Every business needs to have email marketing. It plays a crucial role in converting leads into customers. So, it is not a question of whether or not should you start implementing it, but rather, how should you? While it may be an important aspect, you shouldn’t implement it just for the sake of it. It should be approached systematically that best fits your business. In certain cases, the best approach might even be to outsource email marketing.
How Difficult Can Email Marketing Be?
You know what email means and marketing pertains to. Does that mean you know what email marketing entails?
The hard reality about email marketing is that it is not simple. While its name suggests what it ultimately does, it is more complicated than it seems. This is where most businesses fail. They try to implement the approach on their own, believing that it is something they possess.
Email marketing is more than just sending emails. It is a strategic approach in order to effectively convert leads to customers. One small mistake and you can end up pushing a potential customer away. In that regard, it requires skill and expertise in different fields.
1. Copy Writing
Do you think you can write? Whether it’s a yes or no, you can’t defeat the expertise of someone who has extensively practiced the skill. Copy writing isn’t just about typing text, it is communicating with the subconscious of your customer. It is knowing what they want and imparting their needs in an emotional level. That’s what makes a sale.
2. Graphic Design
When you have your written content, the next hurdle is your graphic content. All text and no graphics make for a boring email. As a matter of fact, the right design elements can point to the overall goal of your email, making it intuitive.
Graphic design is a technical skill. It is not something you can learn overnight. Along with it, you need to have a mind of a creative to formulate appealing designs.
3. HTML Coding
Today’s email marketing is not just about presenting information, it is also about making it interactive. Modern email features allow for clickable text and other interactive elements. You can’t have that without any knowledge of coding.
4. Data Administration
Another important thing to remember is that you are not just creating emails, you are targeting them. No matter how great they are, if they do not feed into the right demographic, they will fail.
Modern email marketing services collect and track information about a contact. You need to understand what those information entails, like what they are in the market for. This will allow you to curate an email that a contact is going to be more susceptible to.
5. Analyzing Performance Metrics
No matter how perfect you think you analyzed your contacts, things usually don’t go according to plan. What you thought would be the perfect email would end up not getting opened or clicked. That’s what makes analyzing the performance of your campaign important. You get to see what you are doing wrong and where should you be concentrating on.
Not everybody has the skill to analyze performance metrics. For the average person, most likely including you, these are just going to look like random numbers. Effective analysis comes from people with extensive experience doing it.
When to Outsource Email Marketing?
There are two ways to do email marketing. Either you hire your own team of graphic artists and marketing experts or you outsource the work you need. The question is, when to do one over the other?
What Does an Inhouse Email Marketing Mean?
Hiring your own email marketing team has its own benefits. You have a group of dedicated workers that are awaiting your command. So, they are always there when you need them. They provide flexibility and an inexhaustive amount of work hours.
However, is a private email marketing team really all good? Before you jump into this option, try to consider the possible drawbacks. It might not be the best one for you when you look at the bigger picture.
1. They Cost A Lot More Than to Outsource Email Marketing
When you hire your own team, it also means that you have to completely pay for their salaries. It doesn’t matter if you only need a graphic artist seldomly, you need to provide them with the right monthly compensation. When you account all the team members, you are looking at a hefty monthly expense.
2. It Requires Constant Management
Your team reports to nobody else but you. While you may think that it is great to have full control, it really isn’t. You need to constantly keep an eye on them and guide them through what you want. When that happens, you can end up spending more time on your email marketing campaign than on decisions important to your business.
3. It Gets Limiting Sometimes
When you have a team that is working only on your business, at some point, their expertise gets narrowed down. What they know how to do becomes limited to what they do on a daily. That can lead to stagnation of progress as your team no longer looks at business aspects from a different perspective.
Looking at the drawbacks, if you think that this isn’t for you, then you might want to outsource email marketing campaigns.
Shift to Outsourcing When You are Experiencing These Problems
If you are one who already has an in-house team, outsourcing can still be a viable choice throughout any point of your journey. The question is, when is it time to make the shift?
1. You Want to Improve Performance
Do you think your campaigns can do more? In most cases, they could. The reason you feel that your progress is plateauing is because you have the same people doing the same thing. If you want to improve your performance, you need a team that can think outside the box.
Outsourcing your email marketing means that you are delegating it to a group that is doing the same work for other businesses. As a result, they have a wide grasp of different industries, allowing them to come up with new solutions and approaches. Their constant exposure makes them see what’s new in the world and apply those to your campaigns.
2. Time is No Longer Enough
After a while of doing your business, you are bound to see growth. Sometimes its slow, and there are cases when it is exponential. Regardless, the responsibilities become more and heavier. As this happens, you are going to need to have more time for more important business aspects. That leaves you with no time to manage your own email marketing team.
What do you do? You outsource outsource email marketing so that what is left to do is tell them what you want to happen. It is the agency who does everything else. They are experts and one thing they know how to do is get leads and customers with their email marketing campaigns without your nonstop guidance.
3. Budget is in Question
Email marketing is difficult only at the start. It is when everything is made, from the copy written material to graphic design. After that, the work gets lesser, which means most of your team will have nothing to do yet you pay them with the full salary. If you are running a big business, the operating expense can be overlooked. However, if you are still starting out, it can get a little too much.
When you outsource email marketing, you get the opportunity to pay for only the things you need done. If you don’t need a specific service anymore such as graphic design, you get to pay much less.
4. You Want to See the Bigger Picture
When you make decisions, you base it off what you know. Sometimes you forget that there is a different perspective. When you can’t look at other opportunities, you can’t expand the capabilities of your business. As a result, you need other people to give you advice. People who have a lot of knowledge about business and marketing.
Who else to ask but people who are in the industry and continuously practicing their profession? When you outsource email marketing, you get advice from professionals who specialize in IT outsourcing services. Your hired team is not just going to say yes all the time. You are given a much bigger picture about the market, the new generation, and everything else you may have no idea about.
