Compare The Best Email Marketing Services

Our top recommendation for most people is Constant Contact because it offers the most value of any email marketing provider. Try Constant Contact free for 60 days, no credit card is required.

Email is one of the most powerful marketing tools at your disposal. It can drive engagement, build relationships, and deliver a higher ROI than every other type of marketing campaign.

Success with your email strategy starts with finding the right email marketing service. Whether you’re starting a new list from scratch or just need an easier way to reach your audience, this guide has a solution for you.

Top 13 Best Email Marketing Platforms

Best of 2023: AWeber, Brevo, Campaigner, Constant Contact, ConvertKit, Drip, GetResponse, HubSpot, MailerLite, Moosend, Omnisend, Salesforce, and SMPT.com.

I’m confident recommending all of my top picks to different businesses in different situations. However, our research team found a handful of providers that quickly rose to the top of the list.

Of the top 13, our favorite email marketing platforms for 2023 are:

Whether you’re looking to streamline multiple marketing channels, start a new email list, sink your teeth into automation, or nurture and grow an existing list, you’ll likely find everything you need and more in one of the eight platforms above.

How to choose the best email marketing services. Quicksprout.com's methodology for reviewing email marketing services.

Keep reading to learn more about our favorite platforms as well as other top contenders for different situations.

Email Marketing Service Reviews

Constant Contact – Best Overall

  • 2 Months Free
  • Drag-and-drop email builder
  • 100+ mobile-friendly templates
  • Simple email automation
Get a 60-day free trial

Constant Contact is our recommendation for most users. Beginners will find a complete toolkit that’s easy to use, and veteran email marketers will recognize immediately how much time Constant Contact can save their team, especially when it comes to marketing automation.

Don’t take my word for it. Constant Contact lets you try the full email marketing platform risk-free for 60 days, with no credit card required.

And forget about needing to be good at designing emails. The intuitive drag-and-drop email builder allows you to easily create new emails that look good and on-brand—no coding knowledge is needed. Adding text, images, videos, coupons, polls, and events to any message is simple and straightforward.

It’s a really welcoming platform to work with. People who aren’t “techy” will quickly find themselves producing much more polished newsletters. There are more than 100 pre-built, mobile-optimized templates.

Constant Contact's template options page.
Constant contact delivers 100+ mobile-friendly templates that are easy to customize with its intuitive drag-and-drop email builder.

Automation is another key benefit of Constant Contact. A lot of the legwork can be set on autopilot. For example, you can trigger welcome messages for new subscribers and set up drip campaigns based on their actions.

How much time can you save list building with beautiful templates and simple marketing automation? Constant Contact excels as an email list service, but it’s so much more.

And as soon as you hit send, Constant Contact is recording results in real-time. You’ll see everything from open rates to click-through rates, as well as data for each individual subscriber.

This is so important–how else are you going to know which strategies are working and which need to be put on pause?

Tracking email marketing campaigns with Constant Contact
real-time analytics quickly give you all the information you need to understand your email campaign performance.

Pricing for Constant Contact’s email software is straightforward. There are three plans for you to choose from—Lite, Standard, and Premium.

Like most email marketing platforms, your rate will be based on the number of subscribers on your list. Both plans allow you to send unlimited emails.

Here’s what some of the prices look like for each plan:

Lite

  • 0 – 500 Subscribers — Starting at $12 per month
  • 501 – 1,000 Subscribers — Starting at $30 per month
  • 1,001 – 2,500 Subscribers — Starting at $50 per month
  • 2,501 – 5,000 Subscribers — Starting at $80 per month

Standard

  • 0 – 500 Subscribers — Starting at $35 per month
  • 501 – 1,000 Subscribers — Starting at $55 per month
  • 1,001 – 2,500 Subscribers — Starting at $75 per month
  • 2,501 – 5,000 Subscribers — Starting at $110 per month

Premium

  • 0 – 500 Subscribers — Starting at $80 per month
  • 501 – 1,000 Subscribers — Starting at $110 per month
  • 1,001 – 2,500 Subscribers — Starting at $150 per month
  • 2,501 – 5,000 Subscribers — Starting at $200 per month

Both plans offer pricing tiers for up to 50,000 subscribers.

For basic and professional emails, the cheaper plan will be fine. But for those of you who want to get the most out of your email campaigns, I highly recommend the Standard plan.

This plan comes with more advanced features like subject line A/B testing, dynamic content, and automated behavioral campaigns. You’ll also get access to personalized demographic data, coupons, polls, and surveys.

Learn more and sign up for a free 60-day trial at Constant Contact.

MailerLite – Best For the Essentials at an Affordable Price

  • Get started for free
  • Premium plans start at $10/mo
  • All basic email features
  • A/B testing tools
Try MailerLite for free

MailerLite offers all of the essentials with none of the frills. It’s free to use for up to 1,000 subscribers, so there’s no commitment if you’re looking to test it out.

It’s a great option for anyone who wants a straightforward email marketing service. You’re a creator who doesn’t need a ton of bells and whistles. You just need the tools to start your newsletter or manage a simple campaign.

It’s also nice for teams. Nobody is going to be intimidated by this platform, which means everyone is going to use the core features at their disposal.

The platform still offers tools for automation, landing pages, pop-ups, and surveys, so it’s not like you’re extremely limited. But even the UI for each one is fairly spartan and straightforward.

MailerLite has a drag-and-drop editor, which makes it easy for anyone to design a high-quality message. Segment your subscribers to enhance personalization and optimize your campaigns with features like A/B testing.

MailerLite AB Testing
MailerLite delivers a very simplified interface with a drag-and-drop editor and the ability to segment subscribers and optimize campaigns with A/B testing.

I’d recommend MailerLite for those of you who want simple email software at an affordable rate.

MailerLite offers four pricing plans:

Free — $0 per month

  • up to 1,000 subscribers
  • 12,000 monthly emails
  • 1 user
  • Monday-Friday email support
  • ten landing pages
  • email automation builder
  • signup forms & pop-ups

Growing Business — $10 per month

  • up to 1,000 subscribers
  • unlimited monthly emails
  • three users
  • 24/7 email support
  • unlimited templates
  • dynamic emails
  • unlimited websites & blogs

Advanced — $21 per month

  • up to 1,000 subscribers
  • unlimited monthly emails
  • unlimited users
  • Facebook integration
  • custom HTML editor
  • promotion pop-ups
  • multiple automation trigggers

There is also an Enterprise plan for businesses with over 100,000 subscribers. Pricing is by quote only.

MailerLite offers a 15% discount if you sign up for annual billing, making it one of the most affordable options on our list.

Start sending emails with MailerLite for free.

Salesforce – Best for Scaling as Your Business Grows

  • Free 30-day trial
  • Small Business plans
  • As low as $25 per month
  • Segmentation and automations
Start for free

Salesforce is a behemoth in the world of customer relationship management (CRM) systems. It has a well-earned reputation as cloud-based software that manages everything from sales and marketing to customer service and commerce for some of the biggest companies in the world. 

Yet, despite being the backbone of many enterprise-level businesses, Salesforce also recognizes that smaller companies need the same type of support on a smaller scale. Which is where Salesforce Starter comes in.

Salesforce Starter package features
Salesforce offers a great package to get even the smallest business started on the path to success.

With Salesforce Starter, even the smallest startup can have access to powerful sales, service, and email outreach tools. It doesn’t require much setup, and onboarding is a breeze with simple, built-in guides to help you every step of the way.

Once you’re up and running, you can automate your email activities and segment your customers so that the right people get the right messages at the right time. You’ll also get proven, pre-built sales process templates that your team can use to convert those email leads into deals.

The best part? As your business grows, so does Salesforce, especially when it comes to email marketing.

The Salesforce Email Studio lets you quickly build sophisticated, visually appealing messages with a simple drag-and-drop interface. You can also include interactive content, like carousels and weather reports, to keep readers engaged.

You can start from scratch or use one of the many customizable templates. It is also easy to optimize your messages so they look great no matter what device a recipient uses. And once you build the perfect email, you can save the whole thing or individual content blocks to reuse again and again.

