“Is email marketing dead?” has been asked around the internet often enough that various articles have popped up from Forbes.com to CampaignMonitor.com to tell everyone that, no, email marketing isn’t dead.
Affiliate marketers know the real deal. Email marketing is still generating income for marketers as this Statista survey proves. It remains a powerful marketing tool that both marketers and businesses use to promote directly to their customer base.
While businesses can have their pick of which email marketing service to go with, affiliate marketers will have to be a tad picky. Not all email marketing services allow affiliate marketing on their grounds; some ban it outright.
Instead of looking at the email marketing services that do not allow affiliate marketing, let’s look at the ones that do. Below are the most recommended email marketing services for affiliate marketers.
MailerLite
Affordable pricing and easy-to-use interface. MailerLite is perfect for those new to email marketing.
About MailerLite
MailerLite started as a web design firm in 2005. By 2010, they had become a brand synonymous with powerful email solutions.
They prohibit affiliate marketing, but are ok with affiliate links as expressed in their terms.
Features
Aside from sending out the usual email campaigns, you can do A/B split testing, surveys and organize your subscribers in various segments or groups to make it easier for you to deliver messages to people it is most relevant to.
Not only can you craft newsletters, you can also create landing pages and opt-in forms. They have customizable templates to help you.
There is no feature to track page visits, but they do have email automation.
Import Contacts/Subscribers?
Yes, you can import your subscriber list over to them. You can follow this guide, or watch the video.
You also have the option of having an expert manage your migration to MailerLite. It comes with a fee but it’s nice to know you do have the option of a professional handling all that importing and transfer so you can focus on other tasks.
Pricing
MailerLite’s service is free for members with no more than 1,000 subscribers and sending out 12,000 emails a month at most. This free service includes access to their landing pages and email automation features, but not live chat support, custom HTML editor or newsletter templates.
They also offer annual plans where you get a 30% discount. Check out their MailerLite’s pricing page for more details.
Support
All paid plans have access to 24/7 live chat support. There is a knowledge base with video tutorials.
MailerLite also has recommended email marketing experts you can hire.
Opt in or Opt out?
If you’re looking for the “best bang for your buck”, then MailerLite is it. Their free plan is limited as free plans go, but it does not leave you wanting on so much.
They have a simple, straightforward interface, and their editor has most of what you’ll need to create good-looking newsletters. The same editor even lets you add Facebook and Twitter posts to your email.
Standard reports are the most you’ll get from MailerLite. They don’t have social or purchase tracking. The email automation does not have advanced triggers.
MailerLite is a great start; perfect for beginners. That’s if you can get past a somewhat stringent approval process.
Here are a few more reviews to help:
GetResponse
You won’t find free plans on GetResponse, but their list of features will make you want to sign up.
About GetResponse
Their About page claims they are “the world’s easiest email marketing platform”. That claim is backed by 350,000 customers spanning 183 countries, and various reviews of GetResponse’s service.
GetResponse has been around for 15 years and counting. They have evolved into something of an all-in-one e-commerce and email marketing solution, offering webinar hosting, automated sales funnels and chat functions.
Their email marketing service has features for beginner to advanced affiliate marketers.
Features
There’s the usual set of features you’d find in any email marketing service: templates, analytics, tracking, automation.
GetResponse’s autoresponder feature is still one of the best out there, allowing you to send both time-based or action-based messages. As for automation, you can create a flowchart using a drag and drop editor, and this flowchart guides GetResponse on what to do based on specific triggers.
You get basic reporting features, but on top of that, you have the option to view individual user information and to do a side-by-side performance comparison of two newsletters.
Import Contacts/Subscribers?
Yes, you can import contacts to GetResponse by following their guide.
Pricing
No free plans here. Their Basic plan is US$15 a month. That’s unlimited emails to 1,000 subscribers. You get access to features like analytics, list segmentation, split testing, and landing pages.
Support
24/7 support through live chat, email support available in 8 languages, on top of a huge knowledge base.
Opt in or Opt out?
GetResponse does live up to its claims of being user-friendly. Their email marketing service is jam-packed with affiliate marketer-friendly features like automation, segmentation, and landing page creator with A/B testing.
You also get to test a newsletter’s design and view its spam score.
Reports are comprehensive, providing you with important details like click-through rate and bounce rate.
They don’t have a free plan, but their Basic plan covers much of what you actually need from an email marketing service. GetResponse offers a 30-day trial if you want to give their service a try.
A couple more reviews to guide you:
AWeber
Providing stable and reliable email marketing service for 20 years now, Aweber continues to be a name that stands out among autoresponders.
About Aweber
AWeber is one of the few email marketing services that embrace affiliate marketers.
The company has grown to a client base of 120,000 since it began in 1998. Though small in comparison with other email marketing services like GetResponse, they continue to have a steady following.
Features
AWeber claims to have invented the autoresponder, and so their main feature is marketing automation.
You can do split testing, list segmentation and build landing pages using their platform. Reporting and analytics show information like the growth of your lists over a time period and subscriber activity.
There are about 800 third-party apps that you can connect AWeber to like Wordpress, Shopify and Salesforce.
Import Contacts/Subscribers?
You can import subscribers to AWeber following their guide. They also offer free expert migration services.
Pricing
You have a choice between the Free and the Pro plan. The Free plan is limited to 500 subscribers but gives you access to most of AWeber’s features.
Their pricing plans are based on the number of subscribers, but this subscriber count includes unsubscribed contacts. As long as they are part of the list, they will be counted as a subscriber so you need to weed these out from time to time.
Support
Email and chat support is available 24/7. You also have the option to call them from 8AM to 8PM US Eastern Time. Their knowledge base is extensive and includes videos.