Outsource When It is Needed
It has been a pattern among business owners to want to do everything by themselves. That couldn’t be any falser. You can’t manifest all the skills that there is. Most of the time, you need to get the right people to do the job. Whether you are starting out or in the middle of your campaigns, to outsource email marketing is both a viable and economical choice.
Have you been running your Shopify store for a while now? If so, you might have heard about Shopify email marketing. It is quite the standard for the e-commerce platform for being an effective way to generate leads.
While you may have heard about email marketing nonstop, you might not have gotten the opportunity to learn the specifics of it. What does it mean entirely? Where do you begin? And so much more. If you want to get started, read further to learn everything that there is.
Understanding Email Marketing
The first thing to know is understanding what email marketing is all about. Fortunately, it is as straightforward as it can get. As the name suggests, it is sending emails as a marketing strategy.
You send emails to prospective and current customers in an effort to educate and influence their shopping decisions. The goal is to make them aware of new products and the benefits in order for them to make a purchase.
The Benefits of Email Marketing
Despite the simplicity of email marketing, it provides some great results. There are even ones that you are not bound to get from anywhere else. So, if you are doubting the legitimacy and the need of email marketing, here is a list to answer that.
1. Builds Ongoing Customer Relationship
One of the main goals of email marketing is to keep constant connection with prior customers. You send them information of what you have to offer. You never know which ones find the need to make a purchase.
At the end of the day, you are able to generate repeat customers. You also strengthen prior relationships by being the one to cater to their needs.
2. Effective in Driving Sales
According to statistics, email marketing ranks as the best way to convert potential customers into real sales. This number was found during a Black Friday Cyber Monday Sale wherein email marketing had a total of 4.29% conversion rate. It is followed by search engine searches at 3.04%.
3. Email Marketing is Consistent
Looking at other forms of marketing, email marketing is one that is the most consistent. Take a look at social media marketing, algorithms are constantly changing. Therefore, it requires you to keep on adapting and learning what’s new. Your strategies a month ago may no longer work today, and that is not something you are going to have with email marketing.
How to Build Your Email Marketing Campaign
Now that you have settled the thought of email marketing with yourself, it is time to get started. You are not going to need much. That is one of the greatest things about email marketing, it is simple. As a matter of fact, it can be compressed in only three stages.
1. Choosing Your Email Service Provider
Email marketing is about sending a lot of emails to a number of recipients. Don’t expect that this is entirely possible to do manually. It gets tedious and time-consuming which could pull you out from more important tasks of your business.
The only way to keep email marketing viable is with the help of an email service provider. With one click, emails are automatically sent to recipients. You can also automate a lot of things so that you don’t have to create an email for every person.
There are a lot of email services providers in the market. To give you an idea, some of them are Klaviyo, Omnisend, and Conversio. You don’t necessarily have to stick to one until the end of time. You can always opt to change in the middle as you start to learn what you want and prefer.
2. Build Your Email List
Your email marketing campaign won’t work if you don’t have any recipients to send your emails to. So, after reaching a conclusion on your email service provider, the next thing to work on is building your email list.
You are going to collect contacts through different ways. There is no single way to collect customer emails. So, be creative and resourceful. The bigger your email list gets, the more effective and worthwhile your campaign becomes.
3. Send Your Emails, But Legally
You now have everything you need. So, the next step would be sending out your emails. It is going to be as simple as a click of a button, but before you do, understand what is legal and not. You never know, you might be getting into a problem without you knowing it.
For example, if you are in Canada, they have the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation. It protects customers from unwanted and unsolicited excessive emails. Therefore, always be cautious and seek the advice of professionals who are experienced in the field of email marketing.
How to Build Your Email List?
Building your email list is no joke. In the three-step email marketing phase, this is going to be the hardest. To make things worse, it is the most crucial part. Without any real and legitimate recipients to your email marketing, it is bound to fail without a doubt.
As told earlier, there are different ways to compile a list of email contacts. Implement each of these and you are going to have a legitimate growing contacts list.
1. Pre-launch Page
A pre-launch page is what you are going to have before you release a product. It is where curious people can give their emails so that they can be updated and informed. However, as expected, it is not going to be easy. If you want them to give out their emails, you should give them more incentives like an early-bird discount.
Also, don’t forget to write interesting information about your product. Nothing beats authentic engagement from people who are really interested with what you have to offer.
2. Customer Accounts
In Shopify, a paying customer doesn’t necessarily mean that they have an account. However, if they do, you are able to get first-hand access to different information, especially their email. The best part about this is that they already came to your store. Your next goal would be to hook them in and turn them into repeat customers.
3. Forms All Over Your Site
Your website receives traffic every day. There are people who just came in to take a look while others are more dedicated to make a purchase. Regardless, your website is the most ideal place to build your email list.
You can put forms all over your website to gain emails with the promise of different things. You can offer to keep people updated or educational content they are not going to get anywhere else. Your website is already engaging them, making them more susceptible to things like this.
4. Hook People with Lead Magnets
When people are not being cooperative with free content and the promise of being updated, you are going to need to use lead magnets. Begin offering discounts or contests in exchange for emails. If that doesn’t get you any cooperation, nothing will.
Even during times when free content is working, lead magnets are still essential. A little bit here and there will keep people engaged and come back for more. Those who weren’t interested the first time are bound to cave sooner or later.
Types of Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing is not just about sending emails as you please. If you don’t follow a proper campaign plan, it can either fall as spam or too inconsistent that it doesn’t really lead to any benefit.
To get the most out of it, follow an email marketing campaign. Here are the three main types of email marketing campaigns that you should follow.
1. Transactional Emails
When somebody makes a purchase, you are obliged to send them an email regarding confirmation, receipts, and the likes. It gives the buyer the information they need after a purchase. Also, it gives them peace of mind that the transaction has pushed through.
While this may not be considered as email marketing, it can strengthen the relationship between you and the customer. Though, if you want, you can slide in some promotional content in there.
