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The Top 3 Email Programs for Busy Entrepreneurs

By Sydni Craig-Hart

top-3-email-marketing-programs-featured-imageFor many entrepreneurs and small business owners, email marketing remains something of a mystery. You know you’re supposed to be emailing your list, but when? How often? And what about?

Choosing a great email program takes a lot of the guess-work out of email marketing, because you can measure exactly how your emails are being received by potential clients and customers.

For example, you might enjoy a 33% open rate when you share your latest blog post, but only an 11% open rate when you send an email pushing a product or service you’re trying to sell.

This information allows you to get strategic with your marketing. In the above example, you might decide to make blog posts the cornerstone of your email marketing strategy, and incorporate your sales pitch directly into those emails, either in the P.S. line or the blog post itself.

Here are our top 3 choices for email programs that will help you streamline your marketing, track your results, and make the necessary changes to grow your business online.    

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is an incredibly user-friendly email application that makes creating and sending email blasts a snap.

With over 400 templates, finding one that’s right for your audience is quick and easy. This program allows you to import all of your contacts from Sage, Outlook, even your personal email account.

From there, you can use Constant Contact’s drag ‘n drop email builder to create professional-looking emails in just a few minutes. You can also schedule those emails to be published at a later date.

Basic plans start at $20/month, includes up to 250GB of storage within your account. We like the Essential plan – $45/month with more storage, social media, event marketing tools and a survey platform that allows you to gather feedback from your audience!

AWeber

Aweber is a great choice for bloggers and small businesses that are constantly churning out fresh content. It has a built in feature that allows you to automatically email your contacts every time a new blog post is published.

Another added benefit of Aweber is its autoresponder feature, which allows you to send an automated sequence of pre-created emails. Aweber’s autoresponder templates are especially helpful for introducing new subscribers to your brand.

AWeber’s month-to-month rate is similar to Constant Contact at $19/month for the most basic plan.

InfusionSoft

InfusionSoft is the Cadillac of email programs. It’s expensive, nearly 4-5 times the price of the others, but that’s because it can do absolutely anything you want. All the basics are there, including customizable templates, reporting tools, and the ability to import contacts from various applications.

But Infusionsoft’s true power lies in its automation. Not only can you create autoresponders – you can create autoresponders based on behavior.

This means that a link clicked in an email sends your prospect into a new email sequence based on their interests and position in your sales funnel.

You can even program InfusionSoft to automatically make phone calls for you!

So what’s the investment for that kind of service? To get started there is a $2,000 “Kickstart” fee to setup your account and learn how to use the software, and a minimum of $200/month thereafter. Ongoing expert support and stellar customer service make this email program a strong choice for entrepreneurs who need more flexibility and power in their email marketing.

So, are you using the wrong email program? Yes, if the program you are using is not helping you to accomplish your goals. Allow your business goals to determine what tools you need.

Email marketing is the best way stay connected with your leads, prospects and clients. Make sure that you are utilizing the program makes accomplishing this fun AND effective!

Which email program are you currently using?

What do you love about it? What would you change?

Post your thoughts and comments below!

Filed Under: Email Marketing, Resources Tagged With: Email Marketing, Email Programs, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Goals, small business marketing, Small Business Owners, Smart Simple Marketing, Sydni Craig-Hart



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Sydni Craig-Hart

Is your organization looking to gain market share and deepen loyalty with small businesses, women or minorities? Sydni Craig-Hart is CEO of Smart Simple Marketing and a 4th generation entrepreneur. Since 2006, her team, having worked with over 8,000 small business in 79 different industries, has been helping companies to drive engagement with sought-after, growing market segments. If you want to increase the value of existing-customer spend, recapture marketing investments, grow customer lifetime value or decrease attrition, contact Sydni to discover how her team is doing this for companies like Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and more.

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Comments

  1. Matt Goss says

    June 5, 2014 at 5:02 AM

    Good article but you forgot one of the most important and upcoming tools that I believe everyone should use, especially Entrepreneurs!

    I know I make use of it everyday, in many of my automated processes, and that is Zapier. Check out Zapier.com. I’m a huge fan and believe that many of these recipe companies will continue to flourish and assist in a fractured techologically challenging environment.

  2. Ryan Biddulph says

    June 7, 2014 at 9:54 PM

    Nice list Sydni! I’ve only used Aweber, definite winner 😉 Thanks!

    • Sydni Craig-Hart says

      June 8, 2014 at 2:34 PM

      Thanks so much for the feedback Ryan! I’m glad to hear you’ve had a great experience with Aweber. We’ve used it many times for client projects and have gotten great results.

      Do you have any list building tips to share that have worked well for you?

      Best regards,
      Sydni

  3. Caroline Donnelly says

    June 8, 2014 at 3:28 PM

    Great article with good recommendations! Although, as a VA who does a LOT of newsletters for clients, I prefer MailChimp over Constant Contact. Each system has different strengths and weaknesses though (including AWeber and Infusionsoft, which I love,) so it’s important for people to think about what they need and do their research before choosing one.

  4. Robert Currie says

    July 15, 2014 at 7:11 PM

    Good info in this post. We do little internet marketing but always seeking innovating application to increase our reach.

  5. Keith Gormezano says

    July 15, 2014 at 7:13 PM

    If you use Intuit’s Point of Sale program to record your sales, it integrates with Constant Contact. I make a point of that when I sell the software to my clients.

  6. Dennis Dilday, D.C. says

    July 22, 2014 at 5:28 PM

    Besides open rate, what other kinds of info can these programs give that helps with fine tuning strategies Sydni?

    Thanks for another well-written article.

  7. Susana says

    October 4, 2014 at 7:27 AM

    Pretty great post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I have really
    enjoyed browsing your weblog posts. In any case I will be subscribing
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    more very soon!

Trackbacks

  1. Grr! Check Your Links BEFORE Sending Me A Sales Email! Links in Emails | Alun Hill - Talking About Business says:
    May 11, 2015 at 4:19 AM

    […] The Top 3 Email Programs for Busy Entrepreneurs […]

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