Salesforce Email Studio landing page
Salesforce Email Studio lets you build beautiful and engaging emails with a simple drag-and-drop interface

There are also other features to help you build and execute email campaigns that deliver results, including:

  • A/B testing
  • Tracking
  • Subscriber importing
  • Folder management
  • Enhanced segmentation
  • Send logging
  • Return paths to monitor deliverability and reputation

Once you reach a size where Email Studio makes sense for your organization, you’ll have virtually unlimited power for your email marketing efforts. Until then, you can still maximize your efforts with Salesforce Starter.

Salesforce is not going to be the cheapest solution on our list. But for companies poised for rapid growth, it is an excellent solution that lets you stay with the same software through all your growth phases.

Pricing is as follows:

Small Business Solutions

  • Starter $25—includes sales, service, and email outreach tools
  • Sales Professional $75—Complete sales solution for teams
  • Service Professional $75—Complete customer service solution for teams
  • Marketing Cloud Account Engagement $1,250—Marketing automation tools for teams

All of the prices for these small business solutions are per user, per month and require an annual contract billed annually.

Marketing Cloud Engagement

  • Growth $1,250—marketing automation tools
  • Plus $2,500 per month—marketing automation plus analytics
  • Advanced $4,000 per month—advanced marketing automation and analytics
  • Premium $15,000 per month—enterprise-level features plus predictive analytics and support

All prices for these packages require an annual contract billed annually. The Growth, Plus, and Advanced packages include up to 10,000 contacts. Premium gives you up to 75,000 contacts.

Salesforce pricing can get complicated fast once you move beyond the small business packages. So it is best to contact them to discuss specific needs. 

But if you’re in the small business phase, you can try Salesforce for free for 30 days. No credit card is required, and you won’t have to install any software.

Be sure to check out our full Salesforce review for even more information.

HubSpot – Best for Automated Email Marketing

  • Start for free
  • Powerful email automation
  • Stunning email templates
  • Traffic and conversion analytics
Try HubSpot for free

HubSpot is the king of marketing automation–so it’s no surprise they offer a fantastic email marketing solution for any size business.

HubSpot’s tool allows you to quickly and easily create, personalize, and optimize your emails without the need for designers or IT.

Where the software really shines is in the automated workflows. This allows you to easily set triggers for your email subscribers and nurture the leads into customers (or whatever else you want them to do).

Think of it as a choose-your-own-adventure journey that you set for your subscribers. Depending on the specific actions they take, you can have them branch off to experience different, targeted things via email.

The email marketing service is just one tool in the Swiss Army Knife that is HubSpot. It can stand alone or be used in tandem with other offerings such as Marketing Hub and their CRM. Your email marketing only becomes stronger when coupled with those products, too.

HubSpot also has plenty of pre-made email templates to help you get the results you want. With their drag-and-drop builder, you can create great emails with no coding or development knowledge needed.

HubSpot is simple to use and allows you to customize your layout, add calls-to-action and images, and modify your content and colors to match your brand.

Use their advanced personalization tools to personalize your emails in order to boost your open and clickthrough rates with ease. You can use any information in an email subscriber’s contact records to automatically serve up the most relevant subject lines, content, links, attachments, and calls to action.

Their A/B testing tool is top-notch. Use it and dive into the in-depth analytics after you send your emails to see which performed better—and why.

Hubspot email reports
Hubspot is a behemoth in the marketing automation arena, yet still makes it easy for businesses of all sizes to master email marketing.

Use this data to determine which subject lines get the most opens and the content and calls-to-action that will earn you more sales. You can also leverage this with landing pages and signup forms to accurately get a sense of the ROI of email campaigns.

The HubSpot email tool is free for up to 2,000 email sends per month, with paid plans starting at $50/month.

Join HubSpot for free to create and send email campaigns that look professionally designed and display perfectly across any device—all by yourself.

Omnisend – Best Email and SMS Marketing Combo

  • Start for free
  • Tailor-made for ecommerce businesses
  • Pre-built automations
  • Cross-channel sales tracking
Start for free

Omnisend is a simple yet powerful marketing solution that’s perfect for ecommerce shops. The platform comes with a wide range of features for automated email and SMS messaging designed to convert leads into customers.

Conversions are achieved by going one step further than most solutions. Omnisend combines text messages, web browser push notifications, email marketing, Google Customer Match, and Facebook ad retargeting to ensure you connect with as many customers as possible.

Omnisend segmentation screen
Omnisend lets you target customers in detail with numerous segmentation options.

All of these channels allow for campaign segmentation. This means you’ll be able to target the exact customers you need for specific products and services.

Omnisend also offers pre-built automations based on actions a customer might take. For example, let’s say you send them a cart abandonment email. If they don’t open that message, Omnisend can automatically send them a cart abandonment text message.

Omnisend homepage showing example of email and SMS automation trigger
Take your marketing efforts to the next level by combining email and sms campaigns with custom triggers and flows.

Omnisend has a vast library of drag-and-drop templates to choose from. You can browse by theme as well—simplifying the process of creating gorgeous, on-brand emails.

Here’s a closer look at Omnisend’s plans and pricing. Prices are based on the number of contacts you need:

Free — $0

  • Up to 500 emails per month and reach up to 250 contacts
  • Up to 60 SMS messages per month
  • Omnisend-branded email campaigns
  • Signup forms, boxes, and pop-ups
  • Sales and performance reports

Standard — Starts at $16 per month for 500 contacts

  • Up to 6000 emails per month
  • Up to 60 SMS messages per month
  • Email campaigns
  • Signup forms, boxes, and pop-ups
  • Sales and performance reports
  • SMS campaigns and automation
  • Unlimited audience segmentation
  • 24/7 email and chat support

Pro — Starts at $59 per month for 500 contacts

  • Unlimited emails per month
  • Up to 3,933 SMS messages per month
  • Email campaigns
  • Signup forms, boxes, and pop-ups
  • Advanced reporting
  • SMS campaigns and automation
  • Unlimited audience segmentation
  • 24/7 priority email and chat support
  • Unlimited web push notifications
  • Facebook custom audiences
  • Google Customer Match

Like most email marketing platforms, the cost per month increases as your contact list scales. So all the rates above are month-to-month, and Omnisend does not offer annual contracts.

The Free plan isn’t really viable for most businesses, so most of you will be evaluating the Standard and Pro options. For low-volume SMS needs, the Standard plan will be fine. But the Pro plan is definitely better for larger contact lists and businesses that want to use SMS marketing combined with email campaigns.

Standard and Pro plans both come with a customer success manager, and the Pro plan gives you access to 24/7 priority support. Sign up now to get started for free.

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) – Best for Growing Your Customer Base

  • Limited free forever plan
  • Unlimited contacts
  • Intuitive Marketing Automations
  • Highly customizable
Try it for free today

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) offers everything you need to launch and track an email campaign. Add your content to their machine and watch your outreach take flight.

This is a mature platform–it’s got all of the features you expect and more. You can add live chat to your site and grab new email addresses from folks browsing your store or learning about your company.

Landing page for Brevo chat.
Give customers a personalized experience with real-time chat options on their preferred channels and manage these conversations all in one place.

There’s a lot to like. More than 40 customizable templates, simple tools to build workflows, and a built-in CRM with room for as many contacts as you like.

You can use the free forever version of Brevo and send up to 300 emails per day without paying a cent. Once you see how it drives, you’ll understand why it’s so popular.

In terms of reaching more people, Brevo has everything you need. They provide a host of lead nurturing tools to help you grow your contact list:

  • Landing pages. Create actionable and engaging web pages to collect leads for you.
  • Sign-up forms. Place forms anywhere on your website to get user information.
  • Facebook ads. Leverage the power of Facebook marketing to nurture more leads.
  • Retargeted ads. Powerful ads based on a user’s previous online interactions.

Make it as simple as possible to build that list with eye-catching forms that turn website traffic into subscribers. Brevo’s intuitive interface makes embedding a form no harder than a few clicks.

