In this updated article, we’ll share what we believe are the current top 7 email marketing software for small business owners.
Are you a small business owner looking to grow your business, increase credibility, and establish long-term customer relationships but don’t know how?
Or maybe you’re simply struggling to find a way to manage and retain your ever-growing client base?
Enter email marketing software.
We truly believe all businesses of all types and sizes should invest in and engage in email marketing.
Email marketing is an effective and powerful tool for growing and promoting your business.
What are the top 7 email marketing software for small business?
Read more: My Top 10 Online Tools For Small Business.
My Top Email Marketing Software For Small Biz (Summary)
ActiveCampaign
Business Type: Growing small businesses.
Business Size: All business sizes.
Point Of Difference: Hybrid marketing and sales CRM with incredible email marketing and other integrated automation tools.
Pricing Point: $15-147 USD monthly (1000 contacts).
Kit (ConvertKit)
Business Type: Content creators or freelancers.
Business Size: 1-5 users in a team.
Point Of Difference: Simple text-based personalized campaigns and the creator network (allows you to monetize your brand).
Pricing Point: $0-50 USD monthly (1000 contacts).
Omnisend
Business Type: eCommerce sales-driven businesses.
Business Size: Small to medium businesses.
Point Of Difference: Multi-channel email, SMS, and social media marketing approach and dedicated eCommerce key features.
Pricing Point: $0-59 USD monthly (1000 contacts).
Mailchimp
Business Type: All small-medium business types.
Business Size: Small to medium non-profit organizations, service-based teams, or local businesses.
Point Of Difference: Beginner-friendly interface and tools.
Pricing Point: $0-20 USD monthly (500 contacts).
Zoho Campaigns
Business Type: Medium-sized businesses that already use Zoho products.
Business Size: 5-20 employees.
Point Of Difference: Zoho offers an all-in-one business suite that includes many other integrated tools.
Pricing Point: $0-4.50 USD monthly (500 contacts)
Sheetify CRM
Business Type: Micro businesses that use Gmail.
Business Size: 1-5 employees
Point Of Difference: One-time price and can send as many emails as you like per day, this is based on your Google account’s daily allowance.
Pricing Point: $67 USD (one-time price).
Best Email Marketing Software For Small Businesses
We’re going to list and review our honest thoughts on what we believe are the top 7 email marketing software available on the market to date.
We’ve done all the research for you so you can sit back, relax, and get up and running with the correct email marketing software for you and your business.
So, let’s get stuck into the top 7 email marketing software for small businesses.
1. ActiveCampaign
If you’re searching for a dynamic and versatile marketing automation and CRM (customer relationship management) solution, look no further than ActiveCampaign!
ActiveCampaign essentially combines the power of email and SMS marketing with a fully functional CRM system (available as an add-on).
This delivers substantial value for teams serious about scaling their business!
Basically, the platform offers a rich suite of features aimed at streamlining marketing automation and enhancing customer relationship management.
ActiveCampaign’s key email marketing features include 250 customizable email templates, a drag-and-drop editor, A/B testing, segmentation, drip campaigns, and more.
However, the platform is widely known for its impressive automation capabilities.
With hundreds of automation recipes (workflows), multiple triggers, conditional actions, tags, predictive sending, and more, you’ll streamline and personalize your emails like never before.
Plus, ActiveCampaign’s automation capabilities extend into its built-in CRM platform and SMS marketing tools, enabling you to automate every aspect of your business workflows.
ActiveCampaign recently changed its pricing structure, offering four paid marketing automation plans ranging from $15-145 per month (for 1000 users).
CRM and SMS add-ons can be used with ‘Plus,’ ‘Pro,’ and ‘Enterprise’ plans for an additional cost of $39 per month (CRM) and $16 per month (SMS).
The platform doesn’t offer a free plan and has a somewhat steep learning curve.
However! ActiveCampaign is a robust option for teams committed to elevating their marketing game.
In essence, ActiveCampaign is a prime choice for those seeking a detailed and integrated solution for email marketing automation and CRM.
2. Kit (Formerly Known As ConvertKit)
Attention all content creators! Are you searching for a way to forge genuine connections with your audience?
Introducing Kit, a sleek and modern email marketing platform designed to streamline and personalize how you interact with your email list.
Designed with one-person freelancers and content creators in mind, Kit recognizes that you simply don’t have the time to navigate around a platform with a steep learning curve.
Therefore, Kit’s user-friendly interface, drag-and-drop editor, and intuitive design are ideal for beginners!
