The new year is approaching and with that comes new year resolutions. Perhaps your resolution is to try to take your business to the next level. In the past you may not have had the time and you may think that it is going to be expensive. One of the easiest ways to take your business to the next level and to make it more efficient is to make your email organization more efficient. There are some tools that can make this easier for you and they come cheaper than you might think.
Email as we know it may be dying. It is not used for communications the way it was 10 years ago but it still can be an important way to reach people. Considering most people have an email address and most people have multiple email addresses the chances of having your message seen is still pretty good.
MailChimp
Newsletters are a great way to keep your customers in the loop as to what is going on with your business and to promote new efforts. MailChimp is an all-in-one marketing platform that is flexible enough for a small startup or a Fortune 500 company. All of your marketing needs are in one place with built in security and apps for extra features. Four different plans are available for use including a basic free version, perfect for startups or to give it a try.
FreshMail
Of course MailChimp is not the only game in town when it comes to email marketing. FreshMail allows you to design stunning emails to share. An autoresponder can be set up to reply when email responses are received and analytic information is available so you can see how effective your campaign was. A free 14 day trial is available and no credit card is required to sign up. After that a pay-as-you-go option or an unlimited option is available.
SendGrid
SendGrid is a leader in email delivery using cloud services. It allows for email integration into a website or into an app. It also allows for email marketing campaigns. Free versions for both are available and paid versions with more features and options are also available.
Bee
Want the easiest and quickest way to design email? Bee might be for you. Premade templates are provided to help you quickly design eye-catching emails or you can design your own through a drag-and-drop editor. A free version is available as are paid versions with more tools.
NeverBounce
When you send an email you don’t want it to bounce. It’s like you are wasting your time when that happens and you are since you have to take time to remove the bounceback email and remove the email address from the list. NeverBounce is a tool that can be used to check email lists to see how many email addresses would bounce. While the tool is not free it is not expensive to use and they guarantee that 99.9% of emails sent in a list will arrive.
MailTester
If you just want to check if an email address is valid then MailTester works for you. Just enter the address on the website and it will tell you if the email address is valid. It checks for syntax, performs a DNS lookup and SMTP verification. The service is free when checking on the website. So, when you get someone’s email address you can check to see if it’s valid or if they just gave you a phony address.
Streak
Email can still be a major part of any business and some people spend hours getting through their inbox every single day. Streak helps to streamline this to provide a custom pipeline of emails, a timeline of those emails with notes and basic information about the person you are communicating with. It works with Gmail and is easy to use as long as you know how to use Google Sheets. A free version is available with basic tools with paid versions available with more powerful tools.
HubSpot
Inbound sales, marketing and service can take a lot of time to work through each day and you have to. Being responsive to these messages is vital. HubSpot offer a full stack of software for marketing, sales and customer service with its CRM. It can help you to grow traffic, increase conversions, increase sales and connect with customers. Its basic version is free to use with paid versions with more features available.
ShareLink Generator
When you send out something in an email campaign you want your recipients to notice it and read it. If they really like it you want them to share it. It is one of the tried and true ways to get new customers. Today a physical newsletter has been replaced by a virtual one so when your recipients see something that they want to share they will want to share it on social media. ShareLink Generator adds an option to your email campaigns that will allow users to do just that. It works with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn or it can simply be emailed to someone else and it’s free.