Marketing automation landing page on Brevo's site.
Brevo is a powerful platform with intuitive marketing automations, a built-in CRM, and more than 40 customizable templates.

It’s easy to see how these tools help you cultivate an audience, leads, and customer growth. And, unlike other email marketing services, Brevo can support chat and SMS if you want to drive leads on your site or by text.

The platform is available via a fantastic free plan that gives you unlimited contacts and up to 300 emails per day. That’s a pretty great deal—especially if you’re running a bootstrap startup or solo operation.

Their email builder has a beginner-friendly editor that allows you to easily create the look and feel of your email.

They currently offer four different pricing tiers:

Free — $0 per month

  • Up to 300 emails per day
  • Unlimited contacts
  • Chat
  • SMS marketing
  • Email template library

Starter — $25 per month

  • Up to 100k emails
  • No daily sending limit
  • A/B testing
  • Remove the Brevo logo

Business — $65 per month

  • Up to 1MM emails
  • Marketing automation
  • Facebook ads
  • Retargeted ads
  • Landing pages
  • Telephone support

Brevo+ — Customized pricing

  • Customized email volume
  • 20+ landing pages
  • Customer success manager
  • Access for 10+ users
  • Dedicated IP

The Starter plan should be more than enough for most small businesses and startups.

However, as your business scales, the Business plan is always a great option. That comes with even more marketing features, such as Facebook and retargeted ads, along with telephone support.

Try Brevo today. Start out for free, and upgrade when it’s time to grow.

SMTP.com – Best for High-Volume Email Marketing

  • Exceptionally high deliverability
  • Detailed reporting
  • IP Reputation management
  • Automated email address validation
Try SMTP.com today

SMTP.com offers one of the most trusted email relay services that supports email at high volume. It doesn’t matter how many hundred or million emails you need to send. Payments or purchases? Not a problem.

Dealing with email deliverability problems is the worst. You put so much time into your list, segmentation, email design, and then some IP issue grinds your machine to a halt.

With SMTP.com email relay service, you can avoid deliverability issues entirely. Kick off your campaigns with confidence.

SMTP.com home page
smtp is a great solution for high-volume email campaigns.

Think of SMTP.com as a final mile delivery service for email campaigns. Ensure the maximum number of emails reach their intended destination, track all the important metrics, and report back.

It’s not here for designing, strategizing, or project managing your email marketing. Instead, it’s a focused product that ensures your careful work is carried directly to the recipient’s inbox.

You can implement SMTP.com in a variety of ways. Teams that want a hands-off experience can use managed services, and those that want more control can implement the email relay API.

However you choose to deploy SMTP.com, the software is secure and built to scale. Integrations are minutes, not days, and support is available 24/7.

It’s a great solution for companies that send a lot of transactional emails for billing, accounts, ecommerce, and so on. These emails have to be fast in order to keep customers happy and their information secure. With SMTP.com, you know the message is going to make it safe and sound.

Pricing for SMTP.com services is broken into several packages, with custom pricing available for high-volume senders:

  • Essential: $25/month for 50,000 emails per month
  • Starter: $80/month for 100,000 emails per month
  • Growth: $300/month for 500,000 emails per month
  • Business: $500/month for 1 million emails per month

Notably, the Essential plan comes with a shared IP. All other plans have a dedicated IP. For people looking to send over 250 million emails each month, SMTP.com offers a custom high-volume plan that comes with its own dedicated IP and mail transfer agent (MTA).

Any plan may add on SMTP.com’s Reputation Defender service, which monitors and protects your IP against soft and hard bounces.

This is a very focused solution that can help email marketers put deliverability issues behind them. Get started with SMTP.com today.

Campaigner – Best for Marketing Teams

  • Autoresponders and workflows
  • Custom segmentation
  • Rich personalization tools
  • Rapid A/B Testing
Try Campaigner for Free

Campaigner is the perfect tool for a team with experience that’s outgrown lightweight, beginner-facing email marketing options.

The sophistication of this tool keeps it out of the beginner camp, but it’s not so advanced as to require a developer by any means.

You’ll be able to customize your email segmentation, personalization, and customer journeys. Capture the info you really need and capitalize on it. 

Campaigner automates a lot of the busy work, giving you more time to dive into the pre-built reports on open rates, conversion rates, and so on.

Illustration of Campaigner email marketing services
When your team outgrows your lightweight email marketing solution, consider replacing it with campaigner — the midpoint between a beginner and expert campaign management solution.

Everything from an email marketing service you would want is built into the platform. Total rookies might be overwhelmed by how much you can do, but if you’ve run some campaigns, you’ll recognize how easy it is to stay on track with Campaigner.

Deliverability is exceptionally high, even among top services, and there are plenty of tools to keep your contact lists groomed and your email in good standing. 

Send transactional emails reliably with Campaigner’s SMTP relay service. Track opens, clicks, and specific links within your email. Figure out exactly what works and compound your success.

The built-in A/B testing features let you experiment with subject lines, senders, dynamic content, send times, and more. 

Campaigner is available in several packages, but you can always contact them for a custom plan. You can also sign up for a 30-day free trial, which gives you access to the entire Campaigner platform. 

Here’s how the plans break down:

  • Starter: $59/month for up to 5,000 contacts
  • Essential: $179/month for up to 25,000 contacts
  • Advanced: $649/month for up to 100,000 contacts
  • eCommerce: $79/month for up to unlimited contacts

The Starter plan comes with a trim set of segmentation tools, autoresponders, and the drag-and-drop email editor, among other tools. Upgrading your plan gives you a higher number of contacts and more advanced email marketing features.

Off the shelf, Campaigner is going to work fine for just about any email marketing use case. It gives you the tools and visibility to find wins and fine-tune your campaigns over time. Get started with Campaigner for free today.

More Great Email Marketing Services

AWeber – Best Value For Low Subscriber Count

  • Price starts at $19 per month
  • Great for <500 subscribers
  • A/B testing and automation tools
  • 700+ pre-built templates
Get started for free

AWeber is a traditional email marketing service that’s reliable and very affordable.

Where AWeber really shines, though, is its simple pricing structure. Aweber Free is ideal for those with small lists (500 subscribers or less).

Unlike other platforms that add features and capabilities for plans at different price points, AWeber offers all of its features with every plan.

Pricing is based strictly on the number of subscribers on your list. So you’ll get the same features whether you have 20 contacts or 20,000 contacts.

Here’s an overview of the pricing tiers.

  • 0 – 500 Subscribers — $19 per month
  • 501 – 2,500 Subscribers — $29 per month
  • 2,501 – 5,000 Subscribers — $49 per month
  • 5,001 – 10,000 Subscribers — $69 per month
  • 10,001 – 25,000 Subscribers — $149 per month
AWeber homepage
Even with its affordable price point, AWeBER still provides the features you need to succeed.

With AWeber, you’ll get all of the basic features that you expect with an email marketing service:

  • 700+ pre-built templates
  • Drag-and-drop email builder
  • Email analytics
  • A/B testing
  • Sign up forms
  • Automation
  • Third-party integrations
  • Subscriber segmentation

AWeber is an industry leader in email deliverability rates. They make sure that your content is optimized to reach your subscribers’ inboxes.

You can try AWeber for free.

GetResponse – Best for Automated Lead Generation

  • Price starts at $15 per month
  • Automated sales funnels
  • 200+ email templates
  • 24/7 live chat support
Get a 30-day free trial

GetResponse is a bit more than a basic email marketing service. It’s more of an all-in-one solution that specializes in automation.

And when we say all-in-one, we mean it.

With tools and features such as audience segmentation, autoresponders, landing page builders, automated emails, advanced analytics, and even webinar software, you’ll be able to collect beaucoup leads, put them in the right workflows, and turn them into returning customers.

One standout tool that GetResponse offers is called Autofunnel. It can be used to create funnels for sales, leads, webinars, and more. It’s fully automated and very easy to use.

