Best Free Email Marketing Services

Yes, you have probably heard of email marketing, I bet. Or, you’ve used email marketing at some point to boost your brand’s presence in the world of virtual markets. Whatever the case, the fact remains that email marketing is one of the most popular ways of marketing your business, especially in this internet era (this is 2020). With more than 3.7 billion people now using email, email marketing has hit an all-time high. Whether you’re in the B2B or any other space, email marketing surely works.

With so many email marketing services flooding the market, some of which are entirely free of charge, it begs the question, “Are you using the right tool for your business?”. One thing to remember is that free email marketing tools come with different features. As an email marketer, your concern is perhaps on deliverability, the number of emails you’re able to send in a day/month, how easy is it to use the tool, the possibility of upgrading your account, and the features you can access. Plus, you want a service with good customer support, which is on standby to solve your issues and answer your questions effectively and efficiently. Thankfully, this guide has got you covered. The guide contains top 14 email marketing tools, which have been handpicked carefully based on some must-have features.

Pros and Cons of Free Email Marketing Tools

You love free things, right? Yes, everyone falls in love with freebies. While free services can do wonders for your business, it is worth noting that free email marketing tools come with their own fair share of advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

They are completely free of charge: This is the most obvious advantage of using free email marketing software. If you’re working with a tight budget, every coin is worth saving and you will want to avoid any unnecessary expenses as much as you can. That’s where these free tools come in.

There is no upfront investment: You don’t need to show any commitment to use a free email marketing tool. All you need to do is to submit the required information, such as email, username, etc. Once you’ve opted in, you can test the waters to see if the tool suits your business needs without investing upfront.

Enjoy essential features: Any effective free email marketing tool should provide all the essential features needed to kick-start an email marketing campaign. The features are generally scalable, which means you could easily upgrade from a free plan to a paid one in order to meet the demands of your business, once it grows.

Disadvantages

Limitations: While it is possible to use free email marketing tools as long as you wish, the crux of the matter is that free tools limit your usage in one way or the other. For instance, it is no surprise for a free tool to support only a limited number of emails per day/month. But as long as you’re not bothered with such limitations, nothing should stop you from enjoying free services.

Advanced features are missing: While the features of free email marketing tools vary from one tool to another, most of them (the tools) lack advanced features. Even if the features are available, they will always be reserved for users on premium plans. For instance, free plans may lack advanced features such as social media monitoring, spam filter diagnostics, autoresponders, or A/B testing. Thankfully, as said earlier, most free tools will allow you to upgrade to a paid plan in order access their advanced features.

Below par customer support: With most free tools also providing paid services, it is only logical that the providers prioritize attending to their paid users rather than free users. So, you shouldn’t be surprised to find that some free email marketing tools come with either poor customer support or none at all. This is something you ought to know before you opt into any free tool.

What to Look for in a Free Email Marketing Tool

When choosing the best free email marketing tool for your business, there are certain features (you may call them must-haves, if you like) to look for. Let’s take a look at them, one by one.

Autoresponders: Time is money; this is a famous saying. Autoresponders make it possible to save time and optimize your email campaigns by automating your emails to deliver information, welcome new subscribers, among other things. Setting up autoresponders is easy and quick.

CRM integration: With this feature, you could easily automate your email campaigns. However, you will need to integrate your tool with CRM software if you what to utilize it (the tool) to its full potential. Doing so enables you to best align your marketing campaigns and sales activities in order to create more effective email marketing. And guess what, this would lead to a stronger and better return on investment.

Multipurpose editor: A good free email marketing tool comes with multiple templates which can be used to customize emails before they are sent out. The editor enables you to change the design or even look at your emails for better portrayal of your brand. Additionally, a multipurpose editor makes it possible to change or modify pre-formatted content blocks, ensuring that they suit your email campaign requirements. In simpler terms, the importance of a multipurpose editor is to have responsive email campaigns. And you don’t need to a designing or coding whizz to create such responsive email campaigns.

