Email is considered as by far, the simplest yet proven effective tactic in growing your business. Billions of people worldwide use email on a daily basis. People use email for many purposes; job, business, personal blog or for leisure. A huge plus is creating an account is easy and free. Can you think of anyone you know who does not have an email? Almost everyone has it and it has become a necessity.
In the field of business, email marketing is an effective way of reaching target audience. It is one personal way of addressing everyone’s needs and preferences. One more thing, email marketing is a proven way of increasing a chance of leads to conversion, YES it can! If you are not using this strategy in your business yet, you need to start now. But first things first, try to consider these things before picking your top choice/s as the best email marketing tools for your business:
Pricing
There are tons of free email marketing tools on the web and are actually good but there might be some features you need which may not be available on its free version (like most free software do). It would be better to prepare a spare budget when venturing to this platform. Don’t be put off by the fact that email marketing requires monetization, according to some reviews on email marketing tools; you get more than double of what you pay for.
According to a review, the one on top of the rank as the best email marketing tools which is Mailigen; offers a free trial on a limited time with no credit card needed and pricing starts for as low as $10 a month. That’s practically an incredible deal from a top-notch email marketing service. The second and the third in line on the ranking (which rating do not seem quite far from the one on top) also shows raving comments from its users telling how satisfied are they on using them.
In terms of ROI (return on investment), a study says email marketing yields around 4300% ROI rate. Computation shows that for every dollar spent, you get a return of $44. Now that’s another reason to prove email marketing tool for your business is a no-brainer.
User-friendly Interface
GUI (graphical user interface) is a very important feature to look for when choosing the right email broadcasting tool to use. You need to be assured that you can easily navigate things within the system. Not everyone is keen with technicalities; therefore having a user-friendly interface should be one of the primary things to consider beforehand. Below are a few tips to help you:
Look for:
- Warm-colored themes with only 2 or 3 colors combined; white with blue, grey, green, black or other eye pleasing mixtures.
- Well oriented navigation bars; it should be easy to access important details such as managing your contact details, campaigns, graphs showing click-through rate, etc.
- A variety of email marketing templates; you should have access to various email template designs to use. This would be helpful when you start organizing your email campaigns.
- Self-help materials such as FAQs and manuals.
Avoid those:
- Using bright colored graphics (neon, bright green, yellow, etc.) Since you will be using the system for long hours, look for something eye-pleasing.
- Too complicated details; you don’t have all day to study their system.
- Don’t offer technical help such as manuals and self-help articles to look for when problem occurs.
Technical Support Availability
Tech support is essential to so many platforms; online or offline. Talking about email marketing, not so many companies offer technical support in their systems. Which is one of the reasons people gets disappointed about. To encounter issues is something inevitable.
There are many forms of support in email marketing including phone call, chat or through emails. Some companies have their own work group assigned to cater customer support. These companies automatically get the edge out of others. It shows how they value customer queries and live up to their pride as a good brand.
If cases happen and you finally picked the email marketing tool of your choice but there is no technical support offered, try to look for self help articles. If everything seems fine and you completely understand everything, then perhaps the need for tech support is negligible. Remember: one the most important things to reassure are the available help to rely on when future mishaps occur.
Moreover..
Those are the 3 major things to look for in choosing the right email marketing software to invest to. But wait, there’s more to discover. As a practical being as we are, it’s an important matter for us to know what merits and demerits a particular product can offer us. When choosing the right tool for email marketing, you must also get acquainted with the advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
There are numerous advantages to using email marketing platform to every business. These benefits prove that email marketing as a technique in promoting a brand is undeniably a good investment. An article has come up to a list of a handful of merits of using email marketing system:
- Affordability – as mentioned a while ago, email marketing is undeniably cheap compared to other marketing platforms. There is no need to pay for large TV advert or prints on billboards and fliers. You get to reach people without having to pay luxuriously.
- Reach target market – it was mentioned that email marketing is among the chosen channels customers ask to be given. Only consumers who subscribed to receive your emails will receive one. That means these customers are the one whose interests and needs fit the service you provide, thus, making it easier for you to reach potential buyers.
- Segmentation – Email marketing tools allow you to segment your email list. There’s nothing more enticing than a personalized email. It shows how dedicated you are in addressing every single one of your subscribers. This is a proven technique to improve customer trust and conversion.
- Call-to-Action – CTA is the lead towards conversion. There is not a lot of marketing platforms that allows a customer to read an offer and directly purchase it in just a couple of clicks. Email marketing can help boost sales in the simplest form.
- Simplicity – from signing up to sending newsletters, managing campaigns and publishing, monitoring click-through rates and more; everything is easy. Email marketing is basically a do-it-yourself system which does not require a lot of technical knowledge.
- Shareable – the same as social media contents, email marketing campaigns can also be shared. Your subscribers can be your very own brand ambassadors.
- Progress assessment – another core benefit of this platform is to see if you are doing things right or wrong. It allows you to check whether people are opening your newsletters or not. A good way to focus on areas for improvement.
- Global – we all know of the fact that email is used all over the globe. Thus, giving you the potential to reach a wider audience.
- Immediate Results – Email marketing is a proven technique to provide immediate results in a span of minutes after emails has been sent. Hence the fact that most marketers use this strategy.
- Return on Investment – as discussed earlier, email marketing’s ROI rate is definitely something every marketers get satisfied about. Knowing the fact that email marketing is affordable and ROI rate is 4300%, you get the best of both worlds.
Disadvantages
Having learned all the great advantages email marketing can give, it is also important to know the challenges you will possibly be facing in the middle of the road. Having the knowledge of the downsides can help you make efficient use of this medium. To sum up, here is a rundown of the disadvantages according to study:
- Delivery issues – there is a possibility for your email campaigns to not make its way to your recipient’s inbox. Web features such as spam filters and firewalls can block email’s. To avoid this issue, carefully set your email policies. Using email authentication mediums also does help.
- Competition – is common in the market playground. Same goes through email marketing, competition is rampant. Many companies use the technique of subscribing to a competitors email newsletter to get details such as price, offers and other deals. It is quite impossible to differentiate a customer and a competitor from your contact list.
- Risks – there are possible risks to encounter when advertising through email. Being interpreted as a spammer, or emails with misleading contents is a serious problem. Tip to avoid this is to improve email content and avoid having poorly designed email campaigns. It is best to send emails only to the right prospects.
There you go! Those are the essential things to know on how to choose the right email marketing medium. Take time to plan and do thorough research. You may check reviews on email marketing tools to have a short list of potential ones that fits your needs. To see a rundown of the best email marketing tools, check here.
John Tovar
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