Funnels include things like emails, landing pages, exit popups, marketing automation, Facebook ads, and ecommerce integration. It all depends on your goals and how you want to set them up. But GetResponse provides all the tools you need to grow your subscriber list and monetize those contacts.

Once a user enters your funnel, everything is fully automated by GetResponse. It’s the perfect way to guide customers through the conversion process with multiple digital touchpoints.

GetResponse Features
GetResponse is an all-in-one solution that includes Autofunnel which takes the guesswork out of growing your subscriber lists.

Let’s take a closer look at GetResponse’s plans and pricing.

Email Marketing — Starting at $19 per month

  • Autoresponders
  • Unlimited newsletters
  • Basic segmentation
  • Website and landing pages
  • Integrations and API

Marketing Automation — Starting at $59 per month

  • Everything in Email Marketing, plus
  • Marketing and event-based automation
  • Advanced segmentation
  • Webinars with up to 100 attendees
  • Sales funnels

Ecommerce Marketing — Starting at $119 per month

  • Everything in Marketing Automation, plus
  • Quick transactional emails
  • Ecommerce segmentation
  • Abandoned cart recovery
  • Promo codes

These prices are all based on 1,000 subscribers. The rate will increase as your list grows. As you can see, even the entry-level plan offered by GetResponse comes with advanced features like autoresponders, signup forms and pop-ups.

All plans come with unlimited monthly email sends, inbox preview, click tracking, and 24/7 live chat support.

GetResponse offers discounts for annual and 24-month contracts if you pay in advance. At the very least, you can try GetResponse free for 30 days.

ConvertKit – Best for Influencers, Bloggers, and Creators

  • Price starts at $29 per month
  • Excellent for independent creators
  • Custom forms & reporting
  • Easy tagging and segmenting
Get a 14-day free trial

ConvertKit is one of my favorite email marketing services.

It’s a perfect choice for creators of all stripes. That includes influencers, bloggers, video producers, musicians, artists, and more. That’s because their platform focuses more on engaging your audience and nurturing them with landing pages, ecommerce platforms, and membership sites.

You’ll be able to create leads out of casual visitors to your social media accounts, blogs, YouTube videos, Facebook pages, and more.

For those of you who want to build automated email funnels at an affordable price, ConvertKit will be a top option for you to consider.

ConvertKit Features
ConvertKit excels at audience engagement and nurturing, making it a favorite with creators.

To set up automated emails, you’ll be guided through a simple visual flow chart.

Instead of having multiple lists of contacts, ConvertKit groups all of your subscribers into one list. But you’ll still be able to tag them manually for segmentation purposes or with auto tags based on their behavior to improve the personalization of your campaigns. That’s great for creators with big audiences.

ConvertKit is best for sending quick emails with clean formatting. There are no complex designs or distracting elements here.

ConvertKit offers three pricing plans:

  • Free — $0 per month up to 300 subscribers
  • Creator — $15 per month up to 300 subscriber
  • Creator Pro — $29 per month up to 300 subscribers

As you gain subscribers, the monthly price will increase accordingly. If you pay annually, you can get two months free.

ConvertKit has more than 70 third-party direct integrations, customizable forms, and custom reporting. Email and live chat are available for 12 hours per day, Monday through Friday, with limited support on nights and weekends.

Still not sold? Take advantage of ConvertKit’s free 14-day trial to test it out on your own.

Drip – Best for New Ecommerce Businesses

  • Price starts at $49 per month
  • 24/7 live chat and email support
  • CRM for ecommerce stores
  • Automatic revenue attribution
Get a 14-day free trial

Drip is a relatively new platform. It’s a CRM that offers email marketing for ecommerce businesses.

I like Drip because they’re great for new ecommerce merchants since they focus on offering smaller, independent shops the same powerful automation and segmentation tools for email marketing as larger ecommerce stores.

As such, they’re great for newer brands looking to get a leg up.

With Drip, you can track valuable commerce metrics related to customer intent and purchase behavior.

You’ll be able to segment new website visitors from returning customers. Drip also lets you target users who abandoned their carts.

Get nitty-gritty without hours of data mining–Drip gives you tools that make it easy to target the right people with timely offers.

Drip data mining tool.
Drip brings powerful automation and segmentation tools to small, independent shops, giving them the ability to compete with their bigger competition.

Their CRM helps you reach customers through multiple touchpoints online, including email. Drip also has a revenue attribution feature, giving you a clearer view of which campaigns are actually making you money.

Again, this is ideal for ecommerce shops.

With personalization capabilities, powerful segmentation options, and detailed analytics, Drip has everything you need to succeed with email marketing.

Pricing is based on the number of customers in your account. All plans come with the same features and benefits.

  • 1-2,500 subscribers — $39 per month
  • 2,501-3,000 subscribers — $49 per month
  • 3,001-3,500 subscribers — $59 per month
  • 3,501-4,000 subscribers — $69 per month
  • 4,101-4,500 subscribers — $79 per month
  • 4,501-5,000 subscribers — $89 per month

This stretches all the way up to plans that allow for up to 180,000 subscribers before pricing becomes custom.

All Drip plans come with 24/7 live chat and email support. You can try it out free for 14 days and have access to all of the features.

Moosend – Best for Ecommerce

  • Start for free
  • AI-powered ecommerce
  • Unlimited emails
  • Reporting & analytics
Try it for free

Moosend offers an email marketing solution no matter if you’re a complete beginner or if you’re a seasoned pro. If you have an online store, this is the perfect tool.

From their easy drag-and-drop email builder to their easy segmentation tool to their accurate real-time analytics, they have all the features you need to nail your email marketing campaigns.

Our favorite thing about Moosend is their ecommerce AI. It leverages machine learning and collaborative filtering to target customers with products they might like based on the shopping habits of similar customers.

Moosend AI ecommerce tool.
Moosend’s Ecommerce AI tool lets you target customers with products them might like based on the behavior of similar customers.

You’ll also be able to easily cross-sell based on customer shopping habits and keep track of how often they buy certain products (e.g., perishables), so you can regularly promote the products they need when they need them.

A lot of otherwise great email list services really struggle to give you this insight, if they can do it at all. Moosend makes it easy with a simple interface that lets any ecommerce business looking to level up its targeting and segmentation game.

Moosend targeting and segmentation tool and dashboard.
Moosend makes it easy to cross-sell based on detailed customer data displayed in a simple user interface.

Moosend also does the basics of email marketing very well. Their advanced personalization features allow you to create unique emails for your target customer. Their segmentation tool allows you to spit your audience by purchasing behavior, cart abandoned products, and more.

They don’t offer that many themes, with just 40 responsive themes to choose from. However, they’re all highly customizable and eye-catching.

Pricing starts free for a 30-day trial, with their premium plans starting at $9 per month. More detailed information is below:

Free — $0/first month

  • Unlimited emails
  • Signup and subscription forms
  • Reporting and analytics
  • No credit card required

Pro — $9/month

  • Landing pages
  • Transactional emails
  • Phone support
  • SMTP server
  • 5 team members

Enterprise — Custom pricing

  • Custom reporting
  • Dedicated account manager
  • SSO & SAML
  • On-boarding and migration
  • 10 team members
  • Service-level agreement

Try Moosend for free for 30 days.

How to Find the Best Email Marketing Service for You

The best available email marketing service is going to be unique to you. After all, the multi-million dollar info product business is going to have very different needs than the humble blogger.

But there are specific factors that we took into consideration because we believe that they tend to be the most important ones for most businesses.

I’ll break down the details of our process for making this list and explain what matters, what doesn’t, and what you need to know to find the best option for you.

Use our methodology to help guide your ultimate decision.

And while we don’t recommend using price as a deciding factor, if you’re just starting out and need to watch every penny, there are some solid free email marketing tools to consider, too.

Plenty of Email Templates

There are a lot of reasons to want an email marketing service. You might want to create your first sales funnel and incorporate email into your marketing strategy. Or maybe you just want to send the occasional newsletter out to subscribers.

Whatever your reason, you want your emails to look good while you do it.

That’s why you should find an email marketing service that takes the stress out of things like formatting and typesetting by giving you a list of great email templates for any of your needs.

