5 Ways to Pick Your Email Marketing and Marketing Automation Platform for 2024

The email marketing and marketing automation platform you'll choose won't just affect the newsletters you'll send. It'll shape your entire marketing strategy, too. The right tool affects the success of marketing initiatives, like influencer marketing and webinars, with the data they provide. On the other hand, picking out an email marketing tool that doesn't fit your needs can be a waste of time and resources that you could have used for other marketing projects.

But there's a wide range of email marketing tools out there. What are the key features you should be looking for? And how can you pick the right tool for your needs in 2024?

Research the Available Tools

The first step to picking the right email marketing platform for your business is to find out what options you have. But a simple search for email marketing tools won't give you helpful answers. You need to dig deeper and understand how each of these tools fits into your marketing strategy and specific needs.

To do so, you could start by checking out customer testimonials, use cases, and review sites. They’ll give you insights into the user experiences of different email marketing tools. One such example is G2’s email marketing report that allows you to select the company’s size and see each platform’s score in terms of satisfaction and market presence:

Make sure to look for reviews from businesses like yours. An influencer looking to grow their reach through email marketing would have different needs from a SaaS (software as a service) company, for instance.

Consider alternatives articles and comparison pieces as well, especially if you’re between two or three different tools, and see which platform is popular for the features you’re looking for.

If, for example, you’re a tech-savvy marketer and you’re looking for an advanced deliverability solution, Mailchimp and Constant Contact are two of the tools that come to mind. But which one’s the best?

Mailchimp’s deliverability rates come to an 85.4% as of January 2024, whereas Constant Contact sports a rate of 87.2%, which makes it the clear winner:

Case studies and webinars are also credible sources when it comes to researching the email marketing tools available. Look into businesses in your niche and professionals that have seen benefits or drawbacks from popular email marketing tools.

Make a Shortlist of Features

While you’re researching, having a shortlist of key features in mind will help cut through the noise and look into exactly what you need to meet your email marketing goals.

The right email marketing platform comes with a set of capabilities, and the types of emails it supports is part of those capabilities. This is why knowing what emails you’ll need to send is so important.

A SaaS business will need drip campaigns that will onboard new users and nurture leads, whereas a publisher will need more than one email newsletter option:

Newsletters are among the most common types of email campaigns and are there to share updates about a brand or fun facts that are clearly tied to the brand’s tone, mission, and vision.

If, on the other hand, you’re just starting with your online store, make sure your email marketing platform offers transactional email capabilities so that users know their order is complete or it has shipped. This type of email activity nurtures relationships and shows prospects that you’re a legitimate brand.

Of course, most brands go for a combination of emails. This is why, when picking your email marketing platform, you’ll need to ensure it can offer all the different types of features that can help you create email campaigns that are tied to your brand.

The features you’ll need to look into are those that will benefit your brand and your goals. Some of the most common are:

• A/B testing: Through A/B testing, marketers can create and send out two emails that will have one key difference and compare how they perform against each other. A/B testing can help you gather data and insights and transform them into actions.
• Robust email creation options: Some platforms provide HTML editing options, other provide email templates that convert, and others can help you create an email newsletter from scratch with their handy drag-and-drop email editor. If you’re an influencer, a variety of templates and an email editor that can customize elements to meet your needs could be just what you need.
• Automation options: Email automation is at the very heart of a great email marketing campaign. Depending on your industry, you may need automation workflows like cart abandonment workflows, or an onboarding email series.
• Integrations: The adoption of a new tool can sometimes slow down the creative process. An email marketing and marketing automation platform with a lot of integrations will help you keep all your favorite tools in one place.

Since email marketing needs could differ from one industry to the next, make sure to find an app that is marketed towards your niche.

Consider the Cost

Looking into features without considering the cost of an email marketing tool would be an oversight, especially for solopreneurs or teams with tight marketing budgets.

Before committing to a plan, you could consider email marketing platforms that offer free trials. This way, you can test out their features and see whether they meet your needs. And you'll be able to make an informed decision down the line.

Likewise, platforms with monthly plans give you the flexibility to see how your email campaigns perform without having to spend a big part of your marketing budget in advance.

