Email Platforms: Our Top Three Picks

If you are looking to purchase an email platform or make a change from the one you are currently using, you may find that there are many options available. You may also discover that email solutions tend to be very similar – even the price. How do you choose? Well, to help with your search we have outlined the top three (in our opinion) email solutions available today and why we like them.

In our opinion, the top three email platforms for small businesses are Constant Contact, Mail Chimp and Emma. Now, let’s talk about why we like these three.

First, let’s talk about Constant Contact. Constant Contact is the largest email marketing solution in terms of number of customers. It specializes in getting small businesses started with their email campaigns. You can sign up for a 60-day free trial if you want to test it out. After that it is $15 a month for 500 emails sent across unlimited campaigns. Many enjoy using Constant Contact because it is a bit more robust as compared to other products on that market – there is a lot you can do with this platform. Constant Contact is also known for its good customer support.

Now, let’s move on to Mail Chimp. Mail Chimp is known for its easy-to-use product. While Mail Chimp doesn’t necessarily have all of the features available like some other email platforms, the interface is very user-friendly. If you sign up with Mail Chimp there is a free option – as long as you don’t need to send more than 12,000 emails per month. If you need to send more emails per month the pricing plans start at $15 per month. One downside to Mail Chimp is that they don’t have phone support like most other email platforms.

And finally, Emma. Emma focuses on small businesses by providing unique, stylish designs and excellent customer support. We have used their product in the past and they do have excellent customer support and they can really help each customer design (in HTML) unique email creative. Their plans are a little more expensive – they start at $30 per month for 1,000 emails. They are currently offering a free 30-day trial.

So, ready for our top pick? Well, for us, we like Constant Contact for small business owners. We feel that Constant Contact creates the most professional-looking templates, they keep up with technology changes and updates and they have a very good price for you what you get.

But, remember, these are our top picks for small businesses. You may hear people talk about various other platforms such as Exact Target or Salesforce. Those are also great products but they are better designed for larger, more email-savvy companies. Remember to really think about what you need to get your emails out and not go for more bells and whistles than you really need.

Up next week: should you think about getting LinkedIn Premium?