3 Email Automation Tools Every Marketer Should Review
Email is the cornerstone of any e-commerce business. Without a way to personally reach out to customers after the sale, a business can only hope that the customer will re-engage through its website or social media presence.
However, simply sending an email is not enough. Savvy email marketers now leverage email automation tools to powerfully target potential and repeat customers with custom email content. Fortunately, many robust email automation tools just require a subscription and a commitment to learning the specific platform.
3 Top Email Platforms for Small to Large Businesses
Choosing the right email platform can be challenging, but fortunately most offer a free trial to access the service. Here are three of the top email automation tools every marketer should look into:
1. Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor launched in 2004, and has quickly become a leader in email automation. With a suite of conversion optimized and mobile ready templates, Campaign Monitor customers can hit the ground running without the need for designers and developers.
Where Campaign Monitor really shines is in analytics, automation and personalization. The tools gives marketers the ability to integrate with third party software like Salesforce and Shopify, to using customer data to deliver personalized emails right when a customer is ready to buy. Their email automation workflow builder can create email sequences that knows what message to send a subscriber next, based on how they interacted with the last email.
Campaign Monitor takes this even further by purchasing a customer data platform, called Tagga. Tagga is for the marketer who really wants to drill down into the data by creating customer profiles based on their digital footprint and how they engage with a brand. This gives Campaign Monitor the ability to create even more personalized emails for their subscribers.
With an award winning 24/7 customer success team, Campaign Monitor truly partners with their customers to ensure success in their email marketing strategy.
2. MailChimp
Perhaps due to its cute branding, MailChimp has a strong appeal for small business owners and independent bloggers who want an easy, intuitive way to send emails. While MailChimp does have advanced capabilities for list segmentation and click-tracking, its primarily selling point is ease-of-use.
MailChimp also offers integration with a variety of shopping cart solutions, including Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce. This enables you to re-engage customers based on their purchase history and automatically follow-up with abandoned shopping carts.
MailChimp has also expanded into social media advertising, and offers an integrated approach to email, Facebook, and Instagram campaigns. For the small business owner or solopreneur who wants to increase reach without a lot of fuss, the simple MailChimp platform may be ideal.
3. SendGrid
SendGrid does not have the brand recognition of Campaign Monitor or MailChimp, and that may be in part because the service is a bit more technical. SendGrid is more than just an email marketing solution. SendGrid offers a cloud-based SMTP server for its users. SMTP is the foundational technology (or protocol) used to send all emails on the Internet. The SMTP service is for any business looking for a reliable way to send emails without taxing web servers or internal systems. It is offered via a shared or dedicated IP address.
In addition to the SMTP service, SendGrid offers a web API, which is often used for password reset emails and order confirmations. Finally, for those looking just for an email marketing service, SendGrid also offers a full-featured service that includes segmentation, A/B testing, responsive templates, and analytics.
SendGrid is probably not the first choice for a solo business owner, but for a company looking for a flexible, enterprise-level solution for all their email needs, SendGrid provides a terrific package deal.
Choose the Best Email Service for Your Needs
All three services, Campaign Monitor, MailChimp, and SendGrid, offer powerful automation and analytics that can skyrocket your email marketing efforts. Test each one to determine which will be the best solution for your company.