2. Promotional Emails
The purpose of this email campaign is to generate awareness for an upcoming event. Are you going to release a new product? Send out promotional emails. Is there an upcoming event such as Black Friday or the Christmas Holidays? Give your customers promotional emails to tell them what they are missing and what they might want to be a part of.
3. Lifecycle Emails
While the first two are strong email campaigns, the one that stands out are lifecycle emails. Any activity a customer does will trigger an email based on what they did. For example, if a person abandons a cart, an email will be sent relating to that specific activity. Either you ask them for a feedback or give suggestions for other alternatives of that product.
Tracking Email Marketing Performance
The goal of email marketing is to convert more people into customers. So, you are investing into something that is expected to help you earn more. Otherwise, the point of your campaign is all for nothing.
The question now is, how do you know that you are making more out of your investment? What do you track to make sure that you are succeeding in your email marketing performance?
Fortunately, email marketing is something you can track accurately. As a matter of fact, there is more than one way to gauge the output of your efforts.
1. List Size and Growth
If your contact list is growing, that is definite proof that you are in the right direction. When you are not doing great and you are not creating efforts that are susceptible to an audience, you won’t be experiencing such response.
Most would try to justify that an increasing list size is not proof of good email marketing efforts. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. Great email marketing will mean that more people want to participate.
2. Open and Click-Through Rates
Sending out an email to a recipient doesn’t necessarily mean that they are going to open it. Instances of emails being ignored and left in the inbox are quite rampant. While it is a good thing that you haven’t been blocked or placed in spam, being left in the inbox is nothing to boast either.
What you want to have is an email that is being opened and engaged by your recipient. Otherwise, you are just sending out emails that are not making a difference. So, if the opposite is happening, you might want to start rethinking what you are doing.
3. Deliverability
If you send an email, there is no guarantee that it will land inside the inbox of your recipient. While technical issues are of a concern, the most prominent cause of this happening is either being blocked or placed in spam.
Blocking is something that is done by the recipient themselves, so if it does happen, it is time to rethink your email content. You might be providing unsolicited and unhelpful content more times than one would like.
On the other hand, spam is a more complex matter. Automatic spam filters follow a criterion when an email is labeled as such. The problem is that every service follows a different criterion and these can change without any notice.
However, there are general rules you can follow. Don’t use all caps, too many exclamation marks, and words like “free”. Also, make sure that you are filling in on words and not on massive images. Huge email sizes with little words are triggers for spam filters.
Email Marketing is Easy, Except for Complete Beginners
While there might be a lot of things to take note, email marketing isn’t really quite difficult. Once you get started and get the hang of it, it’s just a matter of doing routine things. However, how to reach that level is something to be questioned.
If you don’t have all the time to go through all of this, that doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to email marketing. Instead, you can always seek the help of the best online marketing agencies. Contact us today to get a free strategy consultation.
More people are flocking into stores during this month than any other day of the year. Understandable given the gift giving convention. As a matter of fact, an average person is likely going to buy three to four presents. Multiply that with the total population and you get a huge sum of potential consumer demand. To rake in the most profits, you need to find a way to point all of those people to your store. To do that, the secret lies with holiday marketing strategies.
Holiday Marketing Ideas
The hardest part about digital marketing is that it is a vague concept. You hear it not just once or twice, but a dozen times with fingers pointing to different directions. One says it works like this and then another would say otherwise. It can get overwhelming to say the least. However, you can stop scratching your head with these tested and proving holiday marketing ideas.
1. Website and Social Media Page Optimization
Starting with the most obvious, optimize your page and website for the season. For starters, redesign it with Christmas elements. Not just the format, but your product photos as well.
While it may seem something small, it actually makes a huge difference. The Christmas-y of your platforms influences buyers on whether or not to make a purchase. Put it this way, the Christmas theme reminds them of buying gifts which gives them the motivation to push through with a purchase
Though, talking about optimization doesn’t end with that. You are going to want to have everything necessary during the holiday season shopping rush. Highlight your products, emphasize on Christmas specials, discounts, and free shipping. In short, make it the shopping heaven for people who want to spend.
2. Invest on Social Media Ads
Social media ads are a timeless approach on marketing. Though, during the holiday season is when they get more effective. When people are desperate for answers on the best gift, the first place they go to is social media. They post, ask questions from groups, or from their collection of friends. During this time of desperation, they are more likely to be susceptible to ads.
Who wouldn’t? When you are looking for a gift, any suggestion on the side of your social media page will catch your attention.
3. Create and Use Hashtags
Hashtags work like SEO keywords, but for social media. With that being said, they can help get you seen. Spreading your digital footprint makes all the difference to generating sales. The more people that are aware of your products, the more potential customers you generate.
You can create hashtags for your products or for your store. Remember to keep them simple and easy to keep in mind. When people search for it, they are presented with the existence of your store and everything you offer.
Hashtags don’t necessarily function the same in all platforms. They work fairly well and effective for Instagram and Twitter. However, it is not as useful in Facebook. This doesn’t say that you shouldn’t. Hashtags are never bad, but you might want to concentrate your attention and effort on things that are going to matter the most.
4. Target Customer Niches
Customers are not all the same. For instance, each have different needs and preferences. Younger generations have different perspectives when purchasing gifts as opposed to older people. Culture, ethnicity, and social status are also going to be factors affecting their purchasing decisions.
With this being said, you can’t create marketing material that is right for everyone. Instead, identify your target audience for a specific ad. The sooner you understand that marketing is all about understanding and curating the right content for the right people, the faster you can convert them to customers.
5. Video Marketing for the Season
Don’t settle with photos, extend your marketing medium to videos. A short clip about the holiday season is one way to appeal to the emotions of potential customers. Everyone wants to be a part of the festivity and buying from a store showing dedication to the season is one way to do it.
Video marketing in other months are given the same amount of attention as photos. If anything, they even get skipped and ignored. The same cannot be said for the Christmas season. There is a higher chance for an individual to watch the entire Christmas spirit video, therefore, reaching the end of it where your products will be strategically placed.
