Marketing can be done in many forms and email marketing is often neglected. We’ll be looking at free email marketing tools that you can use to save money and time.
With the help of these tools, you can run your email marketing strategy without it costing you a fortune. These tools will help you send thousands of emails a month at the lowest possible cost – free.
After reading this, you just need to work on your marketing content.
What is Email Marketing?
This form of marketing allows marketers to send out commercial messages to their target audience and prospective clients.
Every email is aimed at luring in customers and showing them why they should be interested in the company or brand.
Any email sent to current and potential customers is seen as email marketing. In these emails, companies solicit donations or sales, ask for business or simply send out advertisements and make announcements.
Now, let’s look at the free email marketing tools that will make your life and job easier.
The following list is in no particular order and aims to show you the way to email marketing that won’t break the bank. We have no favourites.
List of Free Email Marketing Tools
Sender
As one of the favourite options out there, Sender is considered by many to be the best in free email marketing tools in 2020. It boasts many features that are required to make your email marketing strategy run smoothly.
With Sender, you can create awesome newsletters without the need to have HTML knowledge. There are many templates to choose from that can be customised to suit your brand. You can add videos, images and text.
It’s even possible to customise the newsletters for every recipient for an added special touch.
The analytics feature is another reason to admire and love this free email marketing tool. It will let you track who opened your emails and clicked on the embedded links. You can also see when they opened it.
Thanks to this data, you will be able to create a better audience profile based on the actions of your subscribers. As a result, you can adjust your marketing strategy to make the most of your new knowledge.
You also have push notifications that go along with Sender’s integrations and segmentation.
The free plan will allow you to have 2,500 subscribers and month and 60, 000 emails.
On top of that, Sender has plugins for popular content management systems so you can really do a lot with this email marketing tool.
SendPulse
Although SendPulse is a multi-channel marketing platform, most users love its email marketing feature the most. It comes with professional templates that can be customised with ease.
The drag-and-drop editor makes using SendPulse simple and convenient. The customised emails can be set up to send out automatically at the right time. (You can determine what the right time is for your audience by keeping an eye on their behaviour)
SendPulse gives you a subscriber rating feature that will let you find your most valuable subscribers. You can analyse the click and open rates as well as the read (and unread) rate of your subscribers.
You can set replaceable text fields to personalise the emails by name, date of birth, gender, job role and age as well.
There are more than 130 templates that you can choose from to create your emails. The free plan allows you to send unlimited emails to 2,500 subscribers a month.
The ‘Resend’ feature lets you resend any emails that have not been opened with different subject lines. This will save you as a marketer a lot of time.
Mailjet
Marketing automation is made much simpler with Mailjet, which offers reliable email marketing service despite being free.
You get access to collaborative and intuitive tools when using Mailjet. As such, you will be able to create effective and creative email marketing campaigns that work.
With many templates that can be customised, it is easy to create emails that are responsive and impressive. When you use Mailjet with a team, you will come to love their collaboration feature.
Mailjet also lets users customise their emails for every recipient to make it stand out and make an impact.
You get access to unlimited contacts, webhooks, APIs, statistics and an advanced email editor with the free plan. That alone is more than enough to build awesome email marketing strategies.
The automation and A/B Testing features are all you’ll miss when you use the free plan.
With an interface that is easy to use, you can dedicate more time to creating email marketing strategies and less on putting them into action.
Benchmark Email
With Benchmark Email, you can create responsive emails that will look good regardless of the devices that your subscribers use to view them.
This free email marketing tool allows you to add images to the emails and be a bit more creative. The email editor will also let you add text, effects and stickers to your emails.
You can choose from a huge variety of good-looking pre-designed templates that are based on occasion, industry and type.
For the marketers who have good knowledge of HTML can use the code email editor to build their own emails from scratch. With a very useful dual-view feature, you can see your email as you’re designing and editing it.
The free plan lets you send 250 emails a month as well as gives you access to lead generation and marketing automation.
Benchmark Email is a great email marketing service that is good enough without the need for paid plans.
One drawback, however, is that you don’t get access to A/B Testing with the free plan. With that said, Benchmark Email is still considered one of the best free email marketing tools available in 2020.
Sendinblue
As another favourite free marketing email tool, Sendinblue offers users additional features on top of its email marketing tools. With the ability to create landing pages and manage customer relationships, it’s not difficult to understand why people love this email marketing service.
You get access to more than 70 design templates that can be used to build an email that fits in with your marketing plans. These designs are responsive and you can preview your creation to make sure it’s what you want.
The paid plans do offer more features such as A/B Testing but you can still create a good email marketing campaign with the free option.
You get to send 300 emails a day to an unlimited amount of contacts with Sendinblue. Add to that real-time reporting and integration with Salesforce, Intercom and Shopify, and you’ll appreciate all that this email marketing tool can do for you.
There is also a really nice WordPress plugin to let you manage everything from your dashboard on WordPress.
MailerLite
With this free email marketing tool, you get access to a pop-up customiser and landing page builder on top of the email creation features.
