What is Email Marketing Automation? | Best 5+ Email Marketing Automation Tools 2021

~ Email Marketing & Email Marketing Automation

Lead generation is the most crucial factor of any business out there.

Businesses that are doing digital marketing for generating leads, emphasis on email marketing. The sad part is, most businesses do not be able to utilize it to its fullest.

I have experienced email marketing very closely, and have run 10 plus campaigns. I have experienced that your boss or client always demand overnight leads from this. They are sometimes not aware, or sometimes not a firm believer of creating a strategy and flow for the email marketing campaign.

Well, as I always say, the only way to generate leads overnight in digital marketing is ads. Be it SEO, Content Marketing etc. in digital marketing doesn’t work overnight. Every method has a proper flow and it shows amazing results at the right time. It is the same with email marketing.

I also get to see, that in recent days people have got to know about email marketing automation, sequencing etc. and they feel, these can bring leads and conversions faster.

Well, email marketing automation is not to get leads or conversion overnight, it is to speed up the process of marketing, as well as cut down the daily efforts that you or the team puts.

So, let’s understand email marketing & email marketing automation through this blog. We shall also have some key features highlighted of 5+ amazing email marketing tools.

What is Email Marketing in Digital Marketing?

Email marketing is one act of doing digital marketing, through which you send commercial or marketing emails to your prospects. In times, it is sent with the consent of the receiver, sometimes not.

It is a campaign in general, that a company broadcasts to its potential or current customer. The idea is to give information about the products and services of the company, and further either to up-sell, sell, or cross-sell. It involves using emails to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations.

Why Email Marketing?

Digital Marketing has opened great arenas of inbound marketing.

Email marketing, is one of those.

Marketing your products or services by email can be fast and flexible. It is also a cost-effective way of reaching new customers as well as retaining existing customers.

The process is fairly personal, as emails hit directly to the inbox people often try to give it a read. Therefore, email marketing allows you to design and shoot personalized messages to your audiences. Such personalized emails can be about discounts, new products/services, new subscriptions etc.

Fact Check

Email marketing doesn’t perform overnight.

It is a process that demands a complete flow of emails to shoot to the prospects according to the campaign needs. Have a look at the below mind map that I have created. It is a very basic understanding of designing campaigns for email marketing. The process starts from “Introduction Email”. Here is where automation plays a role.

*Doing bulk emails to hundreds of thousands of people can bring you direct leads. But campaigns, often bring loyal customers.

What is Email Marketing Automation?

Email marketing automation is the power to automate your complete email campaign drip as per the strategy of the campaign.

It is more of a personalized approach towards helping the clients or customers. As well as it helps to do time management with your inbound marketing campaign and garner better results.

Email marketing automation is simply converting the dispatch of email messages from a manual process to an automatic one.

Benefits of Email Marketing Automation

• Increased transactions
• Effective segmentation
• Increased revenue with transactional emails
• Integrate with the customer buying cycle

Email Marketing Automation is a process where you strategize the entire campaign and expected results in the first place. You create the entire set of content as per the plan. Then you go ahead and select a desired tool for the automation and sequencing. Further, you or the expert automates the entire process in a timely manner. Every action instructed triggers at the right time, like –

• Sending emails
• Following up emails
• Waiting periods or Intervals
• Conditioned messaging approaches etc.

You don’t need to come back to the tool and do it daily. You and the team need to be seated one or two day and finish more than one complete email marketing automation setup for an objective.

What is Sequencing in Email Marketing Automation?

If you are aware of this term called email sequencing, then let me tell you, sequencing is the process on which email marketing automation runs.

Email sequence is a series of emails sent based on pre-set time intervals or trigger-based automation (or both).

Digital marketing has given many great inbound marketing attributes, sequencing is surely one of them.

Designing a time-based email sequence involves messages that are sent at predetermined intervals. For example such intervals can be –

• Immediately after opt-in
• 30 days after purchase
• One year after subscribing
• 3 days after the last email etc.

Auto-Responders – Time-based email sequences are also referred to as ‘autoresponders’.

When do you use Email Sequencing?

Trigger-based email sequences are sent whenever someone takes an action on your website or within your email sequence. (e.g. not logging into the software platform for a week, clicking a link in an email, clicking links in the last three emails etc.) You’ll start to see the real power of email sequences when you combine both types.