Holiday Marketing Campaigns
Christmas season is the longest running holiday season in the entire year. As early as November, people are out decorating and shopping. This goes to say that a single marketing approach is not going to suffice for the impending weeks ahead. What you need is a well-planned and strategic marketing campaign.
1. Social Media Marketing Campaign
People are very active in social media. One viral news and it spreads like wildfire, reaching far and wide within a day. In other words, social media is a fast-moving medium. If you post one thing today, it will immediately be buried deep down by other posts tomorrow. You need to be always seen and for you to do that means consistent activity.
Whether it maybe new products, curating photos and posts, or simply sharing useful articles, it helps get you seen. It shows that you are still relevant in this time when people are looking for the best stores. Your activity shows that you are an alive and thriving business. So, make it apparent that you have a social media marketing campaign at hand.
2. Content Marketing Campaign
If you really want to appeal to your audience, give them something worth giving attention to. Content is a great way to deliver information and stir curiosity. For example, if you are a clothing store, curate articles about fashion. Put in some essential facts here and there and you become the go-to store.
Content plays a huge role in making people come back to your website or social media pages. They first come for the information and usefulness, and then later, for the products. However, people are picky when it comes to content.
Not all forms of content are going to appeal to everybody. In regards to fashion, not everyone just wants shirts and pants. There are women who wants dresses and men who prefer cargo shorts. This is where the content marketing campaign gets in the picture. Make sure you provide content consistently and to a wide niche of audiences. Also, follow up previous content with something that will support and expound it.
3. Omnichannel Marketing Campaign
Omnichannel pertains to having all platforms coherently working together to provide a consistent experience to the customer. With various social media platforms, it is possible for a customer to experience something different from Twitter and Facebook.
When this happens, it makes the entire shopping experience tedious. When a customer messages on Facebook, he shouldn’t have to explain everything again when reaching out on your Instagram page. The more unified and simplified the entire experience of shopping is, the more a customer will push through with a purchase.
Holiday Marketing Emails
Another thing to put your attention on is email marketing. While creating posts and waiting for people to see them helps, targeting content to specific individuals is a lot better. Put it this way, you can target your marketing more effectively, thus, creating a loyal customer in the end.
How to Get Customer Emails
Email marketing doesn’t work if you don’t have the emails of the people you are marketing to. Though, there are different ways to get them and it doesn’t have to be that hard.
Content Offer – Every time somebody visits your website, offer them with content. Make them give their emails so you can send them your materials.
Discounts and Promos – Who can resist a discount? Give them out through email. So, customers have to give their emailing details first.
Newsletters and Updates – There are going to be people who want to stay updated. Make sure you give them this option because it is one of the most effortless way to gain their emails.
Benefits of Holiday Marketing Emails
Now, you might be wondering if this is worth the effort. To answer that question, look at the benefits and let it speak for itself.
Better Brand Recognition – When you are communicating directly to the inbox of a customer, you are able to maintain a personal relationship. You provide accurate content and service them effectively. It then reflects to what kind of brand you are.
Boost Sales – Providing specific content that will cater to the needs of your customer ensures that they are more likely to be influenced in making a purchase.
Builds Strong Relationship – Email marketing creates a strong link between seller and customer. They don’t just end up making a single purchase, but become long term and loyal customers.
Creating A Holiday Marketing Email Campaign
It may sound easy, but a holiday marketing campaign can get challenging at times. You need to know where to begin and when to end. So, here is a step-by-step guide to make the entire process a lot easier.
Start with a plan – The functional word here is “campaign”. You are not just sending one email, but a number of them. Make sure you have a plan on what to send first and the rest that follows. It should be systematic to be effective.
Create your email content – Once you have laid out your plan, it is time to start creating content. Compose your emails beforehand and use a scheduler to send them out. Make sure that you are following a schedule. Don’t just send out randomly.
Track progress – See which customers respond to which. You will be able to determine which content works and which one people have no interest in. Understanding your progress gives you an idea on what to work on next.
Repeat – If your campaign has come to an end, just repeat the entire process. While it may get tempting to take control on your own terms, resist the urge. Consistency is what makes email marketing effective. Too much and it turns to spam, too little and people forget you are even there, too random and gets tedious to follow.
Holiday Marketing Tips
Sometimes, it’s the little details that makes a holiday marketing campaign fail. Overlooking a customer niche? Failing to follow marketing frequency? It can all come spiraling down. To prevent an impending failure, remember and follow these common tips.
1. Start Marketing Early
The sooner you begin your marketing campaigns, the better. Give yourself some time to settle in the market. Don’t expect that as soon as you release your first wave of posts and initiatives, it will immediately catch on. In other words, there is a slow progression towards reaching your goal of getting seen and heard.
At least when you start early, you will be in a much better position by the time the shopping season peaks.
2. Optimize Ad Extensions and Meta Descriptions
If you are running paid ads, make the most out of it. Check your ad extensions and put all the necessary information. Don’t leave any field behind. Same goes for your meta descriptions. You might think that nobody checks them, but you’d be surprised.
When people are making a search in Google, they read the meta description before clicking the link. The meta description is what gives them the idea if the website contains what they need. If you skip it, then you are losing potential customers. The same concept applies with ad extensions.
3. Don’t Rush Your Content
With Christmas getting closer, you are left with lesser time to conduct your marketing. While you may be in a lot of pressure, don’t ever underplay the value of quality content. Good grammar and right spelling can make all the difference in ensuring that you are a trustworthy business.
If your blog or post is filled with errors like misplaced symbols and wrong spelling, it can easily raise eyebrows. It gives off the impression of a low-quality store which can urge potential customers to go somewhere else.
4. Reply to Inquiries
Make sure you have an inexhaustible amount of patience to answer inquiries. Remember, this is the Christmas season. It only happens for two months every year, it’s not a daily kind of thing. A lot of people are still going to be adjusting to the new offers and promos you are running. So, when you receive a question, answer them.
To put it simply, shoppers are going to multiple online stores at a time. They are weighing which one is better than the other. If you don’t reply to an inquiry and the rest do, you are immediately off the list of choices.
