How to Choose the Right Email Marketing Platform for Your Organization
Email marketing remains one of the most popular marketing strategies. It is cheap, effective and customizable.
That is why there are a number of email marketing platforms available to help you manage your email marketing campaigns.
However, they are not all the same, and you can’t afford to buy a tool that requires a ton of customization or effort to use.
Let’s learn how to choose the right email marketing platform for your organization.
Determine Which Functionality You Need in the New Platform
The first thing you have to look out for is what type of features and functionalities a particular platform will have.
One of the most popular options out there is SendGrid, and it does have a decent set of basic features like personalized automation scenarios and a pretty good email gallery, but tends to be limited.
And you will have you pay for basic features like a dedicated IP address, which is essential if you want to have control over the sender’s address and avoid getting your messages flagged as spam.
This is why you should consider looking at other options. You can consider Sendgrid alternatives like Sendinblue for instance.
One of the reasons why people choose Sendinblue is that it has email design tools that don’t require much training to use effectively.
Another is the ability to synchronize contact lists from almost every major platform. Then you can send targeted emails to customer segments or a broad audience.
The reports on the dashboard give you an immediate understanding of the marketing campaign’s success.
It offers many features its rivals can’t match or charge more for.
Verify That It Integrates with the Tools You Already Use
While you want to rely on as much built-in functionality as possible with the email marketing tool, no one system can do everything. This is why there are so many other business applications.
Make a list of the tools your business already uses, such as customer relationship management software and inventory management systems.
Verify that the email marketing tool integrates seamlessly with your CRM system at a minimum.
This is essential to be able to personalize email content with minimal effort.
The ability to view key metrics in whatever tool you want and relate it to key performance indicators is a plus.
Consider What Automation You Want to Have in Place
You can send out a ton of marketing emails, but that is only the first step.
The next step is processing all of the responses. You don’t want to have to sort through thousands of emails a day to find the few key actionable ones.
A good email marketing platform will automatically process incoming unsubscribe requests and update customer contact information.
The best systems will organize emails so you can identify the few that require action on your part and help you send out the appropriate response when you’re ready.
Don’t forget automated messages sent to customers based on certain triggers.
Around three-quarters of all email revenue is generated by triggered campaigns, whether it is marketing to those who have left items in shopping carts or those who are likely running low on an item they have already purchased from you.
When you send relevant messages that correspond to their purchase cycle, you’ll get 1.3 times as many purchases as when you send out a one-size-fit all marketing campaign.
If you can automatically get reports on A/B testing and pipelines, you’ll have better data for making marketing decisions.
You’ll be able to kill failing campaigns and invest in successful ones sooner, improving sales and profits.
If you don’t already have automation in place like this, find out if the email marketing tool supports it or can be made to do so.
Email marketing platforms that reduce how much work you have to do will help your firm save money on labor costs.
Viewing and Reading Options
Mobile searches now count for a majority of online searches, and people spend more time than ever reading messages on the go on their mobiles.
If you can’t send messages that will be easily readable from wherever they are and through any device, then your campaigns won’t be as successful.
So, you have to make sure that the service’s templates are easy to read through mobiles and don’t take too much time to load.
Mobile optimized templates will reduce the chances of them bouncing back, and increase engagement as well.
You should also go with a service that will allow you to preview your messages ahead of time, and know exactly what your messages will look like through various devices.
It isn’t enough to blast out cookie-cutter emails to everyone in your marketing list.
Choose the right email marketing tool to deliver the curated content your customers appreciate and will eventually lead to more sales.