What is Email Marketing Automation?
Email marketing automation creates a series of automated emails triggered by the subscribers' actions and sent automatically.
The best thing about automated email campaigns is that you can increase ROI without even trying. You just need to set up the email marketing automation, which does the hard work on your behalf 'automatically.'
You can effortlessly automate emails with automated mailing systems.
Of course, we can't speak of one particular email marketing software that best fits you. It depends on your,
- budget
- contact list size
- features
In the table below, you can see the detailed comparison table of 36 services in the email marketing area.
If you specifically look for marketing automation software for small business, you can also check our related article.
How to Choose the Best Email Marketing Automation Tool
Choosing the right email marketing automation tool can significantly impact your digital marketing strategy.
Here are some valuable factors to consider while making your decision:
- Needs and goals: Identify your specific needs and goals and decide on what you want to achieve with email marketing automation.
- Ease of use: It would be ideal if the tool provided an intuitive user interface, easy-to-use features, and seamless usability.
- Features: Look for a tool that offers powerful features like AI-powered insights, email templates, A/B testing, highly targeted emails, auto-responders, and detailed analytics.
- Integration capabilities: The tool should easily integrate with your existing software landscape.
- Scalability: The email marketing platform needs to be scalable to grow with your business. As your marketing strategies and business grow, the tool should be able to handle more significant demands.
- Pricing and budget: You should focus on pricing and keep your budget in mind. Try to strike a balance between cost and functionality.
- Customer support: Look for a tool that offers sound customer support. Fast and effective guidance can be crucial, especially when you run into difficulties or require assistance.
- Review and ratings: Always consider reviews and ratings by other users. These offer valuable insights into the tool's pros and cons.
21 Best Email Marketing Automation Software
1. Sender
Sender offers affordable email marketing to over 180,000 businesses and helps them grow by boosting sales, trust, and engagement.
The email automation tool offers a drag-and-drop design builder to create custom emails, popups, and forms and a vast library of high-converting free templates.
Sender also provides an omnichannel experience by combining email and SMS marketing automation. You can manage both campaigns from a single dashboard.
The automation app offers real-time analytics and reports to help you monitor your email and SMS campaigns. That way, you can find ways to improve their performance and grow your business.
Pros:
- Email and SMS marketing automation
- Free templates library and a drag-and-drop email builder
- Smart segmentation and personalization to send targeted messages
- High-converting popup and signup forms
- High email deliverability
Cons:
- Sender's branding on the Free Forever plan
- The free plan doesn't have an SMS
- The onboarding process can be confusing
Pricing
Free Forever plan for up to 15,000 emails and 2,500 subscribers per month with almost all premium features. Paid plans start at $15 per month.
G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5
2. HubSpot
There are 48,000 small companies that use HubSpot Email Marketing Automation, which means it is ranked as one of the top email automation tools. To support your email marketing campaigns, it provides
- all-in-one CRM
- email marketing automation
- landing page builder platform
- AI email writer
The most advantageous part of HubSpot is its analytics. You can track your email campaigns in terms of conversions. But what about pricing?
Well, you should consider that it's very affordable; it costs about $50/month. However, the pricing can quickly get out of control. For example, if you want to add bonus features and grow your email list, you may have to pay $2,000/per month annually. So, better be careful.
Pros:
- Ability to customize the user experience based on behavior
- Great user interface
Cons:
- Prices are too high for most startups.
- Not HIPAA compliant
Pricing
The starter plan for HubSpot Marketing Hub costs $50/mo.
G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5
3. Popupsmart
Popupsmart, a no-code popup builder, makes it simple to display user-friendly email popups with modern designs. By displaying conversion-ready popups, you can grow your email list and reach your target audience.
Pros:
- Thanks to converting Shopify-based solutions like email automation, you can send automated emails to your audience
- Interactive gamification popups, such as 'spin to win' and 'lottery ball game,' are available
- You can use multi-step popups to boost visitor interaction on your site
- Integrates with many platforms, including Mailchimp, Drip, Make, Zapier, MailerLite, and more
Cons:
- Pageviews of the free plan might not be sufficient, but you can upgrade your plan
Pricing:
A free plan is available. Popupsmart's Basic plan starts at $32/m for unlimited popups, three websites, and 50,000 page views.
G2 Rating: 4.2 out of 5
4. Constant Contact
As an effective email marketing automation software, Let Constant Contact allows you to send powerful emails with unique designs. Also, it is simple to use. You can arrange Facebook fan promotions, coupons, and deals with Let Constant Contact.
As the other email marketing automation software in the market, it provides an autoresponder. One of the important parts of this email marketing automation software is its affordable prices.