Skipping the Holiday Marketing Trend?
If you are thinking about going lowkey in online platforms, then you are making a huge mistake. Business is an everchanging industry. You find ways to appeal to your audience. In this generation, people have a higher affinity towards comfort with the help of the internet. To put it simply, everybody wants everything to be on the internet. When your competition is providing it and you are not, then you are guaranteed to lose customers.
Online marketing is the standard today and for the future. However, if you think that it is something too much that you alone can handle, then you need the help of the best online marketing agency. Contact us today for a free strategy consultation.
Shopify promises to get you started in your entrepreneurial journey. Though, if you want to continuously progress in the right direction, it is going to take some work. One of the things you can do is email marketing, so you should know which services can provide the best email marketing for Shopify.
We specifically say “the best” because there are more than one type of service you can get and they are not all made equal. You are going to stumble upon ones that can be more of a problem than a help. As a business, you can’t risk trying out one service after another just to find what’s best for you. You don’t have the luxury of time and resources.
However, that dilemma is off the table since we compiled the ten services for the best email marketing for Shopify. Each are unique and great on their own. It is generally a matter of what’s best for your needs. Nevertheless, as long as you get one from this list, you are sure to have a positive and productive experience.
The Best Email Marketing For Shopify
1. Omnisend
Omnisend is a tool that offers a wide range of automations for each different stage of the buyer’s journey. You can choose to segment your customers based on the smallest actions. It can be cart abandonment, order confirmations, or browsing activity among others.
Depending on the customer segments that Omnisend creates, you can effortlessly send automated messages at the right time. No need to keep scheduling everything by yourself.
However, the greatest feature of this service would be its expansive capabilities. It is not just limited to email marketing, but to other multi-channel marketing mediums as well. You are able to combine email with SMS, push notifications, and Facebook and WhatsApp messages. Also have the choice to send gift boxes, scratch cards, and other more incentives.
All of that comes in a drag and drop editor, guarantying ease of use and a straightforward integration with Shopify. It doesn’t mean that you can do so much, it is going to get complicated.
What We Liked:
It is everything packed in a single service. Everything you need for email marketing is here and more. If you are utilizing SMS and Facebook and WhatsApp messages, you only need one service for all of it. It makes everything simpler and cheaper.
What Could Be Improved:
Omnisend is one of the pricier email marketing providers. For the cost, you would expect more and better templates. Though, the biggest limitation would be the 15,000 emails base limit for all plans, except for enterprise. So, you are going to have to spend a lot more as your subscribers continue to grow.
Pricing:
There’s a free, standard, and pro subscription which costs, $0, $16, and $99 respectively for 500 contacts. Each have a limit of 15,000 emails. What differentiates the three are the features that come with each. There is also a fourth subscription which is called Enterprise. It has more features and can send an unlimited number of emails. Pricing is custom based on the needs of the client.
The prices can increase based on the number of subscribers you need, along with it is an email limit increase as well. If you want to see how the standard and pro prices change, check their website and type in the number of contacts you want.
Who is This For?
With so many things you can do and the price that comes with it, Omnisend is not for everybody. It is for those who want to go all out on their email marketing strategy. It is also ideal for large stores due to its robust automations, making it easy to handle big audiences.
Video Review:
If you want a deeper and more hands-on look into Omnisend. Check this video review. It talks about the basics up to the things you need to know while using it.
2. GetResponse is one of the Best Email Marketing for Shopify
GetResponse is more than your average email marketing service. It expands to providing other things such as being able to offer landing pages, webinars, and CRM. As a result, you are able to get more done and integrate more things into your email marketing.
However, the best part would be its deep data integration feature. It allows you to sync customer information such as order and product data for advanced segmentation and tagging. The end result are automated email campaigns that best suit each and every customer you have.
What We Liked:
There are a lot of things to like about GetResponse. One that stands out is that it stays true to its intention of convenient email marketing by offering a wide array of premade and amazing templates. It also offers abandoned cart campaigns and post-purchase emails which is something not too common.
Since it is able to offer social ads and webinars, it opens the possibility of creating sales funnel campaigns. With this, you get to show off your product and increase the chances of customer conversion.
What Could Be Improved:
GetResponse might be great, but it isn’t completely perfect. The analytics they provide is not as detailed as what the competition can offer. It needs a little more improvement for you to feel completely comfortable in overseeing your campaigns.
You also don’t have much control over syncing data. It happens automatically every 24 hours, which means delays in automation and showing ideal content to customers.
Pricing:
In terms of pricing, GetResponse provides a wide array of choices depending on your needs. Whether you are looking into a basic small plan to a more professional package, there is something for you.
The base pricing are $15 a month for the basic, $49 a month for the plus, and $99 for the professional. These prices are for a list size of 1,000 people. The more contacts you need, the pricier the plans get. Each subscription also comes with different features.
For the more serious entrepreneurs, there is a fourth subscription called MAX. It comes with all the features of professional and more. Pricing is custom based on the needs of the client.
Who is This For?
The options and capabilities that GetResponse provide is best suited for the bigger stores. If you are one of those, you are going to reap the benefits of advanced automations and CRM the most. You no longer have to individually attend to your massive audience, leave it to GetResponse to do everything fast.
Video Review:
It is not a walk in the park getting into GetResponse. So, check this video out for a walkthrough of the service. It tackles every feature and teaches you how to use it.
If you are looking for strong automation capabilities, ActiveCampaign offers a suite of choices. For starters, anybody who makes a purchase or abandons a cart will be immediately added as a contact. You can create campaigns for abandoned carts, upsell emails, and re-purchase reminders. On top of that, you are offered with CRM capabilities,
Though, those aren’t the highlight. ActiveCampaign allows for conditional email content. As a result, you are able to provide products and offers based on what a contact is interested in.
You can also integrate the service alongside others such as Zapier and Revenue Conduit. Though, the most important one would be website integration. This allows for campaigns based on customers who visit your site.
