Email marketing platforms

I remember that a few years ago, when social networks started with a lot of force and a lot of noise in the virtual world, all the leading marketing experts agonized over the end of email marketing, arguing that it would be better with immediacy that social networks provided will become obsolete. The web, email will be relegated to a matter of work, and even private email and chat will replace other platforms such as Skype… However, social networks, almost a decade after its birth, have not replaced all this. Interestingly, not only did they not end up with their «obsolete» siblings, but they let them evolve, feeding off the web, to increase their combination of services and efficiency.

Especially in the field of corporate and business communications, email remains a powerful advertising communication weapon for one main reason: users of social networks consider their profiles as virtual versions of themselves, so they use the network itself as their reflection in the personal sphere. They can also choose who to follow and who not to follow, so companies cannot use these channels as a traditional business tool because it would lose followers who have no interest in seeing ads constantly, in fact, the language of business is systematically rejected. This is a disruption in the private and social lives of our followers, so the rules of communication there follow different paths, with commercial messages overshadowed by many non-advertising content.

However, users do associate email with the business tool through which they receive that information. They want to receive offers, catalog news or discounts through their email. In fact, it is your main way to find out about all the news of our online store. The evidence is that the tactic of «cheating» users subscribing to our newsletter is no longer so popular, but we simply advise them to do so, we give them all the facilities to do so, and it is the user’s decision to do so. . . It’s the equivalent of people writing letters to companies in the 80s or 90s asking them to send an ad to their mailbox. Paradoxically, this is happening today, and only in the digital realm.

Before entering our list of favorite email platforms, let’s try to show some of the advantages that email marketing and newsletters can offer our online store:

In bulk it doesn’t make sense. This is the first thing to determine what is important and should be communicated and what should not. One thing is a specific offer, a concrete news that you know will interest a specific audience, or a very trendy exclusivity  that you know will get many conversions … another thing is to start commanding each new product you upload to your catalog, or send a daily «summary» of the best-selling products, or keep sending your followers emails about new uploads to your blog or interesting things you see on the Internet. That’s already social media territory, and you’re getting. You will lose followers for being «tiring».

Do not provide relevant content or only provide promotional information. That’s another one. While email is considered a business tool by both parties, the reality is that people don’t want you to send them a specific «email,» although they also don’t want you to start sharing everything you find on the Internet as if it were a social network. Media profile. The key is a logical balance based on promotions and original and exclusive content.

Insertion of emails in newsletters without your consent. For starters, in addition to being illegal, this is manual. If someone isn’t subscribing to your newsletter, there’s a reason for it. If you want him to subscribe, offer him something in your database that is really worthwhile.

Putting up barriers, or simply not offering the possibility of being removed from the newsletter. With that, let me tell you that all your votes will go to the spam tray of 99.99% of your subscribers.

Do not include legal text and clear conditions in your publication that make all your promotions misleading or too «open», which could lead to errors or be subject to abuse by «eagle» users. Be very careful when writing and publishing these two conditions, because they are the key if they are problematic.

Now that you are clear about the pros and cons of using an email marketing strategy for your online store, let’s get down to work and start analyzing the best email platforms to use in your eCommerce (always from our point of view, from Logically, it can be different from others).

Email Marketing Platform

mail chimpanzee

The queen of email platforms. most famous. diva. The one everyone knows. It is the tool most used by SMEs and freelancers, although it is also used by very important multinational corporations. It stands out for its ease of use and its total integration with Google Analytics. The free version allows you to send 12,000 emails per month to a total of 2,000 subscribers, which is a very powerful hook for anyone just getting started with email marketing and doesn’t want to spend money before they know if they’re going to do it. Do. It’s all very intuitive. Easily set up recipient lists and formal aspects of messages. It also has an automatic subscription system and a statistics panel to monitor the results of the campaign. This is the one you will find the most information and tutorials because, as I said, it is the most popular among small businesses. But it also has its disadvantages, the biggest is that it is an American platform and the support you can get is in English. Aware of the linguistic problems that exist in Spain, this is a stumbling block.

A weber

It’s certainly the easiest email marketing platform tool we’re going to discuss. I don’t just mean its interface, but its purpose as a tool. It focuses mainly on digital publications and blogs. It is an ideal tool in the day to day of organizations where the generation of content plays a prominent role. It allows you to set up a large number of forms and has many customization options. For some, it’s the best automatic response on the market and comes with a mechanism to know how spampy your messages are. Actually, as a business communication tool, it’s much more limited than others, but as a tool for your store’s blog, it’s great.

Activity Monitor

The tool has been geared more towards medium or large companies, as it is designed to operate with a very large customer base, allowing good segmentation based on spending patterns or personalities (usually, small online stores can segment by hundreds or thousands of customers, here we are talking about tens of thousands and more customers). It allows you to send campaigns to different mailing lists. It has very complete analysis or measurement tools, and mechanisms that allow you to view maps in real time with geolocation to read emails. As an editing and sending tool it is «normal», but to measure and analyze it is the most complete you will find.

Doppler

The tool, like Aweber, focuses on simplicity of use and functionality, as it facilitates the creation of campaigns in just four steps: create a list of subscribers, send email, measure results and optimize. Don’t expect to find anything more sophisticated, that’s why we think it’s good because it hits the mark and you don’t get lost in 200 options you’ll never use. Messages and quotes can be customized based on goals. It has a WYSiWYG text editor  and drag-and-drop templates. He also likes to integrate with Analytics.