Top 3 Email Marketing Solutions: But Which Is the Best?

When you run a business, whether it’s your first day or your several years in, you need an effective strategy for managing communication with your followers/clients. It’s difficult to manage communication in an effective way, considering that you need a strategy that is unobtrusive, yet capable of commanding attention. While there are a myriad of options available, one of the most widely used, in part because of its convenience and simplicity, is email marketing.

Email marketing, in its most basic terms, is just sending out emails to your clients. You probably don’t realize it, but your inbox is already full of these sort of emails. Myself, I have an inbox full of them, from PayPal, Toys R Us, and Best Buy, to name just a few. Are they beneficial? Sometimes yes, sometime no. But generally, if I allow emails through to my inbox, and haven’t unsubscribed, there is a reason for it. But the question remains, is email marketing worth your time and attention, and if so, which service should you be using?

Why Would You Need a Dedicated Email Marketing Solution?

Is it worth your time and attention? To answer that question, it can depend on your clientele, but considering that there are between 3.9 and 4.9 billion email accounts in the world, the general answer is a resounding yes. Out of those roughly 4.5 billion current users, 91% access their email a day, providing a valuable source of people to potentially pull from when engaging in email marketing. Currently, there are several platforms available for use, and the best platform for you will depend on your business and your current needs. The top three contenders are currently GetResponse, AWeber, and MailChimp.

MailChimp is probably the best known of the three, although AWeber has been around longer. The reason for MailChimp’s popularity is no doubt heavily influenced by its integration with WordPress. Considering that WordPress is one of the most common web development platforms available, it’s an automatic choice for a number of consumers. However, both AWeber and GetResponse offer valuable functionality that might make it a better fit for your business.

Comparison of Solutions

Out of all of these options, is there one that is clearly beneficial for you? At the risk of editorializing, yes, there is one that is probably a little better for you. Granted, all are excellent systems, and the case could be made that all three confer benefits that would be sure to grow any business, but like most business solutions, one can be better for you.

GetResponse is most likely a slightly better option for your business needs. Let’s consider that out of every dollar spent on email marketing, the average amount a business can expect to see for returns in excess of $40. The true amount varies across industries, but generally it works out to $44.25 returned per $1 spent. With such high returns, it’s easy to see how clients spend approximately 138% more at stores when their emails contain offers.

How to Achieve Good Results?

The key is maximizing an emails effectiveness is to give your consumers a reason to spend their money. Aside from just the ad or information inside the email, you need to give consumers a reason to buy from you. A well crafted fully responsive landing page that the email sends a customer to is one of the best way to generate increased revenue. With 48% of emails opened on a mobile device (in 2013, so that figure is most likely higher by now), you need a fully responsive landing page that is mobile optimized.

GetResponse offers clients over 100 easy to pick from templates for landing pages, with most fully creatable in just ten minutes. Consider that 67% of consumers reported being more likely to buy from a brand if they have a mobile optimized web page, and it’s easy to see why you would want to create a beautiful landing page that your email directs consumers to. Sure, you can just use your traditional business site to direct consumers to, but a specially designed page offers more potential and higher lead conversion rates from the emails.

Summary

All three systems are beneficial for consumers, and there’s a reason that AWeber is still around and MailChimp has over 8 million users, but out of the three, GetResponse is the only one that is adapting quicker to an ever changing marketplace. It seems as though the other two are staying a little further behind the times, and relying on old business practices to assist consumers. GetResponse is offering additional powerful functionality that will benefit the average business a little more, especially if they’re new to email marketing.

Photo credit: GetResponse / AWeber / MailChimp / Johan Larsson