A/B testing: To A/B test simply means to compare two different webpage versions to determine which of the two works better. A/B testing helps to know your email campaign’s subject line which gets better open rates and responses. To best optimize your subsequent campaigns, you could experiment with different lengths, words, etc.

Analytics and reports: An effective free email marketing tool ought to generate detailed reports of email campaigns to make it possible for the user to track click-through and open rates, as well as focus on metrics for the purpose of determining if their email campaigns have had positive or negative results.

Automated follow-up emails: A good free email marketing service should allow the user to send out automated follow-up emails, just to ensure that subscribers who missed the first mailer are covered. Given that people receive a lot of emails nowadays, keeping a track could be difficult. As such, you could simply come up with a new subject line and have the earlier email resent at a certain designated time.

14 Best Free Email Marketing Tools

If you’re making a list of 14 best email marketing tools, here are the names to include on your list.

SendinBlue

Featuring a drag-and-drop email builder, SendinBlue makes it possible to create super attractive emails, irrespective of whether the user has coding know-how or not. For autoresponder and transactional emails, there are several options to choose from. That means you could choose any template and customize it however you want. As well as email scheduling, the tool also comes with tracking, campaign creation, and contact management features. As a bonus, the solution also contains API functionalities, which make it possible to integrate the tool with your existing system or other apps. This means SendinBlue can be configured to suit the needs of your email marketing.With SendinBlue, you get the power to build and grow your business relationships through such things as marketing automation, transactional messaging, and marketing campaigns. All these are accomplished through the tool’s robust suite of SMS messaging and email services, embedded in an all-in one software solution. To be more specific, SendinBlue users enjoy, among other benefits, the following:

Marketing automation: SendinBlue comes with a total of eight out-of-the-box templates for automation workflows, which can be used to expedite workflows and improve user experience. Use the webhook feature to integrate the tool with other services.

Ability to build and target audience: With SendinBlue, you could collect the contact information and email addresses of your prospective subscribers and customers so easily.

Ability to create professional and clean newsletters: You don’t need to be in possession of technical skills to create some decent newsletters with SendinBlue. Using its drag-and-drop editor, you can create a sleek newsletter from scratch in only a few clicks.

Ability to optimize your send time: The software uses an algorithmic feature to determine the most appropriate time for sending your emails. This enhances click-through and email open rates.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

The free plan users can send up to 9,000 emails a month – that is – 300 emails a day. The plan covers SMS and email personalization, email template library, and mobile-friendly email designer.

VISIT SENDINBLUE.COM

…or read our full Sendinblue review

Wix ShoutOut

Wix ShoutOut is a newsletter and marketing email editor and builder known for its intuitiveness. The software is optimized for iOS and Android devices, and lets you create and send promotions and updates to your contacts.Customizable emails: With Wix ShoutOut, you can create marketing newsletters and emails from scratch, and infuse them with your brand. Just in case you’re in need of inspiration, the software comes with a number of customizable templates, which you can tweak and tailor to the needs of your business. The templates will save you time, while at the same time, allowing you to as artistic as possible with your email and newsletter creation.

Contacts management: Wix ShoutOut integrates smoothly with contact management solutions, allowing the user to import data (e.g. email addresses) into the tool. This way, creating your subscriber lists becomes a walk in the park. The tool also supports email segmentation, which makes it possible for businesses to send targeted campaigns.

Subscriber Base Creation: For your business to be known to more people, you may need to persuade your site visitors to sign up for regular newsletters and updates. With Wix ShoutOut, every email you send out is accompanied with a sign-up form to encourage recipients to sign up for updates. You can customize the form to ask for relevant information from your subscribers.

Email statistics: Wix ShoutOut features a statistics tracker, which shows you the number of clicks and view on every email you send. This helps get a clue of what people like to read and tailor subsequent campaigns to just that.

