Aside from time and location freedom, the biggest benefit to starting an online business is that you don’t need a lot of start-up capital. You don’t have to buy inventory. You don’t have to spend a ton on equipment. And you don’t have to shell out cash for employees and insurance and all the other costs associated with offline businesses. But you should spend some on a stellar email marketing platform.
But that low-cost mentality can cause you to lose sight of the bigger picture, too. While it is possible to start a business without spending any money at all, it’s truly not a good idea. That free hosting account will no doubt have downtime issues (not to mention the ads they’ll serve up to your visitors). Free word processors will have compatibility issues with other, more common solutions. Free WordPress themes and plugins can have support issues. So while bootstrapping is a good thing, making business decisions based solely on cost is not. And nowhere is that more true than when it comes to choosing an email marketing platform.
DELIVERABILITY ISSUES
Here’s the biggest problem we see with low-cost providers, including those you install and manage yourself: deliverability. Email services such as Yahoo, Gmail, and others vigorously defend their users’ accounts against spam, and will often mark your legitimate email as spam, simply based on the IP address it originates from. Large email list providers have the resources to fight these false spam reports and keep their deliverability rates high. That’s what their users pay for. But when you choose a free or low-cost platform (or manage your own server), this might not happen. Over time, you’ll see your deliverability rates plummet. Mailchimp is known for hitting the spam box 99% of the time. Avoid it if possible.
LIMITED FEATURES
Deliverability aside, many low-priced email marketing platforms can afford to charge lower rates because they limit the features. For example, you might only be able to collect 500 addresses, or you may only be able to send a few emails each month. Even worse, you may not be able to segment your list or automate your emails. Before you make the choice to use a low-priced or free platform, be sure you fully understand the limitations of the account. While some concessions might be okay with you, others might put a serious crimp in your business-building efforts. Better to know before you invest your time and energy only to switch platforms after you’re fed up with limitations.
CHANGING EMAIL LIST PROVIDERS
Finally, keep in mind that changing providers later (when you’re “ready”) can be a huge undertaking. You’ll have multiple landing pages and opt-in forms to edit, connections with your shopping cart, webinar host, social media accounts, and countless other integrations to deal with. And you’ll have a list of names to import to your new provider, many of which will either opt out or be undeliverable at your new host. Rather than go through all that trouble, the better option is to choose the right provider from the start, and if cost is an issue, create a plan to cover the expense instead of settling for the wrong service.
WHO WE LOVE
Convertkit: With Convertkit, you can create landing pages, email sign-up forms, emails, sell your products, and automate your email workflows. It’s an all-in-one platform for eCommerce and email marketing.
Flodesk: One monthly price, unlimited subscribers: unlike competitors, Flodesk doesn’t penalize you for growing your list. Whether you’re looking to start a small newsletter or build an email marketing empire, you pay the same monthly price. For the first time ever in email marketing, you can use custom fonts and image collages. Yes, please! I like my marketing on-brand. I also love that Unsplash is built right in – no need to go searching for images for your email! If you can’t tell, we love Flodesk.
ActiveCampaign: Not only is ActiveCampaign an email marketing and marketing automation platform, but it’s also a Sales & CRM software. ActiveCampaign has every capability you’ll need from the first touch to leads to customers and beyond. Plus – they offer one-on-one training when you onboard.
Drip: For a sole email marketing platform, Drip is a powerful marketing automation, with a huge emphasis on eCommerce. . Drip connects your order management system to your marketing analytics—and lets you automate campaigns based on specific user behavior such as orders placed, products viewed, and more. It’s simple and easy to use with customizable forms, SMS & email automation, and segmentation & reports.
EXTRA LOVE FOR PRICE-FRIENDLY ALL-IN-ONE PROVIDERS
Clickfunnels: ClickFunnels is an online tool meant to help entrepreneurs build websites and sales funnels. It’s geared toward those selling products or services and makes it easy to create high-quality, eye-catching pages inside of their sales funnels to help their companies grow. It’s designed to simplify the creation of the sales funnel to allow for higher conversion rates and more sales over time. It’s pretty badass.
Kartra: An all-in-one shopping cart platform that comes with amazing features designed just for marketing your small to large business. It does all the things inside a single account.
Need more help choosing the right companies to partner with? We can help! Send us a message!
