5 Top Email Newsletter Services

Earlier this year, Marketing Sherpa conducted a survey and found that an overwhelming 72% of people would prefer companies communicate with them via email. Social media came in at less than 20%.

“An overwhelming 72% of people would prefer companies communicate with them via email…” tweet this

This is great news for nonprofit marketers and community managers as it means that people are essentially asking for us to come right into their inbox.

But how do you easily and effectively send out regular email communications?

We rounded up five top email newsletter services. These five top email newsletter services cover a range of pricing, features, and options so there is sure to be one in this list that is perfect for you and your business needs.

Mad Mimi

Mad Mimi is one of the top email newsletter services because it finds its sweet spot in businesses and organizations that are just starting to dip their toes into the world of email marketing and engagement. It has all of the basics you need and a free version. Email creation is simple and intuitive with drag and drop features and easy to use templates and themes. The ability to clone a previously sent email comes in handy for weekly or monthly newsletter sending.

Mad Mimi scales nicely, to a point. Once you top 50,000 subscribers, however, the cost jumps significantly and you might consider transitioning to a new solution. While transitioning is not as hard as it used to be, this is a factor to consider if you are planning swift or significant growth.

Here’s Mad Mimi at a glance:

Cost:

• Free for unlimited emails to under 100 contacts;
• $42 for most popular plan with unlimited emails to 10,000 contacts per month or less

Features:

• Pre-set themes
• Customizable templates
• Drag and drop email creation
• Clone previous emails
• Sign up modules for your site and social media
• Mobile app
• Basic analytics

Best for:

• Organizations just starting out
• Organizations with smaller lists and conservative growth estimates

Cake

Cake is another great email newsletter service for an organization just starting out. It’s payment options are quite tiered, making it a good option if you plan to grow quickly.

Though flexible and easy to use, Cake is not quite as well known as Mad Mimi or the others on our list, meaning that it hasn’t been quite as well tested in the marketplace. Having a large number of existing users doesn’t always mean success but it often leads to additional technical support and assistance when things go wrong.

Here is Cake at a glance:

Cost:

• Free for unlimited emails to fewer than 500 contacts;
• $110 for top tier plan with unlimited emails to up to 25,000 contacts per month
• Larger plans available by contacting Cake directly

Features:

• Pre-set themes
• Customizable templates
• Sign up modules for your site and social media
• Mobile app
• Basic analytics

Best for:

• Organizations just starting out with large growth expectations

MailChimp

Offering more emails to more subscribers and more customization, MailChimp is often the next step for organizations and businesses as they grow out of a smaller email newsletter services. Like the Mad Mimi and Cake, it offers customizable themes and templates and drag and drop email creation. But it also adds a layer of service beneath all of this for those who are more business minded and targeted about their email campaigns.

The analytics options offered by MailChimp are advanced, providing the tools you need to make your emails more effective, efficient, and targeted. A user profile on each of your subscribers shows you how that individual interacts with your communications, offering you the knowledge you need to reach them more proactively. And insights built into the tool along the process of email creation help you determine the best times and days to send your emails as well as how to segment your audience.

MailChimp is a fantastic tool for the power-user of an email service but might have more than you need if your main focus is sending out monthly newsletters.

Here is MailChimp at a glance:

Cost:

• Free for 12,000 emails to 2,000 subscribers
• Cost of plans based on # of subscribers and # of emails per month

Features:

• Pre-set themes
• Customizable templates
• Sign up modules for your site and social media
• Mobile app
• Basic analytics

Best for:

• Organizations with a well defined, consistent and growing email program

Constant Contact

With no free option and plenty of features and tools, Constant Contact is a great option for an organization whose email newsletter service needs are quite large. Best for large lists, frequent and regular email sends, with a team of people to manage it all, Constant Contact is the most substantial investment of the options here.

Here is Constant Contact at a glance:

Cost:

• Starts at $20/month for unlimited emails to up to 500 contacts

Features:

• Pre-set themes
• Customizable templates
• Sign up modules for your site and social media
• Mobile app
• Basic analytics

Best for:

• Organizations with a well defined, consistent and growing email program
• Organizations with a large team of people managing email

Tiny Letter

Owned by the same people who run MailChimp, Tiny Letter is the most basic and simple option of the top email newsletter services on our list. Free at all numbers of emails and subscribers, it can be a great option for the budget conscious.

That said, Tiny Letter offers no themes or customizable templates. Its email creation page is a basic WYSIWYG box into which you can input text, images, and code. The simple interface and basic level of features make it an appealing alternative to the busier options, so long as your needs are simple as well.

Beautiful emails can be (and have been) made using Tiny Letter. It just takes a bit more of an investment of time and design resources.

Here is Tiny Letter at a glance:

Cost:

• Free

Features:

• Basic editing functions
•  Sign up page

Best for:

• Organizations with basic needs and/or design teams

Do you use another email marketing service? Let us know what you think we should add to our list of top email newsletter services!

This post was originally published on July 9th, 2015.