Social media tools: The emails you send out ought to stay in the recipient’s inbox. Wix ShoutOut allows you to share your creation on Pinteresr, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. This ensures that even those who have not signed up to your newsletters are kept up-to-date with any latest announcements, promotions, and products.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

On Wix ShoutOut’s free plan, you enjoy almost every feature and functionality there is for the tool to offer. The plan is inclusive of three ShoutOuts, which allows you to send up to 5,000 emails. The tool resets this automatically at the start of every month.

HubSpot Marketing

One thing which makes HubSpot Marketing stand out and be counted as one of the best free email marketing tools is its compactness. The tool packs, to speak so, every armory needed for marketing or sales agent to succeed, allowing them to place their services and products where they will best attract the attention of potential customers. This all-in-one marketing tool makes it possible to create and disseminate email campaigns both efficiently and effectively. But how does HubSpot Marketing boost your email marketing efforts?Optimized content: HubSpot Marketing’s landing page builder makes it an invaluable investment for startups and small business. The builder is based on a drag-and-drop system, which is easy to use and does not require any technical know-how to create a beautiful site. The system comes with SEO optimization and keyword tools, which ensure distribution of the best content to subscribers. The tool enables you to personalize and customize emails, making it possible for your clients to know who you are right from day one of any interaction.

Mobile and social media marketing: HubSpot Marketing is, for instance, a versatile solution which allows you to create both dynamic and static HTML texts, and customize them based on the behavior and persona of your clients, for the purpose of eliciting the best possible responses. HubSpot Marketing also allows you to gain access to mobile marketing, contact database, scheduling, among other features. Talking of social media, the tool lets users gain helpful insight into social intelligence in order to determine the best leads, based on such things as lifestyle and interests. In other words, the tool enables you to focus mainly on leads which will most likely become your customers.

Ready-to-use marketing funnel: This is perhaps the best way to think of HubSpot Marketing. To use the tool, you will simply need to register an account, place your contacts in the most appropriate funnel stage, score the contacts, and customize your content before distribution. After a period of evaluation and nurturing, you will be able to access traffic data and assess the performance of your marketing strategy.

Personalized marketing: With the potential to let you prepare and publish your content, design your own workflows, and even integrate contact information and profiles of your subscribers, the tool allows you to leverage your email campaigns. Ideally, HubSpot Marketing enables users to segment leads, nurture, and even evaluate them based on personalization.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

As well as integrating with your form, email, and CMS tools, HubSpot’s free plan comes packed with conversion and traffic analytics, contact database creation, lead capture popup forms, and contact form creation.

Mailjet

Most businesses, if not all of them, prefer using email marketing as the best channel to connect with their clients in a more personalized way. This is the reason why Mailjet’s interface has been designed in a way that it allows you to sent out every email campaign with a human touch. But is that really practical? Yes. With Mailjet, you can customize content based on your subscriber’s name, surfing habits, etc. Personalized campaigns tend to catch the attention of customers better than the usual general campaigns. The more attention you create, the higher the chances of turning your leads into loyal patrons.Mailjet’s designers were informed by the challenges facing the digital marketers. And truth be told, not every email you send will get to your customer’s inbox. It can either enter the spam box or simply get lost. That is why this provider offers expert support to guide you on how to go about your email marketing campaigns.

Mailjet is also packed with a campaign comparison feature, which makes it possible to create successful campaigns based on the performance of the previous ones. By providing insights into how the previous campaigns fared, the tool allows you to set higher goals and work even harder to achieve them via well-designed campaigns. For instance, campaign comparison helps to know which contact lists have the best view or click rates. Additionally, Mailjet allows you to determine your campaign elements with the highest traffic, whether it is taglines, banners, or call-to-actions.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

With Mailjet’s free plan, you enjoy a daily sending limit of 200 emails or 6,000 monthly limit. There is no limit as to how many subscribers you can send your emails to. The plan is inclusive of such benefits as advanced statistics, advanced email editor, and full API access.