Many of the offerings above offer drag-and-drop email templates to help take the headache out of designing a great-looking email. With tools like MailChimp’s email builder, you’re filling out the basic info, and a stunning email takes shape on its own.

Example of Hubspot email builder
look for a solution with a variety of templates that are easy to customize.

They’ll also offer a variety of different email template types to fit specific purposes.

For example, HubSpot comes with a library of pre-built sales email templates ready for you and your business to use. If you want, they’ll even allow you to create your own templates unique to your business. You can customize them to your exact needs and save them for use whenever you need them.

MailChimp is another great service with tons of different email templates for different needs, such as selling a product or promoting a blog post. It’s also highly customizable, allowing you to create specific ones for your brand’s goals.

Simple Segmentation

As your business grows, you’re going to want to target different parts of your audience for different products. After all, if you offer a variety of different services and products, not everyone on your list will want the same thing.

A good email marketing service gives you easy but powerful ways to segment your audience.

For example, a service like MailChimp allows you to tag segments of your audience depending on how they subscribed to your email list. That way, you can put those segments into specifically targeted funnels easily and automatically.

Omnisend subscriber segmentation screen
make sure you can segment your subscribers and that it is easy to do, like you can in Omnisend.

A service like Omnisend (pictured above) allows you to send segmented campaigns based on things like your subscriber’s interests, demographics, email open rates, and the products they’ve purchased.

It’s important to note: If you want segmentation features (and if you’re serious about email marketing, you should), you’re going to have to pay for it. This often doesn’t come with a service’s free plan. However, it’s well worth it, especially if you’re focused on growth and conversions.

Seriously–all the marketing automations, striking templates, and great writing in your campaigns depend on your ability to understand your audience. The perfect message is still an airball if it’s sent at the wrong time or to the wrong person.

Segmentation and other aspects of an email list service aren’t as flashy as some of the other features, but they are absolutely critical.

In-Depth Analytics

As the old business adage goes: “If you can measure it, you can improve it.”

To that end, a good email marketing service will give you all the reporting tools you need to provide you with in-depth metrics and KPIs.

Knowing this information will give you vital data about where your subscribers live, who they are, and what they want from your business.

It’ll also help you create better services and marketing strategies in the future. For example, you’ll be able to better segment your audiences with the right analytics.

HubSpot has some of the best traffic and conversion analytic tools available. Along with their A/B testing feature, their analytics tools will let you know exactly how each of your emails performs and why.

Hubspot analytics for A/B testing screen
Data is key to understanding email campaign performance, so be sure the solution you select makes it easy to find and understand the analytics.

Easy Automation

There’s nothing quite like the “set it and forget it” approach to business.

When an email marketing service is automated, you don’t have to worry about making sure that each and every one of your new subscribers is in the right sales funnel. Once you’ve set it up, they’ll receive the emails they should receive automatically.

That’s why you want to find an email marketing service that will let you easily set up automated emails without a lot of fuss and complex tagging schemes.

Constant Contact automation setup screen
Automation makes your life easier, so choose a solution that makes it easy to do.

Constant Contact (pictured above) is a standout when it comes to automating emails. It lets you trigger welcome messages for any new subscribers and put them into specific drip campaigns depending on their actions. The simple design allows you to do this easily, too, with no headaches involved.

GetResponse is another option to definitely consider if automation is your game. Its Autofunnel platform allows you to easily create fully automated sales, leads, and webinar funnels in just a few clicks.

Best Email Marketing Services: Your Top Questions Answered

Top Email Marketing Providers for 2023 in Summary

What’s the best email marketing service? I wish I could point you to just one, but your strategy, goals, audience, and budget are going to determine the right solution.

Use the reviews and methodology in this article to hone in on the perfect one for you. Here’s a recap of our top eight picks:

  • Constant Contact — Best overall
  • MailerLite — Best for the essentials at an affordable price
  • Salesforce – Best for scaling as your business grows
  • HubSpot – Best for automated email marketing
  • OmnisendBest email and SMS marketing combo
  • Brevo — Best for growing your customer base
  • SMTP.com – Best for high-volume email marketing
  • Campaigner – Best for marketing teams

Whether you’re starting a new list from scratch, switching providers, or looking for a full-service CRM, there’s an option for you above.

How to Create an Email Newsletter the RIGHT WAY (Step by Step)

Do you want to create an email newsletter for your website, blog, or eCommerce business?

An email newsletter helps you stay in touch with your users, bring them back to your website, and convert them into customers.

The challenge is that many beginners find it difficult to start an email newsletter. Mainly because they feel that it would be too technical or time-consuming.

That used to be the case 10 years ago, but now creating an email newsletter is so easy that even a non-techy can do it!

Having built an email newsletter with over 1 million subscribers, we have decided to create an ultimate guide on how to start an email newsletter with step by step instructions.

Our goal is to help you walk through the process and set up your email newsletter the RIGHT way.

How to easily create a newsletter

Since this is a comprehensive guide, we have included a table of content for easier navigation.

What is an Email Newsletter?

An email newsletter is a form of online communication that allows you to send news, tips, and updates about your product, business, or non-profit.

In order to receive these updates, people need to join your email list by providing their email address. These users are referred to as subscribers, leads, or contacts.

Organizations and individuals use email newsletters in many different ways. For example, businesses use email newsletters to send users product information, new arrivals, and latest updates.

Websites and blogs use email newsletters to send content updates, increase traffic, and building a loyal following.

Why Start an Email Newsletter?

Did you know, that more than 75% of people visiting your website today will never find it again?

It is not your fault, it’s just that the internet is so huge and there is a lot of content out there.

Starting an email newsletter will allow you to convert those website visitors into subscribers. Once they join your email newsletter, you will be able to stay in touch and bring them back to your website.

Basically without an email newsletter, you are losing potential subscribers and customers every day.

Now you may be thinking, ‘ What if we ask users to follow us on social media? Wouldn’t that provide a way to contact those users?’

It will, and you should definitely build a social media following. However, you don’t own those social media platforms.

Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter limit your audience’s reach. More importantly, most of your users may not be checking their social feeds as often.

On the other hand, people tend to check their email inbox several times every day. Most users use a mobile device with notifications turned on for emails.

For more on this topic, see our article on why building an email newsletter is so important.

Who Should Start an Email Newsletter?

Many of our users often ask us if they should make a newsletter for their business, blog, or organization. Our answer is always ‘Yes’.

Even if you are just starting out, you should start building your newsletter from day 1. Each day you are not doing this, you are losing money, subscribers, and potential customers.

Email marketing is a win-win situation regardless of your industry, business, or website traffic.

1. Email Marketing for Small Businesses

Business websites, regardless of their industry or size, can always benefit from creating a newsletter.

It is the most cost-effective way to stay in touch with your existing customers, website visitors, and potential customers.

Sony PlayStation Newsletter signup

2. Email Newsletter for Ecommerce Websites

A study found that more than 44% of email recipients have made at least one purchase because of a promotional email.

If you run an online store, then email marketing is the most effective tool to convert abandoned carts into paying customers.

For a long time, eCommerce giants have been effectively using email to convert casual visitors into buyers.

Abandoned cart emails

3. Email Newsletter for Non-Profits

Non-profit organizations need to reach out to their supporters for donations, support, events, and more. Other mediums like social media, phone, and physical mailing all cost a lot more money than email marketing.

Human Rights Watch newsletter signup form

Creating an email newsletter allows non-profits to stay in touch with the general public, supporters, and donors.

Users are more likely to open emails from a non-profit that they support. In fact, 49% of millennials prefer to get updates from the organizations they support via email.

To learn more, see this article on why email marketing is essential for non-profits.

4. Email Newsletter for Blogs and News Websites

If you want to start a blog or make a content-driven news site, then email marketing is the best way to build your audience. You will see that all popular internet marketers, influencers, and famous bloggers actively build their email lists.