Pros:
- Clear overview of demographics of email recipients
- Simple and easy-to-use UI
- Excellent customer support
Cons:
- Has Constant Contact branding at the bottom of the emails
- Email templates tend to distort based on the platform recipients' use.
- Email builder is a bit limited in terms of designing options.
Pricing
Price based on the number of contacts, starting at $12/mo
G2 Rating: 4.0 out of 5
5. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is now used by over 60,000 organizations of all shapes and sizes.
ActiveCampaign is an email marketing automation tool that enables you to create drip emails that boost subscriber interaction, interests, demographics, history, and more.
You can use Active Campaign as a CRM and marketing automation software. You're going to like this email marketing automation software in terms of email deliverability, affordability, customer support, and integrations.
Pros:
- Excellent customer support
- Flexible and versatile
- Advanced features
Cons:
- The learning curve is a bit challenging.
- Some users have reported some glitches.
- The forms feature isn't sufficient and not customizable enough.
Pricing
The minimum price plan costs $29/mo with an annual payment for 1,000 contacts. The highest price plan is the Enterprise plan, which costs $259/mo.
G2 Rating: 4.5 out of 5
6. Mailmodo
Mailmodo is a new-edge email marketing solution. It offers a host of features that help you in various aspects of your campaigns.
It allows you to create AMP emails without coding through its easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor and offers a host of editable campaign templates.
Other features include a dashboard for monitoring the performance of your email campaigns, setting up email automation and triggered emails, A/B testing, and more. The newest feature uses AI to generate compelling subject lines for your emails.
Pros:
- Ease of use when it comes to building AMP emails using the drag-and-drop editor
- Offers a host of features for a very competitive price
- Offers bulk email service, transactional email, email marketing automation, customer journey
- Pre-built widgets like Spin the Wheel, forms, and shopping carts to include in emails
Cons:
- There can be a learning curve
- Limited support for non-English users
- Does not offer a free plan but has a 21-day free trial
Pricing
Starting at $39/mo for 2,500 contacts.
G2 Rating: 4.6 out of 5
7. Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a feature-rich, AI-powered marketing solution that enables deep customer understanding, timely interactions, and marketing automation.
It provides a single platform to create customer profiles, personalize offers across all channels with artificial intelligence, and foster lasting relationships for business growth.
The tool helps you unlock the value of your customer data, personalize engagement across channels, align marketing and sales, and optimize campaigns with unified marketing intelligence.
Pros:
- Integrate customer data from various sources to create a unified customer profile
- Personalize marketing across various channels like email, web, ads, and mobile
- Use AI to optimize campaigns, personalize offers, and make smarter business decisions
- Automate campaigns and customer journey management
Cons:
- There is a little bit of a learning curve at the beginning
- It might be expensive for some teams
Pricing
Pricing plans start at $1,250 per month.
G2 Rating: 4.0 out of 5
8. Drip
Being an email drip campaign software, Drip has a simple and user-friendly interface. You can use email gathering technology, drag and drop elements, and pre-made templates in your emails.
If you have an e-commerce company, this email marketing software is great. For basic email marketing automation, it has affordable pricing options! For example, you should pay $49/month for 100+ contacts. You can streamline the drip email process with this app.
Pros:
- Smoothly handles large data
- User-friendly interface, dark mode available
- Ability to create unique responsive HTML email templates
Cons:
- Slow customer support
- Analytics and reports are average.
- Inability to re-edit workflows
- Not storing events for recall, so, for example, in Zapier, you have to continually refresh
Pricing
Starting at $39/mo for 2,500 contacts
G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
9. Sendloop
Sendloop is one of the best marketing automation software on the market. It has an easy-to-use interface that doesn't require IT. So, you can customize your emails with a simple drag-and-drop email builder. It offers more than 80 free email templates with some unique features.
You can refine a drip campaign by targeting the right people.
Sendloop enables you to track your customers' movements on your site. This email automation software allows you to run highly effective email marketing campaigns.
Pros:
- Drag and drop feature
- Provides WYSIWYG Email Editor so you can edit fast and easily
- Analysis track report
- Great technical support
Cons:
- A bit expensive as it charges for subscribers, not plans
- The interface is a bit over-simplistic
- Lacks mobile-optimized emails
Pricing
Service cost is based on the number of subscribers. A free plan is available. You can calculate your service cost from their website. The minimum cost is $79/mo for storing 15,000 subscribers and unlimited emails.
G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5
10. GetResponse
GetResponse is one of the best email service providers (ESP) and marketing automation software in the market.
Even if it didn't specify marketing automation capabilities initially, it added some useful features, such as an autoresponder and much more. In this case, you can design your workflows with its easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface.