MailChimp

A favorite for many small businesses and bloggers, MailChimp was among the very first email marketing giants to provide a free plan. The tool also has the capacity to handle large email volumes for big organizations and businesses. MailChimp comes with robust technology tools and analytical features, which allow you to effectively connect with your customers and prospective clients, which in turn leads to loyal customers, and market your products and services accurately and easily.With MailChimp, you could create and execute your email campaigns, and even analyze them. With this tool, you can track your campaigns, view success and click-through rates, generate reports, and manage your contacts. You can either create your templates from scratch or use any of the multiple pre-designed templates available. Use the available wide range of handy tutorials to leverage the effectiveness of the tool and generate important reports for the purpose of improving your email marketing. In a nutshell, the following are some of the features which make MailChimp one of the best free email marketing tools around:

• Segmentation and A/B testing, which make it possible to send more effective campaigns
• Automation tools, which include product recommendations, welcome campaigns, and abandoned carts options
• Ability to integrate with other tools, such as Salesforce, Eventbrite, and Shopify
• MailChimp comes with tools for social media platform posts and ads, including Facebook and Instagram
• Offers landing pages
• Drag-and-drop editor, which makes it possible to create and customize emails. The editor also contains some beautiful templates.

Thus, if you are running a blog or business and you appreciate great email designs, then MailChimp is worth a try.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

MailChimp’s free plan comes with most essential features, which include automation workflows and ability to create email campaigns. The free plan supports sending up to a whopping 12,000 emails per month, to 2,000 subscribers.

Benchmark

What a potent email marketing solution! With Benchmark, you can do the the following:

• Disseminate a series of automated emails triggered by email and website engagement
• Build a loyal customer base which engages with your emails through polls, surveys, and list builders
• Customize the feature sets, feel, and even look of your emails before sending them

Besides giving users the ability to connect with at least 300 applications, such as PayPal, Salesforce, and Goodle, the tool also features a WordPress plugin, which can be used to create email lists on the user’s WordPress website, connect the site with multiple Benchmark email accounts, and send out blog posts in the form of an email.

Benchmark comes with the so-called WYSIWYG, a powerful email designer which the tool is best known for. You can use a drag-and-drop feature to navigate this designer. This is good news, especially to time-strapped email marketers looking to create responsive and visually appealing emails with only a few clicks of a mouse. The tool also allows users to edit photos using its editor, and add texts, stickers, and even effects.

Additionally, Benchmark lets you streamline your polls, surveys, and auto-response creations. Once you’re done with your creation, you can preview it in either desktop or mobile mode before rolling out your email campaign. If you want to track the success of your campaigns, you can do so using the tool’s reporting features. The features work in real-time.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

On its free plan, Benchmark offers a host of benefits, including a monthly sending limit of 14,000 emails. The plan also supports up to 2,000 subscribers a month and lets you enjoy many other features, such as Google Analytic tracking, sign-up forms, responsive templates, basic drip campaigns, and drag-and-drop editor.

EmailOctopus

 

As innovative as it is, EmailOctopus is one of the best email marketing solutions, which allows users to run email campaigns for less, via Amazon’s SES (Simple Email Service). Even the tool’s paid plans are one of the cheapest in the digital marketing world, yet it does not compromise deliverability or scalability. Its interface is easy to use, enabling users to generate and send beautiful HTML emails to clients with just a few clicks.EmailOctopus also comes loaded with lots of automation tools which can be used to create time-based on-boarding and drip email sequences. The tool’s impressive templates suite makes it easy to design highly responsive campaigns. Additionally, the tool integrates with at least 500 services and products via its proprietary Zapier integration. Other notable features of this tool include GDPR compliance, real-time analytics, and powerful automation.

One more thing about EmailOctopus which cannot be emphasized enough is its ability to create emails which are responsive across all devices. What this simply means is that the tool can be used to design plain text emails and personalized newsletters which can be disseminated to contacts using all sorts of gadgets, including mobile phones, tablets, and desktops.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

If you are running a business with 2500 or less subscribers, you can take advantage of EmailOctopus’ free plan (known as Shrimp plan). On top of tools for campaign creation, the plan also allows you to access a host of other basic features and functionalities. You can also gain access to analytics information, which is stored for up to three months before it disappears.

