In order to conduct email marketing, you need an email marketing platform used to collect and nurture legitimate leads (following GDPR and CANSPAM regulations). You then conduct email campaigns to the leads on your list.
Depending on your budget and needs, there are a number of platforms that vary in sophistication and features from the most basic to “all in one” solutions that include lead generation, marketing automation, nurturing and sales all together in one platform.
At the minimum, you’ll want to ensure your platform of choice allows:
- double opt-in or confirmed optins – Have you ever opted into to a list and then gotten an email, “please confirm your email”? That’s exactly what confirmed opt-in is.
This best practice is recommended as part of email list hygiene to ensure that the lead absolutely intended on signing up for your list. You’ll find that your list open rate is higher,and your complaints are lower if you employ confirmed opt-ins.
- list segmentation – Each platform will have a slightly different mechanism for segmentation. You’ll see this listed as sub-lists, tags, etc.
Segmentation allows you to send relevant information to your email list based on each contact’s interests or other information collected by your system (which form they used to sign up, what did they download), location, purchase history, etc. - form builder, email builders and optionally, landing page builder – Most modern platforms allow for drag and drop asset creation and mobile friendly formats. Some are better than others, and you may need to plan on hiring someone with technical ability for custom forms and emails to match your branding, depending on your platform of choice.
- integrations and accessibility – For the most flexibility, you’ll want to choose a platform that integrates with other similar or complementary systems and platforms to extend functionality or add features that other systems handle better for your business.
ie: Zapier, WooCommerce, Analytics
Here are my favorite marketing automation systems below.
Crystal Recommends: Active Campaign, Infusionsoft by Keap*, ConvertKit*
Infusionsoft is a small business software that up until recently, was also the company name. Now, the company name is Keap and it has two product lines: Infusionsoft by Keap and Keap (Pro and Grow). The differentiator between the different products is related to the complexity of your business needs.Features of note: Powerful segmentation via tags and automations in Campaign Builder. Email Marketing, CRM and eCommerce all in one solution for powerful marketing automation. Advanced marketing and sales automation for every step through the customer lifecycle.
Infusionsoft integrates with Membership Management software like Memberium and Accessally for powerful program and member management.
Active Campaign was designed to be easy to learn, set up and use without a huge learning curve. It’s a fantastic solution for non-techie folks who want to automate their online marketing.
Features of note: Segmentation is simple, easy to use and incredibly in-depth. You can see all of the automations in your business in a single view. Site-tracking allows for follow-up and triggered messages to leads based on actions they take on your website.
I also love that they have real-time support.
Active Campaign also integrates with my favorite Membership Management System: Memberium.
The only thing missing is eCommerce. Instead, you’ll want to integrate WooCommerce (or Shopify) with Active Campaign in order to create order forms, sell products, and sync with your CRM inside Active Campaign.
ConvertKit is an amazing option for those on a budget or don’t have a large online presence already. It’s also super simple and intuitive to use.
Features of note: Customizable landing pages and web forms. This is great if you don’t already have a service like Leadpages, or don’t have a website. This feature alone (landing pages) is what makes ConvertKit a standout in my books.
Also, don’t overlook this feature: Tag-based segmentation to organize and understand your subscribers for powerful email marketing automation.
For those on paid plans, visual automations for marketing campaigns similar to what you’d see in Active Campaign are available, making this a solid marketing automation platform.
Their pricing structure is hard to beat (for smaller lists) as well, with a robust free plan, making it a great option if all you’re looking for is email marketing and not an all-in-one solution.
If your list is already over 5000, I recommend looking at Active Campaign or other alternatives instead.
For tools that provide email marketing automation at a lower budget and less complexity, take a look at these listed below.
- Mailerlite – this is what I am using in my business today (more ont his soon!)
- MailChimp
- SendinBlue
- Zoho Marketing
2 replies on “How to Choose An Email Marketing & CRM Platform”
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