9 Best Email Marketing Platforms for Small Businesses

Altogether, Zoho Campaigns is one of the most intuitive email marketing platforms I’ve tried and the one I recommend the most if you’re completely new to email marketing and want a no-fuss platform that does the job well.

It’s one of those rare platforms that’s made especially for small businesses, which is my favorite part about it. It has templates for promoting sales, gathering customer feedback, and sending seasonal greetings newsletters (among others), all of which are some of the most essential features I look for in an email platform.

It’s also easy to import contacts into a mailing list, especially if your contacts are already on Zoho CRM or Salesforce, as Zoho integrates with those. It also has reports and automation menus, all accessible in one easy-to-navigate dashboard.

What I like best of all, however, is Zoho Campaigns’ feature to connect directly with your online store, whether on Shopify or on your own website (available only on paid plans). This makes it easier to track abandoned carts and send follow-up emails to end-of-funnel leads, aka leads who are nearing a purchase. Not many other popular email marketing platforms have the same capability. It’s another example of Zoho Campaigns being tailored to small businesses.

This is my best all-in-one small business email marketing companion by far, and even the free plan offers lots of value with all the essential capabilities. Like many of Zoho’s other free tools, it’s one of my best marketing tools for small businesses.

Zoho Campaign has ready-made templates for various email campaigns. (Source: Zoho)

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There’s also a built-in CRM platform with the basic contact info. (Source: Zoho)

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Key features

• Ecommerce tab: Connect your online store with Zoho Campaigns and automatically send cart abandonment emails
• Templates: 100-plus ready-to-build templates for newsletters, sales announcements, events, and more
• Contacts tab: Contact management platform with your contacts’ names, phone numbers, scores, associated topics, and activities

HubSpot is an industry leader in lead generation, so it’s no surprise that its email marketing platform is designed especially for generating and nurturing leads. It also automatically integrates with HubSpot’s CRM platform, which is one of the best CRMs from an email platform used by sales and marketing teams worldwide. It’s also available for free, although paid plans come with automated lead pipelines and lead assignments.

HubSpot is most ideal if you typically handle large lead volumes and want a CRM with more than just the basic info, like their last activity date and lead status.

It’s not a hard platform to navigate either. However, it may take time to get used to it if you haven’t used many CRMs before. It’s for this reason that I find it better suited to larger, more advanced teams or B2B businesses that need that detailed information.

HubSpot also has a very capable email marketing platform, although it doesn’t have the same design capabilities as Mailchimp or Zoho Mail (it’s also not a drag-and-drop builder), so I wouldn’t recommend it if you have a very specific or unique branding or look for your emails. Its CRM platform, more than anything, makes HubSpot one of the best email marketing platforms.

HubSpot has one of the most detailed CRMs you’ll find from an email platform. (Source: HubSpot)

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It has a capable email builder, albeit with limited design capabilities. (Source: HubSpot)

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Key features

• Advanced CRM platform: Contact management platform with detailed info like last activity date and lead status, and lead pipelines
• Email automation: Automatic email sending triggered by form submissions, new contacts, and website visits

Mailchimp’s biggest highlight by far is its landing page builder. This is my go-to email platform if my email campaigns involve lots of landing pages, whether for collecting event sign-ups or offering promo codes.

Mailchimp has templates for all those, or you can build one from scratch using its editor, which, as a drag-and-drop, is very easy to navigate and customize to fit the brand I’m working on.

Landing pages aside, Mailchimp is also a very intuitive and capable email marketing platform with a free plan that can send 1,000 emails a month. It’s one of my best free email marketing platforms as well, thanks to its audience segmentation tools, workflow automations, and CRM dashboard, although the free plan doesn’t allow scheduled emails and only allows one audience set, which makes it impossible to run multiple email marketing campaigns.

Unfortunately, Mailchimp has also locked some of its better email templates behind paid plans, which is why, even though it’s the platform I first started using as a marketer, it’s not one I’d choose for campaigns that need more customizing. But it still holds a lot of value and is still one of my favorite ones around.