What We Liked:
The best thing about ActiveCampaign is how its deep data integration works. It is fast, reliable, and effortless to use. To put things into perspective, it’s a breeze. For a business owner who doesn’t have much time to spare, this is what you are going to want.
Another thing you are going to appreciate is being able to have everything in one place. On the profile of your contacts, you are able to see their associated details. You immediately can see their contact orders, abandoned carts, and spending totals. No need to keep on going back and forth between menus.
What’s an email marketing service that doesn’t standout in the marketing department? ActiveCampaign has a wide range of email templates. They are easy to use, modify, and integrate according to your needs and liking.
What Could Be Improved:
ActiveCampaign isn’t perfect, it has its fair share of disadvantages. The one that you are likely going to observe is the steep learning curve involved. With so much features, some things are going to get complicated to navigate through. For example, personalization and conditional content involves manual coding.
While the templates are quite flexible, there is no way to automatically insert products into emails. It is a manual process, and can get tedious quite easily.
Pricing:
There are four types of subscriptions for ActiveCampaign: Lite, Plus, Professional, and Enterprise. The base cost for each are $9, $49, $129, and $229 respectively for 500 contacts. The prices increase as you increase your number of subscribers. Each plan also comes with different features. To check what comes with each, visit their website for a more updated and specific outline.
Who is This For:
Considering how ActiveCampaign can get a little complicated, this is more ideal for larger businesses. To those who are able to put up the time and effort to finely segment their lists and implement complex automations. Even the CRM is strongly suited for handling a lot of repeat customers.
Video Review:
If you want to know how to use or just want to be prepared for what ActiveCampaign offers, check this video out. It is a tutorial and demo that will give you firsthand experience on the service.
4. Klaviyo is one of the Best Email Marketing for Shopify
Most email marketing tools are catered to deal with different business types, not just Shopify. However, Klaviyo is different. It is one of the services that is specifically intended for e-commerce stores for better integration and optimization.
With automatic customer data syncing, things are a lot easier. No more forgetting or rigorous schedules just to keep your email marketing effective and up-to-date. You then have a wide array of options for building automations, from premade to making your own from scratch.
The most interesting thing that you are not going to find somewhere else is the use of data science. With this, it is able to predict when a customer is bound to make another purchase, allowing for a more accurate and targeted email campaign. All of the features comes in an easy to use drag and drop email builder tool.
What We Liked:
Being specifically meant for e-commerce, integration with Shopify can’t get any quicker and easier. This is as simple and convenient as they will get. In addition, you get to have extensive pre-built workflows for all your needs.
It is also to keep track of customer profiles. You have the ability to track and see a wide array of information such as what they’ve done and how much they have spent.
What Could Be Improved:
Klaviyo can be the perfect email marketing tool for e-commerce, if only it didn’t have questionable pricing. Among the competition, it is the pricier option. In addition to that, the pricing structure can get confusing.
Pricing:
There are only two options for Klaviyo, either you subscribe to a free service or go have a paid plan. Going free allows you to have 250 contacts and 500 email sends. If you are going to need more, price starts at $25 a month for 300 contacts and unlimited email sends.
As you grow your contacts or add other features such as SMS, prices will increase. There is no pre-determined payment plan. Instead, visit their website to get a quotation for your needs.
Who is This For:
Klaviyo is suitable for both small and medium-sized business. Whether you have a small or a huge client-base, Klaviyo is more than enough to address your needs without any compromise.
Video Review:
If you want to get a glimpse of Klaviyo, watch this video. It is a tutorial and run-through of the service, allowing you to use it to the best of its capabilities.
Automations up to the smallest details, that’s what Drip is known for. If you want to curate campaigns for very specific parameters, this is the service for you. You can have a target email campaign for the smallest actions such as customer viewed products, placed/deleted checkout, and cancelled orders.
Drip doesn’t just segment customers based on their actions, but on other details as well. Be able to automate your email marketing on parameters such as brands customers bought and how much they have spent.
The service also features cross-channel marketing, especially with Facebook. Integration with Facebook Customer Audiences allows for targeted Facebook Ads in your Shopify automated campaigns. You can then keep track of all of them with the detailed analytics which includes tracking for email stats and revenue stats.
What We Liked:
Drip allows for easy integration. You can integrate it with Shopify conveniently. Activating web tracking doesn’t even need any tracking code. It is as straightforward as it can get.
There is also a wide array of automation choices. You can go simple or as complex as you want. Features such as parallel paths, decisions, and actions are just some you can use. Using the pre-made templates also allows for a variety of choices. Pick from cart abandonment, welcome series, coupons, and a lot more.
What Could Be Improved:
As a service that is aimed to assist business, it helps to have the choice when to bump up your subscription plan. Apparently, Drip doesn’t warn you when you are going above your contact limit. Instead, it automatically upgrades your subscription which could result to unexpected and unwarranted expenses.
While it may have been mentioned that you get some choice in the templates department, it really isn’t that much. Taking a look at the price, you should be able to have more.
Pricing:
Drip pricing varies depending on the number of contacts you want. To give you a perspective on the possible costs, for 2500 contacts, it is going to be $39 a month. Bumping that to 5000 contacts would cost you $89 a month. All comes with unlimited emails. To know how much you are going to spend based on your needs, visit their website.
Who is This For:
This service works best for medium to large businesses who want to have complete control and personalization of their automations. It also helps if there are no financial constraints because this service could get expensive quite easily.
Video Review:
If you are on the edge if Drip is right for you, check out this video. It talks about the pros and cons of Drip in detail and how it could be the best service for you.
6. Campaign Monitor is one of the Best Email Marketing for Shopify
If you are looking for an all-around email marketing service, Campaign Monitor is one that is hard to ignore. It is designed to work best with e-commerce, so expect to get all the features you need. To make things better, it comes in a package highlighting ease of use.
The editor is a simple drag-and-drop mechanism. Nothing too hard or time consuming to use. It is intuitive for a fast workflow without compromise on quality. You can also make use of their modern email templates that are not just beautiful, but are also functional.
