- What's the best Email Marketing Software
right now in 2020?
Well, after testing all the best email services
and even running our entire business
on over five of the leading options.
In this video, we're gonna step through
our top recommendations, covering everything
that you need to look out for when you're deciding
which is the best email marketing platform for you.
Hi, it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video,
where we hope you grow an audience and scale your revenue
with online video.
If you're new here, make sure you click
that subscribe button and all the links
to everything we mentioned in this video,
you can find linked in the description box below.
So let's jump into it.
Now there's a ridiculous amount of options when it comes
to email marketing platforms.
Deciding which one to go with is not a simple decision
and choosing the wrong one can mean
a ton of work migrating between them down the road.
So we've spent a ridiculous amount of time trying
and testing old deleting options,
and we are constantly researching and retesting
so that we can keep up with the latest features
and the changes across the board.
So in this video, I'm gonna be sharing what we've learned
from all of that research and how we got
to our current top recommendations and what you need
to know to choose the right Email Marketing Software
for you right now.
And on top of that I'm also gonna share with you
a link to the recording of a free workshop that we ran,
stepping through how we organically convert over 30%
of our new YouTube subscribers over to our email list,
every month completely automated.
That training is super thorough
and it even includes a walkthrough on how to set up
each of our recommended email platforms as well.
So make sure you stick around for that one.
Okay, so getting to the options, as we've said,
there's a lot of them out there
and some of these platforms you've likely already heard of.
You've got things like MailChimp, Active Campaign, AWeber,
Drip, Infusionsoft, ConvertKit, GetResponse,
Constant Contact, Sendy and there's a lot of others as well.
So we've tried and tested most of these
and we've even run our entire business
in various times on several of them.
We actually started running our business on MailChimp,
then we moved to AWeber and ConvertKit, Drip,
Infusionsoft, and ActiveCampaign.
And from all of that, our top two picks
and our recommendations right now
are ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit.
Now both of these are our two standouts
for different reasons, and they are the best options
that we've found for the vast majority of users.
So we look for the best in class for specific use cases.
So you might be a power user
or even an intermediate user right now
but maybe a power user one day,
someone is looking for something that is scalable longterm,
something that's not gonna hold them back
or something they're going to hit limits in.
And those users are looking for something
that will likely do everything that they ever need to do.
Or the other use case is someone that's just
after the simple stuff, basic emails, simple automations,
and this use case could really fit in
with most of the options that are out there right now.
So no matter which one of those use cases
or categories you might be resonating more with,
our top two picks as I said are
ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit.
Now both of these are intuitive.
They're easy enough to use.
The interface isn't going to be too overwhelming
for an absolute beginner or someone
who is more advanced to jump in
and to start to get familiar with either one of them.
They're both really powerful email marketing solutions
with builtin automations as well which is a huge advantage.
They've also both got great Customer Support.
Now it wasn't that long ago that ConvertKit Support
was a lot better than ActiveCampaign Support.
But ActiveCampaign recently has really stepped up
and they've even introduced things like
a new Support Center here in Australia,
which means they've now got more global coverage
across different time zones.
Now both of these services do run off
a subscriber-centric approach,
which is what you're essentially paying
for each subscriber once or each email address once
and then you can add that subscriber
or that email address to as many lists or tags as you like.
Whereas some of the other services are list-based.
So a subscriber, if it's on multiple lists,
you're actually paying for that one person
or that one email address multiple times
based on how many lists it's on.
Now with ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign,
there is a slight difference in the overall workflow.
ConvertKit is entirely tagged based,
whereas Activecampaign includes both tags and lists,
which does add a nice extra layer of options
for your subscriber management and your automations as well.
So we're gonna dive into ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign
in a little bit more detail to help you decide
which one is the right one for you
and then I'm gonna share my recommendations.
Now, ConvertKit also supports
some powerful, intuitive automations.
It has a simple visual automation builder built in
which is great.
And it really helps you understand
what happens as a user moves
through a specific workflow or an automation
and it supports pretty much all the basic options
that most users will need.
It also has built in basic landing pages.
Now I do mean basic landing pages.
But this might be enough to get you up and running
and it might mean one less platform
or one less subscription that you need.
Now ConvertKit does have less features
and a lot less pro-level automations and control
than active campaign but ConvertKit is also very intentional
with what they do with really a no bloat focus.
Which is probably gonna create
a lot less potential overwhelmed with their users as well
without those advanced features.
No one goes to pricing.
They do have a free plan that you can start out on.
So we just starting to grow your email list
and this could get you in on their platform
and learning how it all works.
But do note that this free plan,
it doesn't actually include their visual automation funnels
or their automated email sequences.
So if you're looking to build out any automations
or any email sequences,
then you're not gonna have access to this on this plan.
