Email Marketing 101: Email Service Providers

This next post in our Email Marketing 101 series covers Email Service Providers (ESPs). There are a ton of service providers available to choose to facilitate your company’s email campaigns, and it can be daunting to select which one is right for you. In this post, we’re going to break down the key features and differences of three main players in email service providing: Lead Pilot, Aweber, Constant Contact and MailChimp.

All four of these Email Service Providers have a marketing focus in both B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer) emailing for large scale campaigns. They also all have the capability to accommodate multiple subscriber lists and segments.

Four Email Service Providers for Your Advisory Firm

1. Lead Pilot

We recently launched Lead Pilot, which gives financial advisors an all-in-one, intuitive platform to dramatically increase the number of leads and simplify the entire inbound marketing process. With this platform, users can launch robust, multi-touchpoint content campaigns from a streamlined, easy-to-use dashboard.  The content in the media library includes video, editorial and infographic content, and it is completely editable and can be tailored to fit the needs and niche of each user.

Once you have pored through the content and figured out which you would like to send, put on your website, etc.,  the content can be scheduled to be sent out via email or social media with the use of branded landing pages. We know that compliance is a huge deal, especially in the financial industry, so all of your content and work are automatically archived to meet these standards.

2. Aweber

Aweber is all about automation. Their focus is when subscribers “opt-in” through your website they will send follow-up messages automatically. Aweber does have a number of free email templates available. These email templates provide you with a number of ready-to-go designs that don’t require much if any, knowledge of HTML or another coding to use them. Aweber is the only provider of the three that does not have social networking signup form options or social network delivery options. It is also the only of the three that does not integrate with Google Analytics, while it does still have integration capabilities with Drupal, Magento, SalesForce and WordPress. Aweber has a free 30-day trial but begins charging after that period.  This email service provider is likely the least sophisticated of the three referenced in this post, but it has its purpose. If you are looking for some lead generation and to send some immediate follow-up messages, this provider would do the job.

3. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is a service great for sending “batch and blast” emails. These are email campaigns that are relevant to the audiences that receive them. At one time, you are able to email all of your contacts an email campaign that you have created. Constant Contact also has free email templates available, with more than double the number of options as Aweber. This is the only service provider of the three who is not able to integrate with WordPress, while it does still have integration capability with Drupal, Google Analytics, Joomla, and SalesForce.  Constant Contact has a free 60-day trial, but begins charging after that period.  If you are solely looking to send newsletters or “batch and blast” emails, Constant Contact is likely to be a good fit.

4. MailChimp

MailChimp is increasing their automation capabilities and even utilizes solutions like ‘send time optimization’ to help users choose the best times to send their campaigns. MailChimp has the widest variety and largest number of free email templates available out of these three service providers, making it incredibly easy to match your email marketing to your existing brand. MailChimp also has the most integration capability with content management systems. It is able to integrate with Drupal, Google Analytics, Joomla, Magento, Salesforce, WordPress and Zencart. MailChimp has a basic email option that is completely free.  This email service provider is likely to be the most sophisticated of the trio.

While Twenty Oven Ten’s main goal is to develop successful websites for financial advisors, we want to help our clients strengthen their email marketing efforts as well. If you decide to use any of the listed email marketing providers, we can easily integrate them into your website, so that visitors can sign up directly on your site and automatically be added to your list.

Wrapping It Up

Creating strong email marketing as a part of your over marketing strategy is essential to driving traffic and boosting your SEO rankings. If you don’t already have a consistent email marketing strategy or service provider, we hope that this can help you narrow down your decision. You can reach thousands of people with just one click, so it’s a highly effective and cost-efficient way to get out the information that you most want your leads and clients to see.