You could also go after email marketing platforms with free plans. Keep in mind, though, that lots of free plans have limitations. For example, some features are available only in paid plans. Or, you may be able to send your newsletters to a limited number of subscribers.

If comparing different tools and their pricing plans sounds challenging, start with a few questions:

• Which features are must-have? Reject tools and plans that don't include them. Even if their pricing seems enticing. Otherwise, you'll find yourself going through the same purchase process soon.
• Which features are nice-to-have? You may be tempted to buy a fully featured platform. But if you don't need all of these features, you'll end up paying more than you have to.
• Are there any hidden costs? Often, it's not clear from the get-go if there are additional implementation or support fees. Knowing how much you'll need to pay in total will help shape your final decision.
  

Set Your Goals with Scalability in Mind

Identifying your brand’s goals will help you pick the right email marketing platform. Your platform shouldn't just cover your current needs; it should help you reach your future objectives, too. And to do so, your goals need to be SMART:

Let’s assume that you’re trying to create a series of newsletters as part of an influencer marketing strategy. This strategy will bring more subscribers if you decide to urge your users to share your content with their peers.

A scalable platform is there to anticipate this subscriber growth and can accommodate your new contacts. This is not just a matter of pricing, but also one of efficiency. The more your contacts, the more challenging it will be to keep your engagement rates high. By forecasting potential subscriber growth, you can pick an email marketing platform that can help you meet the content demands of your expanding audience.

As your contact list grows, so does the complexity of your automation workflows. Different automation campaigns can cater to different users, making it imperative for you to pick an email marketing platform that can evolve in tandem with your needs and can adapt according to your marketing campaigns.

A forward-thinking way of choosing a platform is the vision of expanding campaigns and strategies. Whether you’re launching more onboarding campaigns, or are running intricate A/B testing strategies, a scalable solution will help you keep your campaigns robust with a plethora of tools and integrations.

Remaining relevant in a constantly evolving landscape where new technologies can predict—or even shape—customer behavior is another step towards scalability. Your email marketing platform should reflect that and meet current and projected industry standards. This will future-proof your email marketing campaigns and keep you one step ahead of the curve.

Think of Additional Limitations

An email marketing platform’s limitations lie beyond its features and the pricing models it offers. So, consider any additional factors that can be dealbreakers.

If you’re an organization with users all around the globe, make sure to go for a platform that can offer support that’s multilingual and can function round the clock. Language barriers could potentially compromise the effectiveness of your email campaigns.

Another limitation you should consider is the responsiveness of a platform’s customer support. Delays in addressing queries can impact your campaigns and your revenue. So, make sure to take all reviews into consideration when it comes to customer support and ensure a smooth experience.

Another point you should consider would be the onboarding and help materials. For some marketers, a lengthy onboarding process is a point of friction, while for others, a rich help section and a YouTube channel with tutorials is just the thing.

Since reliability is paramount when it comes to email marketing, look into the uptime and downtime of the platform you are going to choose. If the downtime is frequent, you might face missed opportunities and disruptions of your email marketing campaigns.

Additionally, consider the friction in the use of the features. Especially when it comes to the email newsletter editor. A non-intuitive interface or a long learning curve can hinder the creation of your campaigns and slow down the entire process.

Lastly, cybersecurity is quite popular in 2024. With data breaches becoming increasingly common, ensuring data security measures and compliance with regulations is non-negotiable. Businesses must prioritize platforms that protect customer data and implement robust security protocols. A lack of such measures in an email marketing tool can pose risks to sensitive customer information, with legal ramifications to follow. Platforms with clear incident response plans, such as rapid breach notifications and predefined mitigation steps, are at an advantage.

Now You’re Ready

Picking the email marketing software that is right for your business will help you reach more users and drive more awareness, engagement, and sales-if that is your goal.

There are plenty of email marketing and marketing automation solutions out there, all within specific price ranges that offer a plethora of features to help you create your campaigns. All you have to do is test the features and see what works best for you and your brand.

Author Bio:

Téa Liarokapi is a Senior Content Writer for Moosend, an email marketing and marketing automation platform, and an obsessive writer in general. In her free time, she tries to find new ways to stuff more books in her bookcase and content ideas - and cats - to play with.