Chris Brogan newsletter

Here is why:

  • You get to send email updates to users who would otherwise never return to your website again.
  • You build a steady audience of loyal readers without relying on third-party platforms like search and social media.
  • You don’t control search engines or social media. Your search rankings can drop and your social media profiles can get suspended for no reason. On the other hand, you own your email list and have complete freedom to use it.

5. Email Newsletters for Education

Educational institutions need support from an engaged community of students, faculty, parents, and local businesses. Whether it is for fundraising, admissions, events, or other activities; Email is the cheapest and most direct way for schools and colleges to reach out.

University of California newsletter signup form

These are just a few examples of how email newsletters can benefit businesses, individuals, and non-profits. There are many more examples out there, which is why most marketers believe that email marketing is crucial for being successful online.

That being said, let’s take a look at how you can easily start an email newsletter to grow your own business and brand.

Step 1. Starting an Email Newsletter

The most important thing you’ll need to start your email newsletter is an email marketing service provider. These are companies that allow you to collect email addresses and send mass emails.

There are literally hundreds of email marketing services in the world including Constant Contact, SendinBlue, AWeber, Drip, ConvertKit, and many more.

After trying out almost every popular email marketing service, we recommend our users to use Constant Contact. They are one of the most popular email marketing service providers in the world, and their support is great in helping people get started.

Constant Contact offers a beginner friendly email marketing platform with simple drag and drop tools to help you quickly get started. They also have advanced email list growth tools, marketing automation, eye catching templates, and more.

First, you need to visit the Constant Contact website and click on the signup button. They have a 60 day free trial (no credit card required).

Signup for Constant Contact

Once you click the button, it will bring you to the signup page where you need to provide the information to create your account.

Fill in the signup form

After you complete the signup, you will be redirected to Constant Contact guided set up. Click on the ‘Skip this step’ below as we will show you how to set it up later in this article.

Skip set up wizard

You will now reach your Constant Contact dashboard. This is where you will manage your email lists, subscribers, and send your email newsletter.

Constant Contact dashboard

Note: Constant Contact free trial account only allows you to send up to 100 emails. You will need to purchase their paid plan to access all the powerful features. WPBeginner users can get a special 20% off when using our Constant Contact coupon code.

Step 2. Creating an Email List

An email list is basically a contact list of your subscribers. Think of it as a contact book containing email addresses of all the users who sign up to receive your email newsletter.

To keep your contacts organized, you need to create an email list.

Simply click on the ‘Contacts’ link from the top menu and then click on the Email List link in the sidebar.

Creating a new email list

This page will show all your email lists. By default, Constant Contact creates an email list for you labeled ‘General Interest’. You need to click on the ‘Enter a new list’ link to create a new email list.

Choose a name for your email list

You’ll be asked to enter a name for your list. You can enter anything here that helps you easily identify the list.

Next, click on the ‘Add list’ button, and Constant Contact will create the list for you.

Email list created

In order to start using this email list, you need at least one contact added to it. You can manually add a contact to your list by visiting the ‘Contacts’ page and clicking on the ‘Add Contacts’ button.

Add contact to your email list

This will show you a drop-down menu, asking how you would like to add contacts. You need to select ‘Type in one contact’ to continue.

On the next screen, you need to enter contact information. You can add one of your own email addresses here. This will allow you to test your email campaigns.

Adding a contact to your email list

After entering your contact information, click on the save button to add it. Your email list is now ready to be used.

Now that you have created an email list, it is time to set up some basic list settings.

Step 3. Setting up Your Email List Settings

The first thing you would want to set up is a welcome email. This is the email message sent to your users when they join your email newsletter.

Let’s get started.

First, you need to click on the ‘Campaigns’ link from the top menu and then click on the ‘Create’ button.

Create welcome email campaign

This will bring up a popup where you will be asked to select an email campaign type. Click on the ‘Email Automation’ to continue.

Email automation campaign

After that, you need to choose the email automation type. Click on the ‘Welcome email’ option to continue.

Select automated welcome email

Next, you will be asked to select a template for your email. The builder will automatically show you ‘Welcome email’ templates that you can use as a starting point.

Select welcome email template

Simply click on a template to select and open it in Constant Contact’s drag and drop email builder.

Creating welcome email

From here, you will design your welcome email newsletter template.

You can start by giving your campaign a proper title, this will help you identify the campaign when you need to edit or change it in the future.

Click on the ‘Untitled…’ link at the top left corner to edit it. Now enter a name for your campaign, for example, welcome email, new user signup, introduction, etc.

Campaign name

After that, you can start editing the email template. It is a drag-and-drop editor, so you can simply drag elements from the left column and drop them on the canvas. You can also point and click anywhere in the email to edit it.

Point and click to edit your welcome email

You can replace the logo with your own, add your own header image to match your branding, customize the email subject and message text to fit your needs.

Once you are satisfied with the design, click on ‘Save’ to store your email and then click the ‘Continue’ button.

The email builder will now ask you to select an email list. Go ahead and select the list you created in the earlier step. After that, fill out the physical address form.

Welcome email settings

Due to the anti-spam laws in many countries, you need to include physical address information in each newsletter email. This can be your business address or a P.O. box.

Lastly, click on the ‘Activate’ button at the top right corner of the screen to save and activate your welcome email.

Welcome email campaign set up

You have successfully set up a ‘Welcome email’ campaign. From now on, all new users joining your newsletter will receive this email upon sign up.

Some tips on writing an effective welcome email

Welcome emails have an average open rate of 50% which is higher than any other email newsletter you send.

It will be the first thing new subscribers will hear from you. This is your opportunity to impress them, so they look forward to your next email newsletter.

  • Say thanks and let your users know that you appreciate them sharing their contact information with you.
  • Next, you would want to introduce yourself, your business, and what you do. Keep it short and simple.
  • Let your users know how often you’ll email them and what kind of content and offers they should expect.
  • If you promised users an incentive to join your email list, then include that information in your welcome email.
  • The best way to introduce users to your brand is by sending them to the most useful content on your website. It helps them discover content and builds engagement.

For more tips, see this guide on how to write the perfect welcome email for new subscribers.

Step 4. Setting up Newsletter Signup Forms to Get More Subscribers

Now that you have signed up with an email marketing platform and set up your email list. It is time to start promoting it.

The easiest way to get more subscribers is by adding the newsletter sign up forms to your website. Usually, your email marketing service would have ready-made sign up forms that you can add to your website.

However, these signup forms don’t look good and sometimes don’t fit in the container where you want to place them.

Let’s take a look at how to easily add newsletter signup forms to your WordPress site. We will show you two methods, and you can choose one or both of them together.

1. Add Newsletter Signup Form Using WPForms Lite (Free)

WPForms is the best drag & drop WordPress from plugin in the market. They have a free version called WPForms lite which includes built-in support to connect with your Constant Contact account.

This allows you to use WPForms’ drag and drop form builder to create your newsletter sign up form.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms Lite plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit WPForms » Settings page and click on the ‘Integrations’ tab.

WPForms integrations

You will see Constant Contact integration listed there. You need to click to expand it and then click on the ‘Add Account’ button.

This will show you the information needed to connect your Constant Contact account to WPForms. Click on the link that says ‘Click here to register with Constant Contact’.

Connect Constant Contact to WPForms

This will bring up a popup which will take you to the Constant Contact website. Click on the ‘Allow’ button to give WPForms access to your Constant Contact account.

Allow access

Next, you will see an authorization code which you need to copy.

Authorization code

Switch back to the WPForms settings page and enter the authorization code you copied earlier. You also need to provide a name for this integration.

Add authorization code

Finally, click on the ‘Connect to Constant Contact’ button.

WPForms will now connect to your Constant Contact account. You will see a ‘Connected’ label appear next to the integration.

Constant Contact connected

Now you are ready to create your newsletter sign up form using WPForms.

Simply head over to WPForms » Add New page to launch the WPForms builder interface.

Creating a newsletter sign up form

Provide a title for your form and then click on the ‘Newsletter signup form’ template.

This will load up a read-made signup form with required fields already added to the form.

Editing newsletter signup form

You can point and click to edit form fields, change fields labels, and add more fields from the left column if needed.