Opt in or Opt out?
AWeber’s customer support stands out in reviews. They have phone support on top of the 24/7 email and chat. Their knowledge base includes videos and podcasts.
Everything else is pretty much standard fare.
Their free plan is great in that you get to access most of their PRO features, but you are limited in the number of subscribers.
AWeber has a user-friendly interface, a solid landing page builder and AMP for email, a new technology that lets email recipients respond within the email.
They also provide migration free migration service making it easier to move lists and newsletters from a previous email marketing platform to theirs. This coupled with excellent customer support makes AWeber a solid choice.
A couple more reviews to help:
EmailOctopus
One of the most budget-friendly email marketing services right now that boasts of features that will help you further your affiliate marketing efforts.
About EmailOctopus
EmailOctopus is one of the few email marketing services that allows affiliate marketers to use their platform.
Only 7 years old, EmailOctopus aims to provide an email marketing service that is value-for-money, simple and intuitive.
Features
EmailOctopus has all the necessary trappings of a good email marketing service: list segmentation, landing page builder, and drag-and-drop editor for creating email campaigns and newsletters.
Their platform allows you to create email sequences and simple drip campaigns.
Import Contacts/Subscribers?
Yes. They have a nifty guide to walk you through the process. Their support staff is also available through live chat and email.
Pricing
EmailOctopus’ free plan allows you to send 10,000 emails a month to 2,500 subscribers. Those are fairly large numbers compared to the others on this list.
You only get access to basic features and support, but it’s a great start. It’s easy enough to scale your plan as your subscriber list expands.
Support
Support is available through live chat and email. There is the usual knowledge base and even a guide to email marketing.
Opt in or Opt out?
EmailOctopus scores high on value-for-money. It’s interface is easy on the eyes and easy to navigate.
They have similar features as other email marketing services but at a lower price tag.
Definitely beginner- and budget- friendly.
Other reviews on EmailOctopus:
Sendlane
Making a name in the eCommerce industry as a leading email marketing service for online retailers, Sendlane has features that empower affiliate marketers too.
About Sendlane
As Sendlane says on their blog, they are affiliate marketing friendly, as long as you follow their rules.
Sendlane takes pride in their high deliverability and support; two things that businesses and marketers look for in email marketing services.
Features
Their features are all geared for eCommerce businesses but affiliate marketers can take advantage of these same features such as: marketing automation, high-converting email templates, personalized email campaigns and intuitive pop-ups.
They also have a Sendlane Beacon, a unique feature that will track your subscriber’s activity and allow you to send out relevant, personalized emails.
Import Contacts/Subscribers?
Yes, you can. You can follow this FAQ and one or two others, all about importing lists in your Sendlane account.
Their support staff can also help you with the move to their service.
Pricing
Definitely on the pricey side, but with Sendlane, you do get what you pay for. All plans have similar feature sets, with the more advanced features available only to the higher plans.
Support
Sendlane support is available through live chat and email, 24/7. Aside from the knowledge base, they have podcasts, eBooks and an eCom Email Academy.
Opt in or Opt out?
There are definitely other alternatives that are lighter on the pocket, with less severe ground rules on affiliate marketing.
Sendlane has a solid reputation on deliverability and conversion so you might want to give them a thorough look. They do offer a 14-day free trial.
Check out these other reviews:
The Best Email Marketing Service
The “best email marketing service” award goes to whichever one you decide is the best for YOU.
At the end of every list is the inevitable Yes or No.
In this particular list, we looked at email marketing services for affiliate marketers. There is not a lot to choose from, but still the question that remains is: Which one do you opt in to?
Key factors that you should look at are:
Pricing
You’d want the best value for your money, of course. There are email marketing services that offer their service for free up to a certain number of emails or subscribers. If you are just starting to build your list, then this is a great start. The free plans tend to be limited so you don’t really get to try out the best features, but again, if you are new and just starting to build your list, then the free plans may be the best.
Be sure not to limit yourself to free plans. Continue to check out what the email marketing service has to offer on its paid plans. Shop around before your list grows any further.
Features
Once you do have a sizable subscriber list, jumping from one email marketing service to another can present a problem. You’d want an email marketing service that allows you to import subscriber lists and newsletters, and not all email marketing services offer that.
Other key features to look for are:
Marketing Automation.
What do you send to subscribers who opted out of your list? How about subscribers who are yet to make a purchase? Do you immediately send out a hard sell mail to a subscriber who just signed up, or a nice, little welcome email?
Marketing automation helps you send out appropriate emails to specific segments of your subscriber list.
This is a staple for most email marketing services, but the level of automation and the triggers you can use vary from one to another.
Analytics and Reporting.
You’d find this feature on all email marketing services, but it is not the same across the board. Some offer simple, easy-to-read reports while others provide a more in-depth look at how your email marketing campaign is doing.
At the very least, your email marketing service should be able to give you information on the open rate, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribe rate.
Interface/Dashboard.
Affiliate marketers have plenty enough to do without yet another dashboard to learn to navigate. With all of the features these email marketing services offer, it’s equally important that they are in an interface that is easy to navigate and access.
Support
At some point or other, particularly if you are moving from one email marketing service to another, you will run into issues. A responsive support staff is therefore essential.
Thankfully, there are plenty of reviews out there apart from this one to give you feedback on these email marketing services. Be sure to check them out, too.
We are not going to give you which one we think is “the best” because we do not subscribe to the thinking that there is a one and only service that will cater to everyone. At the end of the day, it’s your investment and therefore, your choice which one is best for you.
Assemble • 3 years ago
anishajain • 3 years ago