It has since evolved into a versatile digital marketing suite while maintaining its core focus of making professional email marketing easy and accessible. With an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and pre-designed templates, anyone can create great-looking emails regardless of technical skill.
Email marketing remains the bread and butter of Constant Contact. It provides all the standard email functionality from customizable templates to contact management and email automation. The platform also takes the pain out of list building with lead capture tools like sign-up forms, landing pages, and integration with sites like Facebook. This combination allows users to not only send emails but also grow their lists both automatically and manually.
While email may be the primary channel, Constant Contact incorporates other digital channels into its platform. This includes basic social media publishing, SMS marketing, and even retargeting ads on Facebook. The goal is to offer users a centralized dashboard to execute multi-channel campaigns while providing deep analytics and insights to optimize performance.
On top of its marketing tools, Constant Contact offers small business owners a way to manage customer relationships through its CRM features. This allows users to track interactions across channels to nurture leads and provide a more personalized experience. The CRM seamlessly integrates with other components like email for a true omni-channel solution.
A major advantage Constant Contact has over niche email platforms is its robust integration network. Users can connect virtually any marketing or business system they already use like accounting, sales, ERP and more. This allows Constant Contact to function as an information hub that syncs data across systems for streamlined execution.
After 20+ years focused on user-friendliness, Constant Contact is regarded as one of the easiest-to-use platforms. Between the intuitive interface, strong customer support, and educational resources, most users can get up and running quickly. While it may lack advanced functionality compared to enterprise marketing platforms, it provides an ideal solution for small teams.
8. GetResponse
GetResponse
GetResponse is the best email marketing service provider that promises a delivery rate of 99% and offers an all-in-one marketing tool. It also has a 30 day free trial period.
GetRespons provides a drag-and-drop template editor for designing and customizing the appearance of newsletters, landing pages, and other marketing elements.
This email marketing has automated features and autoresponders that you can use to compose and send a series of emails every day or week. With the right timing, email delivery is more optimal because it is adjusted to the contact’s domicile time
GetResponse also has Customer Relationship Management (CRM) which will provide a deeper understanding of the relationships and interactions that exist between you and customers. Integrate CRM with auto-management features and send serialized emails containing targeted messages.
9. AWeber
aweber
AWeber is one of the best email marketing service providers in the digital industry and is aimed at small and medium businesses There are over 700 mobile-responsive templates available to create email content with HTML or create a blank text message from scratch. To make your campaign more attractive, add images to choose from from the 6000 collections of free images.
There are many features for running an email marketing campaign. For starters, collect contact or customer data using the form generator. In this tool, you can find hundreds of well-designed templates.
Edit and customize the appearance of the email content using drag-and-drop elements. Before sending it, you can review the email to test how it will look when it arrives in the customer’s inbox.
10. Keap
keap
Keap is the company behind the all-in-one CRM software, Infusionsoft – focusing its email marketing on professional service providers.
This email marketing tool will help you to be more focused, organized, and efficient in communicating with clients. Get all the essential tools for creating email follow-ups, client records, and determining payment methods.
Keap has a Sales Pipeline that will provide an overview of each stage of the sales process or an offer is made. You can move the sales process and make offers on the dashboard.
The email marketing tool also provides a free strategy guide to learn and apply in creating an effective marketing strategy. There is no free trial feature, only a premium plan with subscription fees starting at $ 99 / month.
FAQS: Email marketing automation?
What is email marketing automation?
Email marketing automation (EMA) is a software platform that automates the process of sending email campaigns, including content creation and acquisition, A/B testing, and email delivery. EMA is also known for its scalability and integrations with other channels, such as social media. By automating these processes, businesses can save time and effort while increasing their email reach.
What are benefits of email marketing automation?
Email marketing automation can offer a variety of benefits, including increased engagement and click-through rates,lower costs, and more accurate data tracking. By automating your email marketing process, you can reduce the time spent on each campaign and focus on more important tasks. Additionally, email marketing automation can help you better understand which messages are being delivered to your target audience and how best to reach them.
How to use email marketing automation to improve ROI?
Email marketing automation can help improve ROI by streamlining the process of creating and sending email campaigns. By automating tasks such as campaign creation, email copy writing, and email tracking, businesses can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time developing their marketing strategy. Automated email marketing also allows businesses to better target their audience and measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the best email marketing automation tool for your business depends on your specific needs and preferences. Some tools are more user-friendly, while others offer advanced automation capabilities. Consider your budget, the complexity of your campaigns, and your target audience when choosing the right email marketing automation tool for your business.