But the standout feature of Kit is its emphasis on personalizing audience interactions.
Forget about elaborate email designs! Kit focuses on straightforward, text-based campaigns that effectively communicate your message.
If you’re looking for simple, effective email marketing solutions that add a personal touch, Kit might be the perfect fit.
Moreover, with the unique Creator Network, you can expand and monetize your brand more effectively.
And what about eCommerce teams? Don’t worry! You can also use Kit to sell digital products such as eBooks and courses or subscription-based services.
Kit provides a free plan for up to 1000 subscribers, with two paid plans available (ranging in price from $25-50 per month, depending on your contact list size).
These paid plans are perfect for teams seeking more users, sophisticated automation tools, superior support, and additional features.
And the good news is that every plan offers unlimited forms, emails, landing pages, segmentation, and tagging options!
Kit is the go-to platform for freelancers, designers, musicians, or creators eager to cultivate a dedicated and engaged community.
Read more about how to use Kit (previously ConvertKit) here.
3. Omnisend
Are you an eCommerce brand looking to take your marketing efforts to the next level?
I highly recommend Omnisend, an email marketing solution tailor-made for eCommerce teams.
Offering a multi-channel marketing approach, Omnisend offers email, SMS, and social media marketing tools.
Coupled with advanced automation and segmentation tools and direct integrations with eCommerce platforms, this dynamic marketing platform is a force to be reckoned with.
Essentially, Omnisend can help you boost your conversion rates using savvy email marketing strategies with minimal effort.
With stunning email templates, interactive forms, and engaging pop-ups, the drag-and-drop visual editor allows you to build connections with your existing or new audience easily.
Notable features of Omnisend include:
- A/B testing.
- Automated replies to maintain customer engagement.
- Complex automation email workflows.
- Segmentation capabilities for personalized targeting.
- Event-triggered emails.
- Comprehensive analytics and reporting, among others.
And for Shopify stores, you can directly connect your account with Omnisend for automatic product reviews and feedback.
Omnisend offers a completely free plan with basic omnichannel marketing features and two paid plans (ranging from $16-59 per month for a contact list size of 500).
All plans include basic reports, segmentation capabilities, web push notifications, and automation and campaign functionalities, with paid plans offering more advanced features.
For eCommerce teams driven by sales goals, Omnisend is the optimal marketing solution.
Read more: What Is Omnisend?
4. Mailchimp
You’ve likely heard of Mailchimp, a cost-efficient email automation and marketing tool tailored for small business owners.
Designed almost two decades ago. Mailchimp was an affordable small business alternative to all the large, expensive email software companies available at the time.
Since then, Mailchimp has expanded its offering to CRM tools, social media marketing services, and options for creating websites and landing pages.
Thanks to its straightforward interface and economical pricing, Mailchimp now has an impressive user base of over 13 million worldwide.
The platform is praised for its easy-to-use interface, jam-packed free plan, convenient integrations, and powerful automation and segmentation features.
Additionally, Mailchimp boasts A/B testing functionality, multichannel marketing tools, an intuitive mobile app, real-time reporting, and an automated customer journey builder.
Mailchimp has even recently ventured into the world of SMS marketing and AI-driven tools to streamline your marketing processes further.
As mentioned earlier, Mailchimp is super affordable, with an impressive free plan for up to 1000 monthly email sends.
Their small business paid plans range from just $13 USD per month (500 contacts).
‘Premium’ paid plans (best for larger teams) cost upwards of $350 monthly for 10,000 contacts.
Whilst there are plenty of new email marketing tools on the block, Mailchimp is still one of the most affordable, simple (yet feature-packed!) platforms for small businesses.
5. Zoho Campaigns
Zoho Campaigns is another email marketing tool created by the all-in-one cloud-based business suite powerhouse Zoho.
Do you already use other Zoho products like Zoho CRM or Zoho Projects?
You’ll love how seamless it is to integrate your email and SMS campaigns with your contact and project management tools.
This is all possible by using Zoho Campaigns.
Zoho Campaigns essentially helps you run and manage smooth, targeted, and personalized email campaigns for your existing audience and potential customers.
Key features include:
- Email automation tools.
- An intuitive drag-and-drop editor.
- A/B testing.
- Delivery optimization.
- Scheduling options.
- Analytics and reports.
- Integration capabilities with over 300 third-party apps.
- Simple automation with pre-built workflows or custom sequences.
