Email marketing is one of the best ways to extend your marketing reach and drive in-person traffic. After all, who doesn’t like getting a personal note from a brand? However, because it’s such a powerful marketing tool for small businesses, you want to make sure that the email marketing software you choose is just as powerful for you.
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With so many email marketing programs on the market, how can you tell which one is right for your business? Here are tips on how to choose an email marketing software solution that will work with your SME strategy and help grow your business.
What is an email marketing solution?
Email marketing is the process of sending emails as a marketing channel to generate sales, increase brand awareness and expand your business. Email marketing can be done through email automation software, email automation services, or email interface solutions. Email marketing solutions can be broken down into the following categories: marketing automation, email marketing software, marketing services, and email interface solutions.
Marketing automation is a software platform that helps brands automate their email marketing. It can be used to create and manage email campaigns, track email performance, and measure the effectiveness of each campaign. An email marketing software is a software that helps businesses manage and send emails through email marketing platforms. Some email marketing software also comes with built-in CRM tools to help you manage your leads and contacts. Email marketing services are a combination of email marketing software and marketing automation. These services help businesses create, manage, and analyze their email campaigns. Email interface solutions are marketing automation software that is built for email. It provides a graphical user interface (GUI) to manage email marketing campaigns and track their progress.
Key questions to ask before choosing an email marketing
Before you choose an email marketing solution, ask yourself these key questions. What kind of email marketing do you want to focus on? Will you be using email as a primary marketing channel, or will you be using social media, online ads, and other channels? How much do you want to spend on email marketing? How much time do you have to dedicate to email campaigns? Does the email marketing solution require special email infrastructure (e.g., a separate email address)?
The 3 Types of Email Marketing Solutions for Small Businesses
Email marketing software - The most common type of email marketing software for small businesses is built for businesses seeking to automate their email marketing process. Some email marketing software allows businesses to create email content, schedule and track emails, and analyze their email performance. Email marketing software can be used as a standalone solution or in conjunction with other marketing channels, such as Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, MailerLite, Hubspot, Moosend, Drip.
Email marketing services - A combination of email marketing software and marketing automation, email marketing services come with email marketing software. These services automate your email marketing process and help you discover prospects' email preferences, personalize emails, and design better email campaigns, such as ConvertKit, Klaviyo, AWeber, Mailjet.
Email marketing GUI - Email interface solutions are GUI-based email marketing software that are geared towards creating email campaigns. They allow marketers to design and send emails using a GUI instead of using programming languages, such as Premio.
Bottom line
As you can see, there are many different types of email marketing solutions available. To ensure you get the best one for your business, feel free to contact us before investing in an email marketing software solution.