Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels an ecommerce business can use. This method, on average, generates $42 per $1 spent.
The basis of what makes email marketing so powerful is the number of tools available. Even the software you use to send emails is a tool in itself.
Other tools allow you to get potential customers better, improve relationships, and promote customer loyalty.
With the help of email marketing tools, you can easily and quickly reach your audience directly without having to pay for expensive advertising space on Google or Facebook.
3 reasons why you should use an email marketing tool
Software tools are the backbone of every great digital marketing strategy, and email marketing is a part of it.
There are three different kinds of aspects of email marketing that tools can make a must-have.
Let's go over them below:
1. Saves time
When it comes to email marketing, it's about sending a lot of emails. Wether to be 20, 2,000, or 20,000. Each email has to be sent to your email list, and having it done manually can be a full-time job in itself.
This is why email marketing tools are a literal time saver.
Email automation is directly correlated to a major increase in conversion orders and cart abandonment because you do not have to manually send them out for each customer.
The ability to send them without your input makes the process faster and without eating up all your time and energy.
There's also a lot of intelligent tools that can help suggest what you can do to improve these types of emails. These suggestions can range from finding out the best subject lines to finding how accessible your emails are to every device.
2. Increases revenue faster
The most important parts of the emails are the subject line and content within the email.
Both need to work in unison to get conversions, and there are tools to do that, from testing to refinement. There is an analysis of these tools that will help suggest what you should add or change.
Tools help make the content of your emails look better. From formatting to adding graphics, there are so many ways you can customize the look of an email. Your imagination is the only limitation.
When you design an email, you are essentially designing an experience from your brand that helps you generate revenue. This is why alignment, high-quality photos, cohesive fonts, and so on can make the difference between an email subscriber to a customer.
3. Connect with your audience better
In a perfect world, sending your email to your audience to open and act upon the content would be a seamless process.
In reality, spam filters can get your emails prevented from seeing them. Not compelling subject lines make your emails left unopened. Bland design and layout can make your emails a chore to read.
This email is an example showing so much in such little space that it's a blur to capture anyone's attention.
It can be frustrating that everything must flow together to get a conversion. For more information on how this can be improved, check out the Email Critic's review of it
That is why there are many tools that will help remedy that solution so you can connect with your audience better.
Let's take a look at what these tools are:
The 10 Best Email Marketing Tools for Ecommerce
Let's begin with the list of must-have email marketing tools for ecommerce stores.
I will discuss each tool in the following layout:
- Introduction
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
1. Grammarly
Every email uses text or copywriting (text that is used in a persuasive manner, like to get your reader to buy something).
English can be difficult even as a native speaker, and accidental typos happen a lot.
This is why tools like Grammarly are so useful to catch misspellings and incorrect use of grammar. This can go beyond writing content for emails, but also for writing anything.
It’s regarded as the greatest editing tools for a reason and worth trying out.
While not strong enough to replace a human editor, it will give you super-accurate suggestions that you can click on to instantly improve your grammar.
If, after reading the pros and cons below, you're still second-guessing if you can use Grammarly for your ecommerce store, then check out this article here.
Pros
- The suggestive grammar solutions are accurate enough to rely on.
- By clicking on the underlining errors makes it a breeze to correct through convenient suggestions.
- Explains why your mistakes are wrong, which means that you can learn from your mistakes.
Cons
- The more advanced grammar corrections and other features require a premium account.
- It doesn’t replace a human editor.
Pricing
Free or a Premium Edition $20/month
2. Unspam.email
Getting an email sent to someone’s spam folder is a worst-case scenario for email marketing. It means they won’t be notified of receiving it, and continued use of that can get you banned from your email marketing service.
Unspam.email helps you identify how spammy your email is by giving it a score and gives helpful tips on how to increase it. This is so you don’t have to worry if people will receive your email.
Although it won't give you suggestions on how to improve your email.
Due to it being free means that there is not the greatest of service you can rely on. You’re getting what you pay for, so to speak, so you will most likely deal with some unresponsive servers but will eventually work as intended.