So to unlock those features and everything else,
you really wanna jump across to their complete plan,
which starts at $29 per month for up to 1000 subscribers
and the monthly fee scales
as your email subscribers scale as well.
So, overall we've got several clients
and tons of students that are using and loving ConvertKit.
It is easy to pick up.
It offers you some great basic automations
that you can grow into if you're not there straight out
and it doesn't require you to have an IT degree
or a full tech team to help you understand it.
So now on to ActiveCampaign.
This one's also got a really great interface,
but as I've already said,
it's got a lot more advanced options, a lot more control
and a lot more complexity than ConvertKit.
So it's not as easy to use
and it's definitely not as intuitive as ConvertKit.
ActiveCampaign does have a built in CRM as well.
Now it's definitely not a salesforce competitor.
It is really simple,
but it does let you manage your customers
and track their history and interactions
and everything all in the one place.
The email editor in active campaign is a little more clunky.
So it does take more work to get the result that you want
and to understand how it works,
but know that it is really flexible
with what you can achieve in that.
In regards to the automation side of things,
this is really the system seller for ActiveCampaign.
It supports everything that ConvertKit can do
but so much more as well.
So you get far more advanced control
and advanced features to really build out pro level
and advanced level automations.
So you've got things I've been able to trigger
specific actions to add people
to a Facebook Custom Audience
or to create Custom Webhooks.
They even have the ability to integrate with your website
and tracking and all of that sort of stuff too
and being able to track events
or link clicks back to a specific email subscriber.
So super powerful.
So there is a huge level of depth in ActiveCampaign.
Now it is a platform
that is definitely harder to learn than ConvertKit
but it will give you way more options as you grow.
Especially if you're someone
who's looking at some of these automations and things
and just having access to all of these options
and features whether you need them right now or not.
Now ActiveCampaign doesn't have built in landing pages
like ConvertKit does, but it does integrate really well
with most of the big services like Leadpages
or you can easily link it up to your website as well.
So in regards to pricing,
you've actually got a few different plans
that you can choose from starting at $9 per month
for their lite plan which will include up to 500 contacts
or 500 subscribers.
But at that price point it actually does give you access
to their marketing automation features
on that lite plan as well.
If you do wanna access to some
of the more advanced features
like Facebook Custom Audiences,
then that's where you want to move up throughout the plans.
But to compare this side-by-side fairly with ConvertKit,
they're plan, we're starting at 1000 subscribers.
So if we up this now to 1000,
then you're at $17 per month here in ActiveCampaign,
comparing that back to ConvertKit
which we're starting at $29 per month for 1000 subscribers
with those automation features in there.
And obviously just the same as ConvertKit,
the pricing scales as your email list scales as well.
So which one is the best and for who?
Well ConvertKit is our go to recommendation
for anyone that is likely going
to get bogged down in the tech.
Someone that just wants something nice
and unintrusive and easy to use.
So it's our topic for anyone
that's unlikely gonna want any of those complex automations
or anything outside of simple email funnels.
And that just wants something
that will get the job done nice and easy and fast.
Whereas we see ActiveCampaign on the other hand
is for anyone who's really not fitting that description.
It is far more customizable.
There is a huge range of options and features in there
offering you incredible amounts of flexibility.
And when you stack that up against ConvertKit,
all that flexibility definitely adds more complexity.
But if automations is a big thing for you
and it is for us at Primal Video
or you just wanna know that you're really unlikely
going to be hitting any limits as you grow and scale
with this stuff, then you're gonna love ActiveCampaign.
Now comparing the way the ActiveCampaign
actually handles these automations
against the likes of something like Infusionsoft
or Keep, which has typically been the standard
for marketing automation,
Active Campaign just makes things far simpler
to set up and to manage.
And it really is chalk and cheese
and ActiveCampaign stands out by a big margin.
So for us we use and love active campaign
and we run everything in there from simple email funnels
to entire business processes all within ActiveCampaign
Even things like right down to managing subscriptions
for our primal video accelerator membership.
So if you're looking for an Email Marketing System
where you're likely not gonna be bumping up
against any limitations as you move forward
and as you grow with this stuff,
then that's where we recommend ActiveCampaign.
But for those of you who are just after simplicity,
then you'll love ConvertKit.
Now, if it's still not clear for you from this overview
which one is the standout for you,
then I would suggest just grabbing the trial version
of each of them, diving in having a bit of a play around
and just taking a look for yourself.
And again, links are in the description below.
Now, earlier in this video, I said, I'd also share with you
how you could access our Email List Growth Workshop,
including all the tutorials and how to set up
both ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit
to start growing your list on autopilot.
These are the exact tactics that we use
to grow our email list by over 30%
of our new YouTube subscribers, completely organically
and on autopilot each and every month.
So that is linked on screen now
and below in the description as well
and I will see you in the next one, cheers.