10 of the Top Tools for Newsletter & Email Automation

Email marketing has long been one of the best avenues for high returns on investment (ROI) in the digital marketing field. It is so powerful, in fact, that most businesses see an average return of $32 for every $1 spent -- reliable results which have remained consistent for decades.

While email marketing has been around for more than 40 years, it has -- just as all digital fields have -- gone through a significant evolution in that time.

In just the last decade, the sector has exploded with a slew of new email marketing tools and automation technologies hitting the market through specialised platforms which open up a new world of easy set-up, tracking, automation, analysis, and optimisation of email campaigns, including newsletters.

Introducing Email Automation

The biggest game-changer to come with these platforms is email automation, giving marketers the ability to send time or action triggered emails to subscribers with information that is most relevant to them at their particular stage of the engagement journey — significantly increasing the likelihood of engagement or purchase.

Email automation allows businesses to:

1. Set up email workflows to be automatic and responsive to "triggers" from subscribers
2. Save time by scheduling these workflows ahead of time
3. Nurture leads by delivering the right email at the right time
4. Inform sales staff on which subscribers are most likely to be ready to convert
5. Save the time of sales staff by targeting leads that are most likely to convert
6. Increase brand awareness by offering information that sticks to subscribers and their needs
7. Save costs by automating the customer relationships process

Keeping a low cost to entry while continually adding different options for tailorability, tracking and automation, newsletter and email marketing software is a digital marketer's best friend to nurture leads, boost sales and build brand credibility.

Which is the Best Email Automation Software?

What is best for your business will depend on your particular needs, but below are the top 10 email marketing software tools to help you identify which is right for you.

1. HubSpot Marketing Hub

HubSpot is one of the most prominent content marketing platforms currently on the market, so it figures they have a lot to offer by way of newsletter and email automation solutions.

Pricing: Hubspot Marketing pricing looks pretty steep when compared to other platforms, but it is important to note that HubSpot Marketing is a lot more than just email marketing software. It includes advanced CRM and marketing tools.

• Starter - €46 a month
• Professional - €740 a month
• Enterprise - €2,944 a month

Automation features: HubSpot’s workflows tool is, according to HubSpot, "automation beyond email", allowing you to scale your growth and spend less time on repetitive tasks.

2. Constant Contact

Targetting small businesses and NGOs, Constant Contact is all about email. They offer a variety of templates, integrations and an intuitive and flexible editing module.

Pricing: There are two straightforward plans to cater to the needs of your business, but it is email plus that comes with the most automation features.

• Email - From €18 a month
• Email plus - From €40 a month

* Price is according to the number of contacts.

Automation features: Both plans offer the automatic abandon cart email and automatic email forwarding to those who did not open the email the first time. The email plus plan then includes an automated welcome series and behavioural automation.

3. Zoho Campaigns

Another one of the leading CRMs, Zoho Campaigns offers a strong solution for email marketing and automation.

Pricing: Zoho has three plans that can be added onto their existing offering.

• Pay by email credits - from €6
• Email-based plan - €32 a year
• Subscriber-based plan - €54 a year

Automation features: Zoho Campaigns offers personalised and behaviour centric email automation functionality following a trigger and action system. Customers can create series and build a criteria-based email journey.

4. AWeber

AWeber is a small business solution with powerfully simple email marketing solutions to help companies build lists, send emails and connect with their audience.

Pricing: AWeber pricing is dependant on the number of subscribers. While the prices below are listed as monthly, they do offer incremental savings for quarterly (14 per cent) or annual (14.9 per cent) plans.

• $19 a month for 0-500 subscribers
• $29 a month for 501-2,500 subscribers
• $49 a month for 2,501-5,000 subscribers
• $69 a month for 5,001-10,000 subscribers
• $149 a month for 10,001-25,000 subscribers

Automation features: AWeber allows customers to set up behaviour based automated emails, sending triggered email campaigns and tagging subscribers based on their actions.

5. Salesforce Pardot

Salesforce Pardot is the B2B marketing automation app from Salesforce that comes with some impressive features, including unlimited automation branching.

Pricing: Due to their high pricing, Salesforce Pardot is one a platform most suited for medium to large businesses.

• Growth - $1,250 USD a year
• Plus - $2,500 USD a year
• Advanced - $4,000 a year

Automation features: All of the Salesforce Pardot plans come with both marketing and email automation, making it one of the more comprehensive automation platforms on the list.

6. SendinBlue

SendinBlue is a sales and marketing solution for small to medium-sized businesses that include email and automation in the higher plans. 

Pricing: They have a range of pricing to meet the needs of businesses from startup to enterprise. However, automation capabilities are only introduced in the Premium plan.

• Free - €0
• Lite - €19 a month
• Essential - €29 a month
• Premium - €49 a month
• Enterprise - pricing on request

Automation features: The Premium plan includes marketing automation which allows businesses to set up automation workflows. They provide a range of templates for beginners to advanced users, making for a smooth set-up.

7. Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is a great tool for email marketing and analytics with a range of email templates and an interface that is intuitive for businesses of all skill levels.

Pricing: All plans come with some level of automation from basic (on the Basic plan) to advanced (on the Premier plan).

• Basic - €9 a month
• Unlimited - €29 a month
• Premier - €149 a month

Automation features: From the beginning, the Basic plan allows you to automate journeys to welcome new subscribers and keep them engaged. These features then become more advanced with behavioural triggers and a visual journey designer to make automation easy.

8. GetResponse

GetResponse is a good solution for small to medium businesses with a good email marketing solution, an impressive number of third-party integrations and an easy to use interface.

Pricing: GetResponse pricing changes depending on the size of your list. The prices below are for lists of 1,000. While the prices below are monthly, they do also offer discounts for 12-month plans (18% discount) and 24-month plans (30% discount).

• Basic - $15 a month
• Plus - $49 a month
• Professional - $99 a month
• Enterprise - $1,199 a month (list of 100,000)

Automation features: GetResponse automation features include automation templates, scoring and tagging, traffic generation, cart abandonment, and automation segmentation.

9. Infusionsoft by Keap

Infusionsoft combines CRM with email marketing to offer a good solution for small businesses.

Pricing: Keap offers three plans depending on the needs of the business. For those looking for automation, the Pro and Infusionsoft plans are the options to consider.

• Grow - $34 USD a month
• Pro - $104 USD a month
• Infusionsoft - $139 USD a month

Automation features: Infusionsoft by Keap allows businesses to set up workflows to welcome and nurture leads. They have a highly customisable dashboard and auto-responders as well as task management features.

10. Mailchimp

MailChimp is an all-in-one marketing platform that uses email to turn audience insights into personalised marketing as the platform that gets smarter over time.

Pricing: Between $0 and $299 USD per month, Mailchimp has a broad range of plans to meet the needs of their clients. Their free plan comes with everything a small business needs to get started, including one-click automation. As the business grows, the plans can be upgraded for more advanced features.

• Free - $0
• Essentials - $9.99 a month
• Standard - $14.99 a month
• Premium - $299 a month

Automation features: All plans come with single-step automation, and then jump up to multi-step custom workflows once you reach the Standard plan. This includes nurture campaigns, onboarding series, event-based automation, and more.

What's More Important Than Software

While these tools are guaranteed to make your marketing life much easier, it's important to remember that email campaigns are all about quality and designing workflows that connect with your customers. You will need to know how to build a list and how to generate quality leads.

For some tips and ideas on killer email marketing strategies, check out our blog.