Additionally, Zoho Campaigns supports multi-channel marketing (SMS and social media) tools for a broader reach and easily integrates with many eCommerce platforms.
You can even manage your campaigns on the go with their handy mobile app!
However, the best part about Zoho Campaigns is how easy it is to connect your Zoho Campaign account with other Zoho tools.
Talk about an all-in-one platform, right?
Zoho Campaigns offers a 14-day free trial that grants access to all features. During this time, you can manage up to 2,000 contacts and send up to three email campaigns.
After the free trial, your account will automatically shift to the ‘Forever-free’ plan.
Simply choose to stay with the free plan or upgrade to a paid plan, with affordable prices ranging upwards of just $4.50 USD per month (500 contacts).
6. HubSpot
You may be thinking….isn’t HubSpot a comprehensive CRM solution?
And the answer is technically yes.
However, although HubSpot has impressive CRM capabilities, it’s actually a complete suite for sales, customer service, and marketing.
This means that you can also effectively use HubSpot as a fully functional email marketing software that seamlessly integrates with your HubSpot CRM account.
This integration ensures that your emails are not just sent but finely tuned to match customer behaviors and preferences, leading to improved engagement.
HubSpot simplifies email creation with its intuitive drag-and-drop editor, allowing anyone to design a professional-looking email (without coding expertise).
And through its advanced analytics, HubSpot enables monitors and analyzes key campaign metrics like open and click-through rates.
As a result, you’ll be able to gain in-depth insights into the success of every campaign.
But one of the standout features of HubSpot is its generous free tier, which offers access to a wide array of tools across marketing, sales, content management, and more.
A single free account on HubSpot supports up to five users and can handle up to an impressive million contacts, with the capability to send up to 2000 emails per month.
HubSpot also offers various premium plans (ranging in price) for expanded email marketing features, automated workflows, live chat functionality, and more.
HubSpot truly embodies the ‘all-in-one’ experience, centralizing various tools in one easily accessible platform.
So, for those looking for an all-in-one business solution, I highly recommend giving HubSpot’s free plan a go!
Read more: 10 Advantages of HubSpot’s Free CRM.
7. Sheetify CRM
Are you sick of having to use third-party apps to bulk email your contacts from your Google account?
Sheetify CRM is a downloadable small-business Google Sheets template that essentially allows you to organize, track, and manage your contacts, leads, inventory, sales, and more.
All from one Google Sheets spreadsheet!
Additionally, Sheetify CRM doubles as an effective email marketing tool that can be used right inside your Google account.
Thanks to the built-in Mail Merge Apps Script, Sheetify CRM allows you to bulk-select contacts and then email those contacts with just a few clicks.
This is possible due to the customizable, premade Sheetify CRM email templates.
Simply add your own links and placeholder data to these templates, or create custom email templates from scratch.
Sheetify CRM fully integrates with Gmail, meaning your recipients will receive these emails from your linked Gmail account in their inbox.
This impressive CRM and email marketing tool is best suited for small or micro businesses that require basic email marketing functionality.
And unlike the other email marketing software mentioned on this list, Sheetify CRM is available for all Google users as a one-time payment of just $67!
This includes all current CRM and email marketing features, future updates, and upcoming new features.
And based on Google’s requirements, you can seamlessly collaborate with up to 100 users and 40,000 contacts–how impressive is that!
So, if you’re a small or micro business already using Gmail and Google Workspace Apps, give Sheetify CRM a go! I promise you won’t regret it.
What Is The Best Email Marketing Software For You?
So, what is the best email marketing software for your small business?
For teams requiring in-depth automation tools for their marketing and CRM processes, ActiveCampaign is the best choice.
If you’re a creator or freelancer, I highly recommend checking out Kit, and eCommerce teams will love what Omnisend has to offer.
Complete beginners or service-based teams may find Mailchimp the best solution, whereas businesses already using other Zoho products should try using Zoho Campaigns.
Businesses looking for an all-in-one solution will love HubSpot’s full-featured free plan.
And small or micro businesses that love and use Google Workspace may find Sheetify CRM the best choice.
Stews Final Thoughts
Okay, we’ve now come to the end of this updated top 7 email marketing software for small business article!
All platforms mentioned above are awesome in their own right. But remember, only one or two will likely suit you and your business needs.
My advice? Look at your business type, size, feature requirements, and personal preferences, and go from there.
Most of the email marketing software mentioned above offer free plans or at least free trials, so there’s nothing to lose!