MailerLite also has a built-in photo editor as well as a rich text editor to give you a great shot at making emails that are unique and stunning.
You get an in-depth report on your campaign that will give insight into important statistics like open rate, unsubscribe rate and click rate.
Businesses starting out and looking for a high-quality and reliable free email marketing service will benefit from MailerLite. You can send 12, 000 emails to up to 1, 000 subscribers a month with this tool.
Access to video tutorials, surveys and the drag-and-drop editor comes with the free plan. It is still one of the best free email marketing tools despite the paid plans offering more features.
All the features are available from one dashboard and make creating your email campaigns fairly easy.
Omnisend
This is a rather sophisticated marketing tool that can integrate all your communication platforms. Omnisend’s free plan only offers only email marketing but that is more than enough for email marketers.
You can automate your email delivery thanks to the features it offers. You can time your campaign based on what you think will be convenient for your audience.
On top of being a great email marketing service, Omnisend is useful for online stores as well. The unique Product Picker can take products from your store and include them to create fun and interesting emails.
You can also add discount coupon codes, gift boxes and scratch cards in your emails, making Omnisend one of the best free email marketing tools.
The free plan allows you to send 15, 000 emails a month and you can send 2, 000 emails a day. The number of subscribers doesn’t matter.
Stripo
The drag-and-drop email edit feature makes Stripo easy to use and it offers email templates that you can custom to suit your needs.
You don’t need any design experience with this great free email marketing tool and it will create professional-looking emails with just a few clicks.
With access to more than 300 templates, it really is easy to create an email campaign that will blow your audience away. There are add-on features so you can embed whatever you need to.
Stripo has two types of editors – one is designed for marketers or people with no design experience. The other is for those who are HTML-savvy and lets them create their emails with the code editor.
Moosend
Another favourite free email marketing tool with many happy users, Moosend is a good option that automates repetitive tasks for you. You can create behavioural email campaigns that are based on the activities and information.
A detailed campaign performance report will help you know how your email campaigns are performing and how you can better them. It is also possible to integrate Moosend with other apps to share important information.
As a nice bonus, Moosend is one of the few free email marketing tools that do not include its logo in your emails.
You won’t be able to create landing pages with the free plan as you would with a paid one but it’s still enough to help you create a great email marketing campaign. You still get access to templates and an automation workflow designer.
Moosend’s free plan also lets you track email opens and clicks as well as unsubscribes and complaints. There is also a very useful real-time analytics feature that keeps you informed.
You can only send emails to 1, 000 subscribers with the free plan though.
Mailchimp
Considered one of the best free email marketing tools, Mailchimp is well-known and chances are you’ve already heard of it. The free plan gives you access to many basic email marketing features. These features include scheduling and email creation.
Mailchimp offers you smart recommendations with insights into your audience that will help make the most of your marketing campaigns.
With its easy-to-use Content Manager, you can easily store files and images and access them. You can send out order confirmations, welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders and much more with Mailchimp.
It lets you send out 10, 000 emails a month to 2, 000 subscribers. On top of that, Mailchimp gives you access to A/B testing, contact profiles, list segmentation and more.
Mailchimp also integrates with Magento and WooCommerce as well as WordPress.
The drag-and-drop editor is also a much-loved feature of this email marketing service.
Zoho Campaigns
Small and big businesses alike will benefit from using Zoho Campaigns’ free email marketing tool offering.
You get access to many templates to get you started, reports to keep you updated and A/B Testing to make sure you’re doing the most for your campaign.
With this marketing tool, you can send 500 emails to up to 250 subscribers. Compared to some of the other options on our list, this is not a lot. But if you’re getting started and want to learn the ropes first, you’ll enjoy Zoho Campaigns.
The ‘Forever Free Plan’ lets you send 12,000 emails per month to up to 2,000 contacts.
Zoho Campaigns give you many features but most of them are rather limited. You will have to do some serious customisation before you can start sending out your emails as well.
EmailOctopus
Although it is a simple email marketing tool that operates on Amazon’s SES infrastructure, EmailOctopus is a great option.
The free plan’s options are a bit limited compared to the other tools on our list but can still serve you well.
For one, it offers an impressive amount of emails that can be sent per month – 10, 000 sent to up to 2,500 subscribers.
Your statistics will be stored for a month so you can keep track of your email campaigns.
Integration with third-party apps such as WordPress and Zapier is also a nice bonus.
ExpressPigeon
This free email marketing tool is ideal for marketers with a small list of subscribers who are very important. ExpressPigeon lets you easily personalise your emails and automate email responses.
Although ExpressPigeon has limits when it comes to subscribers, it has a really good reputation and is known for customer satisfaction.
You will have to contact the company to get details about how much you’ll pay if you want to move beyond the free plan. There is also the option to get custom pricing according to your specific needs.
Price: Free plan, then contact for custom pricing.
ExpressPigeon provides a good solution for businesses using small list sizes but sending to very high-priority subscribers. With ExpressPigeon, you can effortlessly build and personalize emails, automate email responses, and send high volume emails.