The 5 most important types of email sequences –

• Welcome email sequence
• On-boarding email sequence
• Abandon cart email sequence
• Repeat customer email sequence
• Re-engagement email sequence

The above ones are different types of email sequences. That means the perspective of hooking the customers or prospects.

Example –

For the first type i.e. Welcome Email Sequencing – The objective is the send different types of attractive welcoming emails to the target recipients. It helps to do brand awareness, and make people educated about your products or services. It further helps to put the vision of your company to your prospects. That let people understand what you are really trying to serve or offer them.

Similarly, there is an objective for each and every type of an email marketing automation sequence you create.

In the same way, I must convey, if you are setting a sequence without an objective then it is not going to get the CTR that you are expecting.

What is the Email Marketing Sequencing Flow Example?

Creating a complete strategy needs while creating sequencing demands experience. You also need to understand consumer behaviours well to do the marketing.

To give you an idea that how a basic email campaign and the idea of sequencing looks like, I have dropped the above mind map. To more about the same you can refer to this blog of HubSpot as well.

About Email Marketing Automation & Sequencing Tools

All these marketing tools we are discussing like email marketing automation, sequencing etc. aren’t available in Gmail that you are using all day.

You have to use an email marketing tool for these inbound marketing activities. The campaigns become even better when you subscribe to a potential tool, which also has a CRM facility with email marketing.

I have been using multiple email marketing automation tools since years.

I have a good hands-on with ZOHO, Hubs, Convertkit, Sendinblue etc. In the recent days I am mostly using Convertkit, this tool really worth it.

According to my experience, and the quality of the technology, I have listed 5+ email marketing automation tools. In case you are thinking of starting with email marketing automation, these tools are something you should thrive for.

Best 5+ Email Marketing Automation Tools

Here are the best 5+ email marketing automation tools.

HubSpot

All digital marketing professionals out there, are well aware of the name of HubSpot.

HubSpot creates the best standard digital marketing and inbound marketing tools.

The email marketing tool from HubSpot is consistently ranked as one of the top performers across a spectrum of tasks. Offering all the required features like –

• CRM
• Customizing Emails
• Email Designing Templates
• Personalize Emails for more CTR
• A-B Testing
• Email Marketing Analytics
• Online Forms
• Landing Page Creation
• Automation and Sequencing etc. makes HubSpot the one-stop solution for marketers.

There are numerous features you get for free in this tool. And when you go for subscription, you get to do more with it.

The flows and sequencing options and designs are also flawless and bring a seamless experience. All in all, it can be a perfect choice to be with.

Here are some related resources you get with this tool. (Click on the image to explore the same)

Also, have a look at the pricing of HubSpot digital marketing tools. It might look a little costly in comparison to other digital marketing tools, but it is worth it. (Click on the image to check in detail)

Here are the free tools that you can use in HubSpot for digital marketing. (Click on the image to check in detail)

ZOHO

ZOHO email marketing tool let you create responsive designs for emails and provides great features for customer engagement through email marketing.

ZOHO is an awesome tool and yet very affordable. And that is the reason I am keeping ZOHO in this list.

I have personally used the ZOHO digital marketing tools like Online Forms Creation, Email Campaigns, CRM etc. At an affordable price, they offer amazing features.

The best email campaign features of ZOHO includes –

• Creating Responsive Designs
• Customize Messages
• Deliver Emails to Inboxes
• Trigger Automated Workflows
• Connecting new Customers
• Sequencing
• Dynamic Rationalization
• Email Interactivity
• Drag & Drop Workflows
• Autoresponders
• Contact Path Tracing
• Send Time Optimization
• Online Forms
• Domain Authentication and much more.

With ZOHO the integration with important third-party tools like Zapier, Shopify, Salesforce, ZOHO CRM etc. becomes so easefull. So you can use an integrated email marketing system.

Having provided such a loaded package, have a look at their prices. You will definitely love it.

ZOHO is an Indian corporation, and the prices mentioned above are in INR. They frequently run discounts, you can click on the above image to know the latest pricing.

GetResponse

GetResponse has a lot of users using it and the feedback of this email marketing tool is amazing.

Along with different automation and flow features, GetResponse’s autoresponder is quite a catch for its users. The GetResponse’s tool uses drag and drops features to make calendar management a breeze and it makes the system flawless.