Mailchimp’s landing page builder is one of my favorites. (Source: Mailchimp)

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It’s also a great email marketing platform overall, with forms, automations, and analytics. (Source: Mailchimp)

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Key features

• Landing page builder: Drag-and-drop landing page builder with templates for sign-up forms, product pages, or free downloads
• Audience segmentation: Audience segmentation and targeting by behavior, interest, and activity
• Drag-and-drop email campaign builder: Intuitive email campaign builder with templates and an AI assistant

Email and SMS marketing often go hand-in-hand as marketing strategies, and while a good number of email platforms offer both, Brevo’s is the most seamless one by far and offers the most value.

There are no limits to how many text messages you can send a day (though, of course, text rates apply accordingly). And credits are available on a pay-as-you-go basis, so you can avoid wasting extra spend, which is another plus.

Brevo is also easy to set up and navigate, with lots of good email templates to choose from. The feature I particularly like is the unified inbox that makes it simpler to track and reply to multiple conversations at once, especially if you’re a one-person marketing team and need to handle messages across social media, email, and WhatsApp. It’s one of its newest features, which is another thing I like about Brevo — it continually adds more capabilities to its platform.

Brevo is another email platform I trust that hasn’t let me down yet, feature-wise, and the main reason I haven’t ranked it higher is because it doesn’t have a dedicated email analytics dashboard, which is important for calibrating your future email campaigns. It only shows your email metrics per campaign.

Send emails, SMS, WhatsApp messages, or push notifications with Brevo. (Source: Brevo)

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Another highlight: A unified inbox for responding to messages across email and text. (Source: Brevo)

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Key features

• SMS & email sending: All-in-one platform for sending emails, SMS and WhatsApp messages, and push notifications
• Unified inbox: Manage and reply to emails, WhatsApp messages, and Instagram and Facebook DMs from the inbox under the one “Conversations” tab

Honestly, no other email platform offers unlimited email sends per month, which is why MailerLite is always one of my top bulk email marketing platforms.

If you mostly send mass email announcements or audience-wide newsletters instead of targeted campaigns, MailerLite will, no doubt, be the most helpful email platform to you, especially if you have a large list.

You can also build unlimited landing pages for your emails, and both landing page and email campaign builders are easy to navigate, although because they’re block-based editors (not drag-and-drop), there are significantly fewer design capabilities. Unlimited email sending is also only available on paid plans, although with up to 12,000 on the free plan for up to 500 contacts, it’s still more than most.

More than anything, MailerLite is an email platform for a quick, simple, mass email send, not for highly targeted email campaigns. However, I do give it points for allowing A/B testing for subject lines, sender emails, content, and send times, so your messages reach your audience successfully.

It also has a high email deliverability rating, which is another essential part of bulk email marketing, as it ensures your emails don’t go to spam.

MailerLite has a block-based email builder that’s easy enough to use, but allows less design customization. (Source: MailerLite)

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There are also templates for pop-ups, forms, and landing pages. (MailerLite)

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Key features

• Smart sending: Built-in tool that learns from your subscribers’ habits and preferences to send emails when they’re most likely to be opened
• Landing page, form, and pop-up builder: Aside from emails, MailerLite lets users build unlimited landing pages, forms, and pop-ups for campaigns, using templates and a block-based editor

I’ve long been on the lookout for a good email marketing platform that allows advanced audience targeting and segmentation, and I’m happy to report that Omnisend is the best one I’ve found.

Omnisend allows audience segmentation on multiple data points, from demographic data to engagement rates to shopping behavior, which is far more than most others allow. Even better: You can automate these targeted email sends once you find a combination that works.

I also love that Omnisend makes it easy to set up these segments, as you can choose from pre-made segments like “frequent store visitors” or “recent buyers,” or describe the segment you need, and Omnisend’s AI will build it for you. You can also build one from scratch.

Aside from audience segments, Omnisend also has all the email marketing essentials, including forms and landing page builders, although unfortunately, its CRM platform is very basic, which is its biggest drawback.

Its audience targeting capabilities are top tier, but it (strangely) doesn’t really have a CRM, just a contact list with recipients’ names, phone numbers, and email addresses, which makes it a little difficult to figure out what segmentation combinations are working best, and is the main reason it isn’t higher on my list.