MailerLite

 

With its creation having been inspired by the marketing needs of small businesses, MailerLite is a straightforward and simple tool, rich in useful functionalities and features. You will find many users pointing out its easy-to-use nature, which enables them to set up the tool and use it without any prior experience. Efficient and quick, MailerLite lets you get the most out of your email marketing sweat without having to break the bank.The entire set-up process is a breeze, and the tool allows you to tweak and customize your emails in terms of arrangements and content types. You could include elements such as social media sharing links, dividers, image headers, images, and text. Using the tool’s drag-and-drop editor, you can determine how you want your emails to look like – and you don’t need expertise to be in the pilot’s seat.

If you want to keep track of your email stats, MailerLite allows you to do that. You will be able to view click-through rates and open rates, among other essential pieces of information. These reports are helpful in assessing how your email campaigns perform. You will also be able to derive insights into your marketing efforts and make adjustments for purposes of better engagement and results.

MailerLite’s newsletters and emails are optimized for both computers and mobile devices. That means your subscribers won’t miss any bit of your campaign just because they are using a tablet or smartphone.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

With MailerLite’s free plan, you can send up to 12,000 emails each month to 1000 contacts. These are some of the best numbers in the market, as far as what free email marketing tools can support is concerned.

Freshmarketer

 

This email marketing solution offers potent features and functionalities to help accelerate and enhance your email marketing efforts. Featuring conversion optimization tools, the tool makes it possible to streamline your marketing campaigns and generate high-quality leads. It comes with a campaign management tub under which you can find the shopping history, behavior patterns, demographic details, and other helpful customer data.With Freshmarketer, you can personalize your email campaigns, which will enable you to send targeted emails to the right people. This boosts conversion, and you can easily create such targeted emails using the tool’s drag-and-drop feature. Using heatmaps, the tool analyzes your website visitor behavior, making it possible to track open and click activities.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

With Freshmarketer’s so-called Sprout plan (this is their free plan), you gain access to conversion optimization features (limited though), list management, web form tracking, and basic email builder, among other features. The plan supports up to 500 contacts, which makes it suitable for small businesses and startups.

Zoho Campaigns

 

Zoho Campaigns has been designed to not only create and send email campaigns, but also track them. The tool is best suited for small- to medium-sized businesses, and it has the ability to integrate with a wide range of other Zoho apps. For those who want to use Zoho CRM, the tool can be used as an add-on. Zoho Campaigns automates and personalizes email campaigns like no other, allowing users to close deals and grow their client base.Besides the tool’s potent features for campaign creation, there are also lots of other features, which let you fine-tune your email marketing process. The recipient activity tracking feature, for instance, helps to know how your recipients interact with your emails. The in-built A/B testing tools come in handy when assessing the efficacy of your email campaigns prior to sending them.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

Zoho Campaigns’ free plan supports up to 12,000 emails per month. These emails can be sent to 2,000 subscribers. With this plan, you enjoy almost all the features the tool offers.

FreshMail

 

If you’re running a business with a CMS which can create HTML newsletters, then FreshMail would be your best bet, as the tool allows you to download and send them with just a single push of a button or click of a mouse. If you want to manage promotions with bar codes, you can easily do that with FreshMail too. The tool has what it takes to generate discount and promotion barcodes, which can be used by retailers in their stores. The codes, which are automatically generated, can be sent in the form of an attachment, with each email.Through the tool’s ‘clever autoresponders,’ you can auto-respond to the actions of your subscribers. The tool also tracks your customer behavior in real-time, making it easy to know the subscribers who are interested in your campaign. With FreshMail, you could edit any file in HTML with ease, thanks to the tool’s intuitive designer. You could then use the file as your newsletter template.