Due to the complexity of how spam filters work, there are still problems that can persist but it can lead you to find the right solutions through trial and error.
Pros
- Entering your email address and clicking on 'view results' makes the process super simple.
- No need to create an account.
Cons
- The servers can be unresponsive at times.
- The suggestions on how to improve the spam may not solve your spam problem.
Pricing
Unspam.email is completely free to use!
3. Jasper AI
Jasper is a content writing tool that helps you with the power of artificial intelligence.
If you want to write something like a Facebook article, copywriting for a landing page, or a sales pitch email, Jasper uses phrases and sentences in its algorithm to write it for you!
It's super cool and can write in various tones you may struggle with. When in doubt, check out Jasper to help you write more and better.
Note: Did you know that Jasper launched Jasper Art? This helps you create images with AI! Check out our in-depth review here.
Pros
- It helps you overcome writer's block. Jasper always has a suggestion to help you get started writing.
- Accuracy. Jasper pulls words and phrases from the web and from its internal writing team to formulate compelling copy for you to use.
- A template writing prompt for every occasion. It can be challenging writing for a specific email, and Jasper has more than you'll ever need!
Cons
- The price can be seen as expensive, since you're paying for every word that it generates - even the ones you don't like.
Pricing
Jasper's most affordable tier starts at $29/mo.
They also have a boss mode tier starting at $59/mo, unlocking their google docs style editor and other cool features you can see above.
4. Readability Test Tool
While grammar and spelling are important for readability, so is the verbiage. The free Readability test tool from Webfx will give your content or web page a range of multiple grade levels to know how difficult it is to comprehend it.
There’s a lot of other ways this tool can help besides readability. It also can be used by testing your competitor's content; this is important to understand what keywords they use and why.
With many ways to use and helpful ways to increase readability, it is a great tool to enhance your reading experience. However, these are suggestions and not absolutes for every device. It is still worth checking out.
Pros
- Teaches you how to write more concisely.
- Variety of ways of use such as testing via URL, copy/paste web content, and more.
Cons
- Depending on the size of the webpage or text, it can be a cumbersome experience.
- The suggestions are not always accurate.
Pricing
This readability test tool is completely free to use!
5. Subject Line Checker
One of the most important parts of an email is the subject line.
It’s the first thing your audience reads, and they will determine if the email is worth opening based on it.
This handy tool from SendCheckIt will grade your subject line text for readability, spam, grade level, and more. It will also suggest options worth considering, such as changing it into a form of a question or adding an emoji.
Although not every audience can fit in a convenient one size fits all subject line guide, so it's best to test the suggestions to know which ones are the most accurate for you.
Another option is using the Headline Analyzer by CoSChedule!
Pros
- Superfast with a lot of data to work with.
- There is a Slack app available.
- No account needed to sign up.
Cons
- The suggestions are rules of thumb, not absolutes.
Pricing
The subject line checker is free to use!
6. A Quick Guide on How to Code Your Own Email Templates
Sometimes pre-built templates don’t get the job done or are too boring when everyone else uses them.
Creating your own from code allows yourself the flexibility and originality to give a unique experience when someone opens your email.
Web Design Tutorials by Envato Tuts+ is a website known for its technical how-to guides on all things design.
This step-by-step tutorial helps understand the HTML & CSS principles that go into the design of an email.
Pros
- An effective crash course of understanding HTML & CSS.
- Step by step guide that can be followed along.
Cons
- There is a learning curve to the absolute beginner.
- You may have to search around to find what you specifically need.
Pricing
It's a free guide that does not need any kind of account.
7. HTML Email Checker
If you're hand-coding your emails with HTML & CSS, then this tool will be awesome for you; it will review your code.
The suggestions are helpful in understanding what other options are available and suggests ways to make sure the code is as clean and simple as possible. It also solves a lot of problems while learning new habits as you progress forward.
The most notable feature, the link validation, is a huge time saver in knowing your email links are accurate and working.