Omnisend has some of the most precise audience segmentation and targeting I’ve found in an email platform. (Source: Omnisend)

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There’s also a drag-and-drop email builder. (Source: Omnisend)

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Key features

• Unlimited segmentation: Segment email recipients by as many data points as you like, including shopping history, engagement rates, and customer lifecycle stage
• Google and Facebook customer syncing: Sync your customer segments with your Facebook and Google audience

Klaviyo is less an email marketing platform than an automation builder tool that serves emails (and SMS messages and review requests). Its main product is an automation workflow builder that can build specific, custom workflows based on specific triggers.

For example, you can build an automation to send an email with a promo code exactly three days after a customer abandons their cart on your online store. Another plus about Klaviyo is that it’s not difficult to build automation workflows, even if you’ve never done it before. It’s all a matter of dragging and dropping boxes to create a workflow, and then testing and saving it, which gives it major points.

The primary drawback of Klaviyo is that it won’t be applicable to every business, especially if you don’t have an online store, as most of its features are very ecommerce-specific. Its customer product recommendations feature, for example, learns your customers’ preferences based on past purchases to recommend products they’ll be interested in.

But if you do have an online storefront, Klaviyo is definitely worth considering (there’s a free starting plan) to upgrade your ecommerce experience.

Build custom email automation flows with Klaviyo — or start with one of its templates. (Source: Klaviyo)

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The drag-and-drop email builder is also easy to use, although email templates are pretty basic.

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Key features

• Custom automation builder: Drag-and-drop platform to build custom automation workflows for your email campaigns with specific send times, triggers, and audience segments
• Klaviyo data platform: Smart CRM platform with customer demographic, preference, and behavior data, plus predictive analysis

GetResponse’s biggest draw has always been its advanced campaign analytics. Beyond the basics like open and click rates, GetResponse can also track your complaints, email domain, and (on paid plans) campaign revenue.

It’s definitely one of the top email marketing platforms if emails are a primary form of communication for your business and directly help generate revenue. For instance, if you sell your products or services directly via email, you can track your revenue in GetResponse — it also connects with Stripe and PayPal.

GetResponse also lets you set up Facebook and Google Ads within the platform, which is a nice bonus, although I’d use it sparingly, as it doesn’t have the same precise audience targeting as either of those platforms.

The email builder itself is simple to use, although I wouldn’t entirely recommend GetResponse to beginners, as there’s considerable setting up to do and not all the analytics will likely be relevant. But if advanced analytics are what you’re after, GetResponse is one of the best platforms for the job and is worth checking out.

GetResponse is my best pick for tracking email campaign analytics. (Source: GetResponse)

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It also has decent email templates (although not my favorites). (Source: GetResponse)

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Key features

• Email revenue and click tracking: Track your email campaigns’ click rates and revenue in real-time via your dashboard
• Ecommerce integrations: Integrate Stripe, PayPal, and ecommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce to offer customized promotions to different buyer sets

Constant Contact is bar none the easiest email marketing platform I’ve used. It’s super intuitive and a breeze to navigate, with drag-and-drop templates and recommendations on the best type of emails to send.

There are also support teams available from Monday to Sunday who can help with both technical and marketing support, so in a way, it’s like paying for an email platform and marketing support team at the same time. Plus, all plans come with social media scheduling tools, which save plenty of time if email and social media are your two primary marketing strategies.

Constant Contact also has automation workflows, CRM tools, and scheduled emails. Honestly, my only problem with it is that it’s a higher price point for all the capabilities that other email platforms offer completely free.

For example, the $12 Starter plan only allows one automation template, something that Mailchimp and HubSpot offer for free. However, pricing aside, this is definitely one of the best marketing tools around for small businesses, particularly for email and social media.

Constant Contact is the easiest email platform I’ve used so far. (Source: Constant Contact)

Key features

• BrandKit: AI-powered brand kit generator that imports your brand logo and colors from your website
• Constant Contact community: Online community of small businesses with marketing advice via “Ask a Trainer” sessions
• Social media scheduling: Built-in social media scheduling platform for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn included on all plans