Pros:
- Straightforward and easy to use
- Fast interface
- They offer landing page building as well as email marketing
- Value price compared to its competitors
Cons:
- Some users reported messages going to spam folders
- Contact import issue
- Limitations in integrating with other apps
Pricing
A free trial is available. Pricing plans start at $15/mo for 1,000 subscribers.
G2 Rating: 4.2 out of 5
11. MailChimp
MailChimp is another good email marketing automation software that allows you to customize your emails. You can automatically send a welcome sequence to new subscribers or send birthday wishes or any content you want.
Also, you can use it to prevent and recover from cart abandonment. If you want to personalize your order notifications from your store or re-engage with inactive customers, MailChimp is for you!
For those who are looking for effective email marketing automation software, it is a great tool to use.
Pricing is not that affordable compared to other marketing automation software. It's free for up to 2,000 contacts. However, it costs upwards of $425 or more per month, depending on your total number of subscribers.
Pros:
- Saves templates and contacts, so you won't have to start over every time
- Provides an internal database that helps you store contacts
- Intuitive interface
Cons:
- Understanding list segmentation can be tricky.
- Since the price is based on the number of contacts, it can quickly get expensive.
Pricing
A free plan is available with 500 contacts. Paid plans start at $13/mo for 500 contacts with custom branding and A/B testing.
G2 Rating: 4.3 out of 5
Did you know that you can easily integrate Popupsmart with MailChimp? This way, the leads coming from the subscription popup will automatically be added to your MailChimp lists.
Also, if you use Shopify, look at our blog post, How to Add a MailChimp Popup to Shopify Account?
12. Wishpond
Wishpond concentrates on your email marketing automation and covers a large portion of your marketing needs.
You can use Wishpond to,
- capture leads
- create landing pages
- run social content, promotions, and discounts.
Wishpond has some functional features like other email marketing automation software mentioned above. Examples include pricing campaigns, customizing emails, and benefitting from real-time analytics and integrations.
You can track each lead in your database with a comprehensive overview. That means you can track your visitor's activity individually.
It offers various packages for pricing, but when you consider the service you get, it has reasonable pricing plans.
Pros:
- Excellent customer support
- Drag and drop feature
Cons:
- No search bar to search for a particular lead
- Lag between campaigns
- Unreliable email deliverability (based on user reviews)
Pricing
You can schedule a demo for a custom plan.
G2 Rating: 3.7 out of 5
13. Benchmark Email
Benchmark Email might be a good fit if you're looking for a basic email automation system. There are a lot of people who don't want to deal with technicalities and issues that require expertise in this field. For this reason, it has a user-friendly interface and great customer support.
It just does the basics quite well. You can use the drag-and-drop system without any trouble. I recommend this tool if you're just after something simple. However, if you're looking for something more powerful for your email marketing benefits, you should probably consider some other automation software.
Pros:
- User-friendly and straightforward
- Ability to set limits to your email campaigns
- Easy to navigate dashboard
Cons:
- Not so mobile-friendly
- Doesn't provide an Email Usage report in a downloadable format
- Lacks automatic spell-checking
Pricing
A free plan is available for 500 contacts and 3,500 emails per month. Paid plans start at $13/mo for 7,500 emails and 500 contacts.
G2 Rating: 4.3 out of 5
14. Keap
Keap is a great sales and marketing automation tool, so not just a platform for email marketing.
You can choose a ready workflow or build your own from scratch, then select a trigger event for your campaign. Also, it is possible to add team members to handle contacts, set meetings, and track them!
It offers many automation features so you can do different automation according to your business goals, such as sending emails automatically.
Pros:
- Robust feature set
- The all-in-one tool makes it easy to automate all your tasks from a single place (follow-up, landing page, and shopping cart solutions)
- Excellent onboarding
Cons:
- The email builder lacks the option to send text-only emails.
- Its learning curve can be a bit steep at times.
- Pricing is a bit high for startups and small businesses.
Pricing
Starting at $159/mo for 1,500 contacts
G2 Rating: 4.2 out of 5
15. Mailjet
Mailjet is an email marketing automation solution for fast-moving teams.
You can create and send emails with their intuitive email platform, integrate the Email API, and start sending emails.
Mailjet's drag-and-drop editor provides a great email marketing experience to their users. Also, their service improves your email deliverability and sending speed at affordable prices.
Pros:
- Cost-effective pricing for companies of all sizes
- Excellent inboxing rate
- Ability to save templates: you can save not only an entire email but also just some sections from it
Cons:
- Unfriendly customer service
- Lacks auto-saver
- Setup can be a bit problematic in terms of certain DNS or domain hosts
Pricing
Free plan available. Paid plans $15 per month for 15,000 emails.
