According to a Litmus study, every $1 invested in email marketing yields a profit of $36 —which is quite a return. Moreover, 78% of marketers say email marketing is crucial for the success of a business.
Why? Some of the reasons are hidden in the fact that email marketing is personal, customizable, and measurable.
When leveraging it for business growth, your email marketing software can make all the difference. However, with the hundreds of tools out there, where do you begin?
This five-point guide will help you choose the right software for your business.
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5 Points to Consider When Choosing Your Email Marketing Software
When deciding on the right email marketing software for your campaign goals, your budget plays a crucial role. You don’t want to spend too much on a high-end tool with many features you won’t use as a small business. However, irrespective of your company size or budget, your list of essentials should consider the following:
1. Integration capabilities.
You want your email marketing software to work seamlessly with the rest of your technology stack and business workflows. The right tool will offer integrations that meet your needs while allowing you to continue using your preferred systems or applications.
For instance, if you’re already using a CRM to manage leads, you may want an integration that allows you to send automated emails to your prospects based on their activity in your CRM.
With customizable tools and analytics, email integration reduces the time you spend sending emails to individual contacts. This integration also lets you sync your ecommerce platform with your email marketing campaigns.
As a result, you can create predefined lists tailored to different contacts’ needs. For example, you may notice an increase in checkout abandoners on your website. When this happens, you can automatically trigger an email reminding them to finalize their purchase.
Additionally, an integration feature lets you group consumers and contacts according to their overall buying behavior. If you have visitors who browse a particular category of products frequently but have never made a purchase, you can segment them into a separate category.
Before making a decision, ensure your prospective solutions have the necessary integrations.
2. Mobile-friendly email templates.
Approximately 49% of emails are opened on mobile devices — a trend that continues to grow. Your email templates must be mobile-friendly if you want to maximize your reach.
According to a recent survey, up to 79% of consumers delete emails that aren’t mobile-optimized. You will have a higher chance of losing subscribers if you do not have a responsive email design. When planning your campaign assets, it’s imperative to consider how they’ll look and perform on mobile devices. The last thing you want is to invest in a platform that forces you to compromise on design or functionality for mobile.
However, a large number of people still use their desktop computers to access emails. Therefore, a solution that offers responsive templates that automatically scale to fit any device is a critical feature to look for in an email marketing software solution.
But responsive email templates for mobile are more than just making your emails mobile-friendly. It is equally vital to consider the layout and user experience. Before making a final decision, test different solutions to see what works best for you.
3. Powerful reporting tools and analytics features.
With access to powerful reporting tools and analytics features, you’ll be able to analyze your campaign performance and make data-driven decisions to continuously improve your email marketing efforts. This ability will help you generate better ROI from your efforts over time, as you can track and measure campaign performance and make adjustments as needed.
Here are some key metrics you’ll want to track:
- Email delivery: Email delivery is the most vital metric to gauge your campaign success. Without delivery, your campaign is simply a waste of time and resources.
- Email bounces: Bounced emails are annoying and allow spammers to clutter your contact database. They can also lead to higher bounce rates and negatively impact your sender’s reputation, affecting future campaign performance.
- Open rate and click-through rate (CTR): These metrics will tell you how many people open your campaign and how many clicks your CTAs have. You can also determine the value each contact adds to your campaign based on engagement.
- Unsubscribe rate: The unsubscribe rate refers to the percentage of people who unsubscribe from your campaigns. An unsubscribe rate below 1% (0.5% is much better) means your campaign is relevant and engaging. However, you should scrutinize your email campaigns if you see a rate above 0.5%.
- Conversion Rate: A measure of how many people take action after receiving an email, such as visiting your website or purchasing something.
You should review these metrics regularly to identify areas of improvement for your email campaigns, and identify which types of content perform best with your audience.
Some email marketing software solutions offer built-in reports. Other solutions allow you to generate more detailed statistics based on your individual needs, by integrating third-party analytics tools with Google Analytics. Consider which reporting tools will work best for your business as you evaluate different email marketing solutions.
4. Automation function.
According to a new study from the Centre for Economics and Business Research in a partnership with SnapLogic, automation impacts the revenue growth of a business.
When it comes to marketing automation, less is more. If you overwhelm subscribers with too many messages at once, they’ll unsubscribe, which defeats the purpose of automating your marketing.
That’s why finding a marketing automation solution that allows you to streamline the relevant activities at the right time is crucial.
For example, you can automate lead nurturing campaigns to follow up with prospects who haven’t made a purchase, or send abandoned cart emails to remind people of their incomplete orders and encourage them to complete the orders.
If you choose the right automation tool, you can customize these messages based on previous interactions with your brand and ensure they reach the right subscriber at the right time.
When choosing a marketing automation software, look for one that offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. This way, you can automate the right actions at the right time without requiring the assistance of IT or a developer.
5. Check reviews and recommendations before making a decision.
You can get a sense of what user experiences have been like with the various platforms you’re considering by reading online reviews from past and current users.
Reviews of email marketing software can give insight into the quality of support you will get from the platform, such as response time, available online troubleshooting resources and other additional resources.
Nothing is perfect. There are times you’ll need assistance with your email marketing service. When that time comes, you want to ensure the platform you choose provides the support you need.
Additionally, check to see if the solution has received any awards or accolades from industry experts and organizations. Industry awards are often considered the best indication of a platform’s overall performance in its sector. They can give you insight into the best email marketing software compared to other providers in the market.
Conclusion
You should understand how each email marketing tool works and what features it offers before choosing one for your campaign. For instance, some products offer low entry prices, but limit features — like the number of contacts or messages you can send, A/B testing and performance monitoring — to force you to upgrade.
Evaluate your options carefully before making a final choice to ensure your new platform provides everything you need for long-term success.
Charlotte Evans has always been enthusiastic about helping others, whether it’s online or in person. And after writing for various startups in the tech industry and building ecommerce stores, she joined Tooltester as a Content Writer, planning and writing high-quality content to help your business get the most out of its digital presence.
