Don’t know which e-newsletter tool to choose for your start-up? You’re not alone…
By: Raquel Van Ry
Tags: Entrepreneurship, E Newsletter, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship Tech, Startup

Pick Pic. (n.d.)[Online Image]. Retrieved from https://www.pickpik.com/filmmaker-youtuber-screenwriter-desperate-uninspired-uncreative-34221

There’s a vast ocean of websites that claim to have the greatest e-newsletter tools and databases to choose from, but how do you know which one is right for you and your start-up?

E-newsletters are an amazing tool that can help your start-up or even fully-fledged business to grow. They are far more efficient than investing in physical fliers that end up getting used for puppy training or wrapping a fragile ornament in rather than for their intended promotional purposes. As an aspiring entrepreneur myself, I sat down in front of my computer and started thinking. What entrepreneur tool traits are important to me and what’s going to help my business grow? Three things came to mind: room for customization and creativity, affordability and its ability to be able to reach a broad range of customers. I personally have tried dozens of e-newsletter platforms and have been, at times, screaming at my computer in frustration because here’s the truth: not every “tool” is right for you, nor will it always benefit you as an entrepreneur.

If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re sick of looking at the vast array of articles containing comparisons of e-newsletters that include features that don’t apply to you or your start-up, then search no further. I’ve done the dirty work for you and have come up with a list of the best options that will fulfill your needs as an entrepreneur, whatever they are:

E-Newsletter Comparison at a Glance:

Free trial: Benchmark offers an unlimited free “trial”

Cost: Unlike most other email newsletter tools, Benchmark slims down the options in terms of packages, offering just two options: free or pro. For the pro package, the price starts at $11.89/month if you have 0–600 subscribers and increases as you gain more subscribers (601–1,000 subscribers=$18.69, etc.). Benchmark follows a freemium price model; the free trial provides its users the ability to send up to 250 emails per month and have unlimited subscribers with a limit of just one editing manager (Email Pricing Plans). If your business does exceed these generous limitations, upgrading might be a good idea.

User friendliness: Benchmark is as easy to use as their mission is simple: simple email marketing. There’s also tracking and data analytic tools as well as email tracking features which are a great benefit for start-ups; you can address which customers/subscribers reacted to which e-newsletters and which were most popular, etc. It can help you to easily narrow down your target customer groups for different promotions. Also, with the free version of Benchmark, any start-up can get their feet on the ground and really learn the program before having to invest in it financially. Finally, Benchmark too enables you to connect your other social and marketing platforms so that everything is on the same track.

Con(s): By offering users so many tools and choices from the get go, it can get a little overwhelming and intimidating if you’re working on your first start-up.

Van Ry, R. (2020). Benchmark Editing Process [Image, screen capture]. Retrieved from https://www.benchmarkemail.com/

Free trial: Mailchimp offers an unlimited free “trial”

Cost: Packages beyond the free basic package start at $10-$15/month. If you need the added ability of 24/7 phone support, custom branding or a broader range of email templates to choose from among other benefits, you can pay up to $299/month for the premium package. Mailchimp follows a freemium pricing model; the free trial provides its users the ability to have up to 2,000 subscribers, one editing manager and send up to 10,000 emails (Flexible Plans). These features make this platform a great choice for start-ups that have limited customers and require extensive marketing and promotion.

User friendliness: Mailchimp is arguably one of, if not the most popular e-newsletter tool out there. Its user friendliness and intuitive design options make newsletter creation fun! Mailchimp also enables you to set up the automation of emails depending on events, celebrations, etc. You can also connect your various other marketing tools with your Mailchimp account (ex. Shopify, Facebook, Youtube, etc.). Additionally, if you face a problem, you can visit their website and check out their “Resources” page for a bit of a tutorial. Another notable feature is Mailchimp’s ability to transform your emails into mobile format and fits the screen it’s opened on which keeps your company looking professional. One of Mailchimp’s most popular features is that its basic version is completely free, a lot easier to invest in something when there’s not a deadline!