It is a powerful and simplified tool to send emails, create pages, and automate your marketing. Over the years, GetResponse has got amazing attention in the world of digital marketing/inbound marketing tools. People looking for supremely functional email marketing automation tools and responsive templates to create your landing pages try GetResponse.

The features of GetResponse includes –

• Newsletters – Send one-time email broadcasts with updates and special offers
• Autoresponders – Create automated email sequences to follow up with and nurture your subscribers.
• Automation emails – Design and trigger action-based, automated emails to engage and sell.
• Automated blog digest – Increase your blog’s reach and share posts via email and on social media.
• Perfectly-timed emails – Deliver emails at the right time with Perfect Timing and Time Travel delivery tools.
• Transactional emails – With this paid add-on, you can use SMTP-triggered emails to send receipts or reminders.

Here you can have a look of the same –

GetResponse is not a free email marketing automation tool. But they claim to offer unbeatable price for all-in-one marketing software. You can have a look at the same here (Click on the image to check complete details) –

Sendinblue

Sendinblue is another resort for the best digital marketing tools out there. Doing Digital Marketing Automation or Email Marketing Automation with Sendinblue is really a smart choice.

Likewise the above ones, Sendinblue is also a complete marketing automation software. I have used Sendinblue for quite some time and enjoyed the UI of this tool.

This digital marketing automation tool combines both email marketing services as well as SMS messages. It also offers the drag & drop builder which helps you to create highly engaging emails, create automated workflows, and segment users.

Sendinblue claims it as the smartest and most intuitive platform for growing businesses. And they also offer a free trial period for your experience with this tool.

The best features of Sendinblue includes –

• Email Marketing
• SMS Marketing
• Chat
• Inbox
• CRM
• Digital Marketing Automation
• Transactional Email
• Segmentation
• Landing Pages
• Signup Forms
• Facebook Ads

Sendinblue has a free one month package but after that you got to subscribe for it.

Have a look at the subscriptions (Click on the image to check details).

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing automation tools out there. There is n number of individuals and startups that uses this tool and it is quite amazing to see much of the features functional at free of cost.

I am using Mailchimp for years, and enjoy creating my digital marketing email campaigns here. Mailchimp allows you to send drip emails to follow up based on website activity, abandoned carts, activity or inactivity, and much more.

It has these following features –

• Create websites and get custom domains
• Digital marketing campaigns
• Reach the right people
• Create better content
• Email Marketing Automation
• Take digital marketing actions with insights
• Connect your store to give regular emails a sales boost
• Put your customers on personalized journeys that lead them to checkout
• Track sales from the first click to purchase

Mailchimp is quite an affordable tool like Sendinblue and ZOHO. Have a look at the packages. (Click on the image to check details)

Convertkit

ConvertKit allows you to send targeted autoresponders to subscribers based on their interaction with your emails with Automation Rules. It is the latest email marketing automation tool I am using for digital marketing campaigns. I appreciate the user friendliness of this when it comes to scheduling emails, creating forms and landing pages and creating the entire email marketing automation.

Even if you see the form of the contact us page of my official website www.soumendranathsome.com then it is built on Convertkit.

Convertkit also has blueprints that you can use to quickly create autoresponder sequences for almost any situation. ConvertKit helps you find your audience, and turn them intro customers.

Look at the features of Convertkit –

• Create a landing to share your new ideas and creative projects with your audience.
• Provide value with free downloads
• Free automatic download through your opt-in form and landing page
• Send your audience customized content giving them exactly what they need
• Easy email templates let you send emails that consistently land in your subscriber’s inbox helps you build trust with your audience and show your expertise
• Create a sales pages (or add a [buy now] button to your website) and automatically deliver your digital products
• Send well-timed content to subscribers automatically

If you are a blogger, creator, vlogger, influencer, or sun a business and have enough subscribers to market, Convertkit can be a great solution.

Check out the pricing of Convertkit here. (Click on the image to get complete details)

Besides the above, there are multiple other email marketing tools that you can use for digital marketing. I will try to mention more in my coming blogs. But if you use any of the above for your business, it will give you an all-round solution.

Thanks reading this blog.

I am an Online Marketing professional and Content Pro. Helping business to grow online with digital marketing.

To let you know, I train people on Online Marketing, Digital Advertising, Content Creation, Digital Marketing Analytics Course, SEO and the entire arena of Digital Marketing.

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