Best Email Sending Systems for Small Businesses in 2022
Boost Your Small Business with an Email Marketing System in 2022
*Updated August 26, 2022
Email marketing is a staple of businesses big and small, but crafting quality emails to drive conversion sometimes requires help. And with a plethora of email marketing platforms available, knowing the basic necessities can help you choose a service and plan that accomplishes your growth goals.
Choosing the Right Email Marketing Service for Your Business, written by Simone Johnson for Business News Daily, takes an in-depth look at what features are nonnegotiable in a marketing platform. We’ve taken several popular marketing services and explored their offerings to come up with this comparison list (which is by no means exhaustive). We compare the cheapest paid plans each platform provides, looking at several key features.
Keep in mind each service provides more features than we’ve listed. Also note that no email service can guarantee delivery to the primary inbox. We include some strategies for delivery at the end of this article.
Our comparison factors:
contact and monthly email count—the number of contacts you can store and the number of emails you can send each month
automation—emails generated by customer interactions with website and emails
personalization—emails that address individual customers
email customization—customizable templates to work from
grouping—dividing your contacts into smaller groups to avoid mass email lists and to deliver more targeted content
Our top 5 email sending picks
1. Zoho
Zoho is a cheap option for small businesses with smaller contact lists. Pricing is determined by the number of contacts you have and whether you choose their standard or professional plan. Zoho offers a free 14-day trial and they also have a free option if you only need a system for sending out marketing emails. Zoho’s standard plan starts at $3 a month and includes:
500 contacts
Unlimited monthly emails
Customizable templates
Email grouping and personalization
Automation is reserved for professional plans, starting at $4.50 a month.
Zoho is our favorite choice for an email sending system. It’s cheap to get all the key features. What sets it apart from other competitors is that each plan allows up to five users–even the free plan. Zoho is a great choice for small businesses who are getting their email marketing up and running. Even though automation is reserved for the more expensive plan, the cost is still fairly cheap and competes well with other systems.
2. MailerLite
MailerLite’s paid plans range from $9 to $50 a month, depending on your contact count. MailerLite offers a 30-day free trial of premium features so you can try before you buy. They also have a free subscription with limited features. MailerLite’s $9 a month plan includes:
1,000 contacts
Unlimited monthly emails
Customizable templates
Email automation
Email grouping and personalization
MailerLite offers nearly all their features in every paid plan and charges you based on the number of contacts you have. MailerLite plans include a variety of non-email features as well, giving small businesses the tools they need at affordable pricing. The primary reason we rank it lower than Zoho is because MilerLite only allows three users for their growing business plan, compared to Zoho’s five.
3. Moosend
Moosend offers customers a free 30-day trial of all their features. If you want to continue, your pricing is based on your contact count and whether you purchase a pro plan or a custom enterprise plan. Pro plans begin at $9 a month and include:
500 contacts
Unlimited emails
Templates
Email automation
Email grouping and personalization
While still an affordable option, Moosend ranks third because it costs more to get the same contact count as Zoho and MailerLite.
Constant Contact’s email marketing packages are priced based on the number of contacts you have, beginning at $9.99 a month. Monthly email limits are 24 times the number of contacts you have, with a .002 cent overage fee. The core starting plan includes:
500 contacts
12,000 monthly emails
Customizable templates
Email grouping
Email automation and personalization reserved for plus plan members, starting at $45 a month
Constant Contact is more expensive than the competition, with some key features reserved for their more expensive plan. When seeking a platform primarily for email marketing, Constant Contact doesn’t compete.
5. Sendinblue
Sendinblue is more expensive than the competitors we’ve listed, but it does deserve a mention here. All Sendinblue’s plans (even the free one) have unlimited contact storage, which is great. Pricing depends on the number of emails you want to send and what tier plan you purchase. The Lite plan begins at $25 a month and includes:
Unlimited contacts
20,000 emails per month
Customizable templates
Email grouping and personalization
Email automation
Sendinblue has a free option for limited email sending for small businesses just getting started. Although the price may not compare with other platforms, Sendinblue may be a great option for a business with lots of contacts but small marketing campaigns.
The wrap up
Although we’ve compared and ranked these different platforms, you should still be sure to do your own research. The support, integration, logo removal, and user experience of each platform will appeal to different people, so just because we ranked one platform higher than another doesn’t mean it will be your top choice. Since most of these systems offer a free trial (or free option), we recommend taking advantage of that and using the trial period to determine if the platform is right for you and your team.
Email marketing and sending systems exist in abundance, so keep in mind that this list is by no means exhaustive. We looked into several other systems, including: Hubspot, Getresponse, Drip, Campaigner, Campaign Monitor, Sendgrid, and Mailchimp. The platforms we chose to rank, in our opinion, give you the most for your money.
(Also as a side note, their pricing and feature comparisons were very easy to locate and understand. Other competitors’ websites were confusing and not user friendly, which is a big deal for us.)
Can I do email marketing without using a platform?
You can always tackle your email marketing campaign by using mail merge and your contact list. This gives you complete control over personalization, email content, and grouping. However, it requires more time to craft emails, divide up lists, and actually send the emails.
If you have the time and inclination to do it yourself, you can refer to The Ultimate Guide to Doing Email Merge from Excel, written by Mathieu Picard for Anyleads, a San Francisco-based marketing platform. Though the process is not complicated once you get it down, it doesn’t allow for automation and content generation based on customer interaction.
A campaign through mail merge is a great option for businesses with smaller contact lists and more time to spend on the sending process. As your business grows, you may want to consider sampling some email marketing platforms to free up your time.
Getting emails seen and read
Email marketing has two major hurdles. 1) Some customers see promotional emails and delete them without even opening them and 2) many email providers do their best to filter emails for clients, using promotion, spam, and junk folders. Only customers can tell their provider what emails are important. But small businesses can craft quality content that is less likely to trigger the filters.
SalesHandy provides a helpful guide, written by Mehdi Hussen, on How to Avoid Gmail Promotions Tab- A Step-by-Step Guide. Personalization is one of the most important factors. Other tips include simplifying emails and sending smaller batches of emails through curated lists.
Finally, SalesHandy’s article includes a list of some keywords to avoid, including “free,” “sale,” “offers,” and “best prices.” While some of these words may be unavoidable, conscientious writing can help you write compelling content that converts customers without using such pushy sales language.
In the end, the best way to engage customers is through quality content that they want to consume. As you get to know your customers, you can refine your groupings and sales journeys to provide more customized and personalized emails that enhance their experience with your small business.