Once you are satisfied with the form, you need to click on the Marketing tab to integrate it with Constant Contact.

Add new connection

Click on the Constant Contact tab and then click on the ‘Add Connection’ button. You will be asked to provide a title for this connection. You can enter anything here and then click OK button.

Name your connection

Next, you will see the settings for this connection. It will automatically detect your Constant Contact account and show it under the Select Account field.

Below that you need to select the email list. Click on it to select the email list you created earlier.

Select email list and map form fields

After that, you need to map your WPForms form fields to the Constant Contact fields. Once done, you can click on the ‘Save’ button at the top to save your sign up form.

WPForms also makes it super easy to add your newsletter signup form anywhere on your website.

If you want to add the form to your website’s sidebar, then visit Appearance » Widgets page and add WPForms widget to a sidebar.

WPForms widget

Provide a title for your widget and then select the signup form you created earlier. Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.

You can now visit your website to see your newsletter signup form in action.

Newsletter sign up form displayed in the sidebar

You can also add sign up form to your blog posts or pages. Simply edit the post and add the WPForms block to the content area.

Adding WPForms block to blog post

After adding the block, select the newsletter signup form you created earlier and WordPress will load it inside your post. You can now save or publish your post and visit your website to see it in action.

Newsletter signup form in a WordPress post

2. Add Newsletter Signup Form Using OptinMonster (Pro)

For this method, we will be using OptinMonster, which is the best tool in the market to help you get more email subscribers, faster!

It includes dozens of high-converting signup forms like lightbox popups with exit-intent technology, 2-step optins, slide-in forms, floating bar, and more. This gives you powerful tools that you need to quickly grow your email list.

For more details, see our complete OptinMonster case study to learn how we used it to increase our email subscribers by 600%.

First, you will need to sign up for an OptinMonster account. It is a premium service and their plans start from $9 per month.

You can use our OptinMonster coupon code: WPB10 to get 10% off your purchase.

Once you have signed up for OptinMonster, you will reach your account dashboard.

Let’s create your first OptinMonster campaign. Click on the ‘Create Campaign’ button to get started.

Create campaign

Next, you will be asked to select an optin type. For the sake of this guide, we will be creating a lightbox popup signup form. Below that you need to choose a template for your campaign.

Choose optin type and template

After that, you will be asked to provide a title for your campaign and enter your website address.

Campaign settings

This will launch the OptinMonster builder interface. It is a powerful drag and drop campaign builder where you can design your optin forms.

OptinMonster builder

You can point and click to edit any item on the screen. You can also add new blocks to add different elements to your optin.

Once you are satisfied with the design, it is time to connect the OptinMonster campaign to your Constant Contact account.

Switch to the ‘Integrations’ tab from the top menu and then click on the ‘Add new integration’ button.

Adding a new integration in OptinMonster

Next, you need to select Constant Contact as your ‘Email service provider’ and then click on ‘Register with Constant Contact’ button.

This will bring up a popup where you need to click on the ‘Allow’ button.

Allow OptinMonster to access your Constant Contact account

Switch back to the OptinMonster and provide a name for this connection. After that, click on the ‘Connect to Constant Contact’ button.

Connect Constant Contact to OptinMonster

OptinMonster will now fetch your Constant Contact account details. You need to select the email list you created for your newsletter.

Select your email list

Now, we will take a look at the display rules for your campaign. Display rules allow you to choose when and where to display your campaign.

Display rules

By default, OptinMonster will show the popup to any user after 5 seconds. The popup will only appear on their first pageview and will not bother your users again during the same session.

Next, you need to switch to the Publish tab and change campaign status to Live. After that, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button to store all your campaign settings.

Publish your OptinMonster campaign

Your OptinMonster campaign is now ready, let’s add it to your WordPress site.

First, you will need to install and activate the free OptinMonster plugin on your site. This plugin acts as a connector between your WordPress site and OptinMonster.

Upon activation, you need to click on the OptinMonster menu item in your WordPress admin sidebar. On the next screen, click on the ‘Connect Your Account’ button to continue.

Connect OptinMonster to WordPress

Next, you will be asked to enter your OptinMonster API key. You can find this information under your account on the OptinMonster website.

Connect to OptinMonster

After entering the API key, click on the ‘Connect to OptinMonster’ button. The plugin will now connect your website to OptinMonster.

Next, you need to switch to the ‘Campaigns’ tab. This is where all your OptinMonster campaigns will appear. If you don’t see any campaigns here, then click on the ‘Refresh campaigns’ button.

Turn on campaign on your website

Now you need to click on the ‘Go Live’ live below the campaign you just created. After that, you can visit your website in a new Incognito browser tab to view your newsletter signup popup in action.

Newsletter sign up form

OptinMonster is an incredibly powerful tool to quickly get more subscribers for your website.

Following are a few other campaign types that you can create with OptinMonster.

Step 5. Sending Your First Email Newsletter

Once you have added newsletter signup forms to your website, you will gradually start getting subscribers. After getting your initial welcome email, these new subscribers will be waiting to see what you send them next.

You are now ready to start sending newsletter emails.

Let’s create your first email campaign.

The great thing about using Constant Contact is that it comes with an incredibly easy to use email builder with tons of beautiful templates.

Creating your campaigns and sending newsletter emails is quite easy. Simply log in to your Constant Contact account and click on the Campaigns menu from the top.

Create new Constant Contact campaign

The campaigns page lists all your current, past, and automated email campaigns. Click on the create button to start a new email.

You will be asked to select a campaign type. Click to select the ‘Email’ campaign type and continue.

Select email campaign type

Next, you need to pick an email template for your newsletter. Constant Contact comes with several ready-made template for different industries, campaigns, and email types.

Choose an email template

All these email templates are fully customizable, and you can add your own logo and images to customize them. Once you edit and save a template, you will be able to use it for your future campaigns.

We recommend starting with a simple newsletter template and customizing it with your own brand logo.

Simply click on a template to select it for your email newsletter. Constant Contact will then load the email builder with your selected template.

Editing your email template

This is the same email builder that you used to create your welcome email. You can add your brand logo, point and click to add text, link, and images.

Adding your blog posts to the email newsletter

You can also fetch and add your blog posts to the newsletter. Click on the ‘More’ button in the left column and then drag and drop the ‘Read More’ block to your email.

Adding blog posts with read more link

Next, you need to click on the ‘Read more’ block to edit it. This will bring up a popup where you need to enter the link of the blog post you want to add.

Add blog post to your email

Click on the preview button to fetch a featured image and article description and then click on the Insert button. Repeat the process to add more blog posts if needed.

Once you are satisfied with your email’s design and contents, click on the ‘Continue’ button to move forward.

Continue to email settings

On the next screen, first, you need to select the email address you want to send this message. After that, review other email settings on the page.

Email settings and scheduling

Lastly, you need to select whether you want to send this email right away or schedule it to send later.

We recommend sending your emails on a fixed schedule. This helps your users anticipate the arrival of your email and sets expectations. For more on this topic, see this guide on choosing the best time to send newsletter emails.

Click on the Schedule button at the top right corner of the screen to save your email.

That’s all, you have successfully created your first newsletter email and scheduled to send it.

Need help with writing effective newsletter emails? See these tips on writing effective email newsletters.

Step 6. Tips to Get More Email Subscribers

In 2018, the number of global e-mail users amounted to 3.8 billion users.

In another study, 48% of participants said that they would like to receive email updates from their favorite brands.

This means that users prefer to get emails from their favorite businesses. Now the only question that remains is how do you get them to subscribe to your newsletter?

Luckily, email marketing has been around for a very long time. Experts are regularly experimenting, sharing, and finding new ways to grow their email lists.

Here we will share some of our own tips that are tested and proven to work.

1. Use multiple signup forms

Many beginners just add a single newsletter signup form to their website and forget about it. Add multiple signup forms to your website using a variety of placements.

Multiple signup forms

However, you need to be careful not to ruin user experience with aggressive prompts to signup.