Want to view how your emails will appear in various different email clients (24 of them)? With FreshMail’s Inbox Inspector, it is possible to do that. There is the so-called Spam Test, which purges your emails off any content that may cause them to land in the spam box. And the A/B testing allows you to test different options to determine one that works best for you. Furthermore, the tool’s behavioral targeting, declarative data, and geo-location enables you to target leads which can easily convert to buyers. There is also dynamic content and personalization features for enhancing engagement with customers.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

FreshMail’s free package comes with the bulk of features mentioned above. But like most of its counterparts, the tool puts a limit on the maximum number of email you can send per month. As of 2020, this stands at 200. The plan also supports up to 500 subscribers.

Mailgun

Built with developers in mind, Mailgun integrates seamlessly with Python, PHP, Java, C#, Ruby, and other programming languages. Thanks to its super powerful APIs, the software makes it possible to send, receive, and even track your emails with ease. Additionally, its API control panel helps in monitoring how each email fairs. With the ability to automate the delivery process, emails sent with Mailgun have higher chances of finding their way into the recipient’s inbox. There is SMPT integrations, which prevent any possible mess when sending lots of emails.

In terms of reports features, Mailgun boasts some of the best, and there are searchable logs to keep you updated with all activities on your email. The tags also allow users to conveniently A/B test different options and choose the best. Additionally, Mailgun comes with a smart rules engine, which facilitates the management of hundreds of thousands or millions of inbound emails, using just a few rules. This eliminates the issue of spamming almost entirely.

Moreover, Mailgun is packed with reliable storage and inbound routing features. A good example of this is the software’s email parsing engine, which helps in email data interpretation. Any incoming email will be transcoded and then parsed. Coupled with a three-day temporary storage, this feature allows for easy retrieval of inbound emails at a time that is most convenient.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

Mailgun’s free plan includes most of the features offered by the company. The plan supports up to 10,000 emails a month.

Pepipost

Pepipost was developed to make email marketing free once more, a throwback to when emails would be send to inboxes directly, opened, and read by receivers who would in turn reply and engage. Remember, back in the day when email was only a new channel for business, professional, and personal communication, no one bothered to develop or even talk about apps that would ensure emails landed in the recipient’s inbox, rather than spam box.Today, many email users receive email messages, some of which are completely irrelevant to their interests, businesses, or professions. As a result, many email and internet service providers have resolved to block any unwanted content from reaching the inbox of their users. The unfortunate thing about this inaccurate and often inconsiderate filtering, however, is that even good email messages are affected. It is this concern which inspired Pepipost designers.

Pepipost was designed to allow users create emails which meet the filtering requirements. With this state-of-the-art software, you can rest assured none of your emails will land in the recipient’s spam box. It can best be utilized by SMEs and comes with powerful security features, which prove handy in protecting your AI-enabled email delivery, as well as user information.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

The tool’s forever free plan is inclusive of a whopping daily limit of 5,000 mails or monthly limit of 25,000 emails. The plan also supports email APIs, SMTP, webhooks, live reporting tools, and a sending domain.

OmniSend

OnmiSend makes it possible to integrate with various different platforms in a single interface. Using AI, this tool enables you to automate your email campaigns, ensuring that your customers receive them at the best possible time. Some of the features which make OnmiSend one of the best free email marketing tools include email tracking features, A/B testing tools, and multi-format templates, which help you save time during email creation. While you can always upgrade to its paid plan any time you want, OmniSend’s free plan comes with lots of features, including all basic features any free email marketing solution can offer.

How many subscribers/emails do you get for free?

In addition to the already mentioned features, OnmiSend’s free plan comes with an astounding monthly limit of 15,000 emails, which is reset at the turn every month. The daily sending limit stand at 2,000, as of 2020. You can take advantage of the 14-day free trial, before committing your cash (if you must, that is).

Wrapping Up

By using a free email marketing tool, you will have what it takes to connect with your customers without using your credit card. What you must do, however, is to choose the best tool which aligns with your business needs. Once you get the best tool, you will be in possession of everything needed to build landing pages, grow email lists, automate emails, enhance conversions, and eventually boots your business revenue.