Con(s): Mailchimps text editing can be a bit finicky with font preferences at times in my experience (ex. you can select text and change the colour or bold it but it doesn’t always work properly). Also, with the free trial templates are limited which is to be expected, however, this also limits your creative vision for what you want your customers to experience in relation to your company’s image and marketing.

Van Ry, R. (2020). Mailchimp Editing Process [Image, screen capture]. Retrieved from https://mailchimp.com/

Free trial: 30 days

Cost: $15–$99/month and a customized cost for any benefits beyond that, depending on the scale of the company. Get Response also follows a freemium pricing model; the free trial lets its users have just one managing account which limits larger companies if they want to include additional e-newsletter developers, but that’s seemingly the worst of its limitations as subscriber and email limits are not listed (The Marketer’s Must-Have).

User Friendliness: Similar to the other sites listed above, Get Response requires the user drag and drop elements onto their newsletter template. Of the e-newsletter tools listed, this option is most friendly to individuals who might want to do their newsletter creations on their phone on the way home, or when they’re at events, etc. Get Response enables its users to be able to see a visual of the email if it were opened on a mobile device. Also, connecting external social media platforms to Get Response is another trait that makes Get Response a great tool for entrepreneurs.

Con(s): Although shallow, I admit that one of my least favourite traits of this email-newsletter tool is the appearance of the tool itself. As you can see in the screenshot I’ve included below, the newsletter elements you can drag and drop are bland and basic (on the far right side). They do the job and if you’re the type of entrepreneur who can look past it then this tool will be perfect for you but for me, I found it put a bit of a damper on my creative process.

Van Ry, R. (2020). Get Response Editing Process [Image, screen capture]. Retrieved from https://www.getresponse.com/

Free trial: 60 days

Cost: Similar to Benchmark, Constant Contact only offers its users two packages. The regular package starts at $20/month while the plus package is $45/month. Both packages have a lot of the same features but the features that you really miss out on if you don’t have the plus package is features like surveys, donation ability and some of the automated behavioural email perks. Similar to the e-newsletter services listed above, Constant Contact follows a freemium pricing model. The free trial offers the same benefits as the basic email package: limited management users to just one and unlimited emails. Subscription limitations for the free trial/basic email package is not specified (Email Marketing Pricing). As the plus package is more than double the basic package, the benefit of having more users in addition to its other perks may or may not be worth it.

User friendliness: The free trial is a long time period that really gives you time to test out all of the features before deciding if you want to buy in or not. The drag and drop tools featured in the screenshot below show how user friendly this tool is; very intuitive, straight forward and fresh. There’s also website support if you get stuck on a step. If I were to compare Constant Contact to Get Response, although hard to choose between the two, the mobile friendliness of Get Response was the tie-breaker for me with my busy schedule.

Con(s): In terms of negatives, the room to be creative and brand email newsletters according to your own company is a little limited with this tool. Additionally, as your company grows, the cost of this tool grows with it at a rapid rate.

Van Ry, R. (2020). Constant Contact Editing Process [Image, screen capture]. Retrieved from https://www.constantcontact.com/ca/index.jsp

Free trial: 14 days

Cost: Packages range from $15-$309/month (Lite, Plus, Professional or Enterprise). For the more expensive packages you gain access to more support and training from the company and improved features such as 25+ user allowance rather than just 3 and many additional benefits. Like the e-newsletter platforms addressed above, Active Campaign follows a freemium pricing model, through the free trial, users have access to having three managing editors, sending unlimited emails and there are no stated subscriber limitations (Pricing).

User friendliness: Ff you’ve used the popular Mailchimp e-newsletter service, then you would likely be fairly comfortable with this process in terms of the drag and drop editing and the list of “steps” you must go through before sending out your e-newsletter. There’s lots of customization ability in the form of various layout and colour options, however, there are limited font styles.

Con(s): Active Campaign is definitely one of the pricier options I’ve addressed, and its free trial features are very similar to that of the free Mailchimp or Benchmark packages, yet after 14 days you’d have to pay for it. That being said, the more expensive packages provide you with several benefits that are invaluable which is why I still included it on this list.