We're often asked which is the best emailing tool to use.
Our answer? Well, that depends.
Yes, we know, it's not the most satisfactory answer, but it's the reality. I'm going to tell you exactly how I choose an emailing tool, and how you can choose the one that's right for you from among those we recommend.
🙌 Incidentally, we are not affiliated with these tools, so they are recommended in good faith.
Criteria for choosing an emailing tool
CRM and CMS: a question of integration and compatibility with your emailing tool
CRMs and CMSs are big systems that can be great time-savers and efficiency boosters for your business, but they can also be a pain when the whole ecosystem is badly oiled.
It's important to choose an emailing tool that's well adapted to and integrated with your CRM and CMS.
I'll come back to this in the next section to recommend what to take with which CRM and CMS.
Email automation: Complexity or simplicity?
Automation is the sinews of war. Some tools offer almost infinite possibilities, while others focus on simplicity. Your choice will depend on your appetite for the complexity and finesse of your automations, but don't neglect your team's ability to juggle these features.
Make a plan (by hand, on Whimsical, Notion, whatever you like) of the automations you want, step by step, their triggers, their actions... If your automations have less than ten steps each time, if they mainly use basic triggers (newsletter or group subscription, etc.) and if there are only a few conditionings, you don't need a powerful automation tool, and it will be more a factor of slowness than efficiency for you.
Email design: Simple and effective or sophisticated
Your newsletter must reflect your branding. So far, I'm not teaching you anything.
Most of my customers think that it's better to have a tool that allows the maximum possible design, to make sure they can do what they want, because "who can do more can do less". Until you end up with a sledgehammer to hammer in a nail.
An email is not a website.
Firstly, because the HTML/CSS code of emails is far behind that of websites. As a result, you can't do in email what you can do on a website, whatever the emailing tool.
Then, what is the look & feel you want to give? Is it more of a content-oriented newsletter (like our newsletter), or branding-oriented emails? In fact, exactly the same as for ads, it doesn't have to be complicated to get good results. Be user-centric: what does your audience want?
You can do the same exercise as before in automations and try to draw (no one is looking at you) an email. If you don't have a complex layout with tons of columns, grids etc., and you don't need to condition the display of certain sections, go for a simple tool.
Getting to grips with emailing tools: How good are you at this?
How many newsletters have you (or your team) produced in recent years?
If the answer is little or no experience, go for a tool that's easy to learn. You'll be able to change it later.
Our case-by-case emailing tool recommendations
- 📊 HubSpot and Salesforce suite users 99%'s emailing features are more than sufficient for the needs of 99% boxes.
- 😳 Beginner your CRM (if HubSpot or Salesforce) or Mailchimp (if e-commerce) or Mailerlite (otherwise)
- 🛍️ E-commerce (WooCommerce, Shopify etc.) and/or advanced automations Mailchimp (easier to learn and well integrated with WooCommerce), Klaviyo (best integrated with e-commerce CMS) or Active Campaign (more complete in general). All 3 can be integrated with Zapier.
- 🖌️ Advanced design The previous three (ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp and Klaviyo) have good drag & drop design features that should allow you to make any design you want (within the limits of what email in general allows, of course). Depending on your other needs, you'll have to decide which of the 3 suits you best.
- ☀️ Simple and efficient Mailerlite (used for Mangrovea).
As I said earlier, the most important thing to remember when choosing a tool is to choose the one that best suits your (real) needs. This doesn't necessarily mean the most powerful, the most complete or the most expensive tool.
That's precisely what we like about Mailerlite for our newsletter: it lets us quickly create content-oriented emails without having to set up a gas factory.
In conclusion: Beyond the features of emailing tools, think about how they match your needs
The most important thing when choosing an emailing tool is not its power, but its relevance to your real needs. Don't be blinded by glitzy features; focus on what will really add value to your emailing strategy.
If you don't, you'll end up paying an arm and a leg for a tool you only use to 10% of its potential (and therefore its price), you'll tear your hair out trying to understand the subtleties of the settings on an overly complex tool, and you'll regret your choice.
👉 Small tips: Most emailing tools offer free trials (or refundable) and/or monthly packages. Start there to try it out before taking the 1-year version (even if it's black Friday and there are offers, it'll cost you more to have to change everything and lose your purchase).
Are you a little lost and/or would you like us to call you to talk about your newsletters?
It's over here!