Kickbox Email Validation
With Kickbox, you will get a unique experience. It comes with integrateable email verification software. As a result, you will be able to make sure your emails reach your target audience.
This tool will go through your subscriber list and make sure all of them are still active. You will save money with this neat feature.
If you wish to go beyond the free plan, you will pay an amount determined by your subscribers. For example, if you have 500 subscribers, you will pay $5 a month.
What Are The Benefits of Email Marketing?
Now that you know what tools to use when you want to build an email marketing campaign, let’s take a quick look at why you need a campaign in the first place.
Many marketers think that email marketing is a thing of the past, a strategy that is no longer viable or effective. But they’d be wrong. More than 70% of millennials prefer communications from businesses to reach them via email.
According to Hubspot.com, 99% of consumers check their email every day and it is their preferred way to receive updates from brands.
So, here are the benefits that you can expect to reap from an email marketing campaign.
Feedback and Surveys
Staying informed about the experiences of your customers is vital and valuable. When you know what your customers want from your brand or company, it’s much easier to keep them satisfied. Satisfied customers will become loyal supporters and interact much more.
By sending out customer satisfaction surveys, valuable feedback can be gathered and marketing strategies can be adjusted accordingly.
Personalised Content
With email marketing, it is much easier to create campaigns that are custom-made for your audience. It can be something as simple as adding the receiver’s name to their email. This kind of personification leads to an improved clickthrough rate.
It is also possible to create content that is based on segmented audiences, with the right kind of emails reaching the right customers. Sending one email to new customers and another one to returning customers is an example of segmented audiences addressing.
Brands can add different images and subject lines to create a more personalised email and increase engagement.
Improved Sales
Not many think email marketing will work to improve sales but many campaigns are highly successful in pushing up sales numbers.
By simply adding products or services to emails or sending reminders to customers to buy after they’ve ‘abandoned’ their cart or giving them special offers, more people are convinced to make a purchase.
It is easier to send a message that encourages sales to someone who has opted in for your weekly emails.
Better Communication With Audience
Marketers know that communicating with clients and customers is an important part of good marketing. Good communication leads to better brand loyalty and brand awareness as well as customer satisfaction.
Email marketing gives companies the opportunity to communicate with your audience and make them feel like they can always reach out and talk to you.
Most people love getting emails from the brands they trust and love. You can add your brand to that list with a good email marketing campaign.
Reaching The Right People at The Right Time
A successful marketing campaign is able to reach all the right people at the right time. You want to reach them when they’re going to want to react positively.
In today’s modern world, people are checking their emails as constantly as they can, which means your email will reach them quickly.
Email marketing also helps because people can come back to an email later, so the success of a marketing campaign is improved.
Generate Traffic
When an email marketing campaign produces good content, it can help drive traffic to the brand’s official website. This, in turn, can drive up sales even more.
It is also a great way to keep your audience engaged with your brand. Many people end up on an official site through email campaigns.
Just remember to add a nice and enticing call to action in your email. For more on how to come up with good CTAs, check out our Call To Action guide.
Increased Leads
This is related to improving sales numbers. With good email marketing, you can nurture and increase your leads quite a lot. Increased leads will lead to improved conversions.
With email marketing campaigns, it is also easier to determine if time is being spent on bad leads. The data analytics of email campaigns is useful in learning about the success of your marketing strategies.
More Value For Your Audience
Email marketing helps brands to give their audience valuable content and attention even when they’re not making purchases.
More value for a customer means they’ll keep coming back. After a person has signed up for your emails, you can show them why they want to buy your product or service as well as share related news and information with them.
Timely Marketing Campaigns
Social media marketing and traditional marketing campaigns are great but can sometimes take months to plan, organise and set into motion.
Email marketing is much easier and faster to get started with and doesn’t take as long to plan. As a result, your campaigns will be more timely and reach your audience when it should. As mentioned above, you want to reach your audience at an optimal time to get the best results.
Cost-effective
Email marketing is much more affordable than other marketing strategies. As determined in this guide, you can get started for free! There is no need to pay for graphics (unless you want to) or advertisements. Your emails are your advertisements.
Great For Self-promotion
It isn’t always easy to promote a brand or service where it’s unclear if the right audience is present. But with email marketing, you know you’re reaching your audience.
As such, you can do self-promotion to your heart’s content and know that the people who see it are actually interested.
Sending emails about products, features, new content or benefits are reaching your audience and keeping them in the loop of what’s happening with your brand.
Final Thoughts on Free Email Marketing Tools
Creating an awesome email marketing campaign doesn’t have to cost a fortune. In fact, it can be absolutely free. By using the resources listed here, you can build a fantastic email marketing campaign that will complement your social media marketing plan.
If you add to that the services of SocialPlanner.io, you’ll have an even more impressive strategy to work with. With this social media scheduling tool, you can plan your content, schedule when it should be shared and even find fresh ideas for new content.
Plus, it has a drag-and-drop interface that makes your work so much easier!