10 Considerations When Choosing An Email Marketing Tool
There are dozens of email marketing tools on the market today offering a great variety of features and packages. This can make it confusing when searching for the right one for your business. To help you choose the right tools we've put together a list of the 10 most important considerations for email marketing platforms.
- Number of contacts/lists you can add to the system
There is a direct correlation between the number of contacts you can add to a platform and the impact on your ROI. Make sure to invest in software that allows you to scale your contacts with a reasonable increase in fees. Growing your lists and business shouldn’t be cost prohibitive.
- Template system
Your tool should include professionally designed templates that are mobile friendly. More than 50% of your subscribers will view emails on mobile devices, making this an essential factor to consider. Choose a platform that has a good mix between template management and html flexibility so you can design your own as needed.
- Personalization
Personalized emails have up to 6x higher transaction rates (Experian). The best tools on the market allow you to personalize subject lines, content, images, videos and more. As tools evolve, the sophistication with personalization will get better and will be in every touch point and interaction a subscriber has with you.
- A/B testing
A/B testing is an essential step to optimize campaigns for the highest engagement. The best tool for you will be one that allows you to A/B test EVERYTHING in your email marketing. This means subject lines, content, images, emails sent from and more. Over time your engagement and conversions will increase, as will your ROI.
- Dynamic content
Email campaigns have evolved a lot in the last 5 years, however, sending patterns haven’t. It’s important to innovate and get creative with your content. Using in-mail payment, dynamic content, animated gifs and videos are important tactics to make your subscribers look forward to opening your emails.
- Inbox preview
Look for a tool that allows you to preview your emails on different devices and platforms. In our highly connected world, your subscribers are viewing emails on more devices and a multitude of platforms. Testing how your campaigns will appear on different devices is a crucial step to reaching the highest open and click-through rates.
- Spam compliance rules and setup
Spam compliance rules are getting stricter as regulators are working harder to protect us from overloaded inboxes and junk mail. You need a tool that will guide you through the necessary steps to make sure your emails don’t end up in the junk mail folder. Evaluate the last time the company updated their spam compliance and make sure they stay up-to-date.
- Hyper segmentation and sample list management
Great email marketing tools allow you to segment your lists at very granular levels. They also make managing those lists a simple process. Hyper segmentation is necessary for providing extremely targeted content to further increase conversions and engagement.
- In-depth analytics and tracking conversions
Your email tools need to include in-depth analytics and conversion tracking to help you understand your customers. In-depth user tracking will include this data, as well as information on every interaction a subscriber has with your content and company. This empowers your sales team with the knowledge on how to provide leads with the guidance and solutions that matter to them most.
- Social media and sharing
Email subscribers are 3 times more likely to share your content on social media than visitors from other sources. (QuickSprout). Good tools will allow you to include social sharing buttons in your emails in a few simple steps. Don’t miss out on viral marketing opportunities. Make sure your email marketing tools make these steps easy!