For example, in the screenshot above, the second prompt only appears when a user scrolls down and the first signup form is no longer visible.

Social Media Examiner uses multiple sign up forms and creative strategies which has helped them get over 250,000 email subscribers (case study).

Keep experimenting with different forms and placements to find out what gets you the best results.

2. Use lead magnets to capture more subscribers

Lead Magnets are special offers used as an incentive to join your email newsletter. These special offers could be an exclusive download, an ebook, a helpful resource, discount coupon, etc.

Lead Magnets work extremely well because they offer users instant gratification and value for performing an action.

You can see a live example of lead magnets just below this article, where we offer users a free download of our ultimate WordPress toolkit as an incentive.

Lead magnet example

3. Offer Content Upgrades

Similar to lead magnets, content upgrades offer users an additional piece of content or bonus content, which they can download after signing up for your newsletter.

You can easily add content upgrades to your existing content. This can be a checklist, a PDF download of the article, a case study, a research report, and more.

Content upgrade example

For more details, see our guide on how to add content upgrades in WordPress.

4. Use social media to grow your email list

Promoting newsletter on social media

Your website is not the only place to promote your newsletter and find new subscribers. Social media platforms can be another place to convert followers into email subscribers.

For detailed tips, see our guide on how to use social media to grow your email list

Need even more tips? Check out the following email marketing guides:

Step 7. How to Make Money from Email Newsletter

One of the popular sayings among digital marketers is that “The money is in the list”. Every dollar you spend on email marketing has a return average of $32 dollars.

As your subscriber count grows, you would want to explore opportunities to monetize your email newsletter.

Following are just some of the easiest ways to make money from your email newsletter.

1. Sell your products

Sell your own products

First, you would obviously want to use your email list to sell your own products. You can use your email list to send special offers and discount deals exclusive to your subscribers.

You can also bring them back to your website by adding calls to action, offer members-only content, demo, and free samples.

When trying to sell your own products, keep the ‘Value Value Value Pitch’ formula in your mind.

It basically suggests that you should offer three times more value than your sales pitch. Most marketers agree that such emails work better than those that are nothing more than a plain sales pitch.

2. Upsell products and services

Upselling is a sales technique to persuade customers into buying something additional like an upgrade or add-on. As your email list grows, you can send personalized offers to existing customers.

Upselling through email

Due to its highly targeted messaging and personalized offers, upsell emails tend to perform way better. This may lead many businesses to send more such emails.

You need to remember that your emails should offer value first, otherwise those emails would soon become annoying.

3. Affiliate marketing

affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a referral program where an online retailer (advertiser) pays you a commission when users purchase their product using your referral link.

You can find products and services that might interest your users and add affiliate links, reviews, and coupons in your newsletter emails.

To get started, see our beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing.

4. Advertisement or renting out your email list

If your email list grows quickly, then you can make money by renting your email list.

You see, a lot of folks don’t realize the potential of email marketing until they realize that they could benefit immensely from an email list.

Lucky for you, they are now looking for someone who may already have a list of people interested in specific products, services, or industry.

You can approach such advertisers directly, or you can find email list brokers like Info USA, List Giant, or Mailing List Direct.

Step 8. Keep Your Newsletter Emails Out of Spam

How to make avoid ending up in spam

In 2012, 90% of all emails were spam. This number was reduced to 58% by the end of 2018.

The main reason for this decline was the improved spam detection and prevention technologies used by email marketing tools.

This is great news for all users and businesses. However, the AI-powered spam detection technologies are quite sensitive and can wrongfully mark your email messages as spam.

Following are the most common reasons for newsletter emails to end up in spam:

1. You didn’t use double opt-in

Basically, all email marketing services including Constant Contact require users’ consent for sending them emails. This is done by the user verifying their email address after signing up.

However, they also allow you to manually add email addresses. If you misuse this feature and add email addresses from random sources, then your messages will end up in spam.

2. Sender email address was used for spam

If your sender email address was used to send spam or malware, then your email campaigns with the same sender address will end up in spam. This is why you need to get a business email address to ensure high deliverability for your newsletter emails.

3. Misleading subject lines

Misleading email subjects are annoying and due to many users reporting such emails, spam algorithms can now identify many such lines and mark them spam.

Following are a couple of examples of common misleading subject lines.

  • Urgent: Update your information
  • Thanks for your order!
  • You have won a prize

Need some good examples? See these 160+ excellent email subject lines for inspiration.

4. Your email must have accurate information

The anti-spam laws in many countries require the sender to provide accurate from address (sender email address), complete physical address, and an unsubscribe link in the email message.

If any of these are missing from your newsletter email, then it would most likely end up in spam.

Basically, you need to follow the rules and guidelines provided by your email marketing software and you’ll be able to avoid the spam folder.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily create an email newsletter. You may also want to see our article on how to get a free business email address to send your newsletter emails.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create an Email Newsletter the RIGHT WAY (Step by Step) appeared first on WPBeginner.

5 Unique Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic

5 unique ways to increase your blog

This is a guest contribution from SEO expert Zach Radford.

Today, you don’t gain blog traffic by paying for backlinks or by swapping them like the old days. Instead, you need to focus on creating quality content that is beneficial to your visitors.

We know that. But how do you do it? And do it consistently?

The content should solve main problems faced by your reader. It should be actionable, specific and relevant to the audience. If you do this, your audience will come to trust your site, and visit it regularly looking for new content. They will also engage with you, which helps you to improve your blog.

To that end, here are five new ways of looking at increasing your blog traffic.

Create quality content and mention other bloggers

Your blog is the main avenue for communication with your audience. While your main purpose for the blog may be to promote your business, yourself, or some other product or service, you need to focus on providing quality content to the reader. Just focus on providing information that readers will find interesting to read, without trying to be overly strategic about it. Look for trending topics in different areas and create amazing content on those topics. Your audience will not only keep coming back for more if they find your posts interesting, they will also share your posts with their friends. You also need to mention other bloggers that you follow in your posts. You can quote them if you feel the information is interesting to the reader or just mention their names in the post. This will create good relationships with the bloggers and they might return the favour. Lifting each other up has the added benefit of leading to increased traffic.

Share your blogs on social networks

This is a no-brainer, but cannot be ignored. Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Linkedin are where your readers are. Give them your posts. After creating your post, you can share a link of the post through Facebook or Twitter and then ask your friends or followers to comment. This will expose your blogs to thousands of social media users and eventually lead to increase in blog traffic.

Syndicate your posts

Syndicating your blog posts will expose them to more readers. You can use RSS feed or syndicate the blog to applicable high-traffic sites. RSS feeds allow your audience to keep track of your blogs without having to bookmark it. The readers only need to open their RSS reader and all your posts will be displayed there. Syndicating your blog to high traffic sites will also popularize it. This will also give your post more credibility, which could lead to high traffic.

Involve your readers

After posting to your blog, you need to ask your readers to leave a comment after reading the blog. Research shows that people will do (mostly) what you ask of them, and will comment where they might not have before. Read the comments that are left and try to reply all of them. Readers feel more valued if they are treated well and respected by the bloggers they engage with. They will keep on visiting your site to look for more content and to engage you as well. This will also build trust with your readers.

Use Pinterest Individual or Group Board

Pinterest allows bloggers to post on individual board and collaborate by posting on contributor boards. The main benefit of pinning your blog on contributor boards is that your blog is exposed to other contributors. Those contributors also have followers who will also see your post, leading to increased traffic.

The bottom line

Your blog will attract more readers if it is of good quality. Above all, this has to be the main aim. Therefore, it is important that you focus on quality more than selling your products or promoting your business through the blog. You also need to network with other bloggers and create good relationships with them. This will help you gain new ideas of increasing traffic to your blog.

Zach Radford is an SEO content expert, working as an SEO consultant and Sales manager for the past 10 years. He strives for success in everything he sets out to do. He believes that high-quality keyword-rich content is the key to running a successful online business. Currently starting his own venture: an SEO Content Company, aiming to provide quality SEO content to the masses.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
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5 Unique Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic

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