The 7 Best Free
Email Marketing Services
So you’ve decided to start focusing
more effort on your ‘small’ business, and perhaps you’re still working out of
your bedroom, but your customers don’t need to know that.
You’ve been sending out emails to your list of around 50-200
recipients that you’ve built up over the last few months, but Outlook isn’t
quite cutting it anymore. Sometimes your emails get lost in the void that is
spam folders, and then there was that one time you accidentally CC’d instead of
BCCing! That sadly caused a few unsubscribes, which, of course, had to be
removed manually.
There must be a better way, right?
It might be time to try out a more professional email tool. But
wait, before you cry out ‘professional = expensive’, there are a bunch of free
email marketing services that can do the job well. No more spam surprises and
no more embarrassing personal data breaches.
So who are these free email marketing services you speak of?
1-MailChimp – making email marketing
fun
Their free account
gives you 10,000 emails a month for up to 2,000 contacts, with access to A/B
testing, forms, and reporting. However, if you want ad-free emails and access
to features like chat/email support, inbox previews, and time zone delivery,
you’ll need to upgrade to one of their monthly or pay-as-you-go plans.
What we liked: They have a great variety of well-designed and
(mostly) mobile-responsive templates, with plenty of flexibility to edit as
needed. Their reporting is comprehensive, with stats on conversions, social
activity, e-commerce tracking, and email domain performance. You’ve also got
forms that easily integrate with your site, landing pages, and over 800
third-party integration options. Where they should improve: Although they
promote themselves as ‘the world’s largest marketing automation platform’,
their automation could be massively improved with a workflow editor and more
automation beyond just autoresponders. Emails also tend to end up in Gmail’s
Promotions tab – fine if your emails are promoting sales and offers, but less
than ideal if they’re informational or transactional. The interface could also
be a bit more user-friendly. Find out more about Mailchimp.
2-MailerLite
– ticks most of the boxes
Their tool is
super intuitive, so even if you’re an email marketing novice, you’ll have no
problem getting campaigns up and running. And as long as you have less than
1,000 subscribers, you can send 12,000 emails a month, and even set up
automation and landing pages for free.
Where they should improve: Unfortunately their templates aren’t
available on the free plan, meaning you’ll need to build your own. There’s no
spam or design testing, and while we like their workflow-based automation
editor, it’s limited to just a
handful of automation functions (sending trigger-based emails, updating
contact fields, etc).
Who is the free plan suited to? We think MailerLite is
one of the best free email marketing services around. But we think it’s
especially handy for budget-conscious businesses looking for an easy,
all-in-one solution for their inbound marketing.
3-Sender – easy does it
A simple interface and smooth user
experience make Sender one of the easiest email
marketing tools to use. Its free plan also has a substantial allowance of 2,500
subscribers and up to 15,000 emails per month. You get a nice amount of
features included too – automation, transactional emails, push notifications, and
forms.
The automation included on the free plan is surprisingly advanced
– you’ve got options to send abandoned cart campaigns, for example, and to
perform actions such as moving subscribers to different lists or updating
custom field values. In general, the simplicity of the tool is a nice change
from the overcomplexity of other similarly-featured tools.
Where they should improve: While the email template designs aren’t
bad, it would be nice to have a few more on offer. Integrations are limited to
just a handful of third-party applications, including WordPress,
WooCommerce, and Magento. Who is the free plan suited to? If you’re after an
easy-to-use, no-nonsense email marketing service (with a few nice extras thrown
in), you’ll appreciate Sender’s simplicity and utility.
4-SendPulse – for multichannel
messaging
SendPulse offers a
multichannel platform for marketers looking to do more than just email
marketing. Its wide solution set includes web push notifications, SMS, Viber,
and even transactional emails via SMTP.
SendPulse’s free plan is one of the more generous in terms of
sending limits, with a monthly allowance of 15,000 emails, however, you are
only allowed up to 500 subscribers.
Where they should improve: I came across a few issues with their
email editor, which was at times buggy and slow. Without a workflow-based
editor for basic autoresponders, these can also be a bit cumbersome to manage.
Who is the free plan suited to? A multichannel platform won’t appeal to everyone, but if your business uses web push or transactional emails to communicate with customers, SendPulse’s free plan could save you a considerable amount of time and money.
5-MailJet – lots of potential
Another newsletter provider
traditionally known for sending transactional emails, MailJet has
evolved into a more complete email service, although their features are still
relatively basic (statistics, for instance, are still in beta). Their free plan
is generous in terms of capacity (unlimited contacts and up to 6,000 emails a
month, with a 200-email daily limit). It’s a little less generous in terms of
access, however – premium features like automation, segmentation, and A/B
testing are only available to try out for free for 30 days.
What we liked: The drag-and-drop editor is a breeze to use, and
they have a decent range of email templates to choose from.
Where they should improve: Everything still feels a little new and unpolished – there’s just a handful of automation workflows available, for example, and lots of features still under development.
6-CleverReach – professional but limited
CleverReach offers a complete,
enterprise-grade email marketing service, with functions like marketing
automation, forms, and reports. Their Lite plan gives you access to most of
their features and allows up to 1,000 emails to a maximum of 250 subscribers
every month for free.
What we liked: Their editor is easy to use. We also like their
workflow-based automation editor, comprehensive reporting, and handy campaign
calendar.
Where they should improve: The free plan is very limited in terms
of automation, templates, and registration forms. And it’s a shame that not all
their templates are responsive.
Who should use the free plan: If your list is small and EU
compliance is a big priority for you, CleverReach is the way to go – double
opt-ins come as standard, and data is hosted within Europe.
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