G2 Rating: 4.0 out of 5
16. Omnisend
Omnisend is another marketing platform that is growing in popularity. Designed to assist e-commerce brands in email marketing, SMS, and automation, they claim to multiply your open rates and improve revenue growth.
Since their primary focus is e-commerce, Omnisend offers innovative email templates to reduce cart abandonment and drive repeat buyers.
Additionally, you can build shoppable emails and create push notification campaigns, scratch cards, product recommendations, and more.
Pros:
- Intuitive and user-friendly interface
- Variety of segmentation options
- Features like Giftable and Wheel of Fortune
Cons:
- The poor color scheme in the design
- Some users experienced glitches in the system
- Integration options are lacking
Pricing: A free plan includes 250 contacts and 500 emails per month. Paid plans start at $16/mo for 6,000 emails.
G2 Rating: 4.6 out of 5
17. ConvertKit
ConvertKit is the best email marketing automation tool for people who prefer a relatively simpler one. Typically, bloggers and online course instructors use it, but this will work if you are looking for a straightforward option.
This software has no bells or whistles. Their main focus is on creating and sending plain and clean emails. Rather than offering email templates, they encourage users to create their templates.
Pros:
- Easy to set up automation
- Ability to create landing pages and tags
- Integrations to WooCommerce, WordPress, and many other applications
Cons:
- Users need to add the leads they obtained through ConvertKit forms manually
- Their email template editor is very basic.
- A bit costlier than its competitors, especially for agencies that manage multiple clients
Pricing: There's a free plan available for 1,000 monthly subscribers. Premium plans start at $9 per month.
G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5
18. Litmus
Litmus is one of the top email testing tools that many marketers use before sending their automated emails. It offers an error-free email delivery, allowing you to preview, test, and analyze your emails before you hit the send button.
Pros:
- Streamlines review and approval processes
- Fosters collaboration amongst team members and reduces errors.
- Offers end-to-end testing that ensures emails provide the best customer experience while speeding up the internal approvals process.
- Litmus Email Guardian monitors emails and alerts you when a client change might affect email performance, display, or delivery.
Cons:
- Integration capabilities should be enhanced
- Loading speed needs to be improved
- It can be expensive for small teams
Pricing: Starts from $99/m for 1,000 email previews.
G2 Rating: 4.6 out of 5
19. Mailtrap
Another email testing tool is Mailtrap. It enables previewing emails and checking how your email is being rendered.
Pros:
- Fake SMTP server ensures test emails never reach real users by mistake
- Allows for numerous testing scenarios via Testing API and allows automated tests and email validations
- Offers precise validation of HTML/CSS in email templates, providing previews of how emails will appear
- Provides actionable analytics and alert systems to understand and control your email infrastructure
Cons:
- Understanding API can be complex for beginners
- Integration options can be enriched
Pricing: Mailtrap's pricing starts at $14.99. It has a free plan available.
G2 Rating: 4.8 out of 5
20. Rafflecopter
It is essential to lure customers into signing up for your mailing list to run a more converting automated mailing system. Rafflecopter is a giveaway tool that enables site owners to launch and manage giveaways. You can use giveaways to build a strong email list.
Pros:
- No coding knowledge is required to use Rafflecopter, making it accessible to all types of users
- Offers flexible billing and a reasonable refund policy
- The platform can help design, customize, launch, and manage your giveaway within minutes
- With advanced theming, you can easily customize your giveaways to match your brand or event
Cons:
- Customization capabilities can be improved
Pricing: A free trial is available. The basic plan starts at $13/m. A grow plan ($43/m) is suggested for integration with email marketing tools.
G2 Rating: 4.2 out of 5
21. Customer.io
Customer.io is one of the best email marketing automation software in the market and has a user-friendly interface. You can customize your messages very easily. Also, it allows you to target messages to your customers and integrate them with your mobile app or website to provide real-time stats.
It comes with bonus features such as,
- in-context conversations
- conversion tracking
- A/B testing,
- customer profiles
It's free for 400 monthly email credits to 200 people. However, the payment increases depending on your growth.
Pros:
- Reasonable pricing
- Easy to set up
- Managing users, events, and attributes is simple
Cons:
- No option to export data
- Reports lack deeper analytics insights
- Challenging learning curve even for an experienced user
Pricing
The essential plan starts at $100/mo for up to 5,000 profiles
G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5
Recap
You need good marketing strategies to succeed in your efforts. We all know that it's difficult to keep up with everything at the same time. So, it would help if you had email marketing automation software to achieve your goals.
You need to build a strong email list and test your automated emails before sending them.
We covered the 21 best email marketing automation software, email testing tools, and email list-building tools that will make marketing easier for your business.
You should pick the right one from those mentioned in this article or other marketing automation tools like Zapier according to your needs and budget.
