Top 11 Email Marketing Tools Every Specialist Should Master

Intro

Since email marketing remains such a powerful tool for revenue generation, it’s no wonder that businesses get a chance to choose from a multitude of professional software. The main problem is, this choice can be downright overwhelming, especially considering that many services come with a similar set of features — email campaign analytics, lead segmentation, content personalization, and so on.

Still, even though top email marketing tools do combine several of those essential features, it’s possible to classify them by areas they truly excel at. Let’s take a look at the main steps of an email marketing campaign and see which tools can help you automate most of the effort at every stage.

Email database-building tools

Source: Rahulogy

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Any email marketing campaign starts with a database building — without a list of leads to message, you won’t get far. These tools should help you find more leads and expand your marketing reach.

Leadfeeder

Leadfeeder integrates with your website and analyses visitor behavior. It is most useful for the B2B industry because the service focuses on figuring out which company the website visitor works for — but sadly, it is not suitable for B2C marketing. Still, it has AI-powered visitor analytics that prioritizes warm leads over cold ones. Another perk of this service is that it can integrate with top CRMs and messengers like GoogleChat or Slack and analyze additional business-related data. And finally, Leadfeeder can also help you increase website traffic by analyzing visitor bounces – while it’s not an SEO tool, its data can be used in website performance analysis, too.

SignalHire

This tool, originally designed for recruiters, proved very useful for marketers as well — especially B2B marketers. SignalHire is a database of verified contacts that supports bulk searches by location, industry, job title, and plenty of other parameters B2B marketers can use to create tailored email campaign lists. But, unlike Leedfeeder, this tool works for B2C lead database building, too, because its Chrome/Firefox extension can extract contact data directly from social media, which gives you a chance to gradually update your CMS when someone engages with your content.

Lead segmentation software

Source: ActiveCampaign

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There are different strategies for lead segmentation for improved targeting — for starters, you do it manually or with the help of the above-mentioned tools; and, of course, a lot of CRMs have the lead segmentation functionality. Less widespread but equally effective tools include:

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is one of those tools that combine email marketing automation features with CRM functionality, but the area it truly excels at is segmenting leads. You can set practically any targeting criteria you want, and there is an additional option of sending an email each time someone in your database makes a purchase. It also has email templates, auto respondents, and other useful scheduling features to take your email marketing efforts to a new level.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is another all-in-one email automation platform that can do way more than just segment leads — it schedules, plans, analyzes, etc. Still, its advanced targeting and segmentation features deserve a separate mention in this category because Mailchimp has dozens of parameters email marketers can specify to create personalized lists that enhance customer experience. The tool has a user-intuitive dashboard and several pre-build targeting segments that beginning users will appreciate.

Brevo

Formerly known as Sendinblue, Brevo is a multi-layer marketing solution that integrates with top CRMs and acts as a solid stand-alone product. It can segment leads based on different criteria, send automatic transition and follow-up emails, and much more. The tool is essentially a CRM because it analyzes data across different communication channels and is not limited to email marketing alone. It is also more affordable than most CRMs and can prove very handy for small and mid-size businesses.

Bonus helpers: AI-powered text assistants

Source: GrammarlyGo

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While not exactly an example of email marketing software, AI-powered text assistants deserve a spot here because they streamline email replies and help us avoid awkward typos. Some of these assistants can also suggest AI prompts — a handy feature when you’re stumbling through a writing block. Like most AI-powered tools, they run on OpenAI’s ChatGPT functionality. The best helpers worth considering are:

GrammarlyGo

As part of a premium subscription, GrammarlyGo features up to a thousand AI-powered prompts a month — just type in your question in the relevant chat window and get your prompt. Plus, even without an AI assistant, Grammarly browser plugin checks for typos and awkward phrases.

Lavender

This tool positions itself as an email AI coach, but what it truly does is offer AI prompts and integration with top business apps, including Google Suite and major CRMs. And while its prompts are rather generic, Lavender can teach itself and can also offer email marketing coaching when necessary.

Compose.ai

As far as 100% AI assistants go, this one is an obvious choice. The plugin integrates with a Gmail account, offering prompts and autocomplete features. It can also ‘learn’ your voice to come up with more personalized prompts.

Email marketing analytics software

Source: Campaign Monitor

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Marketing and analytics go hand-in-hand. Note that many trusted tools combine segmentation, personalization, email scheduling AND analytics all rolled into one —that is the general practice. MailChimp can also fit into this category, and HubSpot remains a favorite choice for many marketers. More useful software examples to help you boost conversion rates include:

Campaign Monitor

Besides email-building templates and supreme customization features, Campaign Monitor excels at, as the name suggests, monitoring the results of your email campaigns. It offers advanced analytics on open and click-through rates, bounces, unsubscribes, and other recipient activity. Besides, its integrated AI writing assistance and responsive templates that automatically adjust for mobile make this email marketing and automation tool a good addition to your sales kit.

QuickMail

Like most other tools on this list, QuickMail integrates with different software, offers templates, writing assistance, and much more. Still, what makes this tool so great for campaign monitoring is its advanced metrics that eliminate false clicks and email opens. Eliminating those results in more accurate campaign data, which translates into higher marketing KPIs. Also, QuickMail effortlessly switches between different inboxes, which makes it such a good choice for marketing agencies that run several client accounts.

Constant Contact

Another great tool that has plenty of email automation features and advanced marketing analytics. Constant Contact can also track social shares, which is a great feature for scaling your email marketing efforts. And, of course, it will provide accurate data on open rates, click-throughs, and other standard email metrics.

Bonus: Marketing intelligence tools

Successful marketing is often about anticipating trends and, more importantly, customer needs. Of course, it’s not unlike card gambling — you can make a more or less calculated prediction as to which campaigns will perform well, but there is no guarantee that you’ll win. But these marketing intelligence and prediction tools can boost your success odds:

• Clearbit: this B2B tool analyzes all data from your CRM and can offer suggestions which leads to prioritize next.
• Crayon: it closely follows your business competitors and market trends to help you come up with creative, effective advertising ideas.
• Brandwatch: this tool spies on social media and can give you insights about brand mentions and social trends relevant to your business.

Of course, this is a rather nominal subdivision because many of the above examples offer more features than just analytics and personalization. Besides, top CRM solutions, like SalesForce, HubSpot, or Zoho, come with a lot of email marketing features. But, if you feel that your current efforts are failing in a specific area, this starter list of top services should point you in the right direction.