If that isn’t enough to get your attention, then you might want to know that it isn’t just about email marketing. With Campaign Monitor, you are also able to implement transactional emails for more choices and flexibility with your campaigns.
What We Liked:
Campaign Monitor is a fuss-free type of service. You don’t have to spend a lot of time learning its every feature. It is all completely intuitive. Despite the simplicity, there is no compromise on the things that you can do.
At this price point, it is the best combination of features you can get. It even has something more expensive alternatives do not have like time zone delivery and send time optimization.
What Could Be Improved:
If there is something you can possibly hate with Campaign Monitor, it’s going to be the extreme limitations of their free plan. While you are more likely going to seek out a paid plan, it would have been helpful to have free subscription that allows you to do something. This just pushes you to spend money to test it out and know if it is the right one for you.
Pricing:
Campaign Monitor has a free subscription but is only limited to sending emails to 5 subscribers. The intention is to allow you to test out the service.
You are most likely going to seek out a paid plan which comes in three variations. The cheapest is $9 a month for 500 contacts and an email send limit of 2,500. It is then followed by the unlimited plan of $29 a month for unlimited email sends for 500 contacts. Lastly, premier costs $149 a month and also features unlimited emails among others.
As you increase your contacts, the price of each plan goes up. To know how much you are bound to spend for your needs, visit their website and play with their pricing plans.
Who is This For?
Regardless what kind of business you are, small, medium, or big, Campaign Monitor is an advisable choice. It is an all-around service, making it functionally viable for any e-commerce business. The basic plan is also not too expensive so budget shouldn’t be much of a problem.
Video Review:
Not so much a review, but more of a tutorial. Check this video out to know how easy it is to make a custom campaign monitor template.
Being one of the earliest email marketing vendors, you would have high hopes for Constant Contact and you’re not going to be disappointed. Their decades of experience have allowed them to perfect the most crucial features of an email marketing service. One to take note is the seamless communication with Shopify.
However, what really makes this service stand out is the ability to create coupons, polls, and special offers. You can also create automations over the smallest actions such as where users click. There is even a choice to automatically resend emails that weren’t opened by a contact.
What We Liked About the Best Email Marketing for Shopify:
What you are going to appreciate with this service is its ease of use. Just drag and drop to create your email marketing campaigns. You can add products into your emails or send abandoned cart campaigns effortlessly.
Constant Contact has a unique way of classifying their segment. You have the option to do it based on their behavior such as first-time, repeat, or lapsed customers. As a result, it opens a lot more creative options and flexibility as to what you can do.
What Could Be Improved:
While Constant Contact holds a lot of features, it really isn’t accessible on the cheaper plans. Instead, you need to opt for the more expensive plus option in order to be able to do something worthwhile. If you compare this to the competition, their cheaper plans offer a lot more on the table. So, it is a matter of going all out with Constant Contact or not at all.
Pricing:
The service only provides two payment options: email and email plus. They start at $20 and $45 per month respectively for 500 contacts with unlimited email sends.
To know how much you are going to spend if you want more contacts and to know the features that comes with each plan, visit their website.
Who is This For:
If you don’t want something so robust and just need something that does the job, Constant Contact is a viable choice. It is for small stores who just needs the basics or the bigger businesses who are capable of shelling the more expensive price to do a lot more.
Video Review of the Best Email Marketing for Shopify:
Check this video out for a review and tutorial of the service. It can give you a better idea on whether or not this is the service right for you.
SendinBlue is one of those email marketing service that is best used with Shopify. The reason being is it has a dedicated plugin and comes with detailed setup instructions. You won’t be scratching your head just trying to get it to work. Right off the bat, you are off to a good start.
Originally, SendinBlue mainly functions as transactional emails, but it has now evolved into a multichannel space. That includes email marketing, SMS, and live chat on your page. It is an all around service that will surely address all your business needs.
If you need more, some of the notable features of the service include the ability to build sign up forms and create landing pages.
What We Liked About the Best Email Marketing for Shopify:
SendinBlue puts everything you are going to need in Shopify in one place. You are able to conveniently send marketing emails, transactional emails, and SMS with only one service. Syncing data with contacts is also fast and convenient. As a matter of fact, it allows you to see the activity of each customer and create specific automations based on that.
What Could Be Improved:
The inconvenient thing about SendinBlue is you cannot integrate products into your email campaigns. Even adding purchased items into your confirmation emails is going to require some coding. While other aspects of the service are straightforward, this part isn’t. It can get take some time to learn and get used to.
Pricing:
Unlike most email services, SendinBlue has no contact limit regardless of your plan subscription. There is a free option which allows for 300 emails per day. It is then followed with the lite subscription which starts at $25 a month for 10,000 emails. The third plan is premium at $65 a month with 20,000 emails. If you have more needs, you can go for enterprise which is priced based on your needs.
You can increase the monthly email limit for each subscription plan. However, it will result in an increase in price. Check their website to learn by how much.
Who is This For:
SendinBlue can be considered as one of the more budget-friendly email marketing option. Therefore, it is suited for businesses who are on a budget. It is the perfect ratio between benefit and costs, and is one of the most economical choices in the market.
Video Review:
Features look good on paper, but how do they really stack up in application? Hear the opinion of one who has actually used the service. Learn whether or not it is what it claims to be and how it can be the perfect option for you.
Sometimes, people want something that just works. No bells and whistles or flashy features, just the things you need for an email marketing campaign. MailerLite is one of that service. Everything you need from direct integration all the way to automations is here.
It might be feature packed, but it doesn’t end up seeming too complicated and overwhelming. Even if it has the capacity to create landing pages, surveys, and dynamic content, it is as straightforward as it can get. It is all thanks to a simple drag and drop tool. You can even place products directly into newsletters in this best email marketing for Shopify service.
What We Liked:
The automatic syncing and integration feature of MailerLite with contacts significantly helps in saving time. In addition, you get to have a wide array of options in segmenting your contacts based on the smallest actions they have taken. This allows you to get really specific and provide content that specifically caters to them.
