Best Email Marketing Services Checklist and Recommendations

The best email marketing services help you grow your business cost-effectively. 

By automating your email marketing outreach to new and former customers, email newsletters are the best way to build relationships with your audience and encourage purchases.  While today your customers may kill time on Facebook or dabble on Twitter, who doesn't read their email?

How to Pick the Best Email Marketing Service for Your Business
The best email marketing services include software tools to make your life easier as a marketer.  The best services include all of the features on this Checklist for $20/month or less:

• Easy to install email address collectors for your web site or blog
• Automated email address subscribe/unsubscribe capability (so you don't have to do it yourself)
• White-listed deliverability relationships with top ISPs (so your email is less likely to be labeled as "spam")
• Double "opt-in" verification for new subscribers
• Easy to use email newsletter publishing tools
• Email newsletter template design customization
• Scheduling capabilities that allow you to write and save email marketing messages for later publication
• Reporting tools to tell you how many of your email newsletters were opened and clicked upon
• Autoresponders - some systems (like Aweber and Feedblitz) include automated email followup campaign tools, too.

Don't Try Email Marketing Management At Home!
I recommend that you avoid self-hosted email services and non-name brand email systems unless you have a dedicated IT team to manage and support it.

 Instead you can see that these powerful email software packages offer the best solution to your email management needs. For a small monthly price, using these email software services can eliminate much of the administrative hassle of operating a large email marketing list yourself.

Best Email Marketing Services Recommendations
Which is the best email marketing company for you to choose?  Today most of these companies offer similar tools, so if you stick to a top name brand you should get decent service. 

The most popular companies include Constant Contact, Vertical Response, Mail Chimp, Aweber, and Feedblitz. 

I personally use and recommend both Feedblitz (if you have an RSS feed from your blog to power your email publishing) and Aweber (they include free autoresponders in their service which are the best I've found).  You can check them out using the affiliate links here and elsewhere on ScottFox.com.

 

Although social media marketing like Facebook, Twitter, and blogging get more press, email marketing is the best strategy to use for long term revenue growth.

Why?  Because email marketing is easy, proven, inexpensive, and it works!

Which is the best email software company in your opinion?
And why?

 

Comments

[David Palmer]

Scott, read both your books and have started to get emails from you. One thing I find curious is that you use BOTH Aweber and Feedblitz, WHY?

One concern is how expensive they get if you get sucessful, you know it may be possible to get a big subscription but a fairly small commitment to purchase straight away.

Also I have read that there can be difficulties leaving these companies and getting your data in such circumstances.

Thanks

David

[Scottfox]

Hi David,

I use both services because neither is perfect. Aweber has excellent autoresponders (and nice pop-up signup window scripts) while Feedblitz offers much better customization of the individual email templates and signup process.

I am in regular dialogue with the CEOs of both companies prodding them to make changes that I think are important to small business owner/marketers. They are both friendly and responsive but neither system yet offers everything I want in one place unfortunately.

Yes, the costs can add up but even at their higher levels only amount to a few hundred dollars/month for tens of thousands of subscribers. With lists that size hopefully you can convert enough readers into purchasers to more than cover the costs.

There certainly can be difficulties retrieving data from online services companies. I have had none with either Feedblitz or Aweber, however. Their data export processes are pretty transparent and easy to use.

I hope that helps. Thanks for the good question.
Scott Fox