When you run a successful business, chances are you won’t get a lot of time to interact with your audience. Sure, you can carve out a bit of time each day to pop o social media and say hello to a few, but the reality is you’ll be running around making sure the business is operating effectively.

That’s where having an effective marketing system in place to interact with your audience. You can also utilise email as a great way to keep in touch with your audience and share special offers that you have available throughout the year. You can even use it for some personalised messaging to customers and helps to keep that connection you have with them.

There are quite a few email marketing systems on the market that you can use. I’ve given most of them a go and I have compiled a list of my top three that can be incorporated relatively cheaply for any sized business.

MailChimp

If you have ever considered email marketing before you would have heard of MailChimp. And for those with a good eye, you have probably seen the company listed on the bottom of some of your favourite subscriptions in the past. MailChimp started in 2001 and has gained a reputation as being the most user-friendly and largest email marketing platform.

This platform provides automated email campaigns for businesses the world over, millions of users are on this platform. MailChimp also offers simple and easy integration with almost every website platform on the market, from Shopify to Squarespace to WordPress, which makes it incredibly popular.

MailChimp offers:

• The user-interface that is simple and easy for creating interesting emails
• It offers merge tags and has the option to segment contacts into groups
• You can set an autoresponder for special events
• It has easy tracking and analytics for various campaigns
• It can set up delivery time in accordance with the user’s time-zone
• 24/7 email support and live chat
• Easy to follow tutorials, how-to’s, and videos for the platform

If all the above features weren’t enough, MailChimp has a forever free plan that allows you to send 12,000 emails to 2,000 subscribers which will cost you absolutely nothing. If you need something more than this the pricing from there is still cheap, starting at $10 per month.

Get Response

This all in one marketing platform is a fantastic way to grow your business. Using the Get Response platform you can easily create and deliver compelling and open worthy email campaigns that are able to be viewed on any device. Get Response has hundreds of thousands of customers, including the likes of Forbes and the Huffington Post. Even though this platform does not offer a free plan, it does make up for it by having some of the best features available in email marketing.

• The added benefits you can enjoy with Get Response are:
• You can run automated campaigns. Get Response is equipped with wonderful automation tools
• It has a drag-and-drop email editor to create professional marketing campaigns
• It perfectly integrates with third-party services like Google Docs, OptinMonster, and ZenDesk, etc.
• A/B testing is another great feature Get Response offers
• Other highlights include responsive forms, autoresponders, perfect timing, and reliable tracking
• Support is provided via email, phone, and live chat

With over 50 powerful features, Get Response is a great option to grow your sales, succeed in online marketing, and maximize your ROI. You can start with a 30-day free trial and enjoy the amazing service before deciding to commit any further.

AWeber

Another fantastic provider of email marketing is AWeber. Again, this software is easy to use and allows automation of your campaigns. All you really have to do is decide what you want to say and when you want to say it. Getting started on this platform is simple, there are tonnes of templates that you can tailor to your specific requirements.

The added advantage that AWeber offers is its autoresponder tools. You can easily set up welcome emails that generate from your bookings, streamlining your guest’s experience of your business without any delays. You can also create email nurture sequences that turn your on-off guests into true brand advocates through specially created and targeted email campaigns.

The additional features offered by AWeber are:

• It allows you to set up autoresponder emails and to automate your email marketing
• Enables one-time broadcast emails, such as newsletters and promos
• it saves time with 700+ mobile responsive email and sign-up form templates
• 24/7 customer support via phone, email, and live chat
• Creates emails that are optimized to make their way straight to the inbox
• Educational content is available on Aweber’s blog
• It has extremely reliable reporting and analytics

AWeber also comes with a free 30-day trial and you can then decide from there if the system is to your liking. The plans available are varied from there, and they start from around $19/month and go up from there.

Whichever email marketing platform you decide to use you can be assured that (if used correctly) any investment you make will be returned to your business. When you weigh up the possibilities that come from a well-planned and implemented strategy, the only real problem you will have is how many campaigns you want to run.