When emails are linking to many products or articles, it can get messy, real quick. This handy feature cleans it up easily.
While the free account will give you the bare minimum, it’s often acceptable.
The lack of developer checklist guides is not the most beginner-friendly, which is what this tool is largely for.
When you need to compare many emails or develop many email campaigns, the pro edition of the account can be a worthy investment.
Pros
- The overall validation results are accurate and reliable.
- The link validations, in particular, are the most outstanding features.
Cons
- Free account lacks great features like developer checklist guides.
- The HTML & CCS suggestions can be too complex for beginners.
Pricing
Free – $15/month for HTML Email Checker Pro
8. Never Bounce
When an email bounces, it means that the email is rejected from the receiver's address. This could mean that the email address no longer exists or is unknown.
Never Bounce is a great tool that will sort out your email list for any addresses that will bounce if an email is sent to them.
It also allows you to remove them from the list so your analytics will be more accurate and will make your email marketing service cost less because their cost is based on the number of email subscribers you have.
The price of Never Bounce can be a deal-breaker when you’re dealing with emails in the thousands due to the pay as you go pricing. The discounts saved at the higher tiers may not be as great as the alternatives.
Pros
- Beautiful UI that creates a fun experience to use.
- Topline performance that overshadows the competition.
Cons
- It can be expensive with email lists above 50,000.
- Not recommended for beginners with email lists below 500.
Pricing
Free trial – Pay as you go starting at $0.008 per email.
9. Canva
Canva is known to be one of the most versatile and affordable tools to create unique designs for your email campaigns.
Full of great design templates and other elements to get you started to fill out with your content.
It also allows so much more flexibility than just email design; it’s a great social media tool as well.
Its free version will cover everything a beginner would want.
The pro membership is great for those who want the most flexibility in the design choices and to be able to create variants at rapid speed.
Tip: Did you know that you can connect a Shopify or WooCommerce store to Canva? With DataPocket, you can access your store's information, including product images, descriptions, and pricing, directly from Canva!
Plus, whenever the data changes (like replacing product images), it will automatically sync to your designs on Canva. Learn more about DataPocket here!
Pros
- Feature-filled with a lot of graphics, fonts, and pre-made designs to work with.
- Canva has a simple drag and drop system.
Cons
- Cannot replace the heavy-duty image editing capabilities from software like Photoshop.
- The higher-quality graphics and stock photos require additional costs, or you can upgrade to the pro version, so you can use them for free.
Pricing
Free - $13/month for Pro Membership
10. Sumo
Sumo is known for being one of the biggest email capturing tools to add to your website.
The way sumo works are through a signup form or a pop-up that allows you to give some kind of value to your visitor that will entice them to sign up to your mailing list. From there, you can market them with emails directly.
What makes Sumo so great is their set up is really three steps of installing, activating a form, and waiting for your visitors to sign up.
The bad news is despite its amazing offer for being free; it’s easy to hit the limit of 10,000 emails a month depending on your email size and how often you send those emails.
Pros
- Dead simple 2 step installation.
- The free version has great features.
Cons
- It’s easy to outgrow the free account.
- The signup design system isn’t as robust as it could be.
- The email sign up designs for the free account.
Pricing
Free - $40/month for Pro Edition
How to use Email Marketing for Ecommerce?
Now that you saw the 10 best email marketing tools for ecommerce, you might be wondering how to get started with email marketing.
If so, then we got a great article for you!
It covers everything you need to know as a beginner about email marketing. You can check it out below:
Email Marketing for Ecommerce: A Beginner’s Guide (2024)
Conclusion
Email marketing is a must marketing platform; all ecommerce businesses should use it.
Tools are the backbone of email marketing because the time of designing and sending emails would be a full-time job in of its self.
These tools will help you from designing the structure of an email to writing the most compelling content that will get conversions. Also, to learn more about your audience and what they want to see more from you.
As you’re using these tools, remember that while some are free, it’s worth considering the higher-end features for the cost that will continue to grow your email list and the business’s return on investment.
