15 Affordable Email Marketing Solutions for Small Business

One of the biggest challenges facing any small business is the need to entice and capture new customers while maintaining a strong relationship with their current customers.

A comprehensive email solution can provide the perfect means to connect with your customers and maintain that critical relationship -- but at what cost?

Fortunately, there a number of low-cost email solutions that can help your business build and maintain the strong customer relationships that will give your business the strong bottom line it needs to succeed.

Many of these solutions are completely free for the first few hundred customers, while most of them offer a free trial of varying length. This means you can try several solutions at little or no risk until you find the solution that works best for you.

Here are a 15 low-cost email solutions currently available for small business:

Low-Cost Email Solutions for Small Business

1. Mail Chimp

With a user base of 14 million and growing, Mail Chimp is the undisputed king of email solutions for business. Mail Chimp offers fully customizable templates for customer email list sign-up on your Facebook page, existing website, or shopping cart system; APIs to fully integrate your existing CRM data or other client information data into your email solution; and social sharing integration.

Mail Chimp offers a completely free solution -- albeit with limited options -- for the first 2,000 addresses and up to 12,000 emails per month, making it an ideal solution for anyone interesting in testing the waters of an integrated business email solution. Paid plans are very affordable, ranging from $10 per month for 500 addresses and unlimited emails under their Growing Business Plan, up to $75 per month for 10,000 addresses and unlimited emails. Additional subscribers can be added for a small fee.

There is also a Mail Chimp Pro option available for $200 per month which adds a number of powerful email marketing tools.

2. Constant Contact

Are you looking for an email marketing solution that goes beyond simple email? Constant Contact is one of the most comprehensive email solutions currently available for businesses of any size, from small startup to market leader.

Go beyond email with a number of available add-on options ranging from surveys and event marketing to personalized, fully customizable emails targeted at the important events in your clients’ lives such as birthdays and anniversary with set-and-forget simplicity.

Try it free for 60 days. With plans starting at only $20 a month for 500 customers, Constant Contact has a plan to fit every budget.

3. AWeber

Want to get the right message to the right customer at the right time? AWeber promises to do this with their industry-leading email automation tools. Easily build a fully automated email marketing campaign with their easy-to-use drag-and-drop user interface featuring custom templates to help get your message out.  

Other features include advanced RSS-to-email functionality to convert your latest blog post to email messages, a feature-rich API for better email integration, and extensive user support and video training to ensure you get the most out of your AWeber service.

Begin with a 30-day free trial, and, if you decide to keep the service, pay as little as $19 for up to $500 subscribers.

4. iContact

iContact features easy-to-use, fully customizable email templates combined with unmatched social media integration and award-winning tools for fully automated email marketing campaigns. iContact also offers full Salesforce integration so your sales and marketing team can leverage your current CRM application to maximize customer contact – and sales.

Step up to iContact Pro to add additional features such as behavioral market targeting and comprehensive, intuitive analytics reporting.

5. Campaign Monitor

Are you looking for a simple-to-use email marketing system to get your message out to your customers quickly and easily? Campaign Monitor is the perfect solution for companies who want to hit the ground running in fully automated email marketing. Use their simple drag-and-drop email template builder to create your own personalized email messages, or choose one from the dozens of professionally design templates, add your artwork or copy, and Campaign Monitor will do the rest.

Campaign Monitor also features powerful personalization tools to allow you to send hyper-targeted messages to your customers, ensuring that every email is as individual as your customers. As an added bonus, all Campaign Monitor messages are coded to be fully compatible with mobile devices, an important bonus in an increasingly mobile world.

Basic plans start at only $9 per month for 2,500 emails to 500 recipients or unlimited emails to 500 people for $29 per month.

6. Freshmail

Freshmail is by far one of the best email marketing values for small business. Send up to 2,000 emails to 500 customers completely free, for as long as you would like to use the service, or move up to a paid plan for as little as $14 per month for 1,000 subscribers and unlimited messages.

Not in the market for a monthly subscription? Freshmail has you covered, with a pay-as-you-go option. Under this option, you only pay for emails you send and only when you send them. Pricing starts at $50 for 3,000 emails.

