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If you are looking for an email marketing software that provides you a WYSIWYG email editor, more control over customizing your emails, and doesn’t break your bank by counting unique contacts multiple times (based on the number of lists they are part of), then you are at the right place.
Campaign monitor is reasonably priced at $29/mo for 1000 subscribers but it doesn’t have few functionalities that are necessary to succeed in email marketing:
So let’s explore the top 5 Campaign Monitor alternatives which will be as easy to use as Campaign Monitor, but will give you more control over emails, templates, landing pages, pop-up forms, automation, etc.
Here is a quick comparison before we deep dive into each one of these:
SendX is an intuitive & affordable email marketing platform that focuses on high-deliverability, responsive emails templates and providing unlimited emails. It was recently ranked amongst the top 15 email marketing softwares by Hubspot.
Sendx gives you a drag-and-drop editor with 10 different elements like - buttons, text box, image, HTML, social sharing options, divider etc. This allows you to create and customize emails to your liking.
If you wish to create from scratch there is an option to load your HTML code or write your code directly in the editor.
If you want to save time and effort that goes into drafting an email, you can choose from a library of 20+ professionally designed email templates.
These will have an already selected color palette, column structure, button size, and best font pairings. These are fully customizable and all the designs are responsive. So you don’t have to worry about the look getting deformed on mobile or iPad.
You also get access to half a million stock images so your emails always look fresh and you never have to go searching for the perfect image on the web.
The best use of email marketing software is when you can automate your marketing and instead focus on scaling your business, strategy, and just living your life.
SendX helps you automate your email marketing with a rule-based interface. You use the simple logic of IF-THEN-ELSE and run your automation.
You can custom-define a trigger to enable action. For example, you can define that when a new subscriber joins (trigger), then the system should send him a personalized welcome email (action).
The automation feature in SendX is available to every paid plan, irrespective of your number of subscribers.
Moosend is an email marketing software that is popular for it’s automation features & intuitive email editor and landing page designer, all available at affordable prices.
Moosend offers a visual automation builder which allows you to create various sequences like cart abandonment, welcome emails, thank-you email etc.
You can also choose from one of the pre-built automations and customise according to your requirements. This is one feature that is either not available in email marketing tools at this price or if available, you have to choose expensive plans to access it.
To make the deal sweeter, it is available in all the plans - free or paid.
You get a drag-and-drop editor for creating emails & an easy to use designer for creating landing pages.
There are pre-built templates for both of these. These templates are fully customisable and responsive. The full library for emails has 70+ templates.
The landing page designer also comes with customisable forms, fonts, countdown timer feature etc.
Active Campaign is a slightly advanced email marketing platform. Some notable features are - marketing automation, segmentation, lead scoring and analytical reports.
ActiveCampaign provides a basic drag-and-drop email builder. You can also code your own template using HTML and CSS. You get 30 pre-designed template options to get started
One thing that’s good about their email builder is that you can create as many columns as you want & even adjust the column size.
For creating automation, they provide an easy to use flow chart system that is pretty intuitive. If you want to add any element, you just use a drag-and-drop builder. You can get started on basic automation and drip campaigns by using pre-built automation templates and customize according to your needs.
With the Automation Map feature, you can view how different automations are connected to each other. You can also see high-level reports on how each automation is performing.
ActiveCampaign offers lead scoring that allows you to assign scores based on past actions of subscribers. This helps you segment the audience from highly engaged to totally inactive. And thus helps you make actionable decisions for your marketing strategy.
ActiveCampaign’s list-management features are very popular.
You can segment contacts via custom fields (which are contact fields that include additional data about the contact, e.g. location or interests etc). Tags and custom fields can be added or removed via automation.
List management features can be used to segment your audience into categories and upsell service or relevant products.
These are just some of the examples. You can create segments based on location, age group, buyers’ history, size of deals etc.
Sendinblue is a feature-rich platform that provides not just email marketing but also SMS, landing page builder, Facebook ads integrations, signup forms, etc.
You can find templates for creating emails as well as landing pages. If you know HTML or have your own code, you can create these from scratch too. Their editor is an easy drag-and-drop type.
You can choose from the 9 pre-built workflow templates or create something from scratch. The workflow editor is also visual and all you need to do is select the element to add.
To maximise your open rates and increase engagement, you get a ‘send at best time’ option that will automatically send an email based on the time when the recipient is most likely to open it.
Reporting is basically like any other platform but also focuses on conversions. You can set your own way to judge what conversion means for you and the dashboard will track that. If you have a premium plan, you can also get data based on the location of people who clicked or opened your emails.
Their segmentation capabilities allow you to store as many data points as you want, on your contacts, without paying anything extra
Sendinblue offers dedicated transactional email templates & reports.You get different setup options for your transactional emails, such as API, SMTP Relay, eCommerce plugins, or marketing automation
*Campaign Monitor charges based on the number of contacts and Sendinblue charges based on the number of emails sent, so not doing a price comparison between the two.
Mailchimp is an all-in-one email marketing platform that is most popular for its easy to use interface, good looking templates and large number of integrations.
It allows you to get started with it’s forever free plan.
Its email builder is easy to use, has a clean interface and you don’t need to know HTML to create your emails
You will find 5 main categories of templates to choose from:
All layouts are mobile-friendly.
Layouts:
Themes:
Campaign:
All the categories of templates can be edited with drag & drop functionality, except when you code your own. Mailchimp offers only 13 functional units for you to manipulate with text, images, social media, videos, and buttons.
For the functions that Mailchimp doesn’t provide on its own platform, it helps you to integrate with third-party tools easily.
Mailchimp has integrations with 500+ apps. This allows you to integrate your email marketing with other channels, load data, create forms, payment systems and whatnot.
For example, you can integrate PayPal with Mailchimp and import contacts of everyone who buys from you using their PayPal account. Or you can integrate Typeform to create sophisticated forms and quizzes for lead generation, sales, and client onboarding.
Full pricing
All of these platforms are good at what they do & there is no doubt that all of these will keep innovating. So which one to pick is still a question for you.
If I have to look at features provided, ease of use, and email deliverability - all without breaking a bank, I would suggest SendX.
We all love a good deal — and it’s even sweeter when the best product is the one that costs the least. SendX will cost you only $7.49/mo for 500 contacts and you get access to all features. And unlimited emails.
You will be impressed with their simplicity, customer support, powerful automation tools & vast options for templates & pop-ups.
You don’t have to take my word for it. You should give it a try yourself. You can sign up for a free trial here. No credit card required. You get access to all the features for free for up to 14 days.