What Could Be Improved:
While the simplicity of MailerLite can be a good thing, it can also be disadvantageous. If you want something that can do more, you might find yourself being restricted with this service. It doesn’t have some advanced features that some would consider to be standard such as automations for customers visiting your site.
Pricing:
MailerLite surely comes in as one of the cheaper products in this segment. There are only two pricing options. You either go free or premium. If you don’t want to spend anything, you are eligible to an email service that accommodates a maximum of 1,000 contacts and 12,000 emails per month.
Going premium means having the ability to send unlimited emails per month. It starts at $10 a month for a maximum of 1,000 contacts. Going over that will cost $15 and would allow you to have a maximum of 2,500 contacts. To know more about how much you are going to spend for your needs, visit their website.
Who is This For:
With its adequate feature set and cheap price, MailerLite is more suited for beginners and those who are on a budget. It is easy to use, serving as a great gateway into more complex and advanced services in the future.
Video Review:
Wondering if MailerLite is the right one for you? Take a look at this video demonstration. Get a grasp of what your getting into for a smoother experience.
Whether you are a beginner or don’t have much time to spare, SmartrMail is a great choice for you. Basically, it does all the work for you, leaving you with a lot of time to spare. To put this into perspective, as soon as you get started, it generates a template based on your Shopify store design and branding.
It uses machine learning to understand the activity of your contacts and provide them with content they desire. It is complete with links and images so you don’t have to do anything else to optimize your email campaigns.
What We Liked:
The extensive simplification of SmartrMail is surely desirable. While it does a lot of the work for you, you also have the option to gain full control and do everything in your own terms. It is both flexibility and simplicity in one service.
What Could Be Improved:
Since the service is so concentrated on having everything done, the tools to create custom emails is not as refined. For example, it doesn’t have a drag and drop editor. Instead, it has arrows you click to move something incrementally and that gets tedious and annoying.
Even the process of setting automations are not user-friendly. It is an extensive process with no visual editor. The entire process is unnecessarily hard if you want to start customizing your email marketing campaigns.
Pricing:
SmartrMail offers to plan options. The cheaper being the standard plan which costs $19 a month. It offers a maximum of 1,000 contacts and 12 emails each. The unlimited plan is $99 a month for 1,000 contacts with unlimited sending. Increasing the total number of contacts will incur an increase in price, check their website for a more accurate pricing for your needs.
Who is This For:
Considering how most of the things is done automatically by the service, this is best for those who are still trying to get into email marketing. Whether you are a beginner or a small business, this is a great way to get started.
Video Review:
If you need any help or you have any questions, check this video out. It is a complete run-through of the service and all its features.
What is the Best Email Marketing for Shopify Based on:
You might be wondering how this list came about. What were the criteria that were followed that resulted to this compilation? How did these services became the top 10 choices?
We can guarantee you that this didn’t came about randomly. Instead, there are characteristics that every great email marketing service should have.
1. Easy to Use Email Editor
If you are going to do email marketing, then it comes that you will be writing a lot of emails. So, you are going to want an intuitive editor that allows for fast and easy dragging and dropping of both texts and images. When it is not the case, it is only a matter of time before email marketing gets too tedious and time-consuming.
2. Reporting is A Must-Have For The Best Email Marketing For Shopify
What makes you think that your email marketing campaign is effective? How sure are you that you are spending on something that is bringing in results? This is the reason why services like these should be able to provide a progress report. Be able to learn where you are failing, cut off failed efforts and concentrate on ones that are actually helping your Shopify store.
3. Automatic Integration with Forms
If you are going to conduct email marketing, the ease of creating emails is going to make a huge difference. This is where automatic form integration comes in the picture. If you are going to code every form you have into your emails, it is going to take a lot of time and effort.
4. The Best Email Marketing for Shopify Should Have Contact Syncing
Your email marketing campaign is not going to deal with just one recipient. Remember, you are running a business. In the highest likelihood, you will be sending hundreds to thousands of emails a week or even in a day. If you are going to individually add a recipient, it is going to take a lot of time and manpower. So, contact syncing should be a built-in feature.
5. Audience Segmenting and Automation
The best part about email marketing is that it is targeted to individual people. What this means is that you can create an email that will cater to their likes and will result in the highest chance of converting them into a customer. However, how do you make it possible to send out specific emails based on the needs of over a hundred potential clients? The answer is a segmenting feature. The best email marketing tool for Shopify should allow you to segment your audience based on a specified criterion.
Best Shopify Marketing Tool Overall
The ten services you see here are the best in the market. There is no doubt that as long as you choose any one of them, you are going to have a positive experience. However, not all of them can be the best. One is going to be better than the other. If you want to know how one compares to the rest, we evaluated their performance in each criterion.
Take not that 1 stands for “adequate”, 2 for “more than adequate”, and 3 for “excellent”.
Service
Ease of Use
Reporting
Automatic Integration
Contact Syncing
Segmenting and Automation
Additional Features
Price
Total
Omnisend
2
2
3
3
3
3
1
17
GetResponse
3
1
3
2
3
3
2
17
ActiveCampaign
1
2
3
3
3
2
1
15
Klaviyo
3
3
2
3
3
1
1
16
Drip
3
2
3
2
3
3
1
17
Campaign Monitor
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
15
Constant Contact
3
3
3
3
3
2
2
19
SendinBlue
2
3
1
3
3
3
3
18
MailerLite
3
2
3
3
3
1
3
18
SmartrMail
2
2
3
3
2
1
2
15
Final Words
Nobody said email marketing is going to be easy. It may sound straight-forward, but there are a lot details and specifics surrounding it. However, as long as you don’t make any mistakes during the first steps, you are bound to learn and adapt throughout your experience.
In the event that you think that all of these are too much, there is actually a shortcut. Being a business owner, marketing shouldn’t be on your table. Delegate it to the best online marketing agencies. Contact us today for a free strategy consultation.