Freshmail offers a number of advanced marketing tools such as A/B testing, time-optimized messages and auto-respond.

7. Campayn

Getting started with Campayn is as easy as importing your existing contact list into Campayn from a spreadsheet or from popular email services such as Gmail, Yahoo and Highrise. Create a simple sign-up form to be embedded on your website or custom email messages that look great on any PC or portable device using Campayn’s intuitive email creation tools, and then track the results of your email campaign using their comprehensive analytic tools.

Send 2,000 emails to 500 subscribers each month for free, including one auto-responder message to each of your subscribers, or graduate to their paid service for as little as $10 per month for unlimited emails to 1,000 subscribers.

8. Emma

Dig deeper into the analytics behind your email marketing campaign with Emma’s comprehensive analytic tools that go beneath the surface data to determine how effective your campaign really is and if you are reaching the right customers with the right information.

Prices start at $45 per month for 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails.

9. Mad Mimi

Are you looking for a simple, easy-to-use, basic email service so that you can simply get messages out to your customers without getting bogged down with complicated features and assorted bells and whistles that you will probably never use? If so, Mad Mimi is the perfect solution for your email marketing needs.

Simple, intuitive user tools and basic functionality, with additional features available as add-ons to the basic service, so you only need to pay for the features you will actually use. Plans start at $10 per month for 500 subscribers.

10. Express Pigeon

Express Pigeon is a powerful, flexible email marketing platform built around ease-of-use, flexibility, and easy scalability for a growing business. Create market segmentation rules using the platform’s intuitive, easy-to-use tools to make sure your targeted emails are reaching the right audience, and follow up with their comprehensive analytical tools to your marketing campaign on track.

Send up to 1,000 emails to 500 subscribers each month for free, or upgrade to a paid plan beginning at $9.99 a month for unlimited messages to 500 subscribers.

11. Mailjet

Mailjet combines comprehensive, fully automated email marketing with web widgets to streamline subscriber sign-up and mail list management tools. Professionally designed templates guarantee your messages get noticed, while advanced analytical tools give you the data you need to make sure your campaign is meeting your goals.

Start with a free 30-day premium trial that allows you to send up to 6,000 emails, or 200 emails per day. Paid plans start at $7.49 per month for up to 30,000 emails.

12. Benchmark

Benchmark features one of the simplest, most intuitive template creation tool on the market. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can use Benchmark to easily create the perfect email message that is as individual as your business.

Advanced photo editing is also available, as is HTML coding for more advanced users to give you unmatched control over the final message your customers see. Create customized signup forms for your website, or for social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Benchmark is completely free for up to 14,000 emails and 2,000 subscribers per month, making it one of the best bargains in email marketing currently available for small business. Plans with unlimited emails start at $11.95 per month for up to 500 subscribers.

13. StreamSend

In the market for a simple, streamlined email marketing system with easy opt-in, list management and segregation, and easy subscriber list management? If so, StreamSend may be the perfect email marketing solution for your business.

As an added bonus, StreamSend also allows you to test and preview your email messages in 30 different email clients using their exclusive Email Analyzer, helping you avoid the embarrassment of a message not displaying correctly in an email client.

Start with a free 30-day trial. If you decide to keep StreamSend, plans start at $19.99 per month for up to 2,000 emails.

14. Sendicate

Sendicate is a simple, content-focused platform built around the idea of getting your campaign up and running with as little fuss as possible. Use their powerful yet simple editor to craft the perfect message or simple use one of their many professionally designed templates.

Sendicate also offers powerful reporting tools, email scheduling, and a powerful, simple segmentation tool to help fine-tune your message to your target audience.

Send up to 1,000 messages to up to 500 subscribers each month for free, or upgrade to Sendicate’s paid service for as little as $9 per month for unlimited messages to 500 subscribers.

15. ActiveTrail

ActiveTrail is the perfect first choice for anyone interested in seeing just what managed email marketing can do for their business. A great starting point for small business who are just beginning to build their subscriber list, ActiveTrail is a full-featured email platform for only $7 per month for unlimited emails for up to 500 subscribers.