3 Popular Email Marketing Services
(And How They Ignore the Needs of Small Businesses)
There are many email marketing providers which claim that they make the process of sending out targeted communications easier, but the truth is that many are oriented primarily towards the large business market and fail to meet the needs of smaller businesses and individuals.
And that’s exactly why Flowmail was created. To cater to the needs of individuals and small to medium sized businesses by providing an optimized user experience. We understand that a growing business like yours, has drastically different email marketing needs than a large business. Flowmail’s easy-to-use newsletter management system takes these needs into account, allowing you to start small and grow, while boosting your customer loyalty in the process.
We wanted to break down the ways that Flowmail’s email marketing services differ from other top services in the field. Below, three of the most popular email marketing services are discussed as they apply to a small business owner.
Benefits of an Email Marketing Service
Before we jump right into looking at the top email marketing services, we wanted to briefly go over why utilizing such a campaign is so important to the success of your business.
An email marketing service enables you to use email effectively as a marketing tool. At its most basic, it allows you to:
• Create and send email messages to large contact lists
• Design beautiful emails using email templates
• Create and format company newsletters
• Gather and analyze contact information of people interested in your offer, product, or service
Email marketing is a low cost way to connect with potential customers and build a loyal following. You can track almost everything — from who opens your emails to which links are being clicked on, to how many people have unsubscribed. You can even automate your emails ahead of time so they are sent out without a hitch. An email marketing campaign is one of the best investments a business owner (of any size business) can make.
MailChimp
At first glance, there isn’t much to dislike about MailChimp. The service is free forever. You can send up to 12,000 free emails per month and your first 2,000 subscribers are free. It is only after you hit one of these marks that you begin to pay. MailChimp has a very interactive user interface and a colorful dashboard. What possible negatives could it have?
Though there aren’t many disadvantages for large sized business users that have a dedicated marketing team, MailChimp tends to fall short when it comes to the small business experience (they actually acquired TinyLetter to try and fill the void). Companies that are just starting out often can’t dedicate a person or team solely to marketing (especially email marketing) and the plethora of features which MailChimp offers can be quite time consuming to learn and difficult to use.
Of particular note are their email templates which can be difficult to work with, especially for users who are just looking for something simple and effective.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is another top email marketing service. Businesses use the service to grow their audience, drive sales, and increase brand awareness, among other things. Though more individuals and small businesses use Constant Contact than MailChimp, there are still a handful of areas in which it falls short.
Perhaps the most readily apparent disadvantage of Constant Contact is its reports. Reading a report on your email campaign is essential in understanding how successful it is. Unfortunately, Constant Contact’s reports can be difficult to interpret for anyone unfamiliar with or new to marketing.
Setting up a timeline or queue for your emails can be tricky on Constant Contact. The user interface and dashboard are a little clunky and take some getting used to. Designing emails is generally easy on Constant Contact — if you are using text only. Things get a lot more difficult when it comes to adding photos and other features.
iContact
Geared towards those that need an extensive set of features, iContact provides an amazing amount of customizability without sacrificing the basics. It is nearly as popular as MailChimp and Constant Contact.
The big drawback of iContact for small businesses is also one of its advantages for large businesses. The sheer number of options that the service provides can easily be overwhelming for a small team without a dedicated marketing department. And many small businesses don’t even need or want all of the available options. Finally, the user interface takes some getting used to and even then can remain difficult to use.
Flowmail is a Great Choice for Your Small(er) Business
There is no denying that the three email marketing services discussed here (MailChimp, Constant Contact, and iContact) get the job done for their bigger clients.
Each of them is capable of accomplishing all of the things an email marketing campaign sets out to accomplish, including targeting customers, learning what they want, staying in contact with them, driving sales, and building brand loyalty. However, each service is better suited for large businesses.
Much of this traces back to the simple fact that the above services are complicated. It takes some time to learn to use each of them — time which many small business owners do not have. Furthermore, many of the features — even the most basic ones like building a nice looking email — are difficult for those without prior experience in marketing, coding, or design.
Simply put, small businesses and individuals need to utilize email marketing. But they need an email marketing service that is simple and streamlined, one that makes it as easy as possible for them to connect with customers. Flowmail does just that.
Simplicity is one of Flowmail’s greatest strengths. Just like the emails it allows you to send, the application itself is beautiful. It is easy to navigate, easy to learn, and easy to use. There is hardly any learning curve and you can start sending beautiful emails almost immediately after signing up.
Flowmail’s “Flow Manager” or timeline makes queuing up emails and newsletters for the week, month, or longer a breeze. And Flowmail reports are straightforward and uncomplicated. They allow you to fine tune your campaign for even better response.
Don’t have a design degree? Working with a small team for your small business? Then choose Flowmail. It is the easy-to-use and intuitive way to run an email